Chief nuclear negotiators from South and North Korea have attended a recent seminar in New York together, but a much-anticipated inter-Korean meeting never really took place. South Korea’s top nuclear negotiator, Lim Sung-nam, and North Korea’s senior representative to the six-party talks and vice foreign minister, Ri Yong-ho, participated in a Korean Peninsula-themed seminar jointly hosted by the Maxwell School at Syracuse University and Germany’s Friedrich Ebert Foundation on March 7th. Having seen North Korea’s recent active diplomatic activities, some experts predicted that there might be an appropriate form of a contact between the nuclear envoys of the two Koreas. Ri and Lim did participate in several events together, but they never met on the sidelines of the events during the three-day seminar. Here’s Dr. Hong Hyeon-ik at the Sejong Institute to review the New York seminar.

The seminar hosted by Syracuse University in New York was attended by private experts to discuss ways to contribute to building peace on the Korean Peninsula. North Korea’s senior nuclear envoy, Ri Yong-ho, participated in the seminar as the representative of a private group, not as the head of the government delegation. While North Korea and the U.S. managed to make some progress in their dialogue late last month, inter-Korean dialogue still remained in the doldrums. So the South Korean government dispatched top nuclear negotiator, Lim Sung-nam, in order to realize an inter-Korean meeting in New York and pave the way for resuming bilateral dialogue. The result was rather disappointing, as the two sides failed to live up to the prior expectations. Even so, I think South and North Korea seem to be making efforts to seek inter-Korean dialogue and ease tension, at least so regional strain will not escalate into a head-on clash between the two sides.

During his U.S. visit, Ri Yong-ho held contacts with key U.S. officials to reaffirm his nation’s intention to observe the terms of the recent agreement with the U.S., signaling Pyongyang’s will to improve relations with Washington. Officials of the National Committee on American Foreign Policy said they had an impression that the terms of the agreement could be enacted, and US Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry also said Ri pledged to keep to the agreement. Prior to that, however, Ri said North Korea’s nuclear development stems from Washington’s antagonistic policies and suggested a new approach for negotiation, namely, ‘an improvement in North Korea-U.S. relations first and a solution to the nuclear issue later.’ Some speculate that this is North Korea’s strategy to set the conclusion of a peace treaty between North Korea and the U.S. as a key agenda item in future talks, while blocking South Korea from intervening in the negotiations.

North Korea’s biggest goal is to normalize relations with the U.S. There’s nothing new about that. North Korea has sought to secure a guarantee for regime safety from the U.S. for the last fifty years. Ri implied that North Korea could give up its nuclear development at any time as long as the U.S. drops its hostile policy toward the North. That is, North Korea is attempting to engage in dialogue with the U.S. actively, while driving South Korea into a corner and demonstrating to the international community that North Korea has good reason to develop nuclear weapons. From the viewpoint of South Korea, Pyongyang is giving a poor excuse for nuclear arms development under its old policy of forming closer ties with the U.S., while marginalizing Seoul. In doing so, North Korea could approach the U.S. to some extent. But with this strategy, I think it will be very difficult to find a solution to build a peace regime on the Korean Peninsula.

While North Korea and the U.S. are moving fast to resume the six-party nuclear talks, tension is mounting between South and North Korea. North Korea held a massive rally in Pyongyang lately, taking issue with a South Korean army unit in Incheon that reportedly put threatening slogans on the portrait of new North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. The North Korean protesters called the action an insult to supreme dignity. The North Korean media has reported that there were combat training sessions and a youth league’s rally to volunteer to join the army in protest of the defamatory action. According to the North Korean Central News Agency, Kim Jong-un visited the border truce village of Panmunjeom recently and told troops to “maintain the maximum alertness.” With the possibility of resuming the six-party talks increasing, why is North Korea criticizing the Seoul government?

The biggest reasons are the Key Resolve and Foal Eagle combined military exercises between South Korea and the U.S., which started in late February. North Korea is highly sensitive about the annual military drill, since it lost out to South Korea in the competition for regime supremacy and it even falls behind its southern neighbor in military power. Now that North Korea is engaging in dialogue with the U.S., and China has promised the North to provide economic assistance, Pyongyang doesn’t feel the need to lower its head when dealing with South Korea. The Lee Myung-bak government in Seoul sticks to its hard-line policy toward Pyongyang based on a firm principle, following North Korea’s military provocations against the South such as the sinking of the warship Cheonan and the artillery attack on Yeonpyeong Island. In response, North Korea is pressing the South to the wall through an improvement in relations with the U.S. and hurls streams of verbal abuse at Seoul in order to stabilize its third-generation power transition in any way.

