Saenuri Party presidential candidate Park Geun Hye gave a speech earlier today fleshing out her diplomatic, security and unification policy.
“As North Korea’s provocations continue today on the Peninsula, what we need today most of all is peace,” she declared. “Not a weak peace that means being dragged around by North Korea, but a strong and healthy ‘sustainable peace’ born of a normal inter-Korean relationship rooted in strong national security.”
She went on, “When South Korea is out in front on the cooperation and joint development of East Asia, and when we are trusted diplomatically by the international community, then peace on the Peninsula will mesh with the peace and cooperation of neighboring countries, becoming even sturdier. This will become the cornerstone of the ‘happy unification’ that we all ultimately dream of.”
Park’s speech contained some policy prescriptions, as she moved to flesh out the rather empty ‘Trustpolitik’ concept she put forward when formally entering the presidential race in July this year.
The 7-point plan is as follows: ▲ maintaining absolute sovereignty and security; ▲ engaging in a range of talks with North Korea to solve the nuclear problem while also maintaining deterrence; ▲ normalizing inter-Korean relations through a Korean Peninsula “trust process”; ▲ going from “small unification to big unification”; ▲ promoting East Asia peace and Eurasian cooperation; ▲ improving economic diplomacy and discovering new sources of growth; and ▲ opening a new era for diplomacy to improve Korea’s image.
“The North Korean nuclear issue can be solved through the diversification of negotiations based on deterrence,” she underscored. “I will establish ‘a control tower’ tentatively named the ‘State National Security Room’ to handle and adjust diplomatic, security and unification policy.”
“Given the current state of inter-Korean relations a peace system cannot spring up overnight; it must come through a step-by-step trust process with economic cooperation as the cornerstone,” she noted.
This does not merely mean military and political trust, she reaffirmed; it also means social and economic exchanges and cooperation to normalize inter-Korean relations and solidify the peace on the Korean Peninsula. This can include ‘exchange and cooperation offices’ being set up in Seoul and Pyongyang, and a possible meetings with North Korea’s leaders.
