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The general election is over. The electorate expressed two complaints. Fed up with the experiments of the last 10 years, they were wary of another. If the United Democratic Party, the principal player in the progressive experiment, fails to read the public consensus revealed in the election, despite its crushing defeat both last week and in the presidential election, it faces the risk of becoming a splinter party in the next election. But the Grand National Party, which barely managed to secure a parliamentary majority, is not at ease either. The first steps taken by the new administration and ruling party fell short of public expectations.
The National Assembly must no longer be a venue for anachronistic fights. It should be the arena where the unresolved tasks of the 21st century are tackled. There are tasks of diplomacy and national security that must be resolved before it can devote itself to re-invigorating the economy and education. And chief among those is the North Korean nuclear issue. The U.S.-North Korea meeting last week in Singapore dealing with compensations for a full and accurate declaration of nuclear facilities, the core of the second phase of denuclearizing North Korea, has reignited debate. But the verification of Pyongyang's nuclear declaration is in effect the ˇ°2.5-stageˇ± hurdle. The new legislature at this juncture cannot lose itself in outdated arguments about the Sunshine Policy and criticism of unfettered aid to the North. It must seek a new solution.
Proponents of the Sunshine Policy have always emphasized compensation in tandem with or even before denuclearization, saying the six-nation talks, too, stress an action-for-action principle. But for this, complete mutual trust is a prerequisite. Since the statement of principles in the six-party talks on Sept. 19, 2005, the U.S. has not once given up on denuclearization first, compensation later; nor has North Korea abandoned the position that it should be the other way round. They have merely put the matter off.
In February, Siegfried Hecker, emeritus director of Los Alamos National Laboratory, made his fifth visit to North Korea and third visit to Yongbyon in four years. In his latest North Korea report, he said Pyongyang gave up additional manufacturing of plutonium, the raw material for nuclear bombs, but did not renounce alternatives in case the six-party talks fail. He also conveyed the North's stance that it is not prepared to make a full and accurate report of nuclear facilities until compensation measures are completed. Even if accord is reached over declaration procedures, another lengthy negotiation will be needed on verification procedures.
Opponents of give-away aid say that political, economic and security compensation can be arranged but is realistically impossible unless the North denuclearizes and opens up. The new administration's "denuclearization- opening-US$3,000" formula reflects that thinking. The core of the problem, however, lies in how to bring the North with its nuclear-armed military-first doctrine choose denuclearization, opening and reform. No effect can be expected from a naive Sunshine Policy in restoring North Korea, one of the most impoverished countries in the world. The core of our North Korea policy must start from political and economic efforts to overcome poverty.
President Lee Myung-bak visits the U.S. this week. Defining the new government in Seoul as pro-American and anti-North Korea early in April, Pyongyang has stepping up its denunciations of the South. Here, there are signs that arguments about alliance vs. independence may rear their ugly heads again. It's depressing. The new legislature must not repeat the arguments the entire electorate is bored with. It should formulate a new complex alliance theory for the 21st century. Serious thought should be given to what South Korea and the U.S. want from each other globally, in East Asia and on the Korean Peninsula, and how they can give to and take from the other. At the same time, the new legislature should immediately tackle the networking task of viewing Seoul-Washington relations and Seoul-Beijing relations not as mutually contradictory and dichotomous but mutually complementary. It should be kept in mind that the upcoming Seoul-Washington summit is tantamount to a Seoul-Washington-Beijing summit.
The new legislature must waste no more time arguing about anachronistic ideas, inter-Korean relations and Seoul-Washington relations. It should prepare an answer befitting the 21st century. Voters already know the answer, and they made that clear in the general election. Only the legislature remained ignorant. The new legislature should complete its overdue diplomacy and national security homework and exert itself in reviving the economy and education, the core tasks for the 21st century. That's the lesson from the general election.
The column was contributed by Ha Young-sun, a professor of international relations at Seoul National University.
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