Following is the first in a series of articles on President-elect Park Geun-hye’s key policies ― Ed.


One of the most daunting tasks awaiting President-elect Park Geun-hye is enhancing strained ties with North Korea through a national strategy for peninsular peace and reunification that can gain both domestic and international support.

Experts say Park should first strive to address national division over how to handle the communist state and forge national consensus over it while seeking to strengthen coordination with the U.S., China, Japan and others to spur her policy drive.

The new Seoul government to take office next February should reach out to the North first rather than waiting until Pyongyang acts given that the current administration’s strictly reciprocal policy has borne little fruit, they argue.

“The election outcome indicated there are still ideological, generational splits on top of the regionalism. Although she won, almost half of the citizens appear to have a different stance over the North,” said Yoo Ho-yeol, North Korea expert at Korea University.

“What is crucial is national consensus over how to approach Pyongyang. For this, she needs to solicit public opinion and may have to readjust her campaign pledges in consideration of the reality.”

The key words characterizing her North Korea policy are trust, balance and flexibility.

Park has said that the past “dichotomist” policy approaches focusing unduly on either appeasement or reciprocity have foundered, stressing the importance of a balanced approach in bringing a positive change in the reclusive state.

Above all, she has stressed that the policy priority should be achieving “true peace” rather than seeking “fake, temporary peace” through an outpouring of unconditional aid to Pyongyang, which has pursued nuclear arms at the expense of its starving people.

Under her “peninsular trust-building process,” Park pledges to resume dialogue with the North, increase humanitarian support and carry out agreements forged between the two Koreans and between the North and the international community.

Park also pledges to push for the “Vision Korea Project” to help reestablish the moribund economy in the North through international assistance when inter-Korean trust builds and the North moves forward in its denuclearization efforts.

Under the project, the international community is to help establish infrastructure in areas of energy supply, transportation and communications; help the North enter the international financial system and revitalize the North’s special economic zones.

But she stresses that all these trust-building efforts would come as Seoul strengthens “comprehensive deterrence capabilities” through a stronger defense readiness, the long-standing alliance with the U.S. and other means.

“North Korea’s long-range missile launch (on Dec. 12) symbolically demonstrated how grave our security reality is. Concerns over the regional conflicts in Northeast Asia and the world’s economic crisis have been escalated,” she told reporters on Thursday.

“I believe the mandate citizens have given to me is to wisely overcome all these. I will make good on the promise to usher in a new peninsular era through strong security and trust-based diplomacy.”

To maintain strong deterrence against possible provocations by the North, close policy coordination with Washington is crucial. During her five-year term, Seoul is to retake wartime operational control from Washington in December 2015.

“The first thing the U.S. should be doing after congratulating the new president-elect is sitting down with her and members of her team to hear her vision for a North Korean strategy,” said Patrick Cronin, senior director of the Asia Program at the Center for a New American Security.

“It is only on the basis of serious give and take that we can fashion a more successful policy that is ready to engage, on the one hand, and ready for all contingencies, on the other.”

In terms of policy coordination with the U.S., experts painted a positive outlook although there may be variables such as possible international sanctions to punish the North for its recent rocket launch and its possible third nuclear test.

“During the first term of the Obama administration, it moved in tune with the Lee Myung-bak government’s policy line as part of efforts to strengthen the bilateral alliance. The two Koreas, in turn, failed to forge good relations and forge a peaceful mood,” said Hur Moon-young, a senior fellow at the state Korea Institute for National Unification.

“But during its second term, Washington is expected to take a more active policy with the new Seoul government more intent on improving ties with Pyongyang. I am positive about Seoul-Washington policy coordination.”

Huh added that the major task for Park is to move toward the policy to prepare for reunification beyond the hitherto North Korea policy aimed at maintaining peace on the peninsula.

“Based on national consensus, the Park government should move toward the policy of reunification,” he said.

“At the same time, the new government should adopt a balanced diplomatic strategy to maintain good ties with all four powers of the U.S., China, Japan and Russia. But these should be carried out under the framework of the Korea-U.S. alliance.”

Observers expect the incoming government to resume inter-Korean dialogue early next year to discuss inter-Korean exchanges and stalled tourism projects. But some raise the possibility that the talks could face hurdles should the North not be cooperative in resolving issues concerning the two deadly attacks in 2010 that killed 50 South Koreans and the 2008 death of a tourist who was shot while straying into an off-limit zone during her tour to Mount Geumgang.

By Song Sang-ho (sshluck@heraldcorp.com)