Inter-Korean Summit Growing Possibility

The announcement of a future North-South summit is affecting local politics. On Sunday, Suh Young-hoon, head of the ruling Millennium Democratic Party (MDP), confirmed that officials from both North Korea and South Korea had met in Beijing and the results of these meetings would be announced sometime after the April 13 General Elections.

Suh, who is in close contact with ChongWaDae, explained that President Kim has a vision of North Korea "as a great market." Kim had talked about future relations with North Korea as possibly the greatest economic market available to South Korea at a press conference with local newspapers on March 31. Suh outlined some specifics of possible porjects with the North such as the reunion of families seperated during the Korean War, agriculture production and co-ordination, and re-establishing railroads and sharing of medical technology.

"There have been great strides made during the North-South meetings, especially the ones held in Beijing," Suh said. If the meetings continue going well, a summit between the two Korean leaders will likely take place in Seoul or Pyongyang. However, Chinese President Jiang Zemin indicated China's wish to be an intermediary and to have the meetings in Beijing instead of on the Korean peninsula.

Recently, the National Intelligence Service(NIS) has been South Korea's most effective channel with North Korea what with the NIS' organisation of vice-ministerial talks in June of last year and its recent direction of some projects "behind closed dorrs", particularly reunions of separated families and business co-operation between the North and Southern businesses.

However, on March 6, the Workers Daily(North-Korean state paper) suddenly criticized the South stating that the NIS was trying to "dominate the talks process between the North and the South." This seems a valid assessment of the current state of North-South contacts considering the NIS constant presence. The NIS did not officially reply to their increasing presence in the rapprochement, but many have guessed that either the NIS have somehow irritated Northern authorities with their presence or this is all part of a preivouly agreed to strategem being put on for the internatioanl community.

Some political pundits worry about the fallout from the increasing contacts with North Korea. A source with the government here commented that they were concerned with the press' increasing facination with this issue and its possible ramifications on this year's elections. He indicated that Northern officials may become skittish and refuse to attend summit meetings if the press increasingly focuses on the inevitability of the two sides meeting, and this could overshadow the elections with candidates and the public concentrating on the government and not the election issues themselves.

by Lee Yong-jong