A North Korea expert says the NL, pro-Pyongyang forces that infiltrated campuses and academic circles, have concentrated on education and propaganda since the 1980s democratization movement following a time in hiding under the military regimes. Now, he says, they are reasserting themselves on the back of Seoul’s "sunshine policy" and a new mood of nationalism. Recently, too, a retired general involved in a drive for a veterans body to counter the Korean Veterans Association proudly revealed that his father was a member of the South Worker’s Party of Korea, while a protester at a rally against the MacArthur statute reportedly shouted, "Yes, I'm Red. What are you going to do about it?"

Prof. Kang’s remarks are symbolic of that whole climate. The pro-North Korean forces now have nothing to fear if they come straight out. "The next step will be terror against conservative and rightist forces that goes well beyond bullying," a conservative academic predicts.

North Korea’s new-found confidence is being fueled by moves in the United States, which is fed up with the anti-American sentiment in the South, to deal with Pyongyang directly. The U.S. mainstream was shocked when it heard that Koreans, whom they believe they helped in the hour of need, cite America as the greatest threat to Korea's security.

They did not experience the Korean War, and do not want another war even if it is to thwart a nuclear threat. The anti-Bush camp there say it would be more helpful for the resolution of the nuclear dispute and improvement of human rights in the Stalinist country to engage North Korea directly. That atmosphere is being put to the test in the current round of six-party nuclear talks in Beijing, the Washington Post says. An expert on inter-Korean relations said Pyongyang’s goal at the six-party talks is to have the DPRK fully recognized by the U.S. and other countries.

The U.S. has often been disappointed and dismayed by demands from Seoul that America "restrain" itself on North Korea whenever occasions presented themselves, and by Seoul’s attempt to take the credit for the resumption of the six-country talks. Once South Korea's leftist forces position themselves at the top of the country's political establishment, the Seoul-Washington relationship will slacken further and U