Chung Hints at Coalition ‘Welfare State’ with North Korea

Here is the latest published interview with Chung Dong-Young, North Korea’s Minister for Southern Affairs.

SEOUL, Nov 16 (Reuters) – Communist North Korea and capitalist South Korea are likely to have formed at least an economic union by 2020, the South’s unification minister told Reuters on Wednesday.

“The vision of the Republic of Korea — my personal vision as a politician — is that by 2020 we will be a welfare state, and also at the same time, the South and the North will be able to communicate freely, that we will at least have developed into a joint economic union,” he said.

But he said the North appeared headed for an economic opening similar to China and Vietnam, which both retain communist rule. The North has already begun some piecemeal market reforms.

So just who is going to govern this union? What does Chung mean by “at least?” And who exactly is he kidding when he talks about being able to “communicate freely?” Chung’s description of a reforming North Korea defies the evidence. As I’ve documented in detail here, the North appears to be reversing its limited and questionable reforms, and clamping down “unofficial” beliefs and information.

Chung said people should not be too pessimistic about the talks process, particularly after all sides agreed to a joint statement in September on an outline aid-for-disarmament plan. But he indicated he thought an early deal was unlikely.

“I think there is a view to underestimate the fifth round of the six-party talks in Beijing,” he said.

“But if you take the process of dismantling the North’s nuclear programmes as a long one that will take at least three years or longer, I think it is significant there was an agreement on basic principles.”

I feel the need to remind readers that the killer issue at the latest talks was North Korea’s implied sense of entitlement to print its own supply of Ben Franklins and launder them in Chinese banks. That arrangement may suit Chung–who is no friend of the United States–just fine, but where does he get the brass to suggest that the United States should desist from enforcing its criminal code? Given that, one can be forgiven that Chung just wants the United States to reach an agreement on any terms the North dictates. Given the speed with which those terms tend to shift, one wonders how long the signing of such an agreement–might as well be honest and call it a license–may take.

Chung said it could take a decade or more to reach a deal and then build the nuclear reactors the North wants in return for ditching its nuclear weapons programmes.

Ten years!? Bear in mind that Chung is seeing this from the North Korean perspective, which is that LWR’s have to be built before North Korea disarms. He means that U.S. taxpayers are supposed to pour money into this furnace of lives and dollars for TEN YEARS while North Korea continues to do things like this. And then what? What exactly will the North Koreans and their “coalition partners” actually honor? I’d call it madness, except that it’s coming from Chung, which means ordinary stupidity is a more likely explanation.

Chung brushed aside criticism of the South’s stance on human rights in the North, saying South Koreans felt pain because of the North’s poverty and lack of political freedom. But he said open criticism did not work.

“With North Korea, sticks don’t help in solving problems,” he said. “It doesn’t give you the short cut, but only aggravates the problem.”

I’d like to see a list of exactly what Chung’s “negotiations” with North Korea have accomplished, at which point I’ll accept his claim of expertise on the subject. Lame references to “quiet diplomacy” notwithstanding–notwithstanding because they’re mostly fictional–Chung clearly has had nothing of substance to say about human rights to his North Korean or Chinese counterparts. Chung’s answer to the human rights problem is to wait for the ex until the humans Kim Jong Il designates as expendable to expire.