S. Korea hopes for peace on peninsula

SEOUL (JP): Barely recovered from the shock of the submarine intrusion from its northern neighbor in September, South Korea is determined to continue seeking peace in the Korean peninsula.

"There is one major task that Korea has yet been unable to accomplish and to which our paramount national efforts will be directed," said Yoo Chong-ha, Senior Secretary to the President for Foreign Policy and National Security, "that is the issue of reducing tension, of maintaining peace on the Korea peninsula and of unifying the Korean people."

The secretary was speaking at a congress here last week attended by scholars and leaders from the Asia Pacific.

Last April President Kim Young-sam and U.S. President Bill Clinton proposed 'four-party-talks' to North Korea. The other party was China.

So far the proposal has remained merely a proposal.

Yoo said North Korea has had a minus five percent growth rate for the past six years and runs its factories at 30 to 40 percent of capacity.

"Unless it chooses to discard its hostility against the South, open up its doors to the outside world, and accept changes not only for its own survival but also for the peace on the Korean peninsula," Yoo said, "North Korea will collapse."

In a separate interview, Managing Editor of Korea Times Kim Myong-sik also said that there is a big question mark as to how long the north would survive.

North Korea has suffered a succession of blows in recent years. First the fall of the Soviet Union, then the death of its paramount leader Kim Il-sung two years ago and now its economic failure, he said.

"So, when its submarine was detected on our territory everyone was surprised. We thought the country was dying but militarily it is very strong," Kim said.

This year's harvest in the north is only around half the production capacity, he said.

"I saw a recent picture of a market in North Korea. There was nothing there. In another place people were bartering clothes for corn or flour," he said.

Kim said the best thing for North Korea is to gradually move to democracy.

"We do not want North Korea to collapse because that would mean all the refugees will come down to us. We'd have to print a lot of money, inflation would go up and people would suffer from a devastated economy," he said.

Without a gradual change to democracy there will be no hope for peaceful reunification, he said. (hbk)