There are signs of a thaw in regional diplomacy in the wake of a recent series of inter-Korean talks. South Korean chief nuclear negotiator Wi Sung-lac and North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho held talks on the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Regional Forum or ARF on July 22 in Bali, Indonesia. It was the first meeting between top nuclear envoys from the two Koreas in two years and seven months. Foreign ministers from the two sides also held a contact the following day, raising hopes for the resumption of the six-party nuclear talks, which have been deadlocked since 2008. Professor Kim Geun-sik at Kyungnam University says the recent inter-Korean meetings have provided a breakthrough for the stalled bilateral relations and facilitated a process for restarting the six-party talks.

As you know, relations between South and North Korea were strained to a breaking point, even heightening the risk of war, in the wake of North Korea’s two military provocations against the South last year. While the U.S. and China called for inter-Korean dialogue earlier this year, inter-Korean ties have been in a stalemate as Seoul and Pyongyang failed to resolve pending bilateral issues. Amid the prolonged deadlock in bilateral ties, the two Koreas managed to hold a meeting to discuss the nuclear issue in Bali, the first-ever denuclearization talks between the two sides, followed by an inter-Korean foreign ministers’ meeting. The positive developments are believed to help the stalled six-party talks gain some traction and provide a breakthrough for inter-Korean relations as well.

Diplomatic experts are taking note of a change in Pyongyang’s attitude. In May, North Korea made secret inter-Korean contacts public. The North also threatened to dispose of South Korean assets at the Geumgang mountain resort in an apparent bid to step up pressure against Seoul. Less than two months later, however, North Korea attended the inter-Korean denuclearization talks. What is the backdrop for North Korea’s abrupt shift toward conciliatory diplomacy with South Korea?

North Korea finds it inevitable to engage in inter-Korean dialogue, which is a steppingstone to negotiations with the U.S. If there is some progress in North Korea-U.S. talks and subsequently in the six-party talks, international aid for North Korea could resume. The positive mood will then help restore the soured inter-Korean relations to lead to Seoul’s economic assistance for North Korea. Ahead of its self-declared deadline of 2012 to build a strong and prosperous country, North Korea is in need of economic aid from outside. Under these circumstances, the North seems to have concluded that a shift to dialogue wouldn’t be so bad.

The South Korean government is displaying flexibility and employing a two-track strategy. Seoul and Pyongyang have wrangled over North Korea’s deadly attacks on the South Korean warship Cheonan and Yeonpyeong Island last year. But South Korea dropped the sensitive issue at the denuclearization talks in Bali last week and will seek to elicit Pyongyang’s apology for the provocations at separate bilateral talks dedicated to inter-Korean matters. But some experts are skeptical about whether the two sides will continue to hold dialogue, speculating that North Korea simply attended the inter-Korean nuclear talks as a precondition for contact with the U.S.

There are both optimistic and pessimistic views on the restoration of inter-Korean ties. North Korea still doesn’t trust the Lee Myung-bak government in South Korea and the North finds it difficult to accept Seoul’s demands, including those related to the Cheonan incident. The Seoul government, too, is reluctant to change its preconditions set for resuming dialogue with Pyongyang or its North Korea policy prematurely. For now, there is little room for both sides to fully restore their relations.

Meanwhile, the process of North Korea-U.S. dialogue kicked into high gear as the U.S. government has invited North Korean first vice foreign minister Kim Kye-gwan as a follow-up measure to the inter-Korean talks between nuclear representatives in Bali. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on July 22 that Kim would meet U.S. officials to discuss the next steps for resuming the six-party talks. Professor Kim says the prospective North Korea-U.S. dialogue is significant as it is the first official contact between the two countries in 19 months since the 2009 North Korea visit by Stephen Bosworth, the U.S. special representative for North Korean affairs.

The inter-Korean denuclearization talks in Bali are considered the first step of the three-stage formula, under which the South-North meeting would come first, North Korea-U.S. dialogue comes as the second step and the resumption of the six-party talks comes in the final stage. So, it would be fair to say that the three-step process has already begun. Kim Kye-gwan visited New York in 2007, right after the so-called February 13th agreement in which North Korea would shut down the Yongbyon nuclear plant and allow international inspectors to return to the country in exchange for energy assistance. The most recent high-level contact between North Korea and the U.S. is Bosworth’s Pyongyang visit in December 2009. It remains to be seen whether and how the two sides will find common ground during the upcoming, rare negotiations between high-level officials.

Topping the list of agenda items at the upcoming North Korea-U.S. talks will be ways to reconvene the six-party talks and North Korea’s uranium enrichment program.

