S. Korea Ready to Offer Vast Aid Program to North

In a striking change of tone, South Korea on Wednesday said it is ready to offer the most extensive aid program ever conceived for North Korea if the Communist regime will apologize for sending a spy submarine into southern waters and end its hostile behavior.

South Korean unification official Moon Moo Hong said the “Common National Development Program” covers 10 major areas, including direct food aid, technical assistance to improve agricultural productivity and joint development of tourist facilities. Those facilities would probably be built on the remote eastern coast, where well-heeled South Korean tourists could enrich the near-bankrupt regime without destabilizing the North Korean capital of Pyongyang, he said.

Although South Korean President Kim Young Sam hinted at the program in an August speech, his overture was followed by the North’s submarine infiltration and other provocations. But Moon said the plan remains locked in Kim’s safe, ready to be unveiled if Pyongyang will “change its mentality.”

“The North should not be afraid of the South. They should regard us as their friend and sibling. I am always thinking of ways of helping them without hurting their pride or giving them burdens,” Moon, the assistant minister for unification policy, said in an interview Wednesday. “Please give North Korea this message.”

Moon’s conciliatory words marked a departure from the hard-line attitudes South Korea has displayed since North Korea sent the spy submarine into southern waters in September, setting off a bloody manhunt that left more than two dozen soldiers and civilians from both sides dead.

Although Moon reiterated Seoul’s official stance that an apology is necessary before resuming aid or other contacts, he described the South’s approach as a “rod of love” to teach its “spoiled younger brother” that temper tantrums don’t solve problems.

He also dismissed as mere “brinkmanship” Pyongyang’s action Wednesday severing official telephone contact with the South and withdrawing its staff from the liaison office at the truce village of Panmunjom. The move followed other provocations, such as a report by Pyongyang’s Korean Central News Agency that the North will unfreeze its nuclear power program, which the U.S. feared was being used to develop nuclear weapons, and a threat to retaliate unless South Korea returns the North’s submarine and the bodies of its soldiers.

The actions, Moon said, were “aimed at creating discrepancies and distance in cooperation and coordination between the U.S. and South Korea by escalating tensions. We don’t take them too seriously.”

U.S. officials said they had not been officially notified that North Korea planned to again pursue a nuclear program, and Moon said it was unlikely to do so since the strapped regime desperately needs the fuel it is receiving in exchange for curtailing its nuclear power program. In addition, North Korean leader Kim Jong Il has touted the 1994 agreement with the U.S.--under which Pyongyang also will receive two light-water nuclear reactors--as a major achievement, Moon said.

The Panmunjom liaison office was established in 1992 in a gesture of goodwill after historic accords laying out steps for unification were signed by both sides. The office has effectively stopped functioning since 1994, when North Korean leader Kim Il Sung died, but telephone contacts had been tested twice daily.

North Korea maintains contact with the United Nations command office at Panmunjom.

President Clinton and South Korean President Kim are scheduled to meet Sunday in Manila, with the issue of North Korea topping their agenda. Kim told a Korean newspaper Tuesday that the two presidents will reaffirm their stance that North Korea should apologize for the submarine incident, promise not to repeat the act and “respond positively” to a proposal to hold four-way talks with the United States, South Korea and China.