The collapse of the planned inter-Korean talks is igniting political fighting in the South over the proper approach to the communist neighbor.

The two-day meeting, scheduled to open on Wednesday in Seoul, was aborted after the two sides failed to agree on the ranks of chief delegates.

A senior presidential official said on Tuesday the North was trying to “force subservience and indignity (on South Korea) as it has done in the past.”

His remark was also seen as a veiled criticism of the opposition Democratic Party, which led the Sunshine Policy of engaging North Korea in the early 2000s and recently escalated attacks on President Park Geun-hye for her rigidity in dealing with Pyongyang.

“The government is agitating the people’s pride by saying that subservience and being humiliated (in dealing with North Korea) cannot be tolerated,” Democratic Party chairman Rep. Kim Han-gil said Thursday.

Seoul and Pyongyang were missing out on a chance to promote peace in a wasteful fight to gain the upper hand, he added.

He raised doubts as to whether the Park Geun-hye administration had a proper understanding of the importance of securing peace on the peninsula.

“Talking as though (South Korea was) subservient (to North Korea) in all inter-Korean relations so far is an approach that could truly hurt the people’s pride.”

The comments have been taken as belittling the Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun administrations’ efforts to soften relations with North Korea.

In contrast to Seoul and Pyongyang, which have blamed each other for causing the developments, the Democratic Party has called for both sides to become more flexible, implying that both Koreas were responsible for the talks failing to occur.

Politicians who were closely involved in North Korea policies of the progressive governments have gone a step further to say that Seoul mishandled the situation.

In a radio interview, former Democratic floor leader Rep. Park Jie-won said Seoul’s initial demands for Kim Yang-gon, head of the United Front Department in the North’s ruling Workers’ Party, to lead Pyongyang’s delegation may have been problematic from the start.

Park Jie-won has been a vocal critic of the current government’s North Korea policies, and has spoken out on a number of occasions against the president’s decision to install ex-military officers as presidential secretaries concerned with North Korean issues.

Chung Dong-young, who served as a unification minister under former President Roh Moo-hyun, went further choosing to blame Seoul outright.

“(Seoul) ruined the big picture by clinging to a small issue in a big situation,” Chung said in a recent radio interview.

The views that both sides share responsibility incited strong words from the presidential office, with a senior staff saying that it was tantamount to exonerating Pyongyang of blame.

“Blaming both sides is in reality very easy and convenient. The desirable thing for establishing sustainable and expansive inter-Korean relations would be to point out the wrongs (of North Korea),” an unnamed senior presidential staff member was quoted as saying in the local media.

Cheong Wa Dae’s latest remarks have also riled up the opposition.

“It is truly arrogant, conceited and self-righteous of the Park Geun-hye administration to say that blaming both sides is exonerating Pyongyang. This, in effect, gives media guidelines that imply that the government should not be attacked,” DP floor leader Rep. Jun Byung-hun said Thursday. 


By Choi He-suk
(cheesuk@heraldcorp.com)