No divided family reunions to be held for this Lunar New Year holiday; Park hasn’t offered any new proposals for unification “jackpot”

On Feb. 16, President Park Geun-hye called on North Korea to “face the winds of change instead of ignoring them and to swiftly embark upon the path of dialogue and reform.”

“Since choosing to reform and open up, countries like Mongolia, Vietnam, and Myanmar have been moving down the path toward growth and development. Not long ago, Cuba established diplomatic relations with the US,” Park said at the Blue House on Monday during her introductory remarks to a meeting with the chairs of the Unification Preparatory Committee.

This meeting, which is presided over by Park, was held three times in 2014. This was the first time the meeting was held this year.

“The Lunar New Year holiday is about to begin, and once again the families divided by the Korean War will have to endure the pain of not being able to see their relatives in North Korea during the holiday season,” Park said on the topic of inter-Korean relations.

“In order to assuage this pain and to improve inter-Korean relations, the South Korean government has urged North Korea on several occasions to come to the table for talks. We have said to North Korea several times, let’s sit down together and have an honest discussion, with no strings attached. But North Korea still refuses to accept this offer and continues to list the preconditions for dialogue,” she said, blaming Pyongyang for the breakdown of inter-Korean dialogue. On Monday, Park did not make any new proposals to North Korea.

Instead, Park had a request for the preparatory committee.

“We need to create a roadmap that will enable unification to be a jackpot not only for Koreans but also for our neighbors and the world, and we need to take action to build a consensus about this,” she said.

“We must explore ways of thriving together, ways for public and private capital from around the world to be invested in the Korean peninsula as seed money that will ultimately lead to growth of the global economy. If we draw up detailed plans for the construction of infrastructure and the development of resources in North Korea after unification, when the time is ripe, investment will pour in from the peninsula and overseas.”

Park also called for an increase in private-sector exchange between North and South Korea along with cultivating expectations about unification. “The longer the Korean peninsula remains divided, the greater the gap in lifestyle and attitudes between the people of North and South Korea,” she noted.

By Son Won-je, staff reporter

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