ID :
210932
Tue, 10/04/2011 - 02:02
Auther :
Shortlink :
https://oananews.org//node/210932
The shortlink copeid
Anniversary of summit
The Korea Times
(Yonhap) - Tuesday marks the fourth anniversary of the Oct. 4 joint declaration born at the second inter-Korean summit.
Hypotheses are meaningless in history. Yet one might well ask how it would have been if President Lee Myung-bak had taken up where his predecessor left off and respected the declaration???s accords, including the peace zone project in the West Sea. Fishermen from both Koreas may or may not have been working together, but it is doubtful whether there would have been the tragic sinking of a South Korean naval vessel or the North Korean shelling of a southern island.
In retrospect, much of the current diplomatic stalemate facing the two Koreas -- and the entire Northeast Asia -- started three and a half years ago when President Lee completely turned away from an engagement policy and refused to implement what was agreed in the communique, saying it is just "pumping" economic aid into Pyongyang's hands.
Inter-Korean hawks may criticize it as bribery for peace, but Lee's two immediate predecessors thought it a minimal price for reconciliation and eventual reunification. Nothing can be earned free, whether in business or politics. Lee and his aides haven't tried very hard to conceal their wishes for the North's collapse to bring about so-called unification through absorption, but the South???s economic burden would be unbearable, or at least incomparable with a gradual approach.
It is good to see the ruling camp shift to a more flexible policy toward the North, as seen by the first-ever visit to the joint industrial park in North Korea by the governing party's leader and Lee's replacement of his hard-line unification minister with a relatively more "pliable" one.
Yet Lee's conservative supporters attack both Rep. Hong Joon-pyo and new Unification Minister Yu Woo-ik for breaking "principles" by what they see as handing an olive branch toward the North "prematurely," that is, before Pyongyang apologizes for the alleged torpedoing the frigate Cheonan and shelling Yeonpyeong Island.
It would be necessary for Seoul to demand Pyongyang make plausible explanations for these military provocations. Also needed, however, is to ponder on the single word that has complicated inter-Korean affairs -- preconditions. If peaceful unification is the ultimate goal for the Koreas, the North's denuclearization is a major milestone toward the final destination. But the Lee administration has turned the biggest interim objective into preconditions for further inter-Korean dialogue, halting everything instead.
The tense relationship has led to armed conflicts, making their satisfactory settlement additional preconditions. The inter-Korean relationship has gone so far backward that working-level meetings between the two sides have become newsworthy events. Little wonder there are skeptics who think the new flexibility is a gesture to win the hearts of progressive voters to the extent of not alienating Lee???s conservative support base.
By most appearances, time is not on Lee's side.
Whether the ongoing softer-line signals are to catch up with inter-Korean affairs in the remaining year or so of his presidency or just a vote-getting scheme, he needs to hurry.
Lee says he wants to go down as a leader who laid the cornerstone for unification. As things stand now, history is likely to see him quite differently.
(Yonhap) - Tuesday marks the fourth anniversary of the Oct. 4 joint declaration born at the second inter-Korean summit.
Hypotheses are meaningless in history. Yet one might well ask how it would have been if President Lee Myung-bak had taken up where his predecessor left off and respected the declaration???s accords, including the peace zone project in the West Sea. Fishermen from both Koreas may or may not have been working together, but it is doubtful whether there would have been the tragic sinking of a South Korean naval vessel or the North Korean shelling of a southern island.
In retrospect, much of the current diplomatic stalemate facing the two Koreas -- and the entire Northeast Asia -- started three and a half years ago when President Lee completely turned away from an engagement policy and refused to implement what was agreed in the communique, saying it is just "pumping" economic aid into Pyongyang's hands.
Inter-Korean hawks may criticize it as bribery for peace, but Lee's two immediate predecessors thought it a minimal price for reconciliation and eventual reunification. Nothing can be earned free, whether in business or politics. Lee and his aides haven't tried very hard to conceal their wishes for the North's collapse to bring about so-called unification through absorption, but the South???s economic burden would be unbearable, or at least incomparable with a gradual approach.
It is good to see the ruling camp shift to a more flexible policy toward the North, as seen by the first-ever visit to the joint industrial park in North Korea by the governing party's leader and Lee's replacement of his hard-line unification minister with a relatively more "pliable" one.
Yet Lee's conservative supporters attack both Rep. Hong Joon-pyo and new Unification Minister Yu Woo-ik for breaking "principles" by what they see as handing an olive branch toward the North "prematurely," that is, before Pyongyang apologizes for the alleged torpedoing the frigate Cheonan and shelling Yeonpyeong Island.
It would be necessary for Seoul to demand Pyongyang make plausible explanations for these military provocations. Also needed, however, is to ponder on the single word that has complicated inter-Korean affairs -- preconditions. If peaceful unification is the ultimate goal for the Koreas, the North's denuclearization is a major milestone toward the final destination. But the Lee administration has turned the biggest interim objective into preconditions for further inter-Korean dialogue, halting everything instead.
The tense relationship has led to armed conflicts, making their satisfactory settlement additional preconditions. The inter-Korean relationship has gone so far backward that working-level meetings between the two sides have become newsworthy events. Little wonder there are skeptics who think the new flexibility is a gesture to win the hearts of progressive voters to the extent of not alienating Lee???s conservative support base.
By most appearances, time is not on Lee's side.
Whether the ongoing softer-line signals are to catch up with inter-Korean affairs in the remaining year or so of his presidency or just a vote-getting scheme, he needs to hurry.
Lee says he wants to go down as a leader who laid the cornerstone for unification. As things stand now, history is likely to see him quite differently.
