Since he was installed as Minister of Unification, Ryu Woo Ik has emphasized flexibility in the policy arena and suggested the establishment of fresh dialogue, but North Korea has not been accommodating and the overall atmosphere has been one of ongoing discord.

For example, while North Korea has acquiesced to receive aid from South Korea via international agencies, it has not made any moves to limit its criticism of the South Korean government itself.

As reported by Daily NK, on both the 3rd and 5th North Korea employed one of its main channels of South-facing propaganda, the website ‘Uriminzokkiri’, to explicitly criticize the ‘flexible’ policy of Ryu’s Ministry of Unification, calling it a “’deceptive display’ to soothe the public and mislead the people into thinking there have been improvements in inter-Korean relations and cooperation” and commenting that in reality “they have not changed their hostile confrontational attitude.”

Many diplomatic sources based in Seoul see the current situation in terms of the South Korean government in effect cancelling its former strategy of waiting patiently for North Korea to display signs of change, instead moving to send a signal to Pyongyang but receiving no reply.

The main reason for this lack of North Korean response may be simply that South Korea has thus far failed to promise sufficient amounts of aid, something that the North Korean state needs as it hurries to build up food stocks in order to provide an improved standard of living in 2012.

Backing this point of view, it is known that in recent secret inter-Korean talks in Beijing, North Korea called for the delivery of grain in exchange for conducting a new round of separated family reunions.

But there is still more to this, including the administration’s unwillingness to restart Mt. Geumgang tourism; Seoul has as yet shown no signs of flexibility on that particular issue.

One official from the Ministry of Unification, commenting on the situation, said today, “We can see North Korea’s recent criticism of South Korea’s flexible policy as a sort of expression of discontent. As North Korea, I have a pressing need to obtain South Korean support to open the door to the strong and prosperous state next year. I have the pressing need to change a flexible policy which is not premised upon economic support.”

“What North Korea really wants is economic support including rice. In a state of no economic support, the chance of North Korea not giving a positive reply is very high, but the government must work to bring North Korea to the table for dialogue in the long term,” he added.