Reuters North American News Service, January 3rd, 2008
SEOUL, Jan 3 (Reuters) - South Korea's new president could
ditch the ministry that has long handled relations with North
Korea, heralding what may be a major shift in the way Seoul
deals with its prickly neighbour, aides were quoted as saying.
The Unification Ministry has been at the centre of growing
criticism that the outgoing government has been too soft on the
communist North, pouring aid across the border despite
internationally condemned missile and nuclear tests.
Members of President-elect Lee Myung-bak's team feel it has
drifted off course, one adviser said.
"Many officials in the transition team take a negative view
of the role and function of the Unification Ministry," Korea
University professor Nam Sung-wook, an adviser to the team, was
quoted as saying by Yonhap news agency on Thursday.
Surveys show most South Koreans want eventual unification
of the peninsula divided for over half a century, but not while
the hermit state is so down-at-heel that it risks sucking the
energy out of their own economy.
Yonhap said the transition team is thinking of disbanding
the ministry or merging it with the Foreign Ministry.
It quoted Unification Ministry officials as saying they
fear the North would see the move as reducing it to just an
"ordinary" country.
One analyst said a likely outcome would be for a diminished
ministry with some of its functions parcelled out.
With parliamentary elections in April, Lee was unlikely to
eradicate the ministry completely and risk upsetting voters who
want their brothers in the North to still be shown special
concern.
Currently, the foreign ministry represents South Korea in
international talks to end the North's nuclear arms programme
but it is the Unification Ministry which oversees relations
between the two.
Lee, who takes office on Feb. 25, talked tough on North
Korea throughout his election campaign, promising to link
future aid to North Korea's behaviour.
Anlaysts said the new approach is rattling the Pyongyang
government.
"For the past 10 years, North Korea has been spoiled by the
progressive (South Korean) regimes," said Kim Sung-han, an
expert on Korean affairs at Korea University in Seoul.
"North Korea is really pondering the new environment."
(Editing by Jonathan Thatcher)
