In his confirmation hearing on Wednesday, Unification Minister-nominee Yu Woo-ik said he would exercise “flexibility in methodology” in relations with North Korea while maintaining a “principled approach” to them. In making this remark, did he mean to be deliberately ambiguous or did he have a problem expressing himself?

By one dictionary definition, “methodology” is a set or system of methods, principles and rules used in a given discipline, as in the arts or sciences. What did this have to do with South Korea’s strained ties with the North?

Yu did not explain what he meant by “flexibility in methodology.” Nor did lawmakers demand an explanation. His remark was made even more complicated when he referred to a “principled approach” in the same breath ― the policy of demanding an apology for the sinking of a South Korean warship and the shelling of a South Korean island before providing North Korea with substantial aid.

Given the context in which he made the remark, he would have gotten his message across more accurately if he had said he would be more flexible in demanding an apology from the North for its unprovoked acts of hostility committed last year.

He said President Lee Myung-bak’s administration may promote a summit as a useful means of solving inter-Korean problems if the conditions are met. He added that the North may offer an apology during negotiations for a summit or commit itself to apologizing during the summit itself.

But these remarks raised suspicions that Lee may be tempted to abandon his vaunted principled approach in favor of an inter-Korean summit during his final year in office, as many other leaders in the world have done to clinch a breakthrough in a diplomatic standoff.

During the early days of his administration, Lee tried to set himself apart from his progressive predecessors, whom he accused of dishing out food and other aid to the North when it refused to reciprocate it in any way. When the North torpedoed the South Korean corvette and bombarded a South Korean island in the West Sea, Lee said he would not tolerate any act of aggression and would withhold large-scale aid until after the North apologized.

Should he exercise too much flexibility in his hard-line policy and promote a summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, his supporters would surely ask how different he was from former Presidents Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun.