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Unification Ministry documents show they have chosen as one of objectives this year the pursuit of a meeting between high-level North and South Korean officials and to ensure the meeting take place by dispatching a high-level envoy to the communist country, should six-party talks fail to achieve a breakthrough. There appears to be a high possibility that the government is planning to pursue an inter-Korean summit, considering the fact that Unification Minister Lee Jae-joung said recently that a meeting between the two leaders is still a pending issue. Government officials have said there were no preparations under way for such a summit, but now it¡¯s become harder to trust those comments.
Officials in the Roh Moo-hyun administration act as if a summit could persuade North Korean leader Kim Jong-il to give up his nuclear weapons program. If that is a possibility, then we should roll up our sleeves and do whatever we can to make that happen. But the reality we are facing is that there is little possibility of that happening. During the historic 2000 summit, South Korea was not able to even bring up the nuclear topic. Since then, in various North-South meetings, the North has never considered the South as a true counterpart to negotiate its nuclear program.
Moreover, there is no way North Korea will enter talks with South Korea to voluntarily give up its nuclear program, now that the communist country has professed itself as being a nuclear power. It is unreasonable to think that it will hold serious nuclear talks with an administration that is in its final year. North Korea¡¯s request to South Korea is to provide the money that is pledged during talks with the United States. Under these circumstances, the inter-Korean summit could rather weaken international pressure, than offering a breakthrough.
But if this administration is still seeking to give everything it has to achieve such a summit, then we can only say the motive is a political one to win more votes.
The Unification Ministry document says South Korea will discuss with North Korean officials whether Seoul should abolish a law that bans its citizens who visit the communist country from paying tribute to the grave of late North Korean leader Kim Il-sung. Why do we need to discuss that with North Koreans? It will be enough for this administration to wave a white flag to North Korea and simply use its state-run broadcaster to publicize the need to pay homage to the grave of the late North Korean leader. When the document was revealed, the government denied this part, but deep suspicions linger. Even though the administration needs to put together a ¡°gift package¡± to achieve a summit, the degree of imprudence being exercised is unbelievable.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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