It is believed that the Lee Myung Bak administration may be again pursuing the idea of an inter-Korean Summit. This time, rumors in Seoul suggest that behind-the-scenes contacts are being conducted by the Korean Council for Reconciliation and Cooperation.
According to the rumors, a secret meeting has taken place in Shenyang between a North Korean official and Lee Yoon Sik, Secretary General of the Korean Council for Reconciliation and Cooperation. The meeting was held at the request of the North Korean side, and in said meeting North Korea apparently asked Kim Deok Ryong, an advisor to the South Korean president on the integration of the two Koreas, to make an effort to improve inter-Korean relations through talks and aid.
Meanwhile, while the rumors swirl in Seoul, government officials are trying to brush them under the carpet, noting that even if a meeting did occur, it was not official and the participants were not in positions of authority.
Of course, this is not the first time the administration has attempted to distance itself from summit preparation rumors before backtracking. In October of last year, rumors of a secret meeting in Singapore between then-Minister of Labor and Environment Im Tae Hee and Kim Yang Gun, the chief of North Korea’s United Front Department, were strenuously denied before ultimately being admitted.
Nevertheless, key government officials are keen to pour water on the latest rumblings.
For example, Minister of Unification Hyun In Taek stated on November 1st, “At this moment, the South Korean government is not pursuing an inter-Korean summit,” then said during a closed-doors meeting on November 10th, “The environment and foundations for hosting an inter-Korean summit have not been prepared yet. Currently, South Korea is not making any specific preparations.”
Giving an interview to The Daily NK yesterday, Choi Jin Wook of the Center for South-North Korean Cooperation Studies at Korea Institute for National Unification (KINU) commented, “Even if contact is being made under-the-table for an inter-Korean summit, it is somewhat different from the core of diplomacy and security within the government. It is difficult to put a big meaning on rumored contacts with the Korean Council for Reconciliation and Cooperation.”
An anonymous North Korean expert also added that such rumors are not rare, saying, “There have been many talks which took place on the basis of invalid authority; therefore, even if discussions on an inter-Korean summit take place through the Korean Council for Reconciliation and Cooperation, we cannot be sure of their trustworthiness and weight.”
In addition, it is debatable what impact an inter-Korean summit held while issues of South Korean POWs and abductees remain to be resolved could have. President Lee Myung Bak has repeatedly said that North Korea must change its attitude prior to any talk of normalizing inter-Korean relations, so it would be hard for him to present a summit to the public without appearing hypocritical.
As President Lee told Japanese daily Asahi Shimbun on November 14th, “If the big objectives of maintaining peace on Korean Peninsula and achieving North Korean denuclearization are reached, an inter-Korean summit can take place anytime. However, a summit will not be held for domestic political purposes.”
