With North Korea signaling its intention to launch a satellite, which other countries suspect to be a long-range missile test, members of the six-party nuclear talks have engaged in a flurry of diplomatic activities. U.S. special envoy for North Korea Stephen Bosworth began his Asian tour on March 3, starting in China. During his three-nation tour, which also includes Japan and South Korea, Bosworth is expected to discuss ways to resume the long-stalled six-party nuclear talks and to deal with North Korea’s apparent preparations for a missile launch. The high-ranking U.S. official’s visits to members of the six-party talks came on the heels of U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s Asian tour. According to Professor Kim Geun-sik from Kyungnam University, this is an indication Washington’s North Korea diplomacy has finally started to move into high gear.

The Obama administration has seen rising tension on the Korean Peninsula since its inauguration, due to North Korea’s continuing missile threats. Stephen Bosworth is now visiting three Northeast Asian countries. This is interpreted as the Obama government’s first attempt to coordinate the nations’ respective views on measures aimed at easing tension in the region. Bosworth started his Asian tour right after he was named U.S. special representative for North Korea. His quick move reflects Washington’s commitment to resolving the security issue. I’d say the United States has now begun to move in earnest to settle North Korea-related issues.

Sung Kim, the newly appointed chief negotiator to the six-party talks, is accompanying Bosworth during his ongoing East Asia tour, indicating Washington’s vigorous efforts to reconvene the deadlocked six-way talks and improve the nuclear issue as well. The roles of the U.S. point man on North Korea and the top nuclear envoy to the six-party talks merit attention, since their diplomatic outing came after the completion of Washington’s personnel selection involving North Korea. Experts note that Sung Kim will serve only as a chief nuclear negotiator to the six-party talks, unlike his predecessor Christopher Hill, who was the assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific Affairs and concurrently head of the U.S. delegation to the six-way talks.

The Obama administration’s diplomatic staff in charge of North Korean issues has now taken concrete shape. Under the leadership of President Obama, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will work as the nation’s top policymaker to handle overall diplomatic concerns, including the North Korean nuclear issue. Kurt Campbell, a nominee for the assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, has the highest responsibility within the State Department with regard to diplomatic issues in East Asia and the Pacific. Unlike the Bush administration, the Obama government appointed different people for this post and the chief negotiator to the six-party talks. Accordingly, Bosworth and Sung Kim are expected to play a more crucial role in dealing with the North Korean nuclear crisis and devising relevant strategies. President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton have considerable trust in Bosworth, since he is allowed to report directly to them.

Meanwhile, other participants of the six-way talks, including South Korea, are moving fast to ease the regional security jitters. South Korean Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan held a series of talks with his counterparts from the United States, China and Japan last month. Yu also recently spoke by telephone with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Bosworth’s Asian tour. In the meantime, China’s Vice Foreign Minister Wu Dawei, who also serves as the nation’s chief nuclear envoy to the six-party talks, visited North Korea last month to deliver Beijing’s concerns about the North’s alleged preparation for a missile launch. Japan also held a summit with the United States and a foreign minister-level meeting with China to discuss North Korea’s nuclear and missile threats. How will those neighboring countries’ diplomatic activities influence North Korea’s move to test fire a missile and the resumption of the six-party talks? Professor Kim continues to explain.

The biggest concern is whether Bosworth’s Asian tour will help thwart North Korea’s move to launch a missile, which the communist nation has doggedly pursued. Pyongyang is attempting to use the missile issue in a bid to gain more benefits from Washington at future negotiations. On the other hand, the U.S. will likely demand that North Korea give up its missile game and return to the six-party talks to discuss its nuclear verification. So it’s possible that the two sides will remain at odds for some time. If they are really willing to break the deadlock, they may reach a broad agreement to resume the six-party talks first and then discuss the missile issue as well within the framework of the multilateral dialogue.

Despite the neighboring countries’ diplomatic efforts, concerns are rising that North Korea may go ahead with a missile test firing. If that happens, diplomatic experts predict that the six-party talks will be left idle for a considerable period of time.

If North Korea pushes ahead with a missile launch, it will be hard to resolve the security concern through six-party talks. The U.S. has repeatedly warned the North against its possible test firing of a long-range missile, calling the action a violation of U.N. Security Council Resolution 1718. But if Pyongyang ignores Washington’s warning, the two countries will almost certainly clash over the missile issue, even before the Obama administration engages in full-fledged negotiations with the North. The move will also provoke South Korea as well, and Seoul will get even tougher toward the North. China and Japan have recently hinted at the possibility of sanctions against the North, though indirectly, if the nation goes as far as firing a long-range missile. So, Pyongyang’s missile firing will have a negative impact on the six-party talks and the diplomatic situation surrounding the Korean Peninsula.

