[Los Angeles Times] As Korean Leaders Meet, Economy Dominates

[dragonboy]

[Los Angeles Times] As Korean Leaders Meet, Economy Dominates

                    (By NORIMITSU ONISHI / Published: October 4, 2007)

SEOUL, South Korea, Oct. 3 — The leaders of South and North Korea engaged in direct talks for the first time in seven years on Wednesday, apparently focusing on economic projects intended to spur reform inside the North and forge closer ties between the two Koreas.

The North Korean leader, Kim Jong-il, left, with President Roh Moo-hyun of South Korea in Pyongyang on Wednesday.

Kim Jong-il, right, and his No.2, Kim Yong-nam, left, met with President Roh Moo-hyun, center, in Pongyang Tuesday.

South Korean officials in Pyongyang, the North’s capital, where the three-day summit is being held, described the four-hour talks as productive. Pool reports showed the two leaders, the South’s President Roh Moo-hyun and the North’s leader, Kim Jong-il, smiling at the end of the afternoon session.

South Korean officials released few details of the talks and said a joint declaration would be issued Thursday before Mr. Roh and his entourage returned to Seoul. It was not clear what issues besides the economy, including the North’s nuclear program, were broached as the leaders faced each other across a large rectangular table at a state guest house in Pyongyang.

But in unusually candid comments made over lunch with his aides, and immediately after a morning meeting with Mr. Kim, Mr. Roh talked about the North’s unease over the potential side effects of economic reform.

“The North Korean side still has many doubts about the South Korean side,” Mr. Roh said. “I felt that we have to make more efforts to further tear down this wall of distrust.”

Mr. Roh said the North was “somewhat upset” about the slow pace of development of the Kaesong Industrial Complex — a special economic zone built by South Korea inside North Korea and the centerpiece of the South’s engagement policy toward the North. At the same time, the South’s reference to Kaesong as the “symbol of reform and openness” clearly made the North’s top leaders uneasy, Mr. Roh said, suggesting that Pyongyang, like Beijing, was seeking economic growth without political change.

“The distrust and reluctance they feel toward the terminologies, ‘reform and openness,’ is something I felt when talking to Kim Young-nam yesterday and at the meeting with Chairman Kim this morning,” Mr. Roh said, referring to the North’s No. 2 leader, whom he met on the first day of his trip.

The first summit meeting between the two Koreas, in June 2000, ushered in a new era of reconciliation between cold war enemies who had taught their children to hate each other for decades. This summit, which is not expected to break any new ground, could serve as a reckoning of the last seven years of the South’s engagement policy toward the North — a policy that the South has hewed to despite the North’s test of missiles and a nuclear bomb, as well as the Bush administration’s initial hard-line attitude toward Mr. Kim’s government.

In South Korea there is none of the euphoria of the 2000 meeting, which kept South Koreans glued to their televisions and fundamentally changed their perceptions of the North. This time, the South’s focus is economic, as indicated by the large entourage of business leaders traveling with Mr. Roh and the fresh projects that are expected to be announced Thursday.

Among ordinary South Koreans, there is no longer any heady talk of a quick German-like reunification. Instead, they envision a carefully planned, sober process that will make the North less poor and shrink the gap between the Koreas before an eventual reunification, perhaps decades from now.

“In general, I support this summit, but I’m a little less enthusiastic than I was in 2000,” said Byun Yoo-seok, 36, a pharmacist enjoying a day off in the Myung-dong shopping area here this afternoon. “I guess I realized that reunification will take a long time.”

Lee Choon-won, 79, who was having coffee at Starbucks with three friends, said: “There’s no emotion this time. It’s no fun. It’s just Roh Moo-hyun doing whatever he’s doing. North Korea got money last time and wants more this time.”

Indeed, many ordinary South Koreans and the political opposition say that Mr. Roh, long accused of coddling the North, will give away too much for little in return. He has been trying to set up a meeting with the North ever since he was elected five years ago. But critics say that Mr. Roh, a lame duck with only four months left in office, wants to burnish his legacy with an accord and influence the upcoming presidential election.

At the moment, Lee Myung-bak, the candidate for the conservative opposition Grand National Party, has a strong lead in the polls. Mr. Lee supports the engagement policy toward the North and has also talked of offering the North huge economic projects, but he has also emphasized the need for the North to reciprocate on security issues.

The North, which has consistently attacked the Grand National Party, is believed to favor a liberal South Korean president. Critics here have accused Mr. Kim of agreeing to this summit meeting in a bid to stir euphoria about reconciliation between the two Koreas and boost Mr. Roh’s liberal United New Democratic Party, which has yet to choose its presidential candidate.

Over the last five years, Mr. Kim consistently rebuffed the South’s approaches for a second meeting. He said the conditions were not right, apparently referring to the stalled nuclear talks that began moving forward with a softening of Washington’s position early this year.

On Wednesday, though, Mr. Kim surprised Mr. Roh by suddenly asking him to extend his visit by one day. Mr. Kim apparently withdrew the invitation after Mr. Roh told his host that he would have to consult with this staff.

“Can’t a president decide?” Mr. Kim asked in a seemingly teasing manner. “Presidents should be able to decide.”

“I can decide on big things,” Mr. Roh said, “but on little things, I can’t decide.”