South Korea and US hand in hand for 'political show'

Edited and translated by Huang Beibei, People's Daily Online

On the world political stage, every activity under the spotlight is a carefully orchestrated show. The Republic of Korea's President Park Geun-hye started her first overseas trip for the United States from May 5 to 9 since she took office. In this "show", the Korean peninsula issue has become the focus of attention of the audience.
　　
Show toughness

Recently, North Korea has significantly reduced the hard-line rhetoric, and began to talk about a dialogue with the United States. CNN even reported that the Democratic People's Republic of Korea(DPRK) has two missiles removed from the launch pad, and think that move signals that DPRK's attitude is softening. In this context, during the ROK President's visit to the United States, the situation on the Korean peninsula will be the focus.

In the evening of May 5, 2013, Park Geun-hye said ROK is to maintain a strong deterrence against DPRK, and not afraid of any provocation, at the same time it opens the door to dialogue if North Korea will stop its provocation and choose the right path, the ROK will starts" North-South common development."

During the presidential campaign last year, Park Geun-hye brought up "Korean Peninsula confidence-building process" and her trip to the DPRK in 2002 also makes the outside world looking forward for her contributions to peace on the peninsula. However, with the developments of the peninsula issue, after taking office, her concept of "mutual trust politics" turns into " two-track "policy toward the DPRK, combining putting pressure and dialogue, on the one hand, strong commitment to fight back any military provocation by the DPRK, on the other hand, called for North-South dialogue and exchanges to build mutual trust and ease tensions. Such an attitude is vividly described by USA Today website article as "carrot in one hand and big stick in the other".

During her visit to the United States, Park Geun-hye shows a tough stance on North Korea on various occasions. In an interview with CBS, she noted "North Korea provokes a crisis," Park continued. "The international community imposes a certain period of sanctions. Later it tries to patch things up by offering concessions and rewards. Meanwhile, Pyongyang uses that time to advance its nuclear capabilities... Uncertainty prevails." She declared, "It is time to put an end to this vicious circle."

Read the Chinese version: 韩美首脑会晤：牵手表演"政治秀"Source: People's Daily Overseas Edition; Author: Zhang Hong

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