The Unification Ministry closed its bureau on humanitarian aid to North Korea and launched a new one to better analyze Pyongyang`s internal politics.

The Cabinet approved the ministry`s plan to shut down its Humanitarian Cooperation Bureau and set up the tentatively-named Political Analysis Bureau, Kim Jung-tae, assistant minister for planning and coordination, said in a press briefing yesterday.



"The restructuring aims to strengthen the ministry`s long-term unification policy and intelligence analysis and merge overlapped low-level units," Kim said.

He said closing the humanitarian aid bureau will bring no functional changes. Its four divisions will be either absorbed into the Inter-Korean Exchanges and Cooperation Bureau or the higher-level Unification Policy Office.

But many have raised concerns, seeing the move as symbolic of the Lee Myung-bak administration`s hawkish policy towards the North.

The humanitarian aid bureau, established in late 1996, was in charge of sending humanitarian aid to the North, arranging reunions of families separated by the Korean War and assisting with the resettlement of North Korean defectors in the South.

"The Lee government has said its priority in inter-Korean relations was reunion of separated families, and contradicted itself by closing down the bureau," said Yang Moo-jin, professor at the University of North Korean Studies.

"It basically showed that no humanitarian aid means no bureau. Considering that this government initially planned to get rid of the Unification Ministry (early last year), it still seems to be on the same track."

Experts have expressed concerns that the Lee administration sees inter-Korean relations simply as a state-to-state relationship, without paying sincere regard to its uniqueness, upon which past summit agreements in 2000 and 2007 were based.

South Korea suspended rice and fertilizer aid to North Korea after President Lee took office in February last year, vowing a tougher stance against Pyongyang`s nuclear program.

The North cut off government-level dialogue and stopped reunions of families separated by the 1950-53 Korean War.

The political freeze considerably reduced the humanitarian bureau`s functions.

In an April 9 reshuffle, North Korea also scrapped a Cabinet-level committee on economic cooperation with South Korea, which was set up amid brisk relations in 2004.

By Kim So-hyun



(sophie@heraldm.com)