Park proposes inter-Korean exchange centers in Seoul, P`yang

The presidential candidate of the ruling Saenuri Party on Monday pledged to set up inter-Korean exchange and cooperation centers in Seoul and Pyongyang to improve bilateral relations with North Korea.

Park Geun-hye also proposed a national security office to serve as a control tower for foreign and national security policies to further suppress North Korean provocations. Her plan is to strengthen inter-Korean exchanges while suppressing Pyongyang’s attempts to launch military aggression.

In a news conference at the party headquarters in Yeouido to announce her diplomatic, national security and reunification policies, Park outlined her vision for the eventual integration of the two Koreas. She pledged small-scale reunification by making the peninsula an economic community after the North goes nuclear-free based on mutual trust, something she promised to work hard on if elected president.

Named “Vision Korea Project,” her plan will have Seoul help Pyongyang attract foreign investment by establishing infrastructure in electricity, transportation and communications. Park also said she will pursue a greater reunification through political integration as an ultimate goal after economic consolidation. “I will meet the North Korean leader to facilitate inter-Korea relations,” she said.

Yoon Byeong-se, head of the diplomacy and security policy coordination office for Park’s election camp, said she is not interested in an inter-Korean summit for the sake of showing off, but is willing to talk to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un regardless of location or formalities.

Park said, however, that she will tolerate no provocations by North Korea like the 2010 sinking of the South Korean naval ship Cheonan or the shelling of Yeonpyeong Island the same year. "Any provocation over the Northern Limit Line (the de facto inter-Korean sea border), which has been defended with the blood of our soldiers, shall be met with massive retaliation," she added.

Park also proposed a “Silk Road Express” linking the two Koreas, China, Russia, Central Asia and Europe by connecting railways across Korea, China and Russia.

egija@donga.com