[Editorial] No to dialogue

On May 3, South Korea delivered $13 million in cash to North Korea and withdrew the last batch of seven South Koreans from the industrial complex in the North Korean border town of Gaeseong. The money was for back pay and severance pay to 53,000 North Koreans that had been withdrawn from the South Korean factories in the industrial complex at the height of inter-Korean tensions the previous month.

When the money was paid, North Korea had to allow the South Korean companies to bring back materials for the manufacture of garments and other products and manufactured products from the industrial complex. But it did not. Instead, it promised to discuss their shipment later.

Against this backdrop, South Korea proposed working-level talks on the return of materials and finished products last Tuesday. President Park Geun-hye said, “Before the seven (South Korean) nationals returned home, we paid as much as was demanded by them (the North Koreans). But finished products have not been returned to our companies yet. As such, our government has made a demand (that they be returned).”

But North Korea turned down the proposal for talks for a dubious reason the next day. It claimed the South Korean government proposed talks in an attempt to divert public attention away from a sexual harassment scandal involving a discharged presidential spokesman.

The scandal had nothing to do with the legitimate claim the South Korean companies laid to the materials and finished products they had left behind in the industrial complex. All that North Korea had to do was agree with South Korea on the procedural matters of transporting them across the border to the South.

But North Korea was grossly misguided when it said, “What will become of the industrial complex and where North and South Korean relations will head will depend on the attitude of the South Korean authorities (toward the North).” It seemed to believe as if South Korea had begged for talks on the reopening of the industrial complex and the wider issue of improving inter-Korean relations.

But South Korea proposed talks neither on the fate of the industrial complex nor on future inter-Korean relations. It simply demanded that the materials and finished products be returned to their legitimate owners.

President Park hammered this point home to the North Koreans when she made it clear that she would make no concession for the reopening of the industrial complex. When the North turned down the proposal for working-level talks, she said, “We had never attempted to provoke or offend North Korea. We had warned North Korea that there would be no reward for any threat (to our security). But it ignored our warning and closed the industrial complex.”

As Park demanded, North Korea will have to behave in a gentlemanly manner and return the materials and finished products to their South Korean owners. Other issues may or may not be addressed thereafter.