South Korean President Lee Myung-bak urged North Korea yesterday to stop stoking tension and work toward becoming a member of the international community, saying engagement will serve its national interests better than missiles and nuclear weapons.
Tension between the two Koreas has run high since the conservative, pro-US Lee took office in Seoul one year ago.
It has further intensified in recent weeks amid reports the North plans to test-fire a long-range missile.
Pyongyang cut off government-level talks with Seoul and halted joint projects to protest Lee’s hardline approach, which includes suspension of his liberal predecessors’ policy of sending unconditional aid to the North.
“What protects North Korea is not nuclear weapons and missiles but South-North cooperation, and cooperation with the international community,” Lee said in a nationally televised speech marking Korea’s independence movement against Japanese colonial rule. “No one should tarnish stability and peace on the Korean Peninsula. That will never succeed.”
Lee also called for quick resumption of talks between the two Koreas, still technically at war.
“The door to unconditional dialogue is still open wide now,” Lee said. “The South and North should hold a dialogue at an early date.”
North Korea said last week that it was preparing to shoot a communication satellite into orbit as part of it space development program. The US, South Korea and other neighboring countries believe the launch may be a cover for a missile test-fire, saying the action would trigger international sanctions.
Analysts say the North’s planned launch is seen as a bid for US President Barack Obama’s attention as international disarmament talks remained stalled for months over how to verify its nuclear programs.
Obama’s special representative for North Korea policy, Stephen Bosworth, will leave today for Beijing, Tokyo and Seoul for talks on the North’s nuclear program and also to meet Russian officials.
The two Koreas, the US, China, Japan and Russia have been involved in on-and-off talks aimed at getting the North to give up its bombs program in return for aid and other benefits.
Lee reaffirmed South Korea is ready to help the North rebuild its shattered economy with the international community if it lives up to its pledge to abandon its nuclear weapons program.
“The denuclearization would be the shortcut for North Korea to rapidly become a member of the international community,” Lee said.
Later yesterday, dozens of conservative activists staged an anti-Pyongyang rally in Seoul, during which they burned North Korean national flags and missile replicas.
The activists raised placards reading “Down, Down with North Korea” and “Down with [North Korean leader] Kim Jong-il.”
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