| Publication |
2011.
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| Summary/Abstract |
Since the Lee Myung-bak administration came to office, the deterioration of the
North-South Korea relationship and heightened tensions on the Korean peninsula
are the direct consequence and responsibility of North Korea and its provocations.
North Korea has chosen confrontation with the South, dictated by its own internal
interests, skewed perceptions and the desire to bully the South into concessions.
The Lee administration's stance toward North Korea is no different from that of its
predecessors in its basic principles and approach to unification as a progressive
integration and not unification through absorption. The difference in the approach
of the Lee administration to North Korea is a stronger emphasis on resolving the
20-year stalemate over the nuclear issue. Previous South Korean administrations
showed themselves willing to resume talks with Pyongyang soon after North
Korean pressure and chronic provocations. However, the Lee administration has
held fast to its position of reciprocity, as it did after the killing of a South Korean
tourist at the Mt. Kumgang resort, where it insisted on a promise that there would
be no recurrence of such an incident, before the tour program could resume. The
Lee administration has refused to reward the North's brinksmanship diplomacy,
knowing that to do this will only encourage Pyongyang's chronic provocations.
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