▲ A working-level inter-Korean meeting takes place at Panmungak, a North Korea-controlled building, on Feb. 19, 1980, in this file photo provided by the unification ministry. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap)
▲ This photo, provided by the unification ministry, shows a collection of declassified documents on inter-Korean talks between 1979-81. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap)
▲ South Korean officials make their way to attend working-level inter-Korean talks at Panmungak, a North Korea-controlled building, on March 18, 1980, in this file photo provided by the unification ministry. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap)

(LEAD) Koreas-dossier

(LEAD) Dossier shows N. Korea using peace as tactic in inter-Korean ties in late 70s, early 80s

(ATTN: ADDS details in paras 5-8, 14)

By Lee Minji

SEOUL, Dec. 28 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's unification ministry on Thursday unveiled newly declassified documents offering a glimpse of inter-Korean relations from 1979-81, when Seoul was reeling from political confusion in the aftermath of the assassination of military dictator Park Chung-hee.

The dossier includes transcripts of inter-Korean contacts between South and North Korea between January 1979 and December 1981, including proposals by the North to hold meetings of key officials, recover a suspended inter-Korean phone hotline and discuss forming a unified inter-Korean team for the 1980 Moscow summer Olympics.

Such suggestions came as the political situation in South Korea was thrown into chaos after Park's assassination on Oct. 26, 1979, ending his 18-year dictatorship. Situations further complicated on Dec. 12 the same year as Chun Doo-hwan, who later became president, led a military coup.

It was in the wake of such turmoil that North Korea, which had unilaterally severed an inter-Korean phone hotline after two U.S. Army officers were axed to death by North Korean border guards at the truce village of Panmunjom in 1976, shifted to a conciliatory stance in dealing with the South.

In January 1980, the North sent a letter suggesting inter-Korean talks to then Prime Minister Shin Hyun-hwak, according to the dossier.

The North appeared to be eager to advance high-level talks, saying the timing of the meeting would be "the earlier the better" and that it is willing to hold talks in Seoul, Pyongyang or even another country.

In the letter, North Korea addressed Shin as the prime minister of the Republic of Korea in the first-ever and rare case in which the North has called South Korea by its official name in a document addressing the South, according to the ministry.

The North additionally sent letters on possibly holding inter-Korean talks to 11 influential political and religious figures, including Kim Young-sam and Kim Dae-jung, who later both became president.

The following month, North Korea agreed to recover the suspended phone hotline during inter-Korean working level talks, more than three years after it had cut off the communication channel after the so-called Axe Murder Incident.

Historians and experts view that the North was aiming to use peace as a disguise to paint a positive picture of the North and foster favorable powers during a period of uncertainty in the South.

"It seems North Korea assessed that it was time to shift to a mode for dialogue based on the judgment that an atmosphere of dialogue and peace could build favorable conditions for talks on the possible withdrawal of United States Forces Korea," a ministry official told reporters on condition of anonymity. "It used inter-Korean talks as a means for its unification strategy."

The North's amiable attitude, however, quickly chilled as the military government led by Chun completely came into power and carried out a bloody crackdown of a pro-democracy uprising in the southwestern city of Gwangju on May 18 in 1980.

In a working-level talk that took place on May 22, North Korea condemned events leading to the military government's imposition of martial law as "very disgraceful" and called the bloody quelling of the uprising as "trampling the people of same ethnicity and blood with guns and knives."

Such working-level talks for an inter-Korean meeting of prime ministers eventually fell through after 10 sessions, without reaping productive results.

In his new year's address in 1981, Chun, who had then become president, suggested mutual visits and talks with Kim Il-sung, the late grandfather of current leader Kim Jong-un. The North ruled out the proposal and lambasted Chun as "acting blindly without knowing one's position."

Since first disclosing the declassified documents in May last year, the unification ministry has revealed the documents on four occasions, including the latest one.

The 30-year-old documents are available at the Office of the Inter-Korean Dialogue and the ministry's major research center.

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