Two Koreas see chance for dialogue, warmer ties

By Kim Hyun
SEOUL, Aug. 20 (Yonhap) -- Seoul and Pyongyang will get a chance to mend their
icy relations this week, initiated by an unexpected deal attained by a South
Korean business group and hastened by the death of a former South Korean
president.
A North Korean delegation comprised of high-level figures is due in Seoul on
Friday to pay respects to late President Kim Dae-jung, who died Tuesday after a
long bout with complications from pneumonia.
On a separate track, Seoul on Thursday proposed holding talks next week to
prepare for inter-Korean family reunions which Pyongyang recently agreed to after
a long suspension.
The exchanges are the first major development in inter-Korean relations that
remained frozen since President Lee Myung-bak came to power 18 months ago. They
follow dramatic visits to North Korea earlier this month by former U.S. President
Bill Clinton and South Korea's Hyundai Group chairwoman Hyun Jeong-eun, each of
whom held hours of talks with the North's leader Kim Jong-il.
The North Korean leader was sending his closest aides to pay tribute to the
former president. Kim Ki-nam, a Workers' Party Central Committee secretary most
frequently included in the entourage accompanying the leader's public activities,
and Kim Yang-gon, head of the party's unification front department and long-time
head of inter-Korean relations, will lead the six-member delegation. The group
will come by direct flight from Pyongyang.
The North's Korean Central News Agency called the delegation "a special envoy
group" authorized by the country's leader. Reflecting his special ties with the
late president, his counterpart in the historic first inter-Korean summit in
2000, Kim Jong-il had promptly expressed "deep condolences" to the bereaved
family less than 24 hours after the former leader's death.
The makeup of the delegation, and the decision to stay overnight in Seoul, has
raised speculation that a high-level inter-Korean dialogue may be held during the
visit.
The delegation will visit a memorial altar for Kim set up at the National
Assembly, but will depart before the funeral on Sunday.
Experts were divided about the impact of the high-level delegation's visit.
"Of course, there will be dialogue in the comings and goings, but I'm skeptical
of any turning point arising between the South and the North," Cheon Seong-whun
with the state-run Korea Institute for National Unification said.
He said the visit may end up as only a one-off event as North Korea insists that
the Lee government should honor past inter-Korean summit accords, whose key
points include South Korea's massive investment to help modernize the North's
dilapidated economy. Lee has adopted a tougher stance than his liberal
predecessors -- Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun, connecting economic aid to
Pyongyang's denuclearization.
Cheong Seong-chang with the non-governmental Sejong Institute said the Seoul
government holds the key.
The North Korean chief delegate, Kim Ki-nam, is on a par with South Korea's
presidential chief of staff, Cheong said. "Inter-Korean relations will enter into
a completely new phase depending on whether President Lee Myung-bak meets with
him and what message he sends through him."
The proposed talks on family reunions, on the other hand, is a follow-up to
Pyongyang's recent agreement with the chairwoman of Hyundai Group to restart
stalled inter-Korean conciliatory projects.
Pyongyang had suspended the reunions, started as a humanitarian project after the
2000 inter-Korean summit to console Koreans separated by the 1950-1953 Korean
War, in protest against the Lee government's hardline policy.
South Korea proposed holding the talks from Aug. 26-28 at the North's Mount
Kumgang resort so that the reunions could be held on Chuseok, a traditional
harvest holiday celebrated in both Koreas that falls in the first week of
October. The Mount Kumgang resort on North Korea's east coast, developed by
Hyundai, had served as a reunion venue for years before the suspension.
The cross-border developments coincide with Pyongyang's beckoning to Washington
for dialogue after months of provocations. North Korea raised the stakes with a
rocket launch in April, widely believed to have been a long-range missile test,
and its second nuclear test the following month. The U.S. responded by pushing
for U.N. sanctions, winning consensus among its key allies.
On Wednesday (U.S. time), Kim Myong-gil, a North Korean envoy to the United
Nations in New York, met with New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, a frequent
go-between figure on North Korea issues.
"They're sending signals that they're ready to resume a dialogue," Richardson
said in an interview with MSNBC after the meeting. "I'm not negotiating, but they
are telling me things that they are prepared to do. And I'm going to pass them
on," he said.
North Korea in April bolted from the six-nation denuclearization talks that also
involve South Korea, the U.S., China, Japan and Russia, protesting U.N. sanctions
over its long-range rocket launch and nuclear test.
Some say North Korea is reaching out to South Korea and the U.S. to mitigate the
sanctions, but Hong Ihk-pyo with the state-run Korea Institute for International
Economic Policy in Seoul believes Pyongyang is moving along at its own pace.
North Korea's overtures began in June, weeks before the U.N. sanctions took
effect, apparently as part of its own strategy that alternates between
provocations and dialogue, he noted.
"If things go awry in this dialogue mood, North Korea can again adopt its
coercive behavior, with more long-range missiles and nuclear development. This
chance should not be lost," he said.
hkim@yna.co.kr
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