ASIA/SOUTH KOREA - South Korea is open to dialogue and to aid towards the North; for the Bishops "it is the good path"

Seoul (Agenzia Fides) - South Korea is ready to hold talks at the highest level and to provide large-scale food aid to North Korea, even if Pyongyang has not "officially apologized" after the two military attacks in 2010: this is what the South Korean Unification Minister Yu Woo Ik stated publicly, suggesting that the President of South Korea, Lee Myung Bak, is in favor of a more flexible attitude towards the new administration of Kim Jong-un.
"We are on right track. It is an important step of opening", said the Bishop of Cheju to Fides, His xc. Mgr. Peter Kang, President of the Episcopal Conference of Korea, who last month had called Kim Jong-un's election an ' opportunity for peace and reconciliation". "It is an even more remarkable step because so far Lee’s government had maintained a rather hard line towards the North. Now, towards the end of his presidential term (which expires at the end of 2012), Lee seems to want to promote change. I do not think so much for electoral reasons, but to capture an opportunity for dialogue, which could be decisive for the future of the peninsula".
With regards to Pyongyang’s attitude, the Bishop says: "I do not think, for now, North Korea will welcome this invitation. Especially because the South is changing its political landscape: in April the general Parliament election will be held, the presidential’s at the end of the year. It is likely that, if there will be new contacts they will be started with the new South Korean political leaders, at the end of the elections ".
Another chapter that is very dear to the Church in South Korea is that of humanitarian aid: "We appreciate the government in the South’s attitude on this sensitive area", says the Bishop. "The humanitarian channel is currently open and Caritas is working, but the humanitarian emergency in the North is serious and it is urgent to increase aid. Caritas should go there in the spring. It seems that, on this side, the new government of the North wants to keep the door open, and that is remarkable". (PA) (Agenzia Fides 17/01/2012)