S. Korea downplays sinking ties with N. Korea as 'readjustment'

By Sam Kim
SEOUL, Feb. 2 (Yonhap) -- South Korea assesses its tumbling ties with North Korea
as a product of "readjustment," an official booklet said Monday, amid increasing
threats from Pyongyang of an armed clash.

South Korean President Lee Myung-bak said over the weekend he expects relations
between Seoul and Pyongyang will soon improve, despite a spate of harsh warnings
from the neighbor.
The two countries, which technically remain at war as 1950-53 Korean War ended
without a formal peace treaty, have seen their ties degrade over the past year to
the lowest point in recent decades.
Accusing Lee of taking a hostile position toward it, North Korea said last week
it is rescinding all peace accords with the South. The communist state also
dismissed a landmark 1991 pact that acknowledges a decades-old de facto western
sea border.
"The current state of inter-Korean relations can be evaluated as a 'period of
readjustment,'" said the booklet published by the Ministry of Unification, which
formulates South Korea's policy on the North.
The publication, dated this month, was distributed to officials at the Ministry
of National Defense as part of a closed-door lecture by Vice Unification Minister
Hong Yang-ho. Unification Ministry officials routinely tour frontline bases and
other units to brief commanders on their policy, defense officials said.
Describing the readjustment as necessary for the "development of ties that lead
to co-prosperity and co-existence," the booklet said the North's acerbic reaction
are the result of its needs to tighten internal control and pressure the South to
reverse its North Korea stance.
The Seoul "government will make efforts to manage the relations by taking a
flexible approach while adhering to principles," the booklet said.
No unusual activities have been spotted along the border since Pyongyang
announced on Jan. 17 it would "shatter" any South Korean efforts to maintain the
U.N.-drawn Norther Limit Line in the Yellow Sea.
A South Korean warship was dispatched to the area following North Korea's
declaration last week of all peace accords with the South as "dead."
Analysts say the North may be setting the stage for an armed conflict to mount
pressure on the South and draw attention from the new U.S. administration to its
nuclear weapons programs.
samkim@yna.co.kr
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