In a major exclusive, the Hanguk Ilbo is reporting that the government is pushing for a North-South summit meeting within the year. The paper expects that this might have major repercussions in the coming presidential election at the end of the year.
In a Unification Ministry report to Cheong Wa Dae obtained by the paper, the ministry said that in order to make a breakthrough in stalled intra-Korean ties, it would push for contacts between “North-South authorities of the highest level,” including the dispatching of high-level special envoys. The document, a report on Unification Ministry plans for 2007, was submitted to President Roh Moo-hyun by the Unification Ministry through the Office for Government Policy Coordination.
According to the Hanguk Ilbo, the Unification Minister had been making statements stressing the need for an intra-Korean summit, although the government’s official stance is that no preparations for such a summit are being made.
The report also suggests that the Unification Ministry wants to do away with restrictions the South has placed on Southerners visiting North Korean “holy places” as a measure to—get this—”restore political trust in intra-Korean relations, which were harmed after North Korea’s missile tests.”
The ministry also wants to reopen dialogue channels with the North alongside the six-party talks to restart intra-Korean ministerial talks at an early date.
UPDATE: Surprise—the Ministry of Unification is denying the report. According to Yonhap, the ministry said the document obtained by the Hanguk Ilbo was just reference material for internal use, and the actual report submitted to the Office for Government Policy Coordination did not include plans to push top-level intra-Korean contacts or lift the South Korean travel ban on North Korean “holy places” (which include, if you’re wondering, Kumsusan Memorial Palace where Kim Il-sung’s embalmed body lies and the Revolutionary Martyrs Cemetery).
Quick note to Yonhap: You might want to play around with your Google ad account—I’m not sure if Korea’s state-owned news agency really wants to host adverts for “Korean girls seek foreign men for dating and marriage. 18+”
Anyway, the Grand National Party is already using the report to blast the government for a “political conspiracy” ahead of the presidential election. And it might be worth paying attention to what the GNP has to say here, because if there’s anyone who knows about using North Korea to pad your support come election time, it’s the GNP.
For what it’s worth, it seems the GNP has been expecting something of this nature. According to the Hanguk Ilbo, GNP officials have been saying that along with the government’s recent political reform proposals, the ruling party might try other things to regain public support, including an intra-Korean summit and holding events celebrating the 20th anniversary of the massive June 1987 demonstrations that led to the fall of military dictator Chun Doo-hwan and ushered in the age of democracy in Korea.
The GNP is in a strange position, though. It can’t outright oppose an intra-Korean summit, lest it get branded an “anti-peace” party. Instead, it’s probably going to concentrate on demanding that such a summit be left to the next presidential administration. The Hanguk Ilbo also noted that should the public suspect that the government is using a summit for political reasons (and a quick scan of the Netizen comments earlier today suggested that many do), the ruling party might suffer a backlash. In 2002, when Kim Dae-jung’s government announced just four days before the general election that an intra-Korean summit would be held, the Democratic Party ended up winning only 96 seats.
Oh, and one political consultant has coined the term “Noh Moo-hyun Discount” to refer to the phenomenon of the public shaking their head anytime the current president announces a new policy initiative.
GNP presidential hopeful Lee Myung-bak, BTW, told YTN that an intra-Korean summit, if held now by a president with less than a year left in his term, would be a waste of effort since such a meeting probably couldn’t resolve the North Korean nuclear issue. He added, “It’s the economy, stupid” (OK, not in those words), and that the government needed to stop engaging in fruitless ventures.
16 Comments
So which chaebol is going to buy the Nobel Prize this time?
Ya think!? Glad the editors explained that to me; I might have missed it.
The interesting issues for speculation are:
(1) as Mark cynically suggests, but even more generally, what is the Great Pretender and his Know-Nothings prepared to give away in order to try to reap a political benefit?
(2) Will they in fact reap a benefit or the political whirlwind.
My guess is that unless they give away enough to make this a very big deal and get something very substantial in return, it will have a negligible effect even on the Korean voters, who ordinarily are incredibly credulous regarding N-S issues, but who are getting cynical about them; and if the knuckleheads do manage to bet the farm, doing so will blow up in their faces at the next election.
