Half a month ahead of festivities marking the fifth anniversary of the intra-Korean summit in Pyongyang, North Korea has unilaterally asked the South to reduce the size of the delegation it plans to send, and that is unreasonable. It goes against the stipulations of the related agreement to suggest the government's delegation be sized down, but it is also damaging of the basic trust that has been built between North and South to want to reduce the private delegation to 190 from the 615 already determined. Realistically it would be hard to reduce the South's number of visitors when Pyongyang has already been sent the list of names.
The North cites "new difficulties" ahead of the opening of the event, and it is a fact that the United States' criticism of the North's system and its deployment of stealth bombers are a negative influence on the political situation on the Korean peninsula. The intensity of the sense of crisis felt by the North must be far more serious than felt by us in the South. The Hankyoreh has criticized the US for taking measures that upset the North. It makes no sense logically, however, for the North to cite US behavior as an excuse to reduce the scale of the festivities, about which it had already agreed. If it feels a real "threat of war" because of high-handed measures by the US, then should that not be even more reason for the North to demonstrate that it is cooperating with the South? Does it really not know how important the festivities in Pyongyang and the opening of ministerial talks are in overcoming the so-called "June crisis"?
If by chance the North is trying to use dialogue with the South as leverage in negotiations with the US or to adjust the pace it is making a big error in judgment. It has to deeply understand that the shortcut to opening a new future for the Korean nation would be for North and South to overcome the difficulties with cold-headed reasoning. The North needs to realize that the South's policies towards it are based on such thinking. We would like to see the North stop acting unreasonable and stop disappointing the Koreans in the South by suggesting the festivities be scaled down.
The Hankyoreh, 3 June 2005.
[Translations by Seoul Selection (PMS)]
NK's Unreasonable Demands for Smaller Delegation |
