[Editorial] Korea-China hotline

The government’s response to North Korean leader Kim Jong-il’s death has exposed some glaring problems. One such problem concerns the failure of the nation’s main spy agency to detect Kim’s death before Pyongyang’s state media announced it on Monday.

The National Intelligence Service had no clue to Kim’s death for two days, revealing its serious lack of capability to gather intelligence on North Korea. The agency’s intelligence lapse kept President Lee Myung-bak in the dark about the grave situation in the North following Kim’s passing.

True, the Seoul government was not alone in being informed of Kim’s death belatedly. According to the White House, President Barack Obama learned of it half an hour after the North Korean broadcasts.

Yet this does not justify the spy agency’s woeful performance, given that it exists for no other reason than gathering intelligence about important events in North Korea. Few other events are more crucial than the death of the secretive country’s top leader.

Another serious problem is the lack of a hotline between the top leaders of South Korea and China. Shortly after the North Korean media broadcasts of Kim’s death, Lee spoke by phone with leaders of key nations, including the United States, Japan and Russia, to discuss cooperation in stabilizing the Korean Peninsula.

Yet he could not talk with Chinese President Hu Jintao for two days. Lee wanted to talk with Hu but could not get through to him. The Foreign Ministry attributed the problem to the Chinese leader’s unfamiliarity with phone diplomacy. But this explanation is not quite persuasive.

We do not know the real reason for the difficulty Lee had in communicating with Hu. If it was due to Hu’s refusal to talk with Lee, as alleged by some China watchers here, it is not only a breach of diplomatic decorum but a problem of a far more serious nature.

On Tuesday, Hu visited the North Korean Embassy in Beijing to express his condolence for Kim’s death. He was accompanied by other top leaders of the Chinese Communist Party. Their visit demonstrated the close ties between China and North Korea.

In contrast, the fact that Lee could not talk with Hu for two days indicates how China treats South Korea. Seoul and Beijing have established a strategic cooperative partnership. But this partnership is in name only when China faces issues involving the two Koreas. It has invariably sided with North Korea.

Seoul diplomats need to take stock of the partnership with China and find ways to bolster it to a level befitting its name.