Yu Woo Ik, Seoul’s newly minted Minister of Unification, spoke at length yesterday about the government’s position on a number of key issues in inter-Korean relations. Trying to appear flexible, he also stressed the administration’s existing positions while presenting the limitations of South Korea’s power to alter the situation in a number of cases.

Yu attempted the complex juggling act during the annual parliamentary audit of the Ministry of Unification by the National Assembly Foreign Affairs, Trade and Unification Committee.

On the imprisonment of South Korean Shin Suk Ja, the so-called ‘Daughter of Tongyeong’, one of many things Yu said the ministry is currently working on, he explained, for example, “It is difficult to say exactly what we can do for Shin as she is not under our direct protection at the moment.”

Shin and her two daughters are said to have been living in the notorious Yodok prison camp since 1987, following the defection of her husband, Dr. Oh Kil Nam, a South Korean leftist academic who has been lured to the North with his family a few years earlier..

In addition to his pessimism about the government’s role in the case of Shin and other South Koreans in North Korea, Yu was also reluctant to offer anything on separated family reunions. While expressing sympathy for the pressing nature of the issue, he asserted, “Because there is a partner involved, we intend to proceed following cooperation between the two sides.”

Pushed also on the issue of Mt. Geumgang, an issue upon which North Korea has recently begun to express flexibility after a number of unhelpful, illegal moves, Yu reaffirmed the government’s long held position, “We cannot restart anything until the personal safety of everybody involved can be guaranteed.”

Asked about the value of the guarantees offered by Kim Jong Il to Hyundai Chairwoman Hyun Jeong Eun back in 2009, Yu said it was hard to trust, although he offered a way forward for North Korea, saying, “We will consider the comments to be from North Korean authorities if they can confirm them with some serious intent.”

Yu was also quick to reaffirm the official stance on larger scale state-led food aid, linking it to the Cheonan and Yeonpyeong Island incidents.

“While small scale private sector food aid is possible, we are looking at the bigger picture in which there are certain conditions that have to be met in our relationship with North Korea, so we cannot provide large scale food aid,” he said, adding, “Only with responsible measures from North Korea addressing denuclearization and the Cheonan and Yeonpyeong Island incidents will large scale food aid become possible.”

Yu explained that the government’s aim as it stands is “encouraging a response from North Korea while maintaining a certain level of flexibility in areas such as humanitarian aid.”

“The May 24th Measures are not an eternal spoke in the wheel, but we cannot withdraw them and move on as though nothing ever happened,” he added.