To some critics, President Park Geun-hye might have seemed more flexible toward North Korea’s recalcitrant regime than toward domestic calls for her to overhaul her way of handling state affairs and communicating with the people in her New Year news conference Monday.
Park clearly expressed her willingness to improve ties with the North despite its recent elusive attitude and the escalating confrontation between Washington and Pyongyang. She held out the prospect of an unconditional summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, saying, “I can meet with anyone if necessary for opening the path to peaceful unification.” The president attached no strings to possible talks with Kim, though she said the North should show sincerity toward denuclearization.
Park also expressed hopes that South and North Korea could arrange a set of reunions of separated families around Lunar New Year’s Day, which falls on Feb. 19, and other events commemorating the 70th year of the peninsula’s liberation from Japan’s colonial rule.
It was notable that she committed herself to pushing ahead with inter-Korean dialogue and cooperation despite unfavorable conditions.
Since Kim suggested in his New Year address on Jan. 1 that he was open to holding talks with Park, the North has put forward thorny preconditions for carrying forward inter-Korean dialogue. It has increased pressure on Seoul to stop activists from sending anti-Pyongyang leaflets across the border and to suspend joint military drills with the U.S.
The U.S. administration recently imposed additional sanctions on the North for its alleged hack on Sony Pictures, with some members of Congress having introduced a bill calling for relisting it as a state sponsor of terrorism. In Monday’s news conference, Park described the sanctions as “appropriate,” but said the U.S. move would not derail Seoul’s efforts to push for talks with Pyongyang.
While standing with the U.S. in rejecting the North’s demand for a halt to joint military exercises, the South is moving to stop the campaign to send anti-Pyongyang leaflets in a bid to help forge a favorable atmosphere for resuming inter-Korean dialogue.
In her news conference, the president remained intransigent on a sensitive issue, on which the public had expected her to change her stance. She expressed regret over a scandal surrounding her key aides, which has rocked the nation over the past months since the leakage of a presidential document suggesting they had exercised undue influence over state affairs. But she refused to dismiss any of them, saying they were not found to have committed grave misdeeds. Even in the eyes of some members of her ruling Saenuri Party, she appeared detached from the prevailing public sentiment.
Park committed herself to laying the groundwork for national reunification, implying that she will be more active in improving relations with the North as she enters the third year of her five-year term. But her appeal for public support for this effort sounded somewhat hollow as she has grown estranged from the people due to her manner of dealing with the scandal involving her close associates.
Also worrisome is that Pyongyang may be misled into believing Park’s administration will make some significant concessions to make a breakthrough in inter-Korean ties in order to recover from her domestic problems.
Park needs to be more in tune with public sentiment if she wants her approach toward the North to bring about meaningful results.
