Suspicious Haste in Resuming Inter-Korean Talks
On Monday, one day before the six party talks produced an agreement, the Unification Ministry reportedly proposed a working-level meeting with North Korea to discuss reviving inter-Korean ministerial talks. What’s more, South Korea’s vice unification minister made a reference to the need for inter-Korean ministerial talks to resume, even if the six-party nuclear talks fail. This is strong circumstantial evidence suggesting Seoul and Pyongyang had struck a deal even before the six-party talks began.
The point of the inter-Korean ministerial talks is to give 500,000 tons of rice and 300,000 tons of fertilizer, valued at W300 billion (US$1=W934). These shipments had been halted after North Korea fired missiles and conducted a nuclear test. North Korea, which had demanded rice and fertilizer aid after its nuclear test, accepted Seoul’s offer the very next day. The two sides agreed to hold ministerial talks in Pyongyang from Feb. 27 until March 2. This rapid progression of events seems scripted.
The core achievement of the latest round of six-party talks was an agreement to disable North Korea’s nuclear facilities. If North Korea follows through, it stands to receive another 950,000 tons of heavy oil. But North Korea’s state-run media have made no mention of the word “disablement,” and have only spoken about a “temporary suspension.” If North Korea addresses its immediate needs by receiving rice and fertilizer from South Korea, the disablement of the North’s nuclear facilities may never happen. It won’t take long to find out whether North Korea will keep its promise. The rice and fertilizer can be shipped later. The South Korean government should know all this, but for some unknown reason, it is in a dire rush to ship off the aid.
The vice unification minister said the Roh Moo-hyun administration has only a year left, and there is a need to establish an irreversible relationship with North Korea. He added that a lot of agreements and implementations must be made in order to carry this momentum on to the next administration and the one after that. It appears that in the remaining year of the presidency, the government is making sure that nobody will be able to mop up the mess they create. It makes no sense that they are trying to create a situation that the next administration cannot undo.
Even before the six-party talks ended, South Korea offered to provide North Korea with rice and fertilizer and as soon as the talks ended, there are calls within the ruling party for a summit. They are saying that those events must take place, in order to win a presidential election. North Korea may view its nuclear weapons as a magic wand that produces instant supplies of rice, fertilizer and oil. But it’s ridiculous that the South Korean administration, blinded by the presidential election, is seeking to win votes at the cost of the nation’s security. The government must reveal what sort of deals they made with North Korea before the six-party talks.
