The period of national mourning over the death of Kim Jong-il is over in North Korea now, presumably opening a window of opportunity for improving the tension-ridden inter-Korean relations. The resumption of long-stalled South Korean tours to the Mount Geumgang resort in the North may serve as a first step toward this end.
Ties with the North soured in 2008 when a South Korean woman was shot to death in the off-limits security area adjacent to the resort. Tours to the resort were suspended when North Korea refused to accept South Korean demands, including a joint investigation into the case and a renewed guarantee for safety.
Still worse, tension began to build when North Korea sank a South Korean corvette in a surreptitious torpedo attack and shelled a South Korean island in the West Sea last year. There was no room for inter-Korean cooperation when the North refused to acknowledge the torpedo attack and apologize for bombarding the island. The two sides have since had few official contacts.
Undoubtedly, it would be easier to strike a compromise on the demands for remedial measures on the tour program than to settle disputes over the torpedo attack and the shelling of the island. Moreover, the North reportedly offered to renew official talks on the tour program.
According to a news report, a senior North Korean official said a South Korean concession would be amply rewarded. He made the remarks to the chairwoman of the Hyundai Group, the organizer of tourist visits, when she visited Pyongyang to offer condolences over Kim’s death. Though it is not clear what the cash-strapped North meant by a “small concession” it asked for, it apparently is calling for restarting talks on the suspended tour program.
It is not easy to tell whether or not the hermetic North will open its doors to the outside world under the leadership of Kim Jong-il’s youngest son and successor, Jong-un. But it would serve South Korean interests for Seoul to help the North come out of its self-imposed isolation and, by doing so, discourage it from being tempted to provoke the South again to rally its underfed, discontented residents.
It would be worthwhile for the South to take the initiative and call for the resumption of talks on the tour program. There would be no need to wait until the North made the first move.
