(News Focus) S. Korea in confusion over PSI participation

By Lee Chi-dong
SEOUL, April 19 (Yonhap) -- Doubts are growing over South Korea's plan to join a
U.S.-led anti-proliferation campaign, as North Korea strongly protests the move
and Seoul's related ministries are reportedly locked in a power struggle over the
ideologically sensitive issue.
South Korea's foreign ministry claims the government stands firm on the plan to
take part in the Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI), saying the decision is
only a matter of timing.
But many observers have questioned the ministry's stance after repeated delays in
formally announcing the plan, saying it is fumbling the issue.
The ministry had planned to make public Seoul's full participation in the PSI
last week, and then postponed it until 2 p.m. Sunday.
It pushed back the announcement again, however, after North Korea -- in a rare
move -- called for an inter-Korean government meeting, which has been scheduled
for this Tuesday.
Proposing the talks last Thursday, the North said it wishes to discuss the joint
Kaesong industrial park, the only remaining inter-Korean joint venture.
North Korea also plans to give an unspecified "important notice" during the
meeting, according to a government source here.
"It was an entire government-level decision, which took into account various
factors including the South-North dialogue," foreign ministry spokesman Moon
Tae-young said of the postponement.
His comments contradict the ministry's official position that South Korea's move
towards joining the PSI is unrelated to North Korea. The government has
maintained that its participation in the drive is part of Seoul's effort to play
a larger role in global affairs.
Critics say the ministry's claim is absurd, given that North Korea, a leading
exporter of missiles, is a primary target of the international campaign to halt
the trafficking of weapons of mass destruction and related materials.
Controversy over Seoul's role in the PSI was rekindled as Foreign Minister Yu
Myung-hwan told reporters last month that if North Korea fires a long-range
rocket it would provide a good chance for South Korea to review whether to join
the initiative.
Ministry officials initially pushed to make the PSI announcement shortly after
the April 5 launch.
But hours after the rocket was fired, a senior Seoul official said, "We don't
want to give an impression of a knee-jerk reaction to the North's move. We will
wait until the U.N. Security Council's response."
The ministry then gave a notice to reporters that the announcement would be made
on April 16, one of the communist neighbor's biggest holidays, the 97th birthday
of its late founder, Kim Il-sung.
Media reports said the South Korean unification ministry, which oversees Seoul's
policy on North Korea, put the brakes on the plan, citing worries over
deteriorating inter-Korean relations at a sensitive time.
Some local newspapers said South Korean President Lee Myung-bak had accepted a
request by Unification Minister Hyun In-taek, also a key foreign policy advisor
during Lee's presidential campaign, to override the foreign ministry and postpone
the announcement.
The move appears similar to what unfolded after North Korea tested a nuclear bomb
in 2006. Then President Roh Moo-hyun rejected an offer from the United States to
join the PSI, on the advice of the unification ministry.
Experts say the Lee administration has missed an opportunity to walk into the PSI
with minimal negative impact, and warn the North may now attempt to link the PSI
issue with the fate of the Kaesong industrial complex.
"North Korea is expected to use this week's inter-Korean talks to threaten that
South Korea's participation in the PSI would damage the Kaesong industrial
complex," said Professor Yang Moo-Jin of the University of North Korean Studies
in Seoul.
Such a threat would put the South Korean government in a major dilemma and
trigger a heated dispute here over how to move forward, he added.
The North also has another card it can play -- a South Korean worker at the
Kaesong site who has been detained in North Korea for nearly three weeks.
The man, only identified by his surname Yu, was detained by the North Korean
authorities on March 30 on charges of slandering its political system and seeking
to lure a North Korean female to the South.
In a fresh warning, the North Korean military said Sunday that South Korea fully
joining the PSI would be regarded a declaration of a war.
"The problem is that the government, especially the foreign ministry, has pushed
to join the PSI without prudent consideration of the unique geopolitical
situation on the Korean Peninsula," said Moon Chung-in, a Yonsei University
Professor. "The government should retract the plan."
lcd@yna.co.kr
(END)