NORTH Korea has indicated it would be prepared to follow Hong Kong's 'one country, two systems' policy to peace and reunification with its southern capitalist enemy, the Sunday Morning Post has learned.
Diplomatic sources confirmed that North Korea's Foreign Minister, Paek Nam-sun, made the remark at a private gathering in New York on the fringes of the recent United Nations General Assembly.
'It was a remarkable statement in many ways. No one had expected it,' said one source at the meeting at the Council on Foreign Relations that included US State Department officials, businessmen and academics.
Another US observer, explaining that participants of the gathering had agreed to secrecy, said: 'It might not amount to a hill of beans in the long term, but it is a significant start.' It is not yet clear how North Korea believed such a system could be set up or whether it would be accompanied by any political or economic openness to ensure stability.
Even so, Mr Paek's remarks went far beyond a speech to the assembly that warned of ongoing confrontations between Seoul and Pyongyang.
He voiced continued suspicions that South Korea's 'Sunshine Policy' - economic engagement before political ties - was really an attempt to force change in the North.
He said the 'reasonable' way forward involved 'national reunification fairly and smoothly on the basis of preserving each other's ideas and systems as they are'.
