October 02, 2007
Kim, Roh Meet, But To What Effect?
Not far from the demilitarized zone that divides North and South Korea are gigantic signs facing the north, beckoning the oppressed citizenry there to come to the other side, "where life is happy."
If the Bush administration is frustrated at Seoul's seeming dearth of anger toward its northern neighbor, this is why: The north-south divide between the Koreans, one of the world's most homogenous people, is to this day a gaping hole in the national psyche. Some South Koreans are haunted by long-lost relatives who wound up stuck on the wrong side of the 38th parallel. Others, particularly those too young to remember the war, are sick of what they increasingly view as American paternalism and want the Koreas to sort out their affairs for themselves.
That's among the reasons lame-duck South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun has embarked on his first-ever visit with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il, the object of so much scorn and ridicule elsewhere in the world. A little paunchier and with fewer curls in that famous coiffure, Kim was on hand to greet Roh in Pyongyang today, despite previous announcements he wouldn't meet with his visitor until later.
Buoyed by the North's softening on its nuclear program, Roh seems intent on coming away with results, whether it's a step toward officially ending the 1950-1953 war or another guarantee Pyongyang is dropping its nuclear program. But the time for a "sunshine policy" toward the north, a bane of both the Bush and Clinton State Departments, may be coming to an end.
South Koreans have long viewed Kim as the crazy uncle who lives far away, and up until recently they thought his threats harmless. North Korea's testing of a nuclear bomb last October seemed to change that, along with Pyongyang's ongoing refusal to open that country up to humanitarian aid workers. South Korea remains one of the Dear Leader's primary benefactors in food, fuel and other aid, yet North Koreans continue to starve and labor in prison camps en masse. Seven years since Kim met with then-President Kim Dae-jung and millions of dollars in aid later, South Korea has little to show for its sunny attitude.
All this begs the question of what Roh is doing up there in the first place. The former human rights lawyer has disappointed a nation so weary of corruption at the top that the conservative Grand National Party is all but assured a victory in elections later this year. Roh spoke grandiosely about reunifying the peninsula earlier, and it seems something to that effect -- a joint statement pledging peace, perhaps -- is what he's after.
"The Korean people have suffered too much pain because of this border line and development has been deterred. I'm now crossing this forbidden line," he said, having gotten out of his armored vehicle just before it reached the border. "More people will follow me on this overland inter-Korean trip. Then this forbidden line will gradually disappear. The barrier will collapse."
He and the first lady crossed the border on foot.
The GNP favors a tougher stance on its northern neighbor, which recently has been accused of sending nuclear technology to Syria. South Koreans too may be wary of taking on the burden of reunification, with all the economic and infrastructural challenges that entails. And more may be viewing Kim as Washington does -- a menace on the world stage.
The six parties negotiating with North Korea have drawn up a plan by which its main nuclear facilities will be shuttered this year. Forbes reports that Roh bestowed the Dear Leader with "a 52-inch liquid crystal display television and 150 movies." (Some readers may recall that Kim's famous love of movies led him to kidnap a famous South Korean director and his actress wife to make movies glorifying his regime.) Unfortunately for Roh, the gifts may violate U.N. sanctions on North Korea. BusinessWeek's Dexter Roberts is traveling with the few foreign reporters inside North Korea to cover the historic summit.
Posted at 6:43 PM
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Asia, Bill Clinton, Bush Administration, North Korea, Nuclear Weapons, President Bush, South Korea, Terrorism
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