Starting today, electricity from the South gets supplied to the Gaeseong Industrial Complex in the North. It is happening on a minor scale using telephone poles instead of transmission towers, but it is of particular historical significance since power has not flowed between North and South for 57 years. The construction of the Gaeseong complex and the supplying of electricity is also profoundly significant in a situation where peace on the Korean peninsula is threatened by the North Korean nuclear issue.
The Hankyoreh has continued to call on the North to come to the six-party talks and resolve the nuclear issue through dialogue, for the sake of peace on the peninsula. North Korea must not possess nuclear weapons, and there needs to be the kind of conditions made that would encourage the North to give them up on its own. That will require the United States guarantee the North's security and pledge economic aid. Policy on intra-Korean exchange and cooperation must be pursued all the while and developed further, also for the sake of a peaceful resolution to the North Korean nuclear issue.
The political situation surrounding the peninsula will be hard to work with, however, because in Korea and abroad there is a view widely held by some that promoting relations with the North creates disorder in the US-Korea alliance. A typical example would be US Congressman Henry Hyde, chairman of the House International Relations Committee, when he said Korea needs to make it clear who its "main enemy" is since removing the term from the Ministry of National Defense's white paper causes confusion in the alliance. Hyde's call for a reconsideration of the economic aid for the North that includes the Gaeseong complex is another example of that hard-line approach. Hyde is arrogant and not just disrespectful in terms of diplomacy for judging something that directly relates to our destiny with US's logic and perspective. His comments are of special concern if they speak for the views hard-liners in the US.
Unification minister and standing chairman of the National Security Council (NSC) Chung Dong Young, the man responsible for the government's security policy, has responded he does not agree with Hyde's black and white approach. It would appear Chung spoke out because he judged that the signs of a rise in influence by hard-liners in the US most not continue to be ignored. It makes sense that he wanted to interrupt the hard-line trend that could harm the issue at a time when US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is touring Asia and there is much interest in whether there will be another round of six-party talks. Still, some domestic media and politicians who are supporting Hyde's arrogant comments, and that is a regretful attitude.
The Korean nation needs to be thoroughly resolved about developing and creating its own future. We cannot fit our national interests to those of the US nor can we yield on them. It has to be remembered that supplying electricity to the Gaeseong complex implies more that just the simple furnishing of energy.
The Hankyoreh, 16 March 2005.
[Translations by Seoul Selection (PMS)]
[Editorial] Korea Decides Intra-Korean Cooperation |
