Text Fwd: Pyongyang says inter-Korean relations separate from nuclear dispute

Yonhap News
2009/12/19 13:18 KST
Pyongyang says inter-Korean relations separate from nuclear dispute

SEOUL, Dec. 19 (Yonhap) -- North Korea said Saturday that the dispute over its nuclear program should not impede inter-Korean relations, accusing South Korea's government of standing in the way of improving ties on the pretext of nuclear concerns.

Pyongyang has routinely criticized Seoul in recent weeks for maintaining its ban on inter-Korean tourism projects and restrictions on civic visits. South Korea remains reluctant to engage in any major inter-Korean activity while international negotiations over the North's nuclear program are still in limbo.

"The nuclear issue has nothing to do with North-South relations and therefore, it cannot become an obstacle to improving inter-Korean relations," Rodong Sinmun, the North's major newspaper published by the Workers' Party, said in a commentary. The article was carried by the North's Korean Central News Agency.

Pyongyang argues that Seoul should stay out of negotiations with Washington over the North's nuclear weapons program. It claims that the U.S. provision of extended nuclear deterrence capabilities to South Korea has forced it to develop nuclear weapons for self-defense.

After conducting a second nuclear test in May that led to harsher U.N. sanctions over the country, North Korea reached out for diplomacy.

Earlier this month, North Korea and the U.S. held their first bilateral dialogue since the January inauguration of the Barack Obama administration with a visit to Pyongyang by Obama's special envoy, Stephen Bosworth. The envoy later said the two sides reached a "common understanding" on the need to resume the six-party talks on the North's nuclear program.

Still, Bosworth said no date was set for the North to return to the talks, which it quit in April. The six-party forum involves the two Koreas, the U.S., China, Japan and Russia.

The Rodong Sinmun criticized South Korean Unification Minister Hyun In-taek, who said recently that "Clamoring for better relations while holding on to nuclear weapons is like searching for fish while up in a tree. To catch a fish, one has to come down from the tree."

Hyun's remarks were an "insult to even our will to improve inter-Korean relations," the paper said. "The South Korean authorities are zealously pursuant to the U.S. campaign" against North Korea over the nuclear issue, it added.

In September, the Koreas held the first reunion of separated families in nearly two years. South Korea delivered medications worth US$15 million to North Korea on Saturday to help prevent an epidemic of the H1N1 flu virus there.

Still, South Korea is maintaining its ban on inter-Korean tour projects, including a flagship program to Mount Kumgang on the North's east coast that was suspended after the shooting death of a South Korean tourist in July 2008.

The Mount Kumgang tours have garnered some $487 million in tour fees for the North since they began in 1998. More than 1.9 million South Koreans have visited the picturesque mountain.

hkim@yna.co.kr