ID :
91209
Mon, 11/23/2009 - 21:57
Auther :
Shortlink :
https://www.oananews.org//node/91209
The shortlink copeid
N. Korea blasts South's minister as Seoul hesitates on mountain tour
(ATTN: UPDATES lead; ADDS quotes from minister's speech, analysis)
By Kim Hyun
SEOUL, Nov. 23 (Yonhap) -- North Korea heaped criticism on South Korea's
unification minister on Monday, calling him a "traitor" impeding inter-Korean
relations, as Seoul balked at Pyongyang's request to resume a lucrative mountain
tour.
The minister in charge of inter-Korean relations, Hyun In-taek, reasserted on the
same day Seoul's hard-line position, saying the cross-border relationship "cannot
bypass" the dispute over North Korea's nuclear program.
North Korea, currently under U.N. financial sanctions for its nuclear and missile
tests in spring, has been nudging the South to reopen cross-border tours to its
Mount Kumgang resort. Seoul suspended the program after a tourist was shot and
killed in July last year after wandering into a restricted military zone.
In its most forthright overture yet, a senior North Korean official met with the
chief of the tour operator, Hyundai Group, last week and suggested the North may
meet a key condition the South has demanded for resuming the tours -- allowing a
South Korea-led fact-finding investigation into the shooting.
South Korea's Unification Ministry has not issued a response, playing down the
Nov. 18 proposal because it came through Hyundai.
"Because it has come up during discussions with a private entrepreneur, we don't
see it as an official dialogue proposal between the governments," ministry
spokesman Chun Hae-sung said. "As is well known, the government contact channels
are always open and work well, like the one in Panmunjom," he added, referring to
the major inter-Korean hotline at the truce village.
Asked by reporters whether Seoul would respond should the offer come again
through the hotline, Chun refrained from commenting.
Observers say the ministry is reluctant to take any inter-Korean action that may
pump cash into the North while international negotiations over its nuclear
program are still in limbo.
The Mount Kumgang tours have earned the cash-strapped country US$487 million in
tour fees since they began in 1998. More than 1.9 million South Koreans have
visited the picturesque mountain on the North's southeast coast.
Also Monday, the minister reaffirmed conditions for resuming economic projects in
a speech to a Seoul forum.
"Clamoring for better relations while holding on to nuclear weapons is like
searching for a fish on a tree. To catch a fish, one has to come down from the
tree," Hyun said. "We cannot bypass the North Korean nuclear issue any longer."
North Korean media blasted the minister. He is "ramping around recklessly against
the trend of the time, which is now leaning toward peace and unification," said
Radio Pyongyang, a propaganda radio channel broadcast into South Korea.
The broadcaster called "malicious" the minister's recent assertion that economic
growth remains impossible for North Korea without denuclearization.
The North's Korean Central News Agency also called him a "traitor."
Kim Yong-hyun, a North Korea studies professor at Donguk University in Seoul,
said North Korea was complaining about the South's lukewarm attitude toward joint
projects, but that its criticism was still measured.
"North Korea did not directly mention President Lee Myung-bak and (instead) put
the blame on the unification minister," Kim said. "It cannot criticize the
president because it views inter-Korean relations as progressing and doesn't want
to cut them off."
North Korea wants progress in inter-Korean relations to serve as a booster for
its upcoming dialogue with the United States, Kim added. The U.S. special
representative for North Korea policy, Stephen Bosworth, visits Pyongyang on Dec.
8 to try to revive multilateral talks on Pyongyang's nuclear program.
Ministry sources say Ri Jong-hyok, vice-chairman of the North's Korea
Asia-Pacific Peace Committee that oversees inter-Korean relations, met with Hyun
Jeong-eun, the Hyundai chairwoman, at the Mount Kumgang resort and told her that
the North is "willing to cooperate on anything that the South wants."
