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Tuesday, October 24, 2000

Euphoria in South Korea fading
for some as Albright visits North

By Jim Lea
Osan Bureau Chief

U.S. Secretary of State Madeline Albright arrived in Pyongyang on Monday, becoming the first American cabinet-level official to visit North Korea since the country was founded in 1948.

For many around the world, the planned visit with the North’s leader, Kim Jong Il is a happy development. Many see it as a prelude to ending the 55 years of acrimony between Washington and Pyongyang.

But in South Korea, concern is growing that the North may be following the path it has walked for years, pushing the South aside in favor of mending fences with the United States.

Euphoria reigned throughout the South in June when the first-ever, face-to-face meeting between the leaders of the two Koreas was held.

Many viewed the summit as an indication that unification of the peninsula was in the immediate offing, although the South’s president, Kim Dae-jung, cautioned against letting hope run too high. Unification, he said, could take as long as 30 years.

But events that occurred immediately following the summit bolstered the euphoria.

There was the first reunion in 15 years of families separated by the Korean War.

Then there were the first ministerial conferences held between the two Koreas in a decade. That led to agreement to restore cross-border rail service and the building of a four-lane highway through the heavily defended Demilitarized Zone. Discussions on economic cooperation also were begun and the two sides agreed to hold the first-ever meeting between their defense ministers.

Seoul and Pyongyang began exchanging 50 copies of each country’s major daily newspapers.

Recent actions by the North, however, have begun to erode the euphoria in the South.

The North has canceled the economic cooperation talks, at least temporarily.

The defense minister talks did not go as the South had hoped. North Korea insisted on talking only about the rail-link restoration and highway.

A family reunion planned for November will not be held. A Unification Ministry spokesman said such events take more than a month to organize, but Pyongyang has not supplied a list of reunion candidates it was supposed to give the South two weeks ago.

Cha Won-tak, a 70-year-old retired businessman in Seoul, said his hopes of ever seeing relatives in the North are crumbling. "I was elated and hopeful when they allowed the reunion in August, but now it looks like there won’t be anymore. The North is only playing with our emotions. I’m thinking now they’ve never been sincere."

The newspaper exchange was canceled by the North a week after it began.

Unification Ministry officials in Seoul say actions taken recently by the North could be the result of Pyongyang’s inability to deal with more than one thing at a time. "The North has proven in the past that it does not have the manpower necessary to promote exchanges with several partners at the same time," a ministry spokesman said.

South Korean President Kim Dae-jung has heralded Albright’s visit and the possibility of improved relations between Washington and Pyongyang as a step toward improved relations between the two Koreas and eventual unification.

Bae Gi-chul contributed to this report.