South Korea’s top official on North Korea said his government is willing to revive a major joint tour program with the communist neighbor, another olive branch to Pyongyang amid its silence on a recent dialogue offer.
Unification Minister Ryoo Kihl-jae urged the North to return to the bargaining table as all pending issues including the Mount Kumgang tour project can be discussed.
“Our government is in a position to resume it,” he said in an interview with Yonhap News Agency at his office last week. “The first thing to do is to address the reason for the suspension of the tour.”
It’s unusual for a senior South Korean government official to say openly and clearly that Seoul hopes to send travelers again to the mountain along the North’s east coast.
The inter-Korean project was suspended in 2008 right after a South Korean tourist there was shot dead by a North Korean coast guard.
The South has demanded the North offer a formal apology and guarantee the security and safety of tourists. Although Pyongyang is apparently eager to restart the tour program, it has rejected Seoul’s call and instead searched for foreign partners.
The Park Geun-hye administration, Ryoo said, is well aware of the international community’s concern that the North is seeking to earn hard cash through the tour business for its nuclear and missile programs.
Some observers say the Mount Kumgang project, if resumed, would violate the U.N. sanctions on Pyongyang.
The minister said it’s a matter to be judged by the U.N.Security Council.
On the possibility of inter-Korean talks, Ryoo said he is still cautiously optimistic.
In his New Year’s address, the North’s leader Kim Jong-un vowed to make every effort to improve bilateral ties. He said he is open to summit talks with the South’s president if appropriate conditions are created.
Ryoo, however, said the Park government is not interested in any summit for the sake of a summit.
“I don’t think it’s meaningful (for the leaders of the two Koreas) to just meet each other,” he said, adding a summit should be held only when it is conducive to peace and reunification.
He said aides to the South’s president are in discussions on whether Park needs to attend a Russian ceremony to mark the end of World War II in May. The North’s leader was also invited to the event.
At the end of last year, the South’s presidential panel on reunification proposed ministerial talks with the North in January.
The North has taken an equivocal attitude, reiterating its call for Seoul to stop its annual joint military exercises with the United States and lift a set of bilateral sanctions, known as the May 24th Measures.
Ryoo made clear that Seoul has no plans to change the schedules of the defense drills, saying Pyongyang should first respond to the dialogue offer. (Yonhap)
