[Editorial] Ex-first lady goes North

The widow of late President Kim Dae-jung, Lee Hee-ho, may soon make a trip to North Korea pending talks today at the North Korean border town of Gaeseong.

The trip was initially planned for last year, when the North Koreans invited Lee to make a return trip to Pyongyang;  she had accompanied her husband during the historic visit to Pyongyang in 2000. In late October, Lee met President Park Geun-hye and expressed her desire to visit the North with relief supplies and knitted caps and mufflers for young children, and in November, the Kim Dae-jung Peace Center and its North Korean counterparts held a meeting in Gaeseong to work out the details of the visit. However, the trip to the North was postponed due to the cold weather and North Korea’s Kim Jong-un extended an invitation to visit in spring.

In April, the Kim Dae-jung Peace Center proposed a meeting to discuss Lee’s visit, which the North Koreans rebuffed citing the “complex” inter-Korean situation. On June 18, the peace center once again asked the North about the possibility of Lee’s visit and obtained the Unification Ministry’s approval for a meeting in Gaeseong to discuss the visit with North Korean officials.

If Lee’s visit is realized, it is expected to take place sometime before Aug. 15, which this year marks the 70th anniversary of Korean liberation from Japanese colonial rule. It is also expected that Lee will hold a meeting with Kim, as this was agreed to during last November’s Gaeseong meeting. At the time, Lee also said she wished to visit child care facilities in Pyongyang.

North Korea is notorious for suddenly changing its mind, and it remains to be seen whether Lee’s trip will actually happen. One only needs to recall how U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s visit to the Gaeseong Industrial Complex was abruptly canceled by Pyongyang in May, less than a day after the visit was announced.

Yet, at a time when the tension on the Korean Peninsula is high and there has been no meaningful recent dialogue between Seoul and Pyongyang, Lee’s visit may serve to thaw the ice somewhat. Despite Park’s Dresden Declaration last year pledging humanitarian assistance to North Korea, little headway has been made in that regard, while the relations between the two countries have reached a stalemate.

The opening of the Seoul office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights last Tuesday became a convenient point of contention for North Korea, which threatened Sunday that the opening of the Seoul office would lead to war on the Korean Peninsula. Earlier, Pyongyang withdrew from the upcoming Gwangju Universiade in protest against the human rights office.

The first ever South Korean financial sanctions on foreigners and foreign entities allegedly engaged in arms trade with North Korea imposed last Friday also led to bellicose remarks by the North which said, “Provokers will face merciless punishment and miserable ruin.”

Meanwhile, North Korea sentenced two South Koreans to life on spying charges last Tuesday, further dampening inter-Korean relations. Two other Koreans are also detained in Pyongyang. Seoul said that it could not accept the unilateral ruling and called for the immediate release of the detainees.

What kind of role Lee can play under such hostile mood is unclear. However, dialogue is always better than no dialogue, and if the 93-year-old former first lady’s visit can somehow facilitate an opening for inter-Korean dialogue, it could act as momentum for a much needed breakthrough in relations.