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President Roh Moo-hyun on Sunday told Korean residents in Germany there are times in inter-Korean relationship "when we have to utter bitter words and get red in the face" with anger. "The North has totally ignored the inter-Korean denuclearization agreement, completely neglected South Korea under the pretense that there exists an American threat, and says that because of the U.S. it is right to have nuclear arms," the chief executive added.
He also said it was impossible to develop a healthy inter-Korean relationship if one side was dragged hither and thither by the other.
This is the view it has taken our president two years of intimate dealings with Pyongyang to reach. In the international community, the government has appeared to be speaking for North Korea and to accept whatever request our northern neighbor has without complaint. In return, North Korea has given us nothing but contempt and constantly cranked-up demands.
Even on the nuclear weapons development, Roh has loyally stood by the North, telling the world there were some logical reasons for it all. And whatever criticism he has faced over economic cooperation with Pyongyang on the Kaesong industrial park, he has insisted on keeping the issue separate from the nuclear dispute.
The six-party nuclear disarmament talks have been stalled for nearly a year because North Korea is sulking. From its corner it is making absurd demands, including that the talks should become a forum for mutual disarmament negotiations, or asking for full diplomatic ties with the U.S. first.
Reports have it that other participants in the six-party talks are looking for fresh means of pressure on the North. South Korea's faithful representation of its Stalinist neighbor is getting increasingly untenable. Former U.S. defense secretary William Perry, the North Korea policy coordinator of the Clinton administration, said economic pressure was needed to bring the North to its senses. That remark was clearly made with Seoul's protective instincts toward Pyongyang in mind.
The South Korean government is going to have to free itself from an obsession with the texture of its North Korea Policy -- flexible or rigid -- and instead think pragmatically about how best to resolve the nuclear standoff. That is the only way we will be able to prevent the two Koreas, the Korean Peninsula as a whole, from being chopped up in the political kitchen of its neighbors.
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