For the two Koreas, cautious steps toward rapprochement

For the two Koreas, cautious steps toward rapprochement

Edward M. Gomez
San Francisco Chronicle

It's going to be a lovefest!

Well, maybe not quite. (Can anything related to dour North Korea ever be fun?) However, the diplomatic tête-à-tête that officials from the cash-strapped, communist North and from booming, capitalist South Korea have announced they have scheduled in Pyongyang later this month may advance by a few steps the complex pas de deux the uneasy neighbors have been performing in recent years with the aim of maybe, somehow, someday putting aside their differences and reuniting.

Reuters/Pool photo, file photo

North Korean dictator Kim Jong-il (left) and South Korea's former president, Kim Dae-jung, met in Pyongyang in June 2000. Now it's South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun's turn (see photo below) to meet his big-haired, communist, northern neighbor

Yonhap, South Korea's primary news agency, recalls that the two Koreas "held their first summit in June 2000 between then [South Korean] President Kim Dae-jung and North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, leading to unprecedented inter-Korean rapprochement and reconciliation. But North and South Korea are still technically in a state of war because the 1950-53 Korean War ended in a truce, not a peace treaty. In the first summit, Kim Jong-il agreed to visit South Korea at an appropriate time, but has yet to make good on his promise."

Now, looking ahead, South Korea's current president, Roh Moo-hyun (Uri Party), is scheduled to meet North Korea's Stalinist-style dictator, Kim, for three days of talks starting on August 28. The heads of the national intelligence agencies of each of the Koreas, working behind the scenes, played key roles in setting up the forthcoming powwow.

What's in it for each side? North Korea could benefit from better relations with its prosperous southern neighbor, from which it would love to receive desperately needed aid of all kinds. South Korea hopes closer ties with the North may convince big-haired Kim to drop his big nuclear ambitions and dismantle his ominous nuke-development program. A statement issued by President Roh Moo-hyun's office said: "The second inter-Korean summit is expected to contribute to peace and prosperity on the Korean Peninsula. The talks will also provide momentum to settle the North Korean nuclear problem." Of the imminent Roh-Kim talkfest, the U.S. State Department observed: "This is the result of efforts and discussions that have been going on for some time, and the United States was advised in advance by [South Korea[ about this meeting...." (Yonhap; see also the Korea Times)

Japan's Yomiuri Shimbun reports that some political observers in the region "believe the two Koreas agreed to hold the [forthcoming bilateral] talks" because South Korea's Roh "wants to make a major political achievement before his term...ends in February, and because Pyongyang wants Seoul to continue after Roh its conciliatory approaches [toward] North Korea...." Roh's rapprochement efforts have not gone down well with all of his countrymen, however, and have cost him considerable popular support. Some of his political opponents have come out against his soon-to-be-held talks with Kim. In South Korea, a spokesperson for the Grand National Party said: "We oppose the South-North summit talks, whose timing, venue and procedures are all inappropriate....We have doubts over whether it is proper to hold the summit talks at this moment. It's highly likely a gambit to shake the presidential race and prevent a regime change at a time when the election is only four months away." (Yonhap)

AP file photo

Kim, out for a stroll with one of his generals and some soldiers from North Korea's Korean People's Army

In an editorial ("Summit of Folly"), the South Korean daily, Joong Ang Ilbo, observes: "The [Roh] government had denied any possibility of a summit meeting with North Korea, but this has now been revealed as a lie. The...meeting may record some positive achievements if North Korea agrees to give up all its nuclear weapons and programs. But a meeting could also create a dangerous aftermath that might threaten the foundation of our society....[T]his summit meeting inspires anxieties rather than expectations....In order to assuage these worries, [it] must produce tangible achievements. Otherwise, we will face a serious security crisis, because it will appear that we endorse North Korea's possession of nuclear weapons by holding a summit meeting."