One is called “Dick;” the other one is the Vice President
As predicted, the truth of what took place during the Bush-Roh meeting is starting to leak out from behind the U.S. and Korean governments’ message machine. The “left” faction of Uri, as represented by Anti-Unification Minister (of Silly Talks) Chung Dong-Young, appears to want a do-over, and Chung has stepped up and declared himself the man for the job. Seoul’s most pliable man is now on his way to Washington to bring fresh tidings of the reformed man formerly known as Kim Jong-Il to Washington’s least pliable man: Dick Cheney.
Unification Minister Chung Dong-young will travel to Washington tomorrow to meet U.S. counterparts and discuss his recent meetings with North Korean officials, including Kim Jong-il in Pyongyang.
The ministry said yesterday Chung will pay a five-day visit to Washington and relay the outcome of last week’s inter-Korean ministerial meeting and his talk June 17 with Kim.
. . . .Chung, who also heads the presidential National Security Council, is likely to meet Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley, among others, but the schedule has not been confirmed yet, ministry officials said.
The South Korean government has been moving fast to spread North Korea’s hint at a change in attitude regarding its anticipated return to the six-party talks after Kim Jong-il personally told Chung the North may return to the talks next month if it gains respect from Washington.
Here’s more classic Uri, and have your wastebasket on your lap for this one:
[G]overnment sources say the minister is going chiefly to persuade Vice President Dick Cheney, the administrations most ardent hardliner, to soften his stance on North Korea. Chung will meet Dick Cheney, Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice and National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley.
“After North Korea sent positive signals recently about returning to six-party talks [on its nuclear program], the restart of the negotiations, which have been stalled for a year, is at hand,” a Korean official said Monday. “Vice President Cheney needs to say something reassuring to North Korea.”
Since we can’t say “peace is at hand,” or “peace in our time,” we need some less daring famous last words. “Talks are at hand.” Fine, but talks have been at hand for a decade; accomplishment of something in those talks isn’t.
More here. There is even one reason for qualified praise for Chung:
Chung said he will use the sixth round of Red Cross talks slated for this August to begin a full-fledged discussion with the North on the return of hundreds of South Korean soldiers who were believed to have been abducted to North Korea and prisoners of war during and after the 1950-1953 Korean War.
My post on the April visit of two of these POWs to Washington here, if you haven’t seen it yet.
Now, I said “qualified” praise for a reason–Chung’s under political duress. Oppo leader Park Geun-Hye has also been talking about the issue, arguably for reasons that are more expedient than principled, but in a way that certainly sounds more credible than Chung. I recommend this entire article, in fact, because it might even lead you to believe that the Grand National Party is finding the voice it needs to present an alternative vision and seize the agenda from a demoralized and divided Uri. Money quote:
“The government must boldly bring up the issues of military prisoners, dispersed families and North Korean defectors, and North Korea should make pledges and hold to them, in return for our aid,” said Park chairwoman of the main opposition Grand National Party, in a speech to the Seoul Foreign Correspondents’ Club at the Korea Press Foundation.
Criticizing the government for its “hesitant and weak approach” toward the North, Park asserted the need for a firm and transparent North Korean policy to keep up the current optimistic atmosphere after President Roh Moo-hyun’s successful summit with the U.S. President George W. Bush and the reopening of talks between the two Koreas.
Could this be the end of the GNP’s “Sunshine Lite,” and a movement toward a Korean “hawk engagement?” How long before we learn of her involvement in some orphanage-land-speculation scandal?
Roh-begone
Having taken on both Vice President Cheney and the opposition, you’d think that Chung would have enough problems on his hands. Yet it seems that up to this point, I’d managed not to notice that Chung is on the outs with Roh himself. That fact came out in the course of Roh’s latest self-pitying Hamlet act in front of the cameras, something he tends to do after political trouncings. Have a look at this cryptic little paragraph from yesterday’s Joongang Ilbo:
Mr. Roh opposed party moves to hold the current party leadership responsible and to entice former party leaders such as Unification Minister Chung Dong-young and Health Minister Kim Keun-tae to return to the party. “If they [Mr. Chung and Mr. Kim] come back to the party now, they will only get hurt rather than showing leadership,” Mr. Roh said.
Under the circumstances, you have to wonder whether Chung really represents the President of the Republic of Korea. It seems more plausible that this is just the latest of Chung’s machinations to build up his base for his next run at the presidency. It’s another sign of growing fissures in the Korean left, even as the GNP appears to have acquired an agenda:
Feeling a sense of urgency for the shaky governing party, President Roh Moo-hyun sent a letter both scolding and encouraging Uri Party members yesterday.
“I regret to see that the Uri Party is shaking now, and state affairs are difficult,” Mr. Roh wrote in the letter. “A political party that does not have minimum regulations and discipline cannot receive public support.”
Mr. Roh’s letter came amid dropping popularity of the governing party and allegations that his aides and other Uri lawmakers are involved in several scandals.
“The decisive reasons that made circumstances difficult for the party are the loss of ethical trust by the people, a loss of influence and fading power to hold party members together,” the letter said.