dailies-editorials (2)

(EDITORIAL from Korea Times on July 6)

Koreas growing apart

Unification will never come suddenly

Government ministries often undergo changes in their organizations and even missions when political power shifts.

A case in point is the Ministry of Unification.

Progressive governments beefed up their workforces to expand inter-Korean exchanges. In contrast, conservative ones trimmed it to a bare-bones level.

In an extreme case, the 2008-13 Lee Myung-bak administration tried to abolish the ministry by merging it with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Faced with an intense backlash, he later settled for personnel trimming. However, even Lee did not attempt to change the ministry's mission from the ground up ― as his conservative successor is trying to do now.

"So far, the unification ministry has operated as if it were a supporting agency for North Korea. That shouldn't be the case anymore," President Yoon Suk Yeol told his staff on Sunday. "It's time for the ministry to change."

Yoon said so days after he appointed Kim Yung-ho, a far-right ideologue and former aide to Lee, as unification minister. Kim calls for reunifying this divided peninsula by absorbing North Korea, overthrowing the Kim Jong-un regime and having a nuclear arsenal in South Korea. Inter-Korean detente ended a few years before Yoon took office. Still, the incumbent president is trying to put the last nail in the coffin.

Pyongyang is not sitting idly by.

On Saturday, North Korea said it would refuse to review a bid by the chief of Hyundai Group to visit the North's Mount Geumgang next month. The refusal had been expected, but two things stood out. Pyongyang took preemptive action even before Seoul made a formal offer. Moreover, the North's foreign ministry announced it instead of its inter-Korean channel, the Asia-Pacific Peace Committee.

Technically, the two Koreas are different countries, as shown by their separate membership in the United Nations.

However, the two Koreas have never regarded each other as a "foreign nation" ― at least so far. The South's Constitution also stipulates the North is part of the Republic of Korea, subject to eventual reunification. Pyongyang's latest move is a cold reminder of the changed reality. The reclusive regime might have concluded that if the South shifts to exposing the North's internal problems, including its human rights issues, it would be better to break up.

Admittedly, the North's denuclearization seems increasingly out of sight, and its human rights abuses are dire, indeed.

But the situation stresses the need to continue dialogue and keep an open channel rather than sever all contact. Pyongyang is not free from blame, of course. The isolationist regime can never justify detonating the inter-Korean liaison office just north of the border years ago. Instead of venting its frustration with the South's mediating role and subsequent arms buildup, the North should have patiently stayed the course ― for its people.

Still, Yoon ― and his U.S. counterpart, for that matter ― must know that authoritarian regimes do not yield to economic sanctions. External pressure only cements internal unity, serving the interests of those in power. What crumbled former East Germany was West Germany's ceaseless aid, which won over the hearts of East Germans. The West German government did not mention "unification" and ran the "Ministry of Intra-German Relations."

Former President Lee said, "Reunification comes like a thief." Yoon also said recently, "Reunification will probably come suddenly." They're wrong.

Despite growing instability, no political collapse has occurred due to economic difficulties worldwide. If the North crumbles and leads to unification by absorption, that would be a disaster for the South due to trillions of dollars of unification costs. The former East Germans' income was about one-third of West Germans'. The North Korean per capita GDP is now less than one-thirtieth of South Koreans. Reunification should come as the fruit of farmers' long toils.

Even now, Japan and the U.S. might be seeking roundabout channels with North Korea as they did with China behind the back of South Korea. Pyongyang-Washington ties may accelerate if Donald Trump regains the U.S. presidency.

Yoon must keep his fingers crossed that all of this will occur only after he leaves office.

(END)

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