Calls for change to North Korea policy within the Grand National Party (GNP) are likely to get louder after the party leadership was reshuffled during Monday’s party conference, making a clash with the administration more likely.
One source from within the GNP explained to the Daily NK on Friday, “It will not be easy for the party to maintain its hardline policy towards the North. Looked at it in terms of political logic, all we can do is travel with the broad current.”
The basic belief within the GNP seems to be that the party will struggle to win votes next year if it goes into the general election with an unchanged policy on North Korea. In fact, the new leadership has been focused on making popular decisions since it first took the reins, and, therefore, it is likely that voices will come out in support of a somewhat softer line on North Korea.
Indeed, GNP Supreme Council member Yoo Seung Min explained in an interview today, “If you want to win the election, it is essential to go in with good policies, and it is very clear what the public’s response will be if our party takes the same policies into the next election that the Lee Myung Bak administration has had so far. The election wouldn’t even matter.”
In addition, the Lee administration also needs a breakthrough in its tense relationship with the North to take into the Nuclear Security Summit, to be held in Seoul next March.
Recent comments from President Lee noting that the climate of unease aroused by last year’s sinking of the Cheonan and the Yeonpyeong Island shelling should not be allowed to continue suggest that he too may have in mind the possibility of a policy shift.
On the other hand, however, it is difficult to envisage any extreme change given the opposition of the party’s core conservative element. It does, however, appear likely that demands for the government to at least play a more active part in stabilizing inter-Korean relations will grow.
For the time being, however, GNP lawmaker and member of the Diplomacy, Commerce and Unification Committee Gyeong Gyu Sang said today that it is business as usual, stating, “The Party’s opinion is that the rules of North Korea policy are to be maintained. There will be no change in policy.”
Gyeong also warned against interpreting the calls for change in North Korea policy as representative of the party as a whole, saying, “They are just personal opinions, and cannot be interpreted as overall party opinion.”
