Rocket launch limits NK policy options for 2 candidates

North Korea policies proposed by the two main presidential candidates of South Korea are drawing renewed attention in the wake of the North`s long-range rocket launch on Wednesday in violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions.

Both Park Geun-hye of the ruling Saenuri Party and Moon Jae-in of the main opposition Democratic United Party had emphasized a "flexible policy" toward the North, though they differed in the level of flexibility.

In the first TV debate Dec. 4, Park said, “My North Korea policy is to normalize (inter-Korean relations) based on national security and trust,” adding, “The Korean Peninsula trust process will put this into practice and there are no preconditions for dialogue.” She thus proposed that the government will get more decisive when needed and more flexible as required, but her policy is designed to emphasize a more flexible stance toward North Korea than the incumbent Lee Myung-bak administration.

To this end, she pledged to open “liaison offices for inter-Korean cooperation” in Seoul and Pyongyang. She also promised that regardless of the political situation, the government will continue humanitarian assistance to the North and expand economic cooperation and social and cultural exchanges. She said “Based on bilateral trust, she will progressively bring about national reunification while constructing joint economic community by means of North Korea`s expanding infrastructure, joining international financial organizations and attracting investment. As for the North’s aggression, I will mobilize all possible measures at our disposal within the scope of our self-defense right to counter.”

In announcing his vision for peace on the Korean Peninsula in October, Moon Jae-in said, "If elected, I will send a special envoy to North Korea and invite North Korean leaders to my inauguration ceremony.” He said he will hold an inter-Korean summit in his first year in office and reach an agreement with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on a draft plan to establish peace on the peninsula, which the presidential transition committee devises.

Moon added, "I will immediately launch an inter-Korean economic cooperation steering committee and galvanize the (inter-Korean) Kaesong industrial complex as the first project to recover trust, as well as resuming South Korean tours to Mount Kumgang in the North." Moon also pledged to build a second industrial complex in Kaesong, a North Korean city near the inter-Korean border, and to start inter-Korean talks on setting up a joint fishing area around the Northern Limit Line, the de facto sea border between the two Koreas. In last month’s TV debate with then independent candidate Ahn Cheol-soo to unify the opposition candidate, Moon told Ahn, “Putting preconditions before improving inter-Korean ties is no different than what the Lee Myung-bak administration has done.”

Park and Moon, who have been stressing improvement of inter-Korean ties, now have less flexibility in North Korea policy due to the rocket launch. This is because it would burden the two candidates to blindly pursue exchanges with North Korea at a time when the Stalinist country could conduct another nuclear test. North Korea experts said that though a flexible policy will be inevitably needed in the next administration due to the side effects of the Lee administration’s hard-line policy, Park and Moon have merely suggested rosy policies without considering what action the North Korean leadership will take depending on its internal situation and if there is a chance Pyongyang will commit another provocation.

zeitung@donga.com