Unification minister visits China for talks on Pyongyang with Dai Bingguo, Yang Jiechi


South Korea’s Unification Minister Yu Woo-ik said on Monday he hopes North Korea could return Seoul’s favor, taking a more active approach in efforts to improve inter-Korean relations.

His remarks came at a meeting with Korean residents in Beijing during his three-day visit there to meet with China’s senior officials for talks on North Korean issues.

“I hope our government’s heartfelt efforts could see a favorable response (from North Korea) in the near future,” Yu was quoted by news reports as saying in Beijing.

“I hope the North does not misunderstand our stance. The North Korean authorities must be at least aware of our efforts,” he said. 

Yu also stressed that the North should come clean about the two deadly attacks on South Korea last year and assure that such incidents will never happen again.

“Before they do so, we cannot provide rice to people who fire bombs,” Yu said.

Yu’s rare visit to China, just two weeks after a visit to the U.S., is an apparent attempt to explain South Korea’s policy direction on North Korea and its stance on denuclearizing the communist state, observers said. He is likely to urge Beijing’s stronger role in resolving the North Korean nuclear issue, they said.

According to the Unification Ministry’s spokeswoman Park Soo-jin, Yu attended an unofficial dinner hosted by Vice Foreign Minister Zhang Zhijun, on Monday evening.

On Tuesday, Yu is to meet with China’s State Councilor Dai Bingguo in the afternoon, after having talks with Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi and Wang Jiarui, director of the International Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China.

On the last day of his visit, Yu is to attend a meeting with China’s senior scholars, visit Tang Jiaxuan, former state councilor of China, and return home later in the day.

China, a key ally and food and fuel benefactor for the impoverished North Korea, has been silent on North Korea’s torpedoing of the South Korean warship Cheonan in March 2010, and the bombing on the northwestern island of Yeonpyeong in November 2010.

The Chinese officials whom Yu plans to meet during his three-day visit have great influence on North Korea. Dai maintains a close relationship with North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-il, while Yang and Wang are in charge of China’s bilateral and multilateral diplomacy with the North.

News reports said Yu’s one-year-and-a-half stint as ambassador to China from December 2009 helped him build a wide network with the Chinese diplomatic circle.

His meeting with Chinese senior diplomatic officials in the capacity of unification minister is quite rare.

In December 2004, then Unification Minister Chung Dong-young also visited China for assistance in resolving the North Korean nuclear issue but he was sent by then president Roh Moo-hyun as a special envoy, not as a minister.

In December 2008, then Unification Minister Kim Ha-joong also made a four-day visit to China but his visit was made at the invitation of China’s foreign ministry for a former Korean ambassador to China.

By Kim Yoon-mi (yoonmi@heraldcorp.com)