Special envoy to N. Korea may be good idea, but not feasible: Seoul official

SEOUL, May 13 (Yonhap) -- Sending a special envoy to North Korea may help win the
release of a detained South Korean worker, but that option is not available to
Seoul, an official shaping inter-Korean policy said Wednesday.
Kim Chun-sig, chief of the Unification Policy Bureau at the Unification Ministry,
said Seoul is not considering an envoy because the two Koreas are "not in such a
climate."
"It is an attractive idea, and there are many things that can be solved by
sending a special envoy," Kim said in a forum on inter-Korean relations in Seoul.

"Even if we intend to send him, that doesn't mean he can go. There are conditions
to be met. (The two Koreas) are not in such a climate. Our government is not
considering it."
North Korea detained an employee of Hyundai Asan Corp. on March 30 on charges
that he "malignantly slandered the dignified system" of the country. Hyundai Asan
is the developer of a joint complex in the North's border town of Kaesong.
Pyongyang has refused to grant Seoul access to the worker. Seoul is seeking to
win his release through the next government-level talks the two sides are
currently trying to set up, but North Korea continues to refuse to include the
issue on the agenda for the envisioned talks.
Watchers say a special envoy represents the stance of the head of state, and an
envoy's trip to North Korea may virtually function as an indirect summit between
the leaders of the two countries. Many are skeptical as to whether North Korea
would accept a South Korean envoy, however, while its campaign against
conservative President Lee Myung-bak continues.
hkim@yna.co.kr
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