WASHINGTON (Yonhap) ― South Korean Unification Minister Ryoo Kihl-jae said Wednesday that Seoul and Washington should make greater efforts to engage North Korea, saying that dialogues would make pressure on the communist regime more effective.
Ryoo made the suggestion during a keynote speech at a forum on Korean unification in Washington, stressing that the two allies should now explore “more creative and diverse approaches” to resolve Pyongyang’s nuclear and human rights problems.
“Until now, Seoul and Washington focused on inducing Pyongyang to change by cooperatively putting pressure upon it. However, to make the pressure more effective, dialogues and cooperation are also necessary,” Ryoo said during the forum at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
“Our two countries should therefore strengthen our coordination for engagement as well. We will need to show Pyongyang clearly what it can earn by giving up the path of provocation and isolation and choosing the path of dialogue and cooperation,” he said.
Ryoo also said that it is important to help North Korea actually see the benefits of cooperation with the outside world.
That will be a way to “pragmatically improve the quality of life and the human rights situation of the North Korean people,” he said.
Ryoo arrived in Washington on Thursday on a trip aimed at broadening U.S. understanding of South Korean President Park Geun-hye’s trademark push for preparations for unification with North Korea. He is the first South Korean unification minister to visit the U.S. since 2011.
Ryoo called for U.S. support for the South’s unification initiative.
“I believe that only when the international community, including the United States, supports our goal and works together with us for it, the people’s dreams of unification will finally come true,” he said, adding that the benefits of unification will not be confined to the Korean peninsula.
Unification of the Korean Peninsula would also make tremendous contributions to the peace and prosperity of the Northeast Asian region and the world as a whole, and provide a new growth momentum for not only the economies of Northeast Asia, but also the global economy, he said.
German unification was possible thanks to support from the international community including the United States, he said.
“If Washington strongly supports and assists Korean unification, I believe that we will be able to make the dreams of both of our countries ― dreams of a unified Korea, peace in Northeast Asia, and shared prosperity of the whole world ― all come true,” he said.
U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Daniel Russel expressed staunch support for Park’s unification vision, saying it provides a vivid picture of the benefits the North could reap from reconciliation and denuclearization, as well as the benefits that reunification will bring to South Korea and the region as a whole.
“The U.S. firmly supports this vision. We will never accept a permanent division of the Korean peninsula,” he said. “The ROK (South Korea) and the U.S. will continue to do everything we need to do to keep the peace on the peninsula through a combination of deterrence, and a strong allied defense.”
He also urged the North to give up its nuclear program, stressing that Pyongyang won’t be able to achieve security and prosperity it wants while pursuing nuclear weapons. The North’s “byeongjin” policy of simultaneously seeking economic and nuclear development will never succeed.
“It’s not a policy. It’s a pipe dream. It will not happen.
North Korea can’t have its cake and eat it too,” Russel said of the North’s policy. “Our strategy raises the cost of continued defiance and ultimately leaves the DPRK no viable alternative but to honor its commitments and to come into compliance with its international obligations, first and foremost, with its obligations to irreversibly and verifiably denuclearize.”?
