The U.S.-Japan cooperation is pressuring the South now along with the North. The U.S. deputy defense secretary and Japanese deputy foreign minister talked Tuesday in Tokyo and agreed that stronger measures to confront the North would be necessary if Pyongyang aggravates the situation.

That accord differs from Seoul's announcement that the two leaders at the South-Japan summit talks agreed on the principle to resolve the North's nuclear crisis via peaceful and diplomatic measures. Japan has already started to observe all North Korean ships, and the United States is hurriedly trying to establish an international cooperative system to impose "selective restrictions" to check the North's shipments for narcotics, counterfeit currency and nuclear substances.

Even in such an urgent situation, the South Korean government is clinging to the principle of solving the problem peacefully. But it is important to present practical measures and visions to solve the problem peacefully. President Roh's remark that the two nations at the South-Japan summit talks agreed to reject all measures excluding dialogue, if true, would put the South in a more difficult situation. The South agreed to the possibility of "further steps" at the South-U.S. summit talks, and seems to now be backsliding.

The United States and Japan could enforce policies to pressure the North without Seoul's consent. The biggest problem is that the South Korean government is not confronting the situation seriously. June 11, 2003