Paying North Korea to Laugh at Us(Us meaning South Korea)
North Korean Senior Cabinet Counselor Kwon Ho-ung on Wednesday told a stunned South Korean delegation at ministerial talks in Busan that his country’s Songun or military-first policy “helps the security of South Korea too, and a vast majority of South Korean citizens have benefited from it.” North Korea's missile launches and nuclear weapons program are apparently a boon to us. The least we can do in return, Kwon indicated, is let our delegations visit “sacred places” in the North like Kim Il-sung’s embalmed cadaver, suspend Korea-U.S. joint military exercises, and abolish the National Security Law. Oh, and deliver the 500,000 tons of rice and light industry raw materials we promised.
The seven missiles the North fired last week included two to four Scuds with ranges of 300-500 km capable of hitting anywhere in the South, whose security, pace Kwon, they nonetheless improve. Words fail to describe the preposterousness of North Korea’s demands.
But it is equally absurd that our government continues to listen to this rubbish. The foreign and defense ministers originally wanted the talks cancelled, saying it is time for a firm response, but the president backed the unification minister’s call to go ahead, saying it makes no sense to demand a solution through dialogue while canceling dialogue. Didn’t the government anticipate what the North would do at the talks? If it didn't, it is incompetent; if it did but agreed to hold the talks regardless, it has betrayed the people.
Kwon's claims for the Songun policy, as it happens, echo the argument of some pro-Pyongyang organizations in the South who say North Korea's missiles and nuclear weapons will eventually be ours too. The government has guaranteed that members of these organizations can visit North Korea and tried to prevent their arrest under the National Security Law. The economic cooperation funds the South provided to the North since the 2000 inter-Korean summit amount to W3.233 trillion (US$=949), 1.3 times North Korea’s entire budget last year. There is a high chance that some of the money went into development of the North's nuclear weapons and missiles, but the government has maintained there is nothing it can do about it. In the context of its “one nation” rhetoric, the North now assures us that the money was well spent on protecting our security.
And so it goes on. Despite doing everything for dialogue with Pyongyang and pouring so much aid into the North, the government never hears anything it wants to hear in return. These meetings simply provide the North with an ever-ready propaganda platform, from where it can laugh at us.
english.chosun.com |
