Gingerly, Roh raps North policy

Roh Moo-hyun, the Millennium Democratic Party's presidential candidate, engaged in some additional cautious criticism Tuesday of President Kim Dae-jung's policy of trying to engage North Korea in dialogue. He said the so-called "sunshine policy" has several flaws and has not attracted enough popular support.

"It would be better if we no longer use the term 'sunshine policy' since it is losing popularity in the North and particularly in the South," Mr. Roh said at a meeting with columnists of major Japanese newspapers.

"Many obstacles stood on the way of implementing the sunshine policy since it did not have the full consent of the people," he said. "Worse, there have been suspicions that current administration is abusing the June 15 North-South summit for political reasons."

He said that he would correct such ills if he was elected president.

"The Korean government should demand that the North apologize for the naval skirmish in the Yellow Sea and ensure such incidents will not recur. It should consider a partial suspension of inter-Korean exchanges," he said.

"I will follow the keynote of the current administration's North Korean policy if I become president, but will seek the approval of the opposition in promoting policies by providing more information to reach a higher level of acceptance," Mr. Roh continued.

An aide said Mr. Roh's suspicions about misuse of the sunshine policy are nothing new; the announcement of the president's trip to Pyeongyang in June 2000, for example, was made just before the April 13, 2000 general elections.

"The government has tolerated North Korea's irrational manners, but it has reached the limits of its patience," Mr. Roh said. Political observers said that Mr. Roh's remarks were aimed at conservative voters who have questions about Mr. Roh's position on national security issues.

But after the meeting with the Japanese media, Mr. Roh told Korean reporters that his support for the policy has not changed. He merely questions, he said, the way the policy has been implemented.

Even such tepid criticism, some political analysts said, have broken the taboo within the MDP of criticizing the engagement policy. Those observers said Mr. Roh is trying to straddle the conservative-liberal divide on the trustworthiness of North Korea as a negotiating partner.

by Kim Chong-hyuk, Kang Min-seok