Obviously these Uri people are desperate because they know NK is working on setting off a second nuclear test and they hope to build cache with the many disenchanted South Koreans that are not happy with Uridung nonsense. I suppose that if the NK leadership really wanted to try and influence the upcoming election, this might be one way to do so, however most South Koreans are more concerned with good economic leadership and results rather than chasing after a belligerent cousin.
This effort will not work on so many different levels.
Replace “holy places” with “hellish places” for a more accurate picture.
How can South Korea have a National Security Act and, at the same time, allow visits to cringeworthy North Korean sites? It’s embarrassing. What are South Koreans in the North going to do? Place flowers in honor of Kim Il Sung? Jeez, it makes one want to retch.
Just a nitpick, but shouldn’t the headline read “Seoul pushing inter-Korean summit…” rather than “intra-Korean summit”. After all, why would Seoul push for a summit with its own people? I mean, I know relations between the GNP and the Uri-nauts are strained, but I always assumed they were still at least on speaking terms.
Yeah yeah… I know that South and North Korea are really one country in the hearts and minds of the Korean people, but c’mon here. Doesn’t any government in the world base its decisions on reality anymore?
quote: “…although the government’s official stance is that no preparations for such a summit are not being made.”
Please — may I humbly request of you — no double negatives.
Was it an inadvertent typo/ error on your part, or a subtle bit of sarcasm? At first I thought the former, but now — I’m not so sure. After all, technically, the two “no’s” cancel each other out, leading to what some would regard as the “perfect” diplomatic doublespeak.
Please — the ROK’s are headache-producing enough, without the additional burden. Allow your blog be a clear and perfect pathway to my greater understanding of the Land of the Morning Calm.
Actually - yeah - that is exactly what the guy is talking about.
The summit isn’t going to happen. If it does, it will show the North really isn’t as sophisticated at analyzing the outside world as many (including myself) believe it to be.
Pyongyang has thrown Roh almost no bones to play with over the years. If it wanted to turn the South Korean government, it would have done more for Uri over a period of years to prevent it from being in the very sorry state it is in right now. If NK were to suddenly change course and throw the doors open for Roh and crew, not only would it probably not work, it would make them look foolish for going about it in a non-productive manner.
The only way Roh could pull off a summit, given the record in not helping Uri Kim JI has shown, is to have an incredibly big pay off, and that won’t happen. If Kim Dae Jung’s payoff became known even after the euphoria of the first summit - if the sea-change in South Korean thinking and desire to feel wonderful about the 1st summit - did not lead to a cover up of the pay off, there is zero chance Roh trying to send the amount of aid necessary to buy a 2nd summit isn’t going to be publicized even beforehand - and that would torpedo Uri. Not only would those guys lose another election, it would anger the society enough to throw many of them in jail, including Roh.
If Uri had half the smarts that Pyongyang has shown over the years in manipulating outsiders, they would drop this summit talk altogether.
“(1) as Mark cynically suggests, but even more generally, what is the Great Pretender and his Know-Nothings prepared to give away in order to try to reap a political benefit?”
According to an opposition party member’s estimate just a few weeks ago, well over a billion dollars. As he was saying, North Korea won’t come cheap because it would be the second…and it knows all too well that Roh dearl needs some good press before he leaves office.
This may get off-track in a big way, but English ain’t algebra. The double negative is just fine with writers from the Rolling Stones to William Shakespeare.
The Stones rock, but we teachers definitely wouldn’t use their song lyrics as language models. The Bard’s works rock, too, but English usage and spelling have changed considerably since his time. Do you remember snickering in high school whenever somebody had to read the line, “Give him head” from one of his plays?
Hey, Teacher, leave them kids alone.
KBS Global has something more interesting:
President Roh Moo-hyun has agreed with the leaders of China and Japan to set up a high-level consultative body to coordinate dialogue on global and regional issues including the North Korean nuclear weapons program.
http://english.kbs.co.kr/news/.....2007011408
English teachers…….
Paul H.—Sorry, I was posting from a PC bang near a bus terminal in Taebaek and didn’t have time to proof-read the post. Anyway, the post has been corrected.
Seems like a summit would be pointless considering Roh’s party has abandoned him and everything he touches turns into dung. Not that it would stop Roh of course, if he can scrape up a few hundred million dollars for the admission fee.
Rho serves the same purpose Nancy Pelosi does, to tarnish the party. Koreans are not stupid; the pendulum will swing back to the right direction.