Analyst: Seoul scandal may benefit North Korea-South Korea relations

SEOUL, Nov. 3 (UPI) -- A North Korea expert says inter-Korea relations could improve in the aftermath of a political scandal centered on South Korea's Park Geun-hye and her longtime acquaintance Choi Soon-sil.

Andrei Lankov, a professor of North Korean studies at Kookmin University in Seoul, told Russian news agency RIA Novosti the Choi scandal could prove to be a turning point.

Lankov, an author of numerous books on North Korea published in English and Russian, said in the short term little would change in North-South relations.

But as the "Choi Soon-sil faction" begins to be pushed back from a position of influence, inter-Korea relations could benefit from the development, according to the analyst.

Lankov said given the circumstances there is reason to believe Choi Soon-sil and her clique did intervene in South Korea's North Korea policy decisions.

People like Choi had an effect on the "abnormal and irrational" South Korean policy toward North Korea, Lankov said.

According to South Korean press reports, Choi may have been apprised of top-secret South Korean military information, including secret meetings between South and North Korean officials that took place three times in 2012.

Lankov has been critical of South Korea policy.

In an editorial last week in local newspaper Chosun Ilbo, the author of The Real North Korea had suggested Seoul's China policy overlooks the fact Beijing has an "unchanging" position on North Korea.

As president, Park launched a diplomatic charm offensive in China in an attempt to persuade President Xi Jinping to cooperate more fully with Seoul on North Korea denuclearization.

China has publicly denounced North Korea's nuclear weapons program but has also stalled on fully cooperating with the United States and others at the United Nations Security Council on new sanctions after North Korea's fifth nuclear test.

South Korea policymakers need to understand China fears heavy pressure may lead to North Korea collapse, and that China does not want a Korean unification by South Korean absorption, Lankov wrote.

The latter scenario is not desirable because it would mean for China an ethnocentric country in alliance with the United States on the Korean peninsula, the analyst said.