N. Korea Fumes, South Celebrates on Summit Anniversary
By William Gallo April 27, 2019
South Korean President Moon Jae-in vowed continued outreach to North Korea on Saturday, saying the path to peace on the Korean Peninsula was irreversible despite temporary setbacks.
"This is a new path, and since we all must take it together, we need sometimes to wait for those moving slower to catch up," Moon said. "In the face of obstacles, sometimes we need to catch our breath for a while and find the way together."
Moon's comments came on the first anniversary of his meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. That summit helped spur a year of diplomacy and negotiations with the United States over North Korea's nuclear weapons.
Though both the nuclear talks and inter-Korean projects have stalled, South Korea pushed ahead Saturday with a celebration to mark the anniversary.
Artists perform
Artists from South Korea, China, Japan and the United States performed at the event, held at the border village of Panmunjom in the demilitarized zone dividing the two Koreas – the site of the first Moon-Kim meeting. The artists performed at five stations, each of which commemorated a different aspect of the summit.
In a sign of worsening relations, North Korea did not attend the celebration. Instead, Pyongyang marked the occasion with a sternly worded statement reported by the Korean Central News Agency, which blamed the United States for holding back inter-Korean progress.
"The U.S. is employing every possible means and method to subordinate the North-South ties to its policy of sanctions and pressure upon the DPRK, while openly pressurizing the South Korean authorities," said KCNA, quoting the North Korean Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Country.
South Korea says it would like to move ahead with the agreements reached by Kim and Moon at the Panmunjom meeting, as well as two additional summits that followed. But doing so would most likely violate international sanctions against North Korea.
The Trump administration has said it will not relax the sanctions until North Korea commits to abandoning its nuclear and chemical weapons programs.
Moon on Saturday cited gradual progress in implementing the inter-Korean pledges, including withdrawing guard posts from the demilitarized zone, recovering remains of soldiers killed during the Korean War, and regular meetings at a joint liaison office just north of the border.
But North Korean officials have skipped high-level meetings with their South Korean counterparts at that office for nine consecutive weeks. And South Korea's military has been forced to start searching for Korean War remains by itself in the DMZ after North Korea failed to cooperate on the project.
Approach falters
The lack of progress is a major problem for the Moon administration, which viewed inter-Korean cooperation as a top priority, said Shin Beom-chul of South Korea's Asan Institute for Policy Studies.
"Moon's approach was that improving inter-Korean relations would eventually lead to the denuclearization of North Korea," Shin said. "That premise is now dismantling."
While Moon's public approval rating was over 80 percent in the days following his first meeting with Kim, it has now slipped to 44 percent, according to the latest poll from Gallup Korea. Adding to Moon's woes, South Korea's economy unexpectedly contracted in the first quarter.
Still, the Moon administration remains upbeat, pushing for another meeting with Kim.
"We suggested the fourth summit," South Korean Unification Minister Kim Yeon-chul told reporters Friday, "And we will try our best to make it happen."
Juhyun Lee and Hyungjin Kim contributed to this report.
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