The status of North Korea's Asia-Pacific Peace Committee, the quintessential agency dealing with South Korean affairs, has markedly diminished due to the sluggish Mount Kumgang tourism project and the North's strained relations with the United States, with its leadership being replaced by a younger generation, according to North Korea watchers in Seoul.
Beginning in June 2000 in the wake of the landmark North and South Korean summit talks, the committee has nearly completed, in the latter half of last year, transferring its functions involving South Korean businessmen and civic relief organizations to the National Economic Federation and National Reconciliation Federation, respectively. Only a few South Korean private aid organizations - the National Mutual Assistance Movement and Peace Motor Car, among them - still conduct their activities in the North through the committee. The Korean National Welfare Foundation, which until last autumn contacted both the committee and the National Economic Federation, has since been engaged in North Korean activities through the National Economic and Reconciliation Federations only, said the foundation's secretary-general, Kim Hyong-sok.
A source, who visited Pyongyang last month, attributed the waning influence to Hyundai's delayed remittances due to the lackluster Mount Kumgang tourism business and worsened North Korean relations with Washington following the September 11 terrorist attacks in the United States. "Peace Committee officials who have led relations with the South seem to have lost ground because of strained Seoul-Pyongyang relations affected by the aggravated North Korea-United States relations," said the source. "Peace Committee officials have asked us to render them encouragement," said another.
The Peace Committee was learned to have closed its Beijing office in the autumn of 2000, and completely withdrawn to Pyongyang its irregular delegation to Beijing in April last year, signs of its reduced status.
The dull Mount Kumgang tourist project is said to have put committee Vice chairman Song Ho-gyong into hot water. He assumed the helm of relations with the South in recognition of his successful role in materializing the tourist project, as well as his immediate subordinate officer chief Hwang Chol. As regards the fate of Hwang, reputed as a real power behind the scenes in Pyongyang's relations with Seoul, a source speculated, "Since Hwang was last seen publicly in Pyongyang last November, we haven't heard of him. This seems to indicate that some changes have taken place about his position." Another source said, "I've heard that Hwang has been removed from the Peace Committee."
Vice Peace Committee chairman Kim Wan-su is learned to be at the helm of affairs with the South now. As far as projects with the South are concerned, he is said to enjoy the deeper trust of Kim Jong Il, than committee chairman Kim Yong-sun, who is concurrently Workers' Party secretary in charge of South Korean affairs. A generational reshuffle has recently taken place in the committee leadership involved in relations with the South, according to North Korea watchers here. Vice Chairman Kim Wan-su, in his 60s, is assisted by office chief Choi Sung-chol and councillors Kwon Ho-ung and Yang Jong-mo, in their 40s, or 50s. Choi, in his capacity as a North Korean Red Cross Society standing commissioner, represented the North at the inter-Korean Red Cross talks. He is internally known as a man "who risks his life to fulfil his duties." Councillor Kwon Ho-ung, whose alias is Kwon Min, dictated Pyongyang's strategy at the 5th and 6th rounds of inter-Korean ministerial talks held in Seoul in last September and in Mount Kumgang in November.
Some predict that the Asia-Pacific Peace Committee will remain as an agency externally controlling and adjusting the North's affairs with the South despite its diminishing functions and role, while others raise the possibility that the committee will be replaced by a new agency, to be created under the jurisdiction of the Unification Front Department of the Workers' Party Central Committee.
(Lee Kyo-kwan, haedang@chosun.com)
