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(LEAD) Gov't sets official English name for N.K. policy
By Shim Sun-ah
SEOUL, Aug. 26 (Yonhap) -- The government has officially set the English name for its trademark North Korea policy as "the policy of mutual benefits and common prosperity," officials said Tuesday.
The Korean name for the policy was announced in late July but its English translation had remained undecided.
"We decided to fix an English name for the policy because there have been many different translated versions," Kim Ho-nyoun, spokesman for the Unification Ministry, the top Seoul office on North Korea, told reporters.
He said the name was chosen because it best suits the government's policy of pursuing a relationship of co-existence and co-prosperity with the North beyond the current phase of reconciliation.
The government aims at a firmer inter-Korean reconciliation than its two liberal predecessors, seeking to bring tangible benefits not only to the North but to the South as well, officials said.
President Lee Myung-bak pledged during his election campaign to help the North triple its per capita gross national income to US$3,000 if it abandons its nuclear programs and opens itself to the world.
The so-called "Vision 3,000" program is now part of Lee's broader North Korea policy, officials said.
Relations, however, have worsened since the inauguration in February of the conservative Lee, who also pledged a tougher stance towards Pyongyang. Relations further soured after North Korea shot dead a female South Korean tourist while she was vacationing in a mountain resort in the communist state on July 11.
South Korea suspended the tour immediately after the incident, demanding the North take "sincere measures" towards uncovering the truth. The North has refused to cooperate and has blamed Seoul for the death.
Lee said in a speech marking Korea's liberation day this month that he still expects the North to return to the dialogue table to pursue economic cooperation with the South despite the chilled relations.
sshim@yna.co.kr
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