The third day of the 21st Inter-Korea Cabinet Talks may see North Korea making a proposal regarding the \u201c400,000tons of rice\u201d to South Korea.<\/p>\n
From 2.30PM on the 30th, the North\u2019s chief delegate spent about 30 minutes requesting South Korea to \u201cdeliver on its promises on the rice loan.\u201d The overall analysis is that North Korea was reconnoitering the scene before it made any concrete requests. <\/p>\n
Public information officer for the Unification Ministry Kim Nam Shik said, \u201cThe keynote address that was made by both parties had underlying comments to dwell upon\u201d and revealed, \u201cNothing has been agreed as yet. Rather we must discuss these matters through the executive meetings.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, at the official dinner held on the evening of 30th at Walker Hill Hotel, there are signs to suggest that Unification Minister Lee Jae Jung and North Korea\u2019s Cabinet Secretary Kwon Ho Woong may have had a clash over the issue of the rice loan to be discussed on the 31st. <\/p>\n
At this gathering, Secretary Kwon said slurring his sentence, \u201cThe visit was pleasant, the meals and even until today, everything was good\u2026 but,\u201d then, Minister Lee responded holding Kwon\u2019s hands, \u201cIt doesn’t end today. Just as today was good, tomorrow will be good\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt would be perfect if the day after tomorrow is good and good for forevermore\u2026\u201d Minister Kwon said reverberating his words. Meanwhile from within the talks, others proposed, \u201cFor two days North Korea has been eyeing South Korea\u2019s maneuvers and has not yet officially sought the issue of rice. This may be a planned strategy to propose the rice loan issue at the end of the talks.\u201d<\/p>\n
At the 13th Inter-Korean Economic Cooperation Promotion Committee in April, the South Korean government agreed to loan North Korea food aid and send the first lot of rice by the end of May. However, as North Korea\u2019s implementation of the February 13 Agreement was delayed, the rice loan became linked to the matter which resulted in reserving the rice loan. <\/p>\n
If North Korea strongly requests for the rice loan, it seems that the South Korean government will use a defense in convincing North Korea that the settlement made would go ahead as normal and that the rice was merely delayed. As Minister Lee asserts, its not that the rice \u201cwill not be given, not cannot be given,\u201d its merely that the situation is being postponed. <\/p>\n
If the rice issue is resolved smoothly, the South Korean government plans to dive into the Inter-Korea joint meeting of national policy research institutions, the Ministers\u2019 meeting between South\u2019s and North\u2019s National Defense Ministry and economic cooperative negotiation which were proposed at the 1st General Meeting by the South.<\/p>\n
The most critical argument the South Korean government has opted to take is a \u201cpeace\u201d and \u201cone national economy.\u201d While South Korea strives for a \u201cpeace\u201d and North Korea \u201ceconomic cooperation,\u201d it seems that the South Korean government is trying kill two birds with one stone. <\/p>\n
Further as the normalization of U.S.-North Korea relations and Japan-North Korea relations working groups of the six party talks continues to make progress, some calculate that the working groups revolving the two Korea\u2019s will also heed to this pace.<\/p>\n
Since North Korea\u2019s speech at the June 15th Summit Talks in 2000, the two countries have been making steady progress. Additionally, North Korea stated that foreign pressures had to be eliminated from the issue of one nation and that the remaining remnants of the Cold War also had to be removed.<\/p>\n
North Korea raised the question on the \u201cReception Staging Onward Movement and Integration\u201d and \u201cabrogation of National Safety Law,\u201d which have been mentioned since the 17th Inter-Korea Talks in 2005. However, at this current stage, many argue that rather than anticipating any immediate measures, continuous efforts and talks would be more profitable.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The third day of the 21st Inter-Korea Cabinet Talks may see North Korea making a proposal regarding the \u201c400,000tons of rice\u201d to South Korea. From 2.30PM on the 30th, the North\u2019s chief delegate spent about 30 minutes requesting South Korea to \u201cdeliver on its promises on the rice loan.\u201d The overall analysis is that North […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":166,"featured_media":4281,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wikipediapreview_detectlinks":true,"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4279","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n