Four Principles of Peace and Prosperity Policy toward North Korea

Roh Moo-hyun takes office as the 16th president of South Korea beginning with the inauguration ceremony on Feb.25.

In the inauguration speech, President Roh will unveil four principles of “Peace-Prosperity Policy” concerning relations with North Korea. The four principles include that he will pursue policies toward North Korea based on settlements through dialogue, trust and reciprocity, international cooperation with North and South Korea taking initiatives, and public participation and bipartisan cooperation in inter-Korean issues.

In line with the four principles, the President Roh`s government will follow and promote the outgoing government`s North Korean policy, so-called “sunshine policy” of engaging North Korea. Furthermore, he is planning to ask the political circle for bipartisan cooperation to strengthen internal and external transparency and increase public participation in the process of pushing for North Korean policies.

Lee Nak-youn, President Roh`s spokesman, said Feb.24, “The new government changed the name of the engagement policy toward North Korea to Peace-Prosperity Policy in order to discard a negative image of the sunshine policy and pursue a transparent policy toward the North through a national consensus.”

Through the inauguration speech, President Roh will present a plan to build the country into the center of the Northeast Asian region as a major administration policy goal in the next five years to the nation by suggesting, “The new government will strive to transform Korea into a country promoting peace and prosperity of Northeast Asia as a peaceful gateway connecting the Eurasian Continent and the Pacific and as a logistics and financial center in the region.”

And then, he will unveil three key administration goals, which include enhanced public participation in the Korean democracy, balanced social growth, and leading the nation to a new era of peace and prosperity in Northeast Asia.

On the ties with the United States, it has been known that the president is expected to make it clear his government will enhance the existing Korea-U.S. alliance to a mature one and at the same time, promise to adjust the bilateral relations as a productive one reflecting possible changes in security circumstances surrounding the Korean Peninsular and establishment of a peace regime. However, he will not specifically mention the possibility of inter-Korean summit talks in the inauguration speech.

Meanwhile, President Roh is expected to hold a summit meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi right after the inauguration ceremony and have back-to-back meetings with U.S. Secretary of State Collin Powell, Chinese Vice President Chen Jichun, and Speaker of the Federation Council (Russia`s upper house of parliament) Sergey Mironov.

Jeong-Hun Kim jnghn@donga.com