In a similar context, North Korea remains silent about Seoul’s proposals of an authorities-level and working-level contact for pest control at ancient tombs located in the North and working-level Red Cross talks on the reunions of separated families. Judging from the overall situation, experts express concern that the South Korean government could be isolated in the process of resuming the six-party talks, with the dialogue momentum between North Korea and the U.S. taking root. The term “tongmi bongnam,” meaning “communicating with the U.S., while sidelining South Korea,” first appeared in 1994 when the first North Korean nuclear crisis erupted. The current situation is different from that of 1994, so Dr. Hong stresses that Seoul should change its strategy.

To be more specific, the term refers to a rather unfair situation in which South Korea is excluded from any discussion of important regional security issues but pays the relevant cost. That happened in 1994 under the Kim Young-sam government. At the time, North Korea and the U.S. reached a temporary agreement on the nuclear crisis, and that led South Korea to shoulder more than 70 percent of the relevant cost alone. Unlike in 1994, however, South Korea is in very good relations with the U.S. But this could be a problem, too, since North Korea may think South Korea will simply follow the U.S. when the North strikes a deal with the U.S. In order not to fall into the trap of the North Korean strategy, South Korea needs to facilitate discussions with the U.S. and come up with a new proposal that would appeal both to North Korea and China at the same time. I think this is the most important key to solution.

In order to avoid international isolation, some maintain that South Korea should improve relations with North Korea in a pragmatic way, like lifting punitive measures against the North that were enforced following the Cheonan incident. Both South and North Korea should exhibit greater flexibility so they can find common ground on how to restore mutual trust as early as possible.


[Interview] Celebrities Hold Concert to Plead for NK Defectors The repatriation of North Korean defectors being held in China has emerged as a political hot potato between South Korea and China. To raise public awareness of this humanitarian issue, a group of South Korean celebrities held a concert entitled “Cry with Us” at the 100th Memorial Hall in Yonsei University in Seoul on March 4th. Thirty-one people expressed willingness to join the concert by the previous day, but 18 more entertainers appeared at the concert, apparently impressed by the desperate plea that the concert was held to rescue even one life. Let’s meet with singer Kang Won-rae, the representative of a celebrities’ group that shares the same name with the concert.

Many people ask us what “Cry with Us” means. It is the title of a theme song of South Korean film “Crossing” that was released a few years ago to portray the stark reality of North Korean defectors. The group “Cry with Us” consists of entertainers hoping to help the unfortunate defectors and share sorrow with them. It has no political or religious elements whatsoever, but the members try to better understand the defectors from North Korea and to appeal to the public for help, since a group of celebrities can draw attention. There are many programs designed to help out African refugees and let the public know the reality of multicultural households whose family members came from Southeast Asia. But realizing that we’ve paid little attention to North Korean defectors around us, we organized this group.

Singers, actors, actresses, comedians and sports stars joined the concert to voice their objections to the forcible repatriation of North Korean defectors. They sang songs containing hopeful messages together. It was actor Cha In-pyo who first planned a concert like this. He participated in a rally protesting the repatriation of North Korean defectors in front of the Chinese Embassy in Seoul on February 21st. Cha says he became interested in the defector issue when he appeared in the 2008 film “Crossing.”

I first met these people when I played the role of a North Korean defector in the movie. It felt like they were a ball in a pin-ball game. A small iron ball moves back and forth on the game board. Whenever the ball touches the walls, the walls push it back. Having nowhere to go, the ball falls into a hole and disappears. That’s the end of the game. Who has welcomed North Korean defectors in the entire world? From now on, we’ll cry for the defectors, who cannot even dare to weep in the dark.

Most of all, some 1,000 North Korean newcomers who participated in the event cried with the celebrities and found great consolation. Reminiscent about their own experience of escaping North Korea, they were sincerely hoping for a helping hand for their fellow defectors in China and for their safe arrival in South Korea. The entertainers, meanwhile, read a letter of appeal and vowed to make efforts to promote the human rights of North Korean defectors. They promised to continue staging similar events in other countries so the concert won’t end up being a one-time event. They also said that they will join the drive to help North Korean expatriates stand on their own two feet. Here again is singer Kang.

Performances and stages are where celebrities can appeal to people. If we make profit from more concerts, we hope to spend the proceeds in creating a place for learning, resting and achieving independence for the defectors. It is said that it’s far better to teach people how to catch fish on their own instead of just giving them fish. We’ll make our utmost effort to help them stand on their own. We hope you will join the Cry with Us campaign and weep for North Korean defectors together.

During the concert, the participants were all hoping that their voice against the forced repatriation of North Korean defectors would resound throughout the world. Here’s to hoping the concert will contribute to calling attention to this humanitarian problem worldwide and eventually resolving the repatriation issue.