[Analysis] On inter-Korean relations, U.S. officials say, ‘slow down’

On May 16, a day before the two Koreas were scheduled to conduct a test of two rail lines connecting the countries, U.S. ambassador Alexander Vershbow paid a visit to South Korean Unification Minister Lee Jae-joung. The meeting was reportedly at the request of the U.S. official, who wanted to be directly briefed on the current status of inter-Korean relations.

The meeting comes at a sensitive time, as high-ranking officials from South Korea and the U.S. have expressed different views on inter-Korean relations and the six-party talks. In particular, Vershbow said in a May 4 forum that progress in inter-Korean relations should be coordinated with the implementation of North Korea’s agreement at the six-party talks.

The U.S. ambassador’s recent remarks seem to be raising the issue of a de facto ‘speed control’ in inter-Korean relations, worried they are developing too quickly considering the delicate nature of the process of denuclearizing North Korea.

During his 45-minute meeting with Lee, Vershbow reportedly said on the current matters of inter-Korean relations that South Korea and the U.S. need to closely exchange information and opinions. Three or four times during the meeting, Vershbow reportedly said inter-Korean relations and the process of six-party talks were two sides of the same coin.

Vershbow’s reported remarks are interpreted as reflecting the U.S. government’s worries that inter-Korean relations are accelerating ahead of progress in the six-party talks, which are currently suspended due to alleged technical issues surrounding the delivery of money previously frozen at Macau’s Banco Delta Asia to North Korean accounts at another bank. In the works between the two Koreas are the train test runs, an agreement from Seoul to send the North raw materials for light manufacturing worth some 84.1 billion won (US$91 million), and a shipment of 400,000 tons of rice worth 144.2 billion won (US$ 155.9 million). In addition, military generals from the two Koreas met and agreed to a fishing treaty for the West Sea.

But no such trace of the reported exchange between Vershbow and Lee made it into a press briefing by a unification ministry official following the meeting between the U.S. official and the unification minister. According to the briefing, Vershbow said to Lee that he was satisfied with the close cooperation between South Korea and the U.S. on the matter of the North’s nuclear weapons program. The ministry official also said that Vershbow called for the other five nations of the six-party talks to urge North Korea to swiftly denuclearize, and that Vershbow inquired to Lee about the prospects of inter-Korean relations following the scheduled train tests.

Vershbow’s reported request to the unification minister regarding ‘slowing down’ relations between the two Koreas may be part of the general mood in Washington toward the matter. According to Rep. Shin Ki-nam, head of the South Korean National Assembly’s intelligence committee, on May 15 Christopher Hill, the chief U.S. negotiator in the six-party talks, told him that inter-Korean relations and the six-party talks should go hand in hand. Shin met Hill during a recent visit to the U.S., and the Korean lawmaker said that Hill also expressed to him his complaint over recent developments in inter-Korean relations at a time when North Korea shows no commitment to the six-party talks.

Shin said that Dennis Wilder, a senior director for Asian affairs at the U.S. National Security Council, told him that North Korea has not shown any goodwill gesture, so it is not an appropriate time to hold the four-party summit. Shin said Wilder also emphasized the need for close cooperation between South Korea and the U.S., and expressed his negative views over a possible inter-Korean summit.

To place pressure on North Korea to implement an agreement at the six-party talks, the U.S. sees South Korea’s cooperation as essential, with Seoul now a major economic contributor to Pyongyang.

However, voices calling for more rapid progress in inter-Korean relations are gaining momentum in South Korea to build an atmosphere for North Korea to implement its agreement to denuclearize made at the six-party talks. On May 14, former South Korean president Kim Dae-jung again stressed the inter-Korean summit, the first and last of which was held in 2000, when Kim was president.

Kim, a 2000 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, said in a forum organized by the German Council on Foreign Relations, Germany’s national foreign policy network, "The Roh Moo-hyun government seems to have a position that it will hold the summit talks in relation to or simultaneously with the six-party talks, but the inter-Korean summit is possible before the second part of this year and I believe it should [be held]."

Even in the South Korean government, calls for putting the improvement of inter-Korean relations ahead of the development of the six-party talks has reportedly begun to gain ground, as the implementation of the February 13 agreement under the six-party talks has been dragging without any trace of breakthrough, due to the problems involved in transferring the North’s funds from the Macau bank. That issue stems from other banks balking at handling a transfer of funds previously deemed illicit by the U.S. Treasury Department.

Please direct questions or comments to [englishhani@hani.co.kr]