North Needs Aid Says Ex-Minster Chung

Former Unification Minister Chung Se-hyun said yesterday, “People say that we’re holding another inter-Korean ministerial-level meeting just to give away rice and fertilizer to the North. But without it, the inter-Korean relations are not attractive at all to North Koreans, to be honest.”

Having served as unification minister from the end of the Kim Dae-jung administration into the early Roh Moo-hyun administration, Chung made the remarks on a current issues radio show aired on PBC.

Chung also said, “I think the reinstatement of a ministerial-level meeting will help resolve the North Korean nuclear issue,” forecasting, “If successful, the chances for a successful second inter-Korean summit will become greater and greater.”

The two Koreas are planning to hold a 20th ministerial-level meeting in Pyongyang from February 27 through March 2. The meeting will be the first in seven months since the 19th meeting in Busan last July, with rice and fertilizer assistance to the North expected to be the main agenda.

Meanwhile, Chung said regarding the resumption of the inter-Korean summit, “On principle, North Korean Leader Kim Jong Il is to come to Seoul, but Pyongyang suggested that we hold the summit anywhere else (other than Seoul) because of security concerns,” adding, “Some said if we could hold the summit in a third country (early on during the Roh Moo-hyun administration).”

He said, “In the early days of this administration, there was the conclusion that going all the way to a third country to have a summit when the North and the U.S. were continuing dialogue (about the nuclear issue) would not benefit Korea,” adding, “Afterward, the discussion lost momentum.”

He also said, “Isn’t it foolish to fail to lay the needed stepping stones by being obsessed with the location of the talks? I believe it is.”

President Roh Moo-hyun said in his New Year’s speech in January 2005 regarding preconditions for an inter-Korean summit that he “would have it anytime, anywhere.”

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