US President George W. Bush demanded Friday that the countries of the world either join with America and its allies, or be labeled as potential terrorist supporters. President Bush’s demand is in short a declaration that the US is moving towards a new policy of strictly dividing the world into friends or enemies, from the post Cold War economic pragmatism and quasi isolationism.

This declaration means that the maps of international politics will be redrawn along the lines of a global anti terrorist alliance led by the Unite States and its opposite, a terrorist network. Countries in Europe, the Middle East and Asia are now forced to reply to this new policy with either a yes or no, despite the fact that there are many shades of answer, such as full support, partial support, reluctant support or no support. At the moment, so long as the US is determined to punish only terrorist organizations and their supporters, and not wage a war on Arabs and the Islamic religion, the majority of countries will find it difficult to produce an excuse or justification to respond negatively.

How will this affect the Korean peninsula? To begin with, North Korea is still on a US list of terrorist supporting countries, and so a key point will be how Pyongyang is viewed in light of Bush's statement that "From this day forward, any nation that continues to harbor or support terrorism will be regarded by the United States as a hostile regime." The government should closely study this point before dealing with it. If the North is included in this category, it is a concern whether the current optimistic sunshine policy can coexist along with the US's strong anti terror world order.

So far, the government has tried to view South-North relations as a so-called "national issue," a strange internal and defensive definition. As a result, an openly anti American campaign has been promoted in Korean society without consideration of the government. It will be worth watching how President Kim Dae-jung will manage the traditional Korean-American alliance and his sunshine policy in a situation where the US has pledged to fight all forms of terror.

(September 22, 2001)