The participants of the six-party talks, including South Korea, are carefully watching the results of Bosworth’s Asian tour. Hopefully, the ongoing efforts of the U.S. special envoy and other involved countries will help ease the mounting tension in this region of the world. 　 [Interview] Former N. Korean Economist/Defector Works at Local Economic Institute
About 15-thousand North Korean defectors have resettled in South Korea. Three to four percent of them graduated from universities or higher learning institutes in North Korea and had professional work experience there before arriving in the South. But the former North Korean professionals find it challenging to use their work experience here. Despite this hard reality, a North Korean defector is managing to utilize her expertise through her work at an economic institute in South Korea. Here’s Kim Young-hee, researcher of the Economic Research Institute at the Korea Development Bank.

I majored in accounting at the Wonsan College of Economy in North Korea. The Korea Development Bank in South Korea has been studying inter-Korean economic cooperation and the overall economic situation in North Korea since 1992. The state-run bank recruited North Korean defectors who studied economics or had work experience in this field, and I was lucky to join the bank’s Economic Research Institute on February 1st, 2007. My job is to provide information about North Korea’s microeconomics, analyze inter-Korean economic cooperation and study ways to promote bilateral exchanges.

Kim graduated from the Wonsan College of Economy, one of the most prestigious colleges in North Korea, and worked as an economic specialist for about ten years in her home country. But the North Korean authorities restrained Kim’s private life simply due to the fact that her husband has an acquaintance in China, so she defected to South Korea with her children in 2002. As an expert in the North Korean economy, Kim has played a key role in providing important information about the economic conditions in the communist country.

South and North Korea are starkly different in operating economic systems. For example, few North Koreans save their money at local banks. It’s almost impossible for North Korean people to save money because they’re on the margin of bare subsistence. Even if they have money, they are reluctant to use banks because they can’t withdraw their deposited money from the bank due to the economic difficulty. North Korea officially said that dormant private money was twice as much as the national budget. Considering the current functions of the central bank in North Korea, it will be hard to funnel the private money into banks and use it for industrial development. It is said North Korea enacted the Commercial Bank Law in 2006. But I’ve never heard a commercial bank was set up in the nation. I think it’s essential to establish a commercial bank to draw the ‘sleeping’ private money to the banking sector for industrial development.

Even this economic pundit faced difficulty when she started her new life in South Korea because economic terms and systems of local financial institutions were quite unfamiliar to her. To learn more about the South Korean economy, Kim attended a graduate school here in the South and obtained certificates in electronic accounting, electronic tax and managerial accounting. Currently, she is enrolled in a doctoral program for North Korean studies at Dongguk University, hoping her research and experience will make some contribution to South Korean society. She has also participated in various academic seminars and forums to help the South Korean public better understand the reality of the North Korean economy and to suggest support measures for North Korean defectors who worked as professionals in the North, just like her.

It is most urgent for North Korea to resolve a growing shortage of electricity, along with food shortages and insufficient foreign currencies. Only when these problems are settled, can North Korea achieve a smooth economic recovery. I think South Korea should continue to provide humanitarian assistance to the North, such as food and fertilizer aid, regardless of the ever-changing political situation. When it comes to North Korean defectors living in the South, most of them do the so-called ‘3D’ jobs—dirty, dangerous and difficult. There are many professionals from the North, who are believed to be able to study the unification process and a post-unification era. I hope those qualified defectors will be able to get even better jobs in which they can showcase and further develop their abilities.

Kim has resettled in South Korea successfully, working as a professional researcher during the day and a student in the evening. She’s been through many difficulties, but it makes her happy to see her two sons adjusting well to South Korean society. She’s determined to study harder for the sake of the bright future of her children and the economy of a unified Korea.

My first son says he became a student representative of his school, not because he liked the post but because he wanted to show defector students are competent enough to assume the role. I’m glad to see my kid compete with South Korean students confidently and receive good grades in school. I’ll study more about finance and economics—both macroeconomic and microeconomics—in order to contribute to the economies of both Koreas and teach a market economy to North Korean financial experts after unification.

Hopefully, Kim’s successful career in South Korea will give courage and hope to her fellow North Korean expatriates and help many professional defectors participate in Korea’s unification process.