Former president Kim Dae Jung said something about resolving the North Korean nuclear issue that is worth listening to. During a recent radio interview he talked of the need for a special envoy to be sent to Pyongyang, and he suggested some concrete conditions for sending one. He said he himself would not be an appropriate choice, but would nevertheless be willing to go to the North and discuss questions for the Korean nation were North Korea's National Defence Commission Chairman Kim Jong Il to invite him.
The North Korean nuclear issue is approaching a turning point that will determine whether it goes a course of all-out confrontation between North Korean and the United States or whether a new proposal is made and US and the North sit across from each other again at the six-party talks. High-level Korean, the American, and Japanese officials are discussing the matter and China has sent a high-ranking official to Pyongyang to convince the North to participate in the talks all because of the urgency of the situation. The Korean government has long said it would be assuming a leading role in resolving issues facing the Korean peninsula, but it does not even have the right kind of channels for talking things over with the North's leadership. That is a big reason why it needs to send a special envoy now more than ever before.
"If the issue is to be resolved peacefully and through dialogue, in the end the most basic issue is what the US puts on the table," said the former president, and he gave examples such as a guarantee of the North's security through a peace treaty that included North, South, and the US, having Korea, the US, and Japan establish diplomatic relations, compensation for past wrongs by Japan, and loans to North Korea through international financial organization. If a special envoy were to be sent he could persuade the North based on this, and also promote the second intra-Korean summit that Chairman Kim is said to feel a certain debt about. In a Hankyoreh opinion survey performed by Research Plus, 53.8 percent of respondents said, "first an intra-Korean summit should be held so as to create a breakthrough in resolving the nuclear issue."
We hope the government gives the former president's proposal serious consideration and that it takes concrete action. He said the right kind of person to send would be someone who would "be by the president to counsel him upon his return and would be right to go again if necessary," but just as former US president Jimmy Carter brought about a compromise by visiting Pyongyang during the nuclear crisis of 1994, choosing former president Kim Dae Jung might be a good way to go about it.
The Hankyoreh, 22 February 2005.
[Translations by Seoul Selection (PMS)]
[Editorial] Talk Specifics About Envoy to Pyongyang |
