Korea Update, House of Commons, 8 July 2010

Report by Michael Rank

The Chairman of the AKS, Sir Stephen Brown, welcomed guests and the speakers, the South Korean Ambassador to London, Choo Kyu Ho, British Ambassador to Pyongyang Peter Hughes and the British Ambassador to Seoul, Martin Uden. The North Korean Ambassador, Ja Song-nam, was also invited but did not attend. Our host for the evening was Simon Hughes MP, who was unfortunately delayed due to urgent parliamentary business.

Martin Uden was the first to speak, opening his remarks by noting how successfully the South Korean economy had weathered the global crisis, with 5.9% GDP growth forecast and inflation of 3%. He attributed much of the country's success in defying the downturn to the government's role but he noted that voters did not seem grateful and that President Lee Myung-bak's Democratic Liberal Party suffered serious losses in recent local elections. However, Mr Uden said this was far from disastrous and he noted that mid-term elections often go badly for the ruling party, not only in Korea. He also noted that the Republic of Korea will take the chair at the G20 summit in Seoul in November, and this was a first for a non-G7 country.

Climate change is another area where South Korea and Britain have been in close cooperation in the run-up to the Seoul summit, Mr Uden added. He noted that the UK had contributed three experts to the committee investigating the sinking of the Cheonan naval vessel. He said their investigation had been "thoroughly scientific" and had proved beyond doubt that North Korea was responsible for the incident, in which 46 South Korean sailors died in March.

He said it was important not to view China and India as the only emerging powers and stressed the importance of countries including South Korea as nations which would play a crucial economic role in the 21st century.

Peter Hughes said he had been ambassador in Pyongyang since late 2008, and the sinking of the Cheonan had resulted in the greatest tension between the two Koreas for a very long time, especially along the DMZ. He said North Korea continued to deny all responsibility for the sinking, and this meant there was little chance of reviving the Six- Party Talks, which have been suspended since December 2008. He said that in strong contrast to South Korea, the North Korean economy was continuing to deteriorate and the currency redenomination late last year had caused further political and social uncertainty. The reform had been aimed at curbing the power of the new mercantile class, but it had not been successful and there were continued signs of significant social unrest. The reform had been followed by the appointment of a new premier in June, further clouding the political outlook.

Mr Hughes said there were regular reports of food shortages, with a late spring harvest, but there were no reports of starvation in cities like Chongjin, as occurred in the 1990s. Against this background, the 10th anniversary of UK-North Korean diplomatic relations had been "tense at times but we remain engaged." The embassy was a channel for direct communication and of viewing conditions on the ground as well as of supporting a number of small NGO projects, Mr Hughes added. He also noted that there are British Council teachers at three North Korean universities and several groups of North Korean teachers have come to the UK for English-language training.

Choo Kyu Ho noted how South Korea had become one of the world's richest nations while North Korea was still mired in poverty, and said poverty reduction worldwide was now one of his country's top priorities. The aim was "to give back to the world what we have gone through" through a threefold rise in development assistance by 2015, he said. The Republic of Korea was also active in peacekeeping missions worldwide, including Haiti and Afghanistan, and was spending 2% of GDP on combating climate change, reflecting the importance it attached to this global problem. He underlined his country's firm response to the Cheonan sinking and said it was crucial that North Korea should not get away with such a heinous act with impunity. It was essential to the government of the Republic of Korea and to the world community that "North Korea must pay" for this crime, he added.

A lively and wide ranging question and answer session followed the presentations. The ambassadors were asked what were the chances of talks resuming on reunification, as North Korea has demanded. There was agreement that this depended on North Korea changing its stance, renouncing its nuclear ambitions and accepting responsibility for the sinking of the Cheonan, although there was no sign of this happening. There was also a discussion of China's relationship with North Korea, and Beijing's support at the UN for a resolution condemning its nuclear bomb test was seen as encouraging but also a reflection of the fact that China has little control over North Korea. China's overriding concern was stability in the region, and while it viewed the bomb test as threatening that stability, it regarded the Cheonan affair as posing much less of a threat and that was why it has refused to condemn Pyongyang for the sinking. There was also discussion of how much information about North Korea was available to the embassy in Pyongyang that was not available elsewhere, given the extremely closed nature of the North Korean regime. On the Southern side, the justification for the Four Rivers Project was questioned on environmental and other grounds and defended in terms of economic development.

Sir Stephen concluded the evening by thanking our host, Simon Hughes MP, and congratulated Sylvia Park the Events Secretary of the AKS, for all her hard work in organising and making the event an outstanding success for the Society.
 

More pictures from the evening Click on the images to view the gallery

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