North Korea’s apparent attempts to reduce tensions with its southern neighbor found no welcome in Seoul, which has slammed the North’s proposed negotiations and a “two-faced” invitation to commemorate a key 2000 peace conference.
A landmark diplomatic summit
in June 2000 inched the Korean Peninsula towards reconciliation
after the then-leaders of the two Koreas — Seoul’s Kim Dae-jung and
Pyongyang’s Kim Jong-il — signed a five-point plan to promote
reintegration through economic and cultural ties. The summit gave
birth to a tourist visit program for Mount Kumgang and the jointly
operated Kaesong industrial zone.
The Northern office that promotes the implementation of the June
2000 plan faxed its Southern counterpart an invitation last
Wednesday to celebrate the anniversary on Mount Kumgang, or in
Kaesong. On Monday, South Korea’s Unification Ministry criticized
the invitation, calling it a “two-faced” attempt to split public
opinion in the country.
“If the North genuinely wants dialogue, the first step should
be responding to our repeated call for working-level governmental
talks on the Kaesong industrial complex,” ministry spokesperson
Kim Hyung-seok said.
Seoul indicated earlier that it would likely decline the North’s
proposal: “It’s not an easy decision,” a government official
told Yonhap News Agency. “A lot of South Koreans may have to
travel to the North, and it may entail many issues, including a
safety guarantee.”
Tourist travel to the Mount Kumgang border region was suspended
in 2008, after a South Korean tourist was shot and killed upon
entering a military area. The Kaesong industrial zone was closed in
April of this year — the latest project from the rapprochement era
to be buried by tensions since conservatives took power in Seoul in
2008.
Kim also reiterated Seoul’s skepticism over Pyongyang’s recent
proposal to renew six-party talks on the nuclear status of the
Korean Peninsula: “Actions are more important than
words.”
Pyongyang’s proposal to restart the six-party talks, which have
been stalled since 2009, was delivered by envoy Choe Ryong-hae
during a visit to China. The talks — involving the two Koreas, the
US, China, Russia and Japan — are aimed at brokering a peaceful
resolution to the debate over Pyongyang’s nuclear program.
China, Russia and Japan hailed the move, saying that it
indicates North Korea’s readiness to reduce the heightened tensions
in the region. But Seoul said it was skeptical because only China,
not North Korea itself, had used the word “denuclearization” in
describing the talks.
South Korea and the US have maintained that the North must show
commitment to scrapping its nuclear program as a precondition to
any formal multilateral talks. Pyongyang has said on a number of
occasions recently that it will not dismantle its nuclear arsenal,
in order to protect its national sovereignty from the US and its
allies in the region.
This article originally appeared on: RT