[Editorial] Third round of talks

On Monday, South and North Korea are set to hold their third round of talks on restarting manufacturing by South Korean companies in Gaeseong, a North Korean border town just north of the Demilitarized Zone. But the talks are not likely to produce any substantive result unless the North assures the South that it will not arbitrarily suspend operations in the Gaeseong industrial complex again, as it did more than three months ago.

At the previous round of talks held last Wednesday, South Korea demanded the North hold itself responsible for the damage done to the South Korean companies when the North withdrew its workers from the complex in April. The South made it clear that the South Korean companies would not be allowed to resume operations until after the North gives an assurance against any such suspension.

In response, the North called on the South not to take any action detrimental to normal operations. In other words, it was saying it pulled out the workers in protest against the earlier launch of joint South Korean-U.S. military maneuvers. In the same breath, however, the North demanded the South Korean companies be given permission to restart operations.

But what the North Korean communists fail to see in President Park Geun-hye’s conservative administration is that it is not as avuncular as the previous two liberal administrations, which coddled them with concessions when they threw tantrums. The Park administration is determined not to allow the North to have its way at the expense of the South.

This change in attitude is ascertained by the remarks of Ryoo Kihl-jae, the South Korean unification minister, who said at a recent forum that he is opposed to the idea of treating the North as if it were a little brother. He said, “Some argue we should be more tolerant (toward the North) as we are a big brother. Are we really big brother? Maybe. But aren’t we thinking too much of ourselves?”

Ryoo also warned against the South condoning bad behavior, thinking to itself, “North Korea is again acting the way it has always done in the past.” Instead, he said, the South needs a well thought out strategy in establishing a working relationship with the North.

When the second round of talks ended with no agreement, North Korea proposed to hold talks on the resumption of South Korean tourist visits to the Mount Geumgangsan resort in the North on Wednesday. It sweetened the proposal with an offer to hold Red Cross talks on the reunion of split families ― a humanitarian project dear to the South.

It must have come as a surprise to the North when the Park administration, unlike its liberal predecessors, refused to be wheedled into talks on the resumption of the tour program ― an inter-Korean project that used to be another source of hard currency for the North. Now, it will have to think twice before taking any stance at Monday’s talks if it wishes to keep the industrial complex alive as a goose laying golden eggs.