[Editorial] If the North Genuinely Wants Dialogue

On September 2, North Korea proposed resuming the South-North dialogue through the Pyongyang Broadcast Program and sent a telegram yesterday communicating the same proposal. This signals the resumption of the South-North dialogue, which came to a stop for five months after the North unilaterally ended it last March.

According to the Ministry of Unification, North Korea needs to rehabilitate the South-North dialogue before American President Bush`s South Korean visit in October in order to secure a better leverage in making its requests to China during the North Korea-China Summit. The Ministry interprets this as a preemptive measure geared toward resuming the North Korea-U.S. dialogue.

However, misgivings about the sincerity of North Korea`s intent in making the proposal abound. The most troubling thing is the fact that North Korea sent this proposal at a time when the South is dealing with all the controversy over the dismissal of Unification Minister Lim Dong-Won, and that they sent this proposal to Minister Lim himself who is the person to be fired.

Such an approach to proposing dialogue is intrusive and is not to the North`s advantage. It only increases suspicion among certain sectors in the South and will contribute to the growth of the opposition against support for North Korea.

It is also disturbing that the subject of this recent proposal is not like last year`s discussion over the chair representatives for the inter-ministers meeting or the names of the members, but rather the anti-South organization National Peaceful Unification Council (CPT). Since the 1990s, North Korea claims to have carried on the dialogue through the CPT, but the times are different now. It would have been more persuasive had the North used the inter-minister meeting as the venue for continuing the dialogue.

Since the North proposed resumption of talks, they will have to show a courteous attitude during the agenda negotiations. In the South-North relations, a mountain of issues need to be immediately addressed, including the restoration of mutual respect, divided families, land tour of Kumkang mountain, and exchange of a fourfold written agreement on economic cooperation. If the North tries to avoid these issues and use the dialogue for some other purpose, they will end up bearing the burden.

The Ministry of Unification`s issuing of a `Welcome Statement` immediately after the North broadcast its request was not the best form. The nation`s people may think that the administration is clinging to the North once again. The administration must see the passage of Lim’s dismissal in the Assembly as an opportunity to resolutely reorder its outlook on North Korea.