The comments were a remarkable reversal from Pyongyang's insistence that the
resort area, which is close to the inter-Korean border, is a sensitive military
zone and that South Korean officials should not enter there.
hkim@yna.co.kr
(END)
By Kim Hyun
SEOUL, Nov. 23 (Yonhap) -- North Korea heaped criticism on South Korea's
unification minister on Monday, calling him a "traitor" impeding inter-Korean
relations, as Seoul balked at Pyongyang's request to resume a lucrative mountain
tour.
The minister in charge of inter-Korean relations, Hyun In-taek, reasserted on the
same day Seoul's hard-line position, saying the cross-border relationship "cannot
bypass" the dispute over North Korea's nuclear program.
North Korea, currently under U.N. financial sanctions for its nuclear and missile
tests in spring, has been nudging the South to reopen cross-border tours to its
Mount Kumgang resort. Seoul suspended the program after a tourist was shot and
killed in July last year after wandering into a restricted military zone.
In its most forthright overture yet, a senior North Korean official met with the
chief of the tour operator, Hyundai Group, last week and suggested the North may
meet a key condition the South has demanded for resuming the tours -- allowing a
South Korea-led fact-finding investigation into the shooting.
South Korea's Unification Ministry has not issued a response, playing down the
Nov. 18 proposal because it came through Hyundai.
"Because it has come up during discussions with a private entrepreneur, we don't
see it as an official dialogue proposal between the governments," ministry
spokesman Chun Hae-sung said. "As is well known, the government contact channels
are always open and work well, like the one in Panmunjom," he added, referring to
the major inter-Korean hotline at the truce village.
Asked by reporters whether Seoul would respond should the offer come again
through the hotline, Chun refrained from commenting.
Observers say the ministry is reluctant to take any inter-Korean action that may
pump cash into the North while international negotiations over its nuclear
program are still in limbo.
The Mount Kumgang tours have earned the cash-strapped country US$487 million in
tour fees since they began in 1998. More than 1.9 million South Koreans have
visited the picturesque mountain on the North's southeast coast.
Also Monday, the minister reaffirmed conditions for resuming economic projects in
a speech to a Seoul forum.
"Clamoring for better relations while holding on to nuclear weapons is like
searching for a fish on a tree. To catch a fish, one has to come down from the
tree," Hyun said. "We cannot bypass the North Korean nuclear issue any longer."
North Korean media blasted the minister. He is "ramping around recklessly against
the trend of the time, which is now leaning toward peace and unification," said
Radio Pyongyang, a propaganda radio channel broadcast into South Korea.
The broadcaster called "malicious" the minister's recent assertion that economic
growth remains impossible for North Korea without denuclearization.
The North's Korean Central News Agency also called him a "traitor."
Kim Yong-hyun, a North Korea studies professor at Donguk University in Seoul,
said North Korea was complaining about the South's lukewarm attitude toward joint
projects, but that its criticism was still measured.
"North Korea did not directly mention President Lee Myung-bak and (instead) put
the blame on the unification minister," Kim said. "It cannot criticize the
president because it views inter-Korean relations as progressing and doesn't want
to cut them off."
North Korea wants progress in inter-Korean relations to serve as a booster for
its upcoming dialogue with the United States, Kim added. The U.S. special
representative for North Korea policy, Stephen Bosworth, visits Pyongyang on Dec.
8 to try to revive multilateral talks on Pyongyang's nuclear program.
Ministry sources say Ri Jong-hyok, vice-chairman of the North's Korea
Asia-Pacific Peace Committee that oversees inter-Korean relations, met with Hyun
Jeong-eun, the Hyundai chairwoman, at the Mount Kumgang resort and told her that
the North is "willing to cooperate on anything that the South wants."
The comments were a remarkable reversal from Pyongyang's insistence that the
resort area, which is close to the inter-Korean border, is a sensitive military
zone and that South Korean officials should not enter there.
hkim@yna.co.kr
(END)
