ID :
32437
Wed, 11/26/2008 - 10:01
Auther :
Shortlink :
https://www.oananews.org//node/32437
The shortlink copeid
Opposition leader to speak on inter-Korean ties at Japanese university
SEOUL, Nov. 26 (Yonhap) -- The chairman of South Korea's main opposition party
will give a lecture on inter-Korean relations at Tokyo's Waseda University on
Wednesday, and will emphasize the need for Seoul to take a gentler stance towards
North Korea, officials said.
The lecture by liberal Democratic Party Chairman Chung Sye-kyun comes two days
after Pyongyang announced it would bar South Korean tourists from the ancient
city of Kaesong beginning Dec. 1 and expel officials working at a joint
industrial complex there.
The steps are widely viewed as another attempt to pressure South Korean President
Lee Myung-bak to soften his position on Pyongyang.
Titled "The Future of the Korean Peninsula," Chung's lecture will emphasize the
need for the Lee to adhere to the engagement policies set up by his liberal
predecessors, aides said.
Relations between the two Koreas have soured since the conservative Lee took
office in Seoul in February. The president has vowed not to expand inter-Korean
cooperation projects until North Korea abandons all of its nuclear ambitions.
North Korea has long been holding aid-for-denuclearization talks with South
Korea, Japan, China, Russia and the United States. A new round of the six-party
talks has been slated for early next month.
Chung's party has been calling on the government to implement two joint accords
signed in 2000 and 2007, one of North Korea's key demands. The agreements,
criticized as "impractical" by Lee's party, call for greater economic cooperation
and reunion opportunities for families separated by the 1950-53 Korean War.
After the lecture, scheduled for later Wednesday, Chung will meet with Korean
residents there, hold an interview with Japan's Asahi Shimbun and a press
conference with Korean journalists in Tokyo.
Chung, a four-term legislator and former trade minister, was elected head of his
party in July.
The businessman-turned-politician is a harsh critic of President Lee's diplomatic
views as well as his free market business policies.
hayney@yna.co.kr
will give a lecture on inter-Korean relations at Tokyo's Waseda University on
Wednesday, and will emphasize the need for Seoul to take a gentler stance towards
North Korea, officials said.
The lecture by liberal Democratic Party Chairman Chung Sye-kyun comes two days
after Pyongyang announced it would bar South Korean tourists from the ancient
city of Kaesong beginning Dec. 1 and expel officials working at a joint
industrial complex there.
The steps are widely viewed as another attempt to pressure South Korean President
Lee Myung-bak to soften his position on Pyongyang.
Titled "The Future of the Korean Peninsula," Chung's lecture will emphasize the
need for the Lee to adhere to the engagement policies set up by his liberal
predecessors, aides said.
Relations between the two Koreas have soured since the conservative Lee took
office in Seoul in February. The president has vowed not to expand inter-Korean
cooperation projects until North Korea abandons all of its nuclear ambitions.
North Korea has long been holding aid-for-denuclearization talks with South
Korea, Japan, China, Russia and the United States. A new round of the six-party
talks has been slated for early next month.
Chung's party has been calling on the government to implement two joint accords
signed in 2000 and 2007, one of North Korea's key demands. The agreements,
criticized as "impractical" by Lee's party, call for greater economic cooperation
and reunion opportunities for families separated by the 1950-53 Korean War.
After the lecture, scheduled for later Wednesday, Chung will meet with Korean
residents there, hold an interview with Japan's Asahi Shimbun and a press
conference with Korean journalists in Tokyo.
Chung, a four-term legislator and former trade minister, was elected head of his
party in July.
The businessman-turned-politician is a harsh critic of President Lee's diplomatic
views as well as his free market business policies.
hayney@yna.co.kr
