S. Korea to center 'grand bargain' offer in North Korea policy

By Kim Hyun
SEOUL, Dec. 31 (Yonhap) -- South Korea will push forward its offer of a "grand
bargain" -- a package deal to end North Korea's nuclear drive -- as the
centerpiece of its inter-Korean policy in the New Year, the Unification Ministry
said Thursday.

It remains to be seen whether any inter-Korean talks on the grand bargain offer,
presented by South Korean President Lee Myung-bak in September, will materialize
next year. North Korea has spurned it as "rubbish," accusing Lee of trying to
impede its negotiations with the United States.
The ministry expects "2010 will be an epoch-making year for the settlement of the
North Korean nuclear issue," Unification Minister Hyun In-taek, Seoul's top
commander on inter-Korean relations, said in his New Year's policy briefing to
Lee.
Seoul will "move forward the grand bargain proposal in six-party talks and also
in the inter-Korean context," Hyun said at the closed-door briefing at the Korea
Institute for Defense Analyses in Seoul, according to a press release by the
ministry.
The offer seeks to completely dismantle the North's nuclear programs in a single
step, instead of in phases, in return for aid and diplomatic guarantees. Lee has
criticized the past approach of six-party talks as rewarding Pyongyang's bad
behavior. North Korea withdrew from the six-party forum that also involves South
Korea, the U.S., China, Japan and Russia in April in protest of a U.N. rebuke for
its long-range rocket launch.
Observers foresee improvement in inter-Korean relations in 2010, with
expectations rising for a third inter-Korean summit and progress in the North's
dialogue with the U.S.
South Korea has rapidly increased its humanitarian aid to the North in recent
weeks, mostly recently with shipments of the anti-viral drug Tamiflu to help
prevent an H1N1 influenza epidemic there.
The Unification Ministry said South Korea will "push forward inter-Korean
dialogue with sincerity" and it should cover "all issues including the North
Korean nuclear issue."
As new projects, the ministry said it will launch several initiatives designed to
gather international support for the reunification of the two Koreas. They could
include the creation of a semi-governmental agency that will host international
forums with Korea experts at home and abroad and a consultative meeting between
South Korea's unification minister and Germany's interior minister.
On the Kaesong joint industrial complex, South Korea will continue to demand that
border traffic regulations be lifted so that its workers can freely travel to and
from the park late at night and use mobile phones there. The park, located in the
North's border town of Kaesong, currently hosts 116 South Korean firms employing
about 42,000 North Koreans.
Humanitarian aid efforts to the North will focus on infants, children, pregnant
women and the disabled, the ministry said. It will also propose joint forestry
projects to make the North greener, after years of deforestation driven mainly by
a need for fuel.
hkim@yna.co.kr
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