[Editorial] N.K. General Pak`s visit solely for mushroom delivery

North Korean Workers' Party Secretary and Asia Pacific Peace Committee Chairman Kim Yong-Sun's departure communique on Semtember 14 will tell us the accomplishments of his visit to South Korea during the Chuseok(Thanksgiving) holidays.

In particular, we are anxious about what has come out of the late night, in-depth talks in Jeju island between Presidential special aide Lim Dong-Won in charge of Seoul's North Korea policies and Kim Yong-Sun known as one of the most trusted persons of North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il.

North Korea watchers have lately pointed out that the inter-Korean relations for mutual reconciliation and cooperation which have been accelerated since the South-North summit and its June 15 Joint Declaration, are beginning to show some foreboding signs.

The North did not respond to the South's proposal to have talks for additional reunions of separated families and for the restoration of the severed Kyongui Railway.

We have no access to any information about the contents of the discussions Secretary Kim had with Seoul's counterpart over those issues of family reunions and rail link.

But, we think that any inter-Korean contacts must be based on the basic understanding that easing of military tension and guarantee of peace on the peninsula must assume the most fundamental importance in inter-Korean issues.

For that very reason, we had no small expectations from the fact that Secretary Kim's visit was accompanied by General Pak Jae-Gyong, a member of Pyongyang's top military elite, being the vice director of the General Political Department of the North Korean People's Army and a Defense Committee member.

We thought that there could be some preliminary contacts of a sort for easing of inter-Korean military tensions.

But, General Pak returned to Pyongyang immediately after his delivery of pine mushrooms to us during his six-hour stay in Seoul.

Seoul's Ministry of Defense had Lieutenant General Kim Jong-Hwan, policy assistant for Defense Minister Cho Sung-Tae, welcome General Pak at the airport.

Lt. General Kim reportedly asked General Pak to meet with Minister Cho,but Pak turned it down.

Notwithstanding the fact that Pak's purpose of Seoul trip was solely to deliver pine mushrooms to the South on behalf of Defense Chairman Kim Jong-Il, we find it hard to understand that the North Korean army general returned to Pyongyang the same day he arrived right after the delivery of mushrooms.

In view of such attitude, we are rather skeptical about the North's sincerity and authenticity in resolving the matters to ease inter-Korean military tensions.

Seoul is reportedly going to deliver some 600-700 thousand tons of food to Pyongyang as a loan. But, it will be hard to win the people's support for the delivery if it does not help resolve inter-Korean issues, despite the fact that the food is solely meant to be a humanitarian assistance.

The critical voices are on the rise against the way the government has always been dragged by North Korea's initiatives in its negotiations with the North. We must suspect at this point if Pyongyang's intention is to have peace negotiations only with the United States after it obtained economic and food assistance from Seoul.