(3rd LD) South Korea wants dialogue but has no plan to send special envoy to N. Korea

(ATTN: MODIFIES last two paras, CORRECTS N.K. population in 9th para)
By Kim Hyun
SEOUL, Dec. 31 (Yonhap) -- South Korea will help rebuild North Korea's ailing
economy if Pyongyang accepts its offer of dialogue, Seoul's unification minister
said Wednesday, renewing calls for a change in the North's attitude to repair
damaged ties.
Kim Ha-joong, however, said he had no plan to send a special envoy to Pyongyang
to persuade it to resume dialogue.
"Our government will continue efforts to improve inter-Korean relations and call
for North Korea to respond to our position," Kim said in a press conference. "We
will use as many channels as possible to deliver our position for dialogue."
Inter-Korean relations dipped to a record low this past year, marked by a
suspension of dialogue and no government food aid from Seoul to the impoverished
North. Conservative President Lee Myung-bak adopted a tougher policy in his first
year in office than his liberal predecessors, with calls for North Korea to give
up its nuclear weapons program and improve its dire human rights conditions.
Pyongyang blasted Seoul's dialogue offers as "hypocritical." The North also
accuses the Lee government of using the inter-Korean issue to up the ante in
domestic politics.
The minister visited China in mid-December to meet with senior Chinese officials
well-versed in North Korea, prompting speculations Seoul may try to send a
special envoy to Pyongyang to resume dialogue.
"It could be a way (to improve inter-Korean relations), but we haven't thought of
it," Kim said, after briefing the president on the unification ministry's 2009
policy goals.
Seoul is ready to give food and fertilizer aid to North Korea "without conditions
attached," but the minister gave no details on when the aid will start.
The U.N. World Food Program says nearly a quarter of North Korea's population of
23 million needs outside food aid to get through the winter.
Seoul gave no government-to-government food aid this past year, compared to 246.6
billion (US$188 million) won worth of food and fertilizer delivered to Pyongyang
in 2007.
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 made in inter-Korean relations," he said.
In a major break from this past year, the 2009 report, titled "Co-existence,
Co-prosperity," did not openly link inter-Korean relations to North Korea's
denuclearization, a toned-down gesture aimed at not provoking Pyongyang.
Lee vowed to increase North Korea's per capita income to $3,000 should Pyongyang
abandon its nuclear program as part of an election pledge called
"Denuclearization, Openness, 3000." North Korea rejected it as "vicious."
A state-run policy think tank recommended early this month that Seoul revise the
policy 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.
Experts saw no immediate breakthrough in inter-Korean relations. Pyongyang's
priority will be setting its relations with the new U.S. administration, a
keystone to economic aid from the U.S. and other nations participating in the
North Korea denuclearization talks, they said.
The six-party nuclear talks are on hold until U.S. President-elect Barack Obama
takes office on Jan. 20. Pyongyang sees Obama's inauguration as an opportunity to
start afresh without mutual distrust. South Korea, China, Japan and Russia are
the other participants in the talks.
"We can't be optimistic," Koh Yu-hwan, a North Korea studies professor at Dongguk
University, said. "Chances are North Korea will be prioritizing U.S. relations.
For that, the North will have to try not to deteriorate inter-Korean relations."
hkim@yna.co.kr
(END)