Labor party in Seoul offers to help heal inter-Korean ties with trip

By Shin Hae-in
SEOUL, Nov. 14 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's progressive labor party said Friday it
hopes to mediate a repair in the frayed relations between the two Koreas via its
visit to the North Korean capital this week.

The visit by Seoul's Democratic Labor Party (DLP) comes only days after the
communist North threatened to restrict passages across the countries' shared
border, further straining already frozen ties.
Twenty lawmakers and party officials will fly to Pyongyang Saturday for a
five-day trip and meet their counterparts in North Korea's Social Democratic
Party. The two parties established ties back in 2002.
"Inter-Korea ties are freezing hard," DLP leader Kang Ki-kab told a press
briefing Friday. "We hope this trip will play a small but important role in
thawing the frozen relationship."
Relations between Seoul and Pyongyang have been strained since conservative Lee
Myung-bak took office in late February.
Taking a tougher position toward the nuclear-armed state than his predecessors,
President Lee has made clear on several occasions that his government will not
expand inter-Korean cooperation projects until North Korea abandons all of its
nuclear ambitions.
In its latest hostile move against the Lee government, Pyongyang announced
Wednesday it will partially close the inter-Korean border, which could
effectively suspend operations at a joint industrial complex on the outskirts of
the North Korean town of Kaesong.
The joint industrial site is seen as the last remaining symbol of inter-Korean
reconciliation efforts after tours to North Korea's Mount Geumgang were suspended
in July following a shooting death of a South Korean tourist there.
"Waiting cannot be a strategy," Kang added, refrring to President Lee's earlier
remarks that waiting could be the wisest choice for Seoul on the inter-Korean
issue.
"Waiting means neglecting the relationship with North Korea. If we give up
Kaesong (industrial complex), we will be crossing the Rubicon."
The planned visit is the third since the labor party's establishment in 2000.
Members of the two parties will discuss, among other issues, implementation of
the two stalled inter-Korean deals struck under Seoul's former liberal
administrations, Kang said.
Kang's party has been demanding the Lee government make efforts to implement the
two major joint accords, struck in 2000 and 2007, which call for expanded
economic cooperation and reunion opportunities for families separated by the
1950-53 Korean War.
The DLP, controlling five seats in the 299-member unicameral house, has often
been accused by Seoul's conservatives of pro-North Korea espionage, with two
leading party members being arrested on espionage charges in 2005. Both the party
and the North called the arrests a "plot by pro-U.S. forces."
The DLP is largely composed of former and current activists that led South
Korea's student, labor and other social movements in past decades.
The party had initially planned to visit the North Korean capital in August, but
was forbidden by the South Korean government, which cited cooling public
sentiment toward the North and circumstantial difficulties.
The two Koreas, divided and technically still at war, are both members of the
six-party nuclear disarmament talks, aimed at denuclearizing the North in return
for economic aid.
hayney@yna.co.kr
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