North Korea disclosed its uranium enrichment facility equipped with centrifuges late last year. The U.S. wants to block North Korea from developing the uranium enriched program, and we have to watch how North Korea will respond to this thorny issue. Pyongyang, for its part, wants something from the U.S., including the establishment of a peace regime. North Korea demanded that the two sides discuss this issue when Bosworth visited Pyongyang in 2009. Currently, there are no ways for the international community to monitor North Korea’s nuclear activities. Along with the peace regime issue, the return of inspectors of the International Atomic Energy Agency to North Korea will comprise major issues between the two sides. Discussion topics may also include the U.S.-led international food aid for North Korea.

Experts are taking note as to whether the North Korean vice foreign minister’s U.S. visit will jumpstart bilateral dialogue and whether it will facilitate the process of resuming the six-party talks as well. Professor Kim remains circumspect about the possibility, citing widely differing views between the two sides on the preconditions and steps for restarting the six-party talks. Also, the North and the U.S. may focus more on exploring the other side’s strategy, resulting in a ‘limited dialogue.’

North Korea needs to create a favorable outside environment for its goal of building a powerful and prosperous nation by 2012, while Obama seeks reelection next year. Both sides find it necessary to generate success at the bilateral negotiations in some way. But it depends on how the two sides coordinate their conflicting views on key issues. Even if North Korea-U.S. dialogue turns out well, and even if the six-party talks resume, it is still uncertain how much progress there will be in the nuclear issue within the framework of the multilateral negotiations.

The diplomatic community is turning its eyes from the inter-Korean talks in Bali to the prospective North Korea-U.S. dialogue in New York. The two countries seem to be moving toward dialogue, and we have to wait and see what they actually discuss and how extensively they engage in dialogue.


[Interview] Unification Ministry’s Internship Program for Students Studying Abroad
On a July morning, a day during the peak summer vacation season, a special program was held at the Education Center for Unification, located in Suyu-dong, northern Seoul. A group of students studying abroad had the chance to learn about unification issues under an internship program organized by the Unification Ministry. For the internship program, the ministry accepted applications from Korean students abroad and finally selected 70 participants from various countries, including the U.S., Britain, Japan and Australia, in consideration of their college, gender, major and the country they are studying in. Here’s Lee Jae-dong, an official of the Support and Management Division at the Unification Ministry.

The Ministry of Unification has conducted an internship program since last year to encourage Korean students overseas to experience unification-related affairs. Twenty people participated in the inaugural program last year, which was held on a trial basis. We initially intended to pick 40 people for this year’s session, but as many as 200 people applied for the program. So we decided to select 70 people, who beat odds of 3 to1.

Divided into two batches—35 people each—, the participants were assigned to different divisions at the Unification Ministry and its affiliated organizations. During the one-month internship period, they attended lectures twice a week on North Korean defectors, inter-Korean talks, inter-Korean economic cooperation and education for unification. Also twice a week, they carried out tasks in their respective divisions and submitted reports. The internship program is mainly focused on cultivating leaders of non-governmental diplomacy for unification.

In this globalized era, Korean students abroad are regarded as civil diplomats, a future generation that should prepare for unification. After learning more about inter-Korean issues through this program, they can share their experience with their peers abroad. They can help people in various parts of the world learn what South Korea has experienced, how inter-Korean talks have developed and how the nation is preparing for unification of Korea.

Many of the participants who study international relations or political science are hoping to work in diplomatic and unification-related areas in the future. For them, this internship program provides a good opportunity to experience unification-related affairs in advance.

I’m Kim Ji-su. I’m a first year master’s student at Columbia University in New York. I study international politics. I’ve been deeply interested in Korea’s unification since I was little. I’ll study unification issues hard in order to awaken my friends in the U.S. and in other countries to the need for unification of Korea, which is the future pursued by not only Korea but also by Northeast Asia and the entire world. I hope to work for international organizations, like the United Nations Development Program, to contribute to the Tumen River development project and other unification-related programs.

The students also visited Hanawon, a rehabilitation center for North Korean defectors, and the truce village of Panmunjeom straddling the tense inter-Korean border to experience the ‘shadow of national division.’ Apart from the simple acquisition of knowledge, they were also able to ponder on inter-Korean relations and unification through this experience. But it seems one month is too short to learn about all these complicated issues properly at the Unification Ministry, the only one of its kind in the world. Still, the students say it was a precious and meaningful experience, since they were able to take a step closer to unification. Hopefully, the internship program will prove helpful for nurturing future leaders of a unified Korea.