(Yonhap Editorial) Strengthened Seoul-Washington alliance should contribute to improving inter-Korean relations

SEOUL, Oct. 14 (Yonhap) -- South Korean President Lee Myung-bak and U.S. President Barack Obama reaffirmed the close alliance between the two countries during their summit talks in Washington on Thursday. The two leaders also urged the North to suspend its nuclear ambitions immediately and improve its relations with the international community.
Obama said in a press conference with Lee that North Korea "continues to pose a direct threat to the security of both our nations" and that Seoul and Washington "are entirely united" on how to deal with Pyongyang -- they have "succeeded in changing the equation with the North by showing that its provocations will be met not with rewards, but with even stronger sanctions and isolations."
The United States is about to hold the second two-way talks with the North soon. Following the talks in July in New York, the two sides reportedly agreed to hold second dialogue in a third country sooner or later. South Korean authorities have suggested that they perceived positive signals from the recent two rounds of talks on the North's nuclear program.
South Korea and the U.S. maintain that North Korea's moratorium of its long-range missile and nuclear tests, suspension of uranium enrichment program (UEP) and the return of inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency in North Korea are prerequisites to the resumption of the stalled six-nation talks on denuclearization of North Korea among the two Koreas, the U.S., China, Russia and Japan.
The United States is adamant on the prerequisites as they are the barometer to confirm North Korea's sincerity. North Korea has suggested directly and indirectly that it is willing to comply with the prerequisites except for the suspension of its UEP.
The situation on the Korean Peninsula is at a crossroads. The six-nation talks have not been held for two years and 10 months since the sixth meeting in December 2008. The South-North relations have been soured since the inauguration of the President Lee Myung-bak government and have been frozen with the North's two deadly provocations last year. Recently, there have been a series of movements toward an improvement of relations. South Korea's new unification minister Yu Woo-ik suggested flexibility in North Korea policies, which was followed by an unprecedented visit to the inter-Korean factory park in the North Korean border city of Kaesong by the chairman of the ruling Grand National Party. Actually, the government showed off its flexibility by allowing the resumption of new construction projects at the Kaesong Industrial Park on Oct. 11.
Now that the leaders of South Korea and the U.S. have expressed a strengthened alliance, there is a high voice that Seoul should make more aggressive efforts to strengthen diplomacy with other powers such as China and Russia.
It is not sufficient that the South-North Korean relations be improved, but the two sides should advance forward toward peace and coexistence.
We hope the strengthened Seoul-Washington ties will contribute to the improvement of inter-Korean relations.