[Editorial] Hong’s Gaeseong visit

Rep. Hong Joon-pyo, chairman of the ruling Grand National Party, is visiting the South Korean industrial complex in Gaeseong, North Korea, on Friday. He says his visit is aimed at learning about the difficulties South Korean companies have at the complex, adding that helping to resolve those difficulties will reinvigorate industrial activities there.

Maybe so. Undoubtedly, however, his aim is not limited to assisting South Korea’s small and medium-sized companies operating in the complex. The visit is an extension of his efforts to help break the impasse in inter-Korean relations. Moreover, it is approved by the South Korean and North Korean governments, both of which desire a breakthrough in the standoff. Yet Hong, the first Grand National Party leader to visit North Korea, is fighting an uphill battle.

At the core of the problem is North Korea’s torpedoing of South Korea’s naval vessel and its shelling of a South Korean island last year. The North refuses to acknowledge that it sank the warship and to apologize for the bombardment. Another obstacle is North Korea’s refusal to conduct a joint investigation into a case involving a South Korean tourist, who was shot to death when she strayed into the off-limits area on Mount Geumgang in 2008.

South Korea is withholding food and other aid to the cash-strapped and flood-hit North. It says its assistance will be limited to humanitarian purposes until its demands are met, which is what it regards as a “principled approach” to settling inter-Korean disputes. While ignoring the demands, North Korea has been calling for massive South Korean aid.

Against this backdrop, new South Korean Unification Minister Yu Woo-ik promises to exercise flexibility without compromising the principled approach. But the question is how to accomplish the seemingly impossible task of weaving flexibility into the principle. Simply put, the issue boils down to how to craft the wording of an apology that is designed to meet the South Korean demands and save North Korea’s face at the same time.

As such, Hong has little room for maneuver in his efforts to improve tension-fraught inter-Korean relations, though his Gaeseong visit may provide him with a photo opportunity ahead of the Oct. 26 by-elections. At issue is whether or not both the South and the North are willing to go the extra mile to strike a compromise on Seoul’s demand for an apology.