[Opinion]Let`s Not Be Anxious about South-North Exchange

Since the South-North summit talk, we hear people saying `South-South discord in a time of South-North reconciliation`. The South-South discord, such as dispute over North Korea`s change, critique over the `pumping up` aid to North Korea, and dispute over abolition of the national security law, may be an unavoidable conflict in the process of transforming the antagonistic South-North relationship, which has continued for more than half a century, for the reconciliatory and cooperative South-North relationship.

Most of the conflicts we are going through are unnecessary. Conflicts that come from different viewpoints based on ideological position are possible in a pluralistic society. However, there are conflicts which might have not taken place if we have paid a little bit of attention. The government is responsible for the procedural conflicts, which have derived of the policy decision making process and the carrying out process.

Conflicts related to the `South-North Grand Festival for the National Unification` held in Pyongyang were anticipated. It was pointed out that it was possible to be implicated in the North Korea`s strategic tactics for unification due to the symbolic implication that the festival was held in front of the `Monument to the Three Charters of National Reunification`. Therefore, the government maintained the position that it disallows the participation of the South Korean delegates if North Korea does not change place of the festival. However, the government allowed the visit to North Korea in the late afternoon on Tuesday, having concerned that disapproval of the participation would affect negatively the South-North relationship afterwards, and that private exchange between South and North has not been made sufficient while official dialogue was discontinued.

However, as some of the participants enforced the participation in the ceremony, breaking the original promise that they will not participate in the ceremony nearby the Monument, they have created a stir. Pyongyang in North Korea is itself the city of `revolution`. There are revolution related monuments and personal worship fetishes everywhere in Pyongyang. Therefore, it is not easy to hold a ceremony avoiding these places.

The ceremony participation itself can be mistaken as an acceptance of North Korea`s position depending on the place and characteristic of the ceremony because the competition for system and the antagonistic relation between South and North have not completely resolved yet. Without knowing the content of the memorandum written by the representative, some of the participants assumed that the government approved the visit to North Korea in a way that they can participate in the ceremony nearby the Monument, and participated in the ceremony arguing that ``hundreds of thousands of Pyongyang citizens are waiting under the hot sunshine. How can we, who are visiting North Korea for unification, let them suffer?`` Some of the participants wrote a memorandum and knew that the participation was not approved, but, were reported to have participated in the ceremony. Such a confusion occurred because the organizing body could not control all the delegates who are consisted of 200 organizations.

The confusion was already forecasted as many organizations and leaders who have initiated the unification movement participated. However, both participating organizations, who have not had enough discussion over the schedule in North Korea, and the government, which has not guided them, are unlikely to avoid the responsibilities for such confusion. We have come to believe that when more South-North exchanges take place, we could understand each other better. However, misunderstanding and confusion that come from differences in ideology and system occur during the process of South-North exchange.

Some people were imprisoned because they visited Pyongyang breaking the law. Hwang Suk-Young and Yim Soo-Kyung are among them. Especially, Ms. Yim, entered North Korea by violating the national security law, created the `Yim Soo-Kyung shock`. A lively college student of South Korea informed North Korea about the unrestrained atmosphere by behaving freely. We should think about the irony of history that a person who violated the national security law played the role of changing the North Korean society`s impression on South. It is curious to know what would North Korea people think about the fact that once imprisoned Yim Soo-Kyung and Hwang Suk-Yong visited North Korea again. This may be unimaginable in North Korea.

South Korea was always watchful of North Korea`s `ambitious desire to communize South` when South-North competed for the system. During the 1950s and 1960s when South was weaker, South Korea was wary of the South-North exchange itself perceiving it as a part of the North Korea`s strategic tactics for unification. South Korea is much stronger than North now. Recognizing that the South-North exchanges function as `reversed strategic tactics for unification`, we need to observe with patience the South-North exchanges.

Ko Yoo-Hwhan (Professor of North Korean Studies, Dongkuk University)