Former president Kim Dae-jung on Thursday told Democratic Labor Party leader Kang Ki-kap at his home in Donggyo-dong, Seoul that the Lee Myung-bak administration is intentionally harming inter-Korean relations. The Lee administration'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," Kim added.

Kim said the North's “biggest desire is to improve its relations with the U.S., which the incoming Barack Obama administration will accommodate. In that case, the Lee administration's North Korea policy will fail."

If Kim is right, how to explain President Lee's parliamentary address in July expressing willingness to "discuss with North Korea ways of enforcing the June 15, 2000 and October 4, 2007 inter-Korean summit declarations," and his repeated offers of dialogue with the North? Kim could criticize the Lee administration for awkward handling of its North Korea policy, but his assertion that it is "intentionally harming" inter-Korean relations goes too far.

Kim seems to have high expectation of Obama. "Senior officials of the Clinton administration are emerging around Obama," Kim said. "They share the same ideas with us." But Obama has said that he has no illusions about the North. Obama and Biden have said they will pursue “tough, direct diplomacy” without preconditions with all nations, but the declaration on their website added, "Obama and Biden will crack down on nuclear proliferation by strengthening the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty so that countries like North Korea and Iran that break the rules will automatically face strong international sanctions."

That shows that the incoming U.S. administration will not go easy on Pyongyang. Obama's North Korea policy is undergoing the process of formulation. Former president Kim's remark that our government's policy "would fail," placing expectations on a yet-to-be-completed American policy, is an insult to the public.

Kim also said while many claimed the South unilaterally handed out aid to the North, it will collect the rewards in the future given the North’s abundant natural and human resources. Under the Sunshine Policy, we gave the North W14 trillion (US$1=W1,473). It's hard to find evidence that the livelihoods of the North Koreans have improved or that they have been given even minimum rights during that period. Instead, the North tested a nuclear bomb in that time and now demands to be treated as a nuclear power. And now should we bow to its every whim?