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Opposition leader clarifies comment on `sunshine policy`

Opposition leader clarifies comment on `sunshine policy`

Posted July. 06, 2011 06:47,   

한국어

Main opposition Democratic Party leader Sohn Hak-kyu said Tuesday, “The Democratic Party has been using a Korean Peninsula peace policy as the solid framework of its North Korea policy since the Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun administrations.”

“I once again reiterate that North Korea policy meant to induce the North’s opening and reform is the sunshine policy of engaging the North,” he said in China in a KBS radio address of political party chiefs.

Sohn’s move to clarify his position to inherit the sunshine policy of engaging the North is seen as his attempt to dispel controversy within his party triggered by his comments on a “principled engagement policy.”

Speaking to South Korean correspondents in Beijing Monday, Sohn also said, “South Korea should hold dialogue, exchanges and cooperation with North Korea, yet former President Kim Dae-jung took a stern position against the North’s aggression in the inter-Korean Yellow Sea battle.”

“This is the basic principle of the sunshine policy. What I said (principled engagement policy) should be taken and accepted in this context.”

Certain members of the opposition party’s leading faction apparently continue to doubt Sohn’s position, however. The reason is after Sohn said “The sunshine policy is not a panacea” only to face a flurry of criticism last year, he sought to conduct damage control just a day later by saying, “The sunshine policy is the Democratic Party’s undisputed North Korea policy.”



surono@donga.com