Seoul’s tough riddle

President-elect Park Geun-hye, in her inaugural speech, has said that a tough stance on national security is the need of the hour, and South Korea would not compromise on it under any pretext. The carefully worded statement could be the beginning of a new diatribe between both the Koreas across the line of Armistice, as Pyongyang is too restless with the status quo in the region. Park’s utterance that North Korea’s recent nuclear test posed a challenge to the survival of the Korean people only illustrates the seriousness with which such adventures are being studied. Nonetheless, Park believes that trust building is required to tackle the ‘extremely serious’ security situation. Such a mindset could lead to furthering of dialogue and a consensus with regional neighbours, including Japan, China and many of the ASEAN countries, in order to check Pyongyang’s berserk policies.

The fact that Park didn’t play to the gallery by voicing a tit-for-tat militaristic response in the form of shooting out some of her own missiles across the sea — in an attempt of muscle-flexing — is quite promising. The new leader, who had vowed to follow her father’s footsteps in granting economic revival to the country, can do a better job by broadening consensus on the Pacific Rim for a peace regime and making overtures to the North in the form of resuming the reunification talks.

The point is Pyongyang’s brinkmanship acts are owing to its economic and socio-political marginalisation. The Stalinist state, which has been desperately looking for international acknowledgment — especially from Washington, in terms of being recognised at par with its neighbours, seems to have inadvertently opted for a militaristic role as a last resort. China, the allied-ally of North Korea, also believes that the moment Pyongyang is ensured of a security shield guaranteeing its security and sovereignty, its ambitious nuclear programme could be dealt with in a realistic manner.

What Park could do, at this point of time, as a leadership gesture is to go over the board to address the communist neighbour’s socio-economic woes by funnelling in aid and assistance to the maxim. North Korea, which has already signed an aid for food deal with the United States, will certainly not mind interacting with Seoul, until and unless its poverty-oriented grievances are handled in a magnanimous manner. That can be a decent beginning to engage a rogue and hypersensitive neighbour.