EDITORIAL from the Korea Times on Nov. 28)

Urgent Breakthrough
Koreas Should Not Aggravate Cross-Border Ties Further

The eyes of diplomatic experts are turning to the Korean Peninsula, as the
deadline for suspending most cross-border exchanges approaches.
Responses from conservative leaders, however, can hardly be more carefree.
President Lee Myung-bak said Wednesday the government would maintain
``consistency" in its North Korea policy, meaning Seoul would not do anything to
find a breakthrough in the strained relationship.
As a candidate, Lee told former President Kim Dae-jung that he would inherit
Kim's ``sunshine policy" of North Korea, which was basically a two-track policy
of separating nuclear and inter-Korean issues. In his first comment on
inter-Korean relationship after taking office, however, the President linked all
cross-border ties to denuclearization. Lee's consistency was strictly limited by
the time frame.
The governing Grand National Party is going even further. GNP Chairman Park
Hee-tae said, ``There are many absurd and exaggerated pledges in the inter-Korean
agreements signed by previous governments." When Barack Obama was elected, Park
and other GNP officials said there would be little change in U.S. foreign policy
under a new administration. The ruling party officials applied the same criteria
of consistency only on foreign governments.
Rep. Lee Hoi-chang, president of the far-right Liberty Forward Party, highlighted
this, saying, ``The inter-Korean relationship should restart from the ground up
on this occasion," effectively calling for going back to the 1990s. It offers
little comfort to find consistency as the nation's conservative leaders mean it
in terms of Lee's retrogressing remarks, which won applause from some
conservative media outlets.
North Korea of course is far from without problems, not least of which include
its one-sided abrogation of inter-Korean contracts and the official vilification
of the top leader of their dialogue partner. As far as the stalemate of the past
nine months is concerned, however, it is hard to deny the South's
``inconsistency" in its external relationship was the main reason.
No less dangerous in President Lee's North Korea policy, which is based on
``wishful thinking," rather than facts and plausible analysis. For Lee, the North
would be forced to repeal its strategy of opening the door to the Americans while
shutting it to the South Koreans.
This would be possible only if Pyongyang and Washington remained estranged, as
they did under the Bush administration. According to the ``Obama-Biden Plan" on
the U.S. president-elect's Web site, however, the new administration is vowing to
conduct ``tough and direct diplomacy" with North Korea to find a breakthrough in
the diplomatic deadlock. If Lee bases his confidence on Obama's promise to
``consult with Seoul" in foreign policy during phone conversations, he may be
confusing well-mannered courtesy with a commitment, which is very rare in
diplomacy, in which national interest in everything.
In the mid-1990s, Clinton administration officials complained that dealing with
Seoul was harder than negotiating with Pyongyang. The same situation could recur
in the coming years unless Lee changes his mind.
Already, the situation has become so bad that there is now skepticism among
politicians of the effects of sending a special envoy.
The government ought to hurry not to aggravate the inter-Korean relationship
further lest what the ultra-right Lee's wishes come true, turning the historical
clock back at least two decades.
(END)