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South Korea Providing Rewards to Pyongyang, Despite Lack of Movement on Nuclear Disarmament
North Korea has been receiving economic and diplomatic incentives from South Korea, even though Pyongyang has made no movement on its September pledge to dismantle its nuclear weapons program, the Washington Post reported today (see GSN, Nov. 15). South Korea’s National Assembly last week approved a $2.6 billion package of economic and humanitarian aid to North Korea, more than doubling its 2005 allocation. The amount is so large that Seoul might have to issue bonds to finance the aid, according to the Post. An official South Korean liaison office opened in Pyongyang this month for the first time since the Korean War, and a railroad line between the countries is expected to be completed this year. Such efforts were meant to persuade North Korea to dismantle its nuclear programs, the Post reported, but instead Pyongyang has pledged to restart work on building a 50-megawatt nuclear reactor. Since the signing of the September agreement, “the mood for reconciliation has improved,” said Moon Dae-keun, economic cooperation director for South Korea’s Unification Ministry. “We still need to resolve the nuclear issue, but the agreement has helped us to move ahead with South-North cooperation.” Opposition leaders in Seoul, however, have said granting concessions to the North now would be a strategic error. “We can’t give them everything they want now. Instead, we need to make them understand the consequences if they don’t comply” with the September agreement, said Hwang Jin-ha, a National Assembly member from the opposition Grand National Party. “We should only make positive gestures with food aid, economic assistance and investment when we see real steps being taken to resolve the nuclear issue” (Anthony Faiola, Washington Post, Nov. 16). Meanwhile, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said today that it remained unclear whether Pyongyang was serious about disarmament, Agence France-Presse reported. “I think the jury is out on whether the North Koreans are prepared to do what they need to do, which is to get serious about dismantlement and verification obligations that they undertook,” Rice said. “Thus far, I think the round that just ended did not have the kind of engagement on that issue from the North Koreans that we might have expected,” she said of last week’s six-party talks (Agence France-Presse/SpaceWar.com, Nov. 16). Elsewhere, Chinese President Hu Jintao and South Korean Prime Minister Roh Moo-hyun agreed yesterday to strengthen bilateral connections and increase their efforts at resolving the standoff over North Korea, the Associated Press reported. “If the two countries of China and South Korea want to realize their separate development goals, they require a peaceful external environment,” Hu said. Hu said he and Roh had agreed to create a hot line between their respective capitals (Jae-Soon Chang, Associated Press, Nov. 16).
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