South Korea to push North policy despite Kim setback
South Korea to push North policy despite Kim setback
SEOUL (Agencies): South Korea will forge ahead with its policy of engaging North Korea despite the opposition's ouster of Seoul's minister in charge of relations with Pyongyang, Foreign Minister Han Seung-soo said on Wednesday.
Han told reporters a day after the cabinet resigned en masse over a no-confidence vote against Unification Minister Lim Dong- won that President Kim Dae-jung would push ahead with his centerpiece reconciliation policy "without any interruptions".
"This is the policy supported not only by the people of the world, but most of the people in South Korea," he said.
Han said that South Korea is mystified why the rival North has suddenly offered new talks but is determined to stop the peace process from "backsliding."
He admitted, however, that President Kim will face a battle to stop his "Sunshine Policy" of engaging the communist state becoming a political football ahead of next year's presidential election.
Kim Dae-Jung hopes to meet U.S. President George W. Bush during his visit to New York in late September for a UN meeting on children, a newspaper here said on Wednesday.
The most likely date for a summit between Kim and Bush is Sept. 24, the JoongAng Ilbo said, adding Kim would ask the United States to endorse his policy of engaging North Korea.
The two Koreas held a historic summit in Pyongyang last year which led to family reunions and other peace initiatives. But there have been no official contacts since March.
North Korea offered this week to hold new talks "at an early date" after a six-month freeze on contacts.
Widespread suspicions were raised that the North made the offer to influence a national assembly vote of no confidence against Unification Minister Lim Dong-Won.
President Jiang Zemin of China has also been in Pyongyang this week, reportedly urging the North to renew contacts with the Seoul government.
Han and the rest of Kim Dae-jung's cabinet tendered their resignations on Tuesday following a vote the day before in which the National Assembly passed an opposition motion to dismiss Lim.
Kim was expected to name a new cabinet this week, retaining Han.
The vote, read by many analysts as a proxy poll on Seoul's approach to North Korea, followed Lim's approval of a visit last month to Pyongyang by South Korean activists, many of whom joined rallies which the North used in anti-Seoul propaganda.
Critics said the Pyongyang incident symbolized the failure of Lim's "sunshine policy" of engaging North Korea. But Han challenged those who ousted Lim to offered better policy options.
"If you ask the skeptics what are the alternatives, they will not give you answers," he said.
Han acknowledged that Kim would face constraints with a minority government after the defection of a conservative coalition partner over the no-confidence motion.
With nationwide local elections in June and a presidential election in December, the government would strive to "insulate the issue of reconciliation with North Korea from mundane internal domestic political squabbles", Han said.
Han said Pyongyang's offer on Sunday to hold talks with Seoul was a sign it was ready to resume contacts frozen since March.
"I don't know their real motives, but I think that it's about time that North Korea will think seriously about resuming the talks with South Korea," Han said. The Unification Ministry has said Seoul would respond favorably to the offer.
He said Seoul saw encouraging signs in North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's visit to Russia in August and his summit in Pyongyang with Chinese President Jiang Zemin this week. Both Moscow and Beijing have backed Korean reconciliation.
Asked about China's suggestions it supported the idea of inviting Kim Jong-il to the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum summit next month in Shanghai, Han said, "I don't think we have been approached by China on the possibility of an invitation."
But with Kim Jong-il holding back on a pledge to visit Seoul to reciprocate Kim Dae-jung's historic June 2000 trip to Pyongyang, Han said South Korea would "strongly oppose" any attempt to substitute a Shanghai meeting for a Seoul summit.