During the recent second round of inter-Korean talks held at
Panmunjom on Valentine’s Day, North Korea formally acquiesced to South Korea’s demand
that impending joint U.S.-ROK military exercises be decoupled from the
humanitarian activity of separated family reunions. This means that the
upcoming round of family reunions scheduled for February 20th-25th
should go ahead as planned.
The decision forms one clause of a three-clause agreement
announced at the end of the talks. The second clause indicates South Korean
acceptance of North Korea’s demand that the two Koreas “halt slander” against
one another, something that North Korea made a show of unilaterally
implementing on January 30th. The third clause states that the
process of high-level dialogue should continue going forward.
Since that North Korea does not take conciliatory steps
from a purely humanitarian standpoint, there is considerable speculation as to
why Pyongyang decided to drop its initial demand that military exercises not
proceed at the same time as family reunions.
The inter-Korean deal was struck at the end of a period of
public outreach involving not merely the daily Chosun Workers’ Party organ
Rodong Sinmun, its Cabinet counterpart Minju Choson and other state media
outlets, but also Kim Jong Eun’s New Year’s Address on January 1st and a
“proposal” from the premier state body, the National Defense
Commission, of which Kim is chair, on the 16th. In this way, the
authorities systematically conveyed the desire to obtain some kind of formal agreement. This was partly designed to improve the regime’s image at home and abroad; in other words, to pave the way for improved public opinion after a period of extreme brutality, and to inspire better relations with China and the United States.
In this way, the agreement can be seen as a North Korean tool
by which to improve relations with third countries. As such,
South Korea itself should be regarded as a relatively unimportant element.
However, the language with which the North Korean delegation at Panmunjom on
Friday conveyed its acceptance of South Korea’s position on separated family
reunions does bear consideration. In stating that Pyongyang was willing to
“take a bold decision” to “yield this time” and allow both family reunions and
military exercises, North Korean lead delegate Won Dong Yeon implied that
Seoul’s repayment of his country’s generosity would be demanded at a later date.
Lee Soo Seok of the Institute for National Security Strategy
told Daily NK he can see both points of view. “Kim Jong Eun wants to rebuild
his image in the international community, which has suffered since the
execution of Jang Song Taek,” he explained. “They probably thought that
additional conciliatory gestures were needed in order to create a stepping
stone to better relations with China and the United States.”
However, “North Korea is going to keep actively raising
the notion of high-level talks so as to generate the things they want, such as
Mt. Geumgang tourism,” he went on. “The part of the agreement about halting
mutual slander was designed to put pressure on the South Korean
media not to criticize the North Korean system, and to provide a pretext for
breaking off dialogue if it doesn’t go as they are planning.”
North Korea was “always aware” that it wouldn’t be able to get ROK-U.S. joint military exercises called off,
Korea Institute for National Unification researcher Jung Young Tae said. “The
main issue in the high-level contacts was always getting the slander stopped.”
“This is exactly what happened in high-level military talks
held on June 4th, 2004, when the North used prevention of military
clashes in the West Sea as bait to try and get psychological warfare stopped
along the Military Demarcation Line,” Jung claimed. “In the North Korean system,
Kim Jong Eun is meant to be like a god, and that’s why the NDC and United Front
Department [of the Party] came out and did this.”
