By Andrew L. Jaffee

…[South Korean President] Roh has not given any specifics about what he will propose or seek [during his visit to North Korea], prompting criticism from conservatives at home that the summit is an ego trip for the South Korean leader to establish a legacy for his unpopular administration, which ends in February. …

- AP, 10/2/07

I too see Roh’s visit as a cynical PR stunt. (Of course, this “summit” was set up on North Korea’s terms). In an ominous twist, “Both Roh and [North Korean dictator] Kim also hope to keep the surging conservatives from winning South Korea’s December presidential election.” If Roh can find such common cause with Kim, a Stalinist megalomaniac, then there’s something terribly wrong with the South Korean president. Fearless Leader Kim has already poured cold water all over the North/South summit, giving Roh a “chilly” welcome. After today’s opening ceremony for Roh, Kim has “showed scant enthusiasm and seldom smiled.” As a further slap in the face to the South, Kim won’t even meet with Roh today, instead letting his deputy “deal with the South Koreans for the rest of the day.”

Good thing that cooler heads are prevailing in South Korea:

… [The] surging conservatives … hold a commanding lead in opinion polls [for South Korea’s December presidential election]. The main opposition Grand National Party is more skeptical of relations with the North, insisting aid be conditional on nuclear disarmament and reforms in the country’s centralized economy.

Before people go rushing to urge “dialogue” with North Korea, there are several facts to keep in mind:

1) Two to three million North Korean citizens have starved to death because their government spends more money on weapons per capita than any nation on earth (see also here).

2) North Korea is one of the most repressive regimes on earth, yet it has little to be threatened by. China is its ally. Russia is selling weapons to China, and wants to sell them to the North. Kim’s father started the Korean War by invading the South. Japan invade North Korea? Hardly (unless you’re into conspiracy theories). Does the North need to fear a democratic South Korea bent on reconciliation (and a good deal of appeasement)?

3) Democracy blossoms in South Korea. It is the world’s 11th largest economy. A recent nighttime satellite image of the Korean Peninsula showed North Korea totally dark, while South Korea was glowing with light. South Koreans aren’t flocking north, but North Koreans flee to the south by the thousands every year.

4) Previous dialogue (appeasement) between the Clinton administration and North Korea only encouraged its pursuit of nuclear weapons. According to Colin Powell:

Because the last time we had a bilateral negotiation with the North Koreans, it resulted in the Agreed Framework, which bottled Yongbyon so that no weapons came out of Yongbyon for another eight years, but it left the capacity to develop weapons in place at Yongbyon; and while they were doing that and we were watching that, before the ink was dry on the Agreed Framework, the North Koreans had started to move in another direction to develop the same kinds of nuclear weapons that we thought we had capped at Yongbyon. We’re not going to fall into that trap again.

It looks like the Bush administration may well be falling into that trap as today the U.S. “approved a tentative deal for North Korea to disclose all its nuclear programs and disable its Yongbyon atomic plant.” Why believe Kim Jong Il… again… especially after his not-so-subtle snub of South Korea’s peace overtures today?

See related:

• Basic North Korea Facts
• All North Korea Coverage

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Related: Dictator Watch, North Korea, Pure Politics

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