North Korea Would Reap Economic Benefits from Denuclearization, Incoming South Korean President Says

South Korean President-elect Lee Myung-bak said today his government would use economic enticements to press North Korea toward eliminating its nuclear weapons program, the Associated Press reported (see GSN, Jan. 16).

The primary inducement would come through increasing the per capita income in the Stalinist state to $3,000, according to Lee’s plan.

“Our cardinal effort will be placed on the complete resolution of the North Korean nuclear problem and concomitantly, the creation of a new peace structure on the Korean Peninsula,” he said.

“We will continue to persuade North Korea that giving up its nuclear weapons program will benefit both its regime and its people,” Lee added.

He did not say how South Korea would respond should Pyongyang fail to take up the offer, AP reported.

The current round of denuclearization negotiations began in 2002 and has slowed again while participating nations wait for North Korea to submit a full declaration of its atomic activities.  Pyongyang said it delivered the list in November.

“Although the dismantlement process is currently being delayed, we remain patient and mindful of the need to proceed carefully,” Lee said (Burt Herman, Associated Press I/Yahoo!News, Jan. 17).

Lee’s plan to combine the South Korean Unification Ministry with the Foreign Ministry could have ramifications on the nuclear negotiations, AP reported.

The Unification Ministry has been Pyongyang’s primary supporter when it needed economic aid from Seoul.  It’s elimination as a stand-alone agency would be “viewed in a negative way from North Korea,” said International Crisis Group analyst Daniel Pinkston, who works in Seoul.

He said the Kim Jong Il regime might further slow the nuclear negotiations while it assesses the situation under the new government.  The conservative Lee is expected to take a harder line on North Korea than his recent predecessors (Burt Herman, Associated Press II/CNN.com, Jan. 16).

Meanwhile, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is expected to address the nuclear issue next month during visits to China, Japan and South Korea, Agence France-Presse reported.

Rice is expected to be in Seoul on Feb. 25 for Lee’s inauguration, according to Japanese news reports (Agence France-Presse/Spacewar.com, Jan. 17).

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