N. Korea to receive no aid from South if boycott continues

SEOUL, Dec. 31 (Yonhap) -- South Korea will help rebuild North Korea's moribund economy if Pyongyang accepts its offer of dialogue, Seoul's unification minister said Wednesday, renewing calls for a change in the North's current attitude.

Kim Ha-joong, however, did not openly link inter-Korean relations to Pyongyang's
denuclearization as he did last year, a toned-down gesture to repair frayed ties.

Briefing President Lee Myung-bak over the unification ministry's policy goals for
2009, Kim said his ministry will continue offering dialogue and economic
incentives, but nothing will materialize if Pyongyang refuses to talk.
"As long as North Korea shows no change in its attitude, the situation is
expected to remain the same as now," Kim said.
Inter-Korean relations dipped to a record low during Lee's first year in office.
The conservative leader adopted a tougher policy than his liberal predecessors,
with calls for North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons program and improve its
dire human rights conditions.
Pyongyang cut off dialogue in retaliation.
Seoul gave no government-to-government food aid this past year, compared to 246.6
billion (US$186 million) won worth of food and fertilizer delivered to Pyongyang
in 2007.
Kim said Seoul will help plant trees, build railways and roads and develop
mineral mines in North Korea to help rebuild its moribund economy. But all those
measures will be taken "according to the progress of inter-Korean relations," he
said.
In a major break from this past year, the 2009 report did not mention Lee's
election pledge that has become Seoul's flagship inter-Korean policy, so-called
"Denuclearization, Openness, 3000."
Lee pledged to increase North Korea's per capita income to $3,000 should
Pyongyang abandon its nuclear program and open the country, but North Korea has
rejected the tit-for-tat principle as "vicious."
A state-run policy think tank recommended early this month that the Seoul
government revise Lee's "Denuclearization, Openness 3000" campaign as it is
"strategically ineffective and has petrified into an election slogan."
"The denuclearization process is underway in the six-party talks, and the South
Korean government doesn't need to focus on denuclearization in dealing with North
Korea," said Jun Bong-geun, a North Korea expert who authored the proposal by the
Korean Institute for National Unification.
"What we have to focus on is the '3000' part. Despite assistance worth trillions
of won over the past 10 years, the North Korean economy has worsened. North Korea
has repeatedly demanded that humanitarian aid be converted to long-term,
sustainable assistance for economic development. The '3000' part is a strategy to
respond to that," he said.
Seoul will also seek "a fundamental solution" to have former soldiers and
civilians held in North Korea returned, with food aid possibly being provided in
exchange for Pyongyang's actions, the minister said.
The minister did not respond to Pyongyang's key demand that the current Seoul
government make an official pledge to implement economic cooperation projects
agreed upon by Lee's two liberal predecessors, Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun, who
promised huge incentives during their summits with North Korean leader Kim
Jong-il in 2000 and 2007, respectively.
hkim@yna.co.kr
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