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Former president Kim Dae-jung
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Former president Kim Dae-jung on Thursday said the Lee Myung-bak administration is intentionally trying to harm inter-Korean relations. Meeting with leaders of the Democratic Labour Party including chairman Kang Ki-kap at his house in Donggyo-dong, Seoul, Kim said President Lee¡¯s denuclearization-opening-3,000 plan -- offering help to the North in achieving a per-capita income of US$3,000 in a decade premised on the first two conditions -- ¡°cannot succeed since it follows similar policies as U.S. President George W. Bush, which failed," according to DLP spokesperson Park Seung-hup. This is the first time Kim, the architect of the so-called Sunshine Policy, openly attacked Lee¡¯s North Korea policy.
¡°The right way for us is to approach the North. North Korea is like a rich vein of ore in terms of natural resources, tourism and human resources,¡± Kim said. ¡°People say we are pouring our own resources into North Korea, but in fact it¡¯s the other way around. We will benefit from the abundant resources in the North.¡±
¡°We are going backward to the way things were 10 years ago. But now the entire population of this country have become intellectuals thanks to the great advancement in information technology, there can be no dictatorship. However, those who try to rule with authority still mistakenly think they cannot fail,¡± he added, in an apparent swipe at Lee¡¯s top-down style of government.
Grand National Party spokesman Yoon Sang-hyun dismissed Kim¡¯s remarks, saying it is the North Korea government that is harming relations. ¡°We can¡¯t help but raise suspicions about Kim¡¯s intention in distorting this fact,¡± Yoon said. Cha Myung-jin, another GNP spokesperson, said, ¡°The Sunshine Policy was in fact run on artificial lighting. If it had been carried out with real sunshine, it would not have cost so much money over the last 10 years. Now Lee has switched off the artificial light, Kim is going strange.¡±
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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