Roh Calls for U.S. to Guarantee N. Korea’s Security Ruling and Opposition Parties in War of Words Over Roh's Remarks

For the president's remarks to bear fruition, they demand that the United States abandon its rigid policy toward North Korea and come up with a new formula that may coax Pyongyang back to the negotiating table. It implies Roh’s intention of blocking the U.S. administration from tightening its North Korea policy in its second term.

From a practical standpoint, who would oppose a call to solve the nuclear problem through dialogue over force? The problem is how to carry out the bold initiative with such an unpredictable partner as the North.

The first hurdle is in successfully drawing Pyongyang back into productive dialogue. That the North has managed to incrementally heighten the crisis by reprocessing spent nuclear fuel shows how adept it is at leveraging pressure on the United States. How can Seoul and Washington get back on talking terms with Pyongyang after abandoning their own strategy of using pressure as a fallback hand?

The only realistic option in such a scenario would be to accept all of North Korea's demands - a scenario it is clearly gambling on. If the president is aware of an alternative formula he should perhaps inform our ally the United States, as well as the Korean people.

Dialogue and sublimated forms of international pressure were applied to Lybia to force it into abandoning its nuclear development program. President Roh's publicly-stated opposition to an embargo against North Korea, therefore, is tantamount to an abandonment of a negotiating tools with the North.

"No one can conclude that North Korea intends to develop nuclear weapons necessarily to attack a country or support terror," said Roh. The chief executive is not a psychological analyst. It is only the North Korean regime that is fully aware of its own agenda in developing a nuclear capability. History shows that any side that attaches itself to an enemy's intentions in terms of national defense or diplomacy has always suffered a defeat. President Roh's remarks that the North's nuclear capabilities are not being developed for offensive purposes will surely be echoed by North Korea in the near future. Given Roh's recent remarks, Seoul's understanding of the North Korean nuclear issue diverges greatly from the opinion held in Washington. If this is true, what benefit did the premier's speech bring just days before a meeting with his American counterpart? Such a sensitive issue should be kept as quiet as possible. President Roh nevertheless opted for provoking the United States - perhaps out of a desire to demonstrate to the incumbent administration's supporters back home that he is "capable of telling the United States whatever I want."

In a meeting with Korean residents in America, he said, "Because of the Peninsula's strategic location, the United States can hardly take its hands off (it), however disgusting it may be." The remark is inappropriate for a chief executive speaking on matters of national security that affect the fate of the country. So long as he harbors this perception, Korean-U.S. conflicts are likely to be further complicated, rather than get resolved. What on Earth are the staff of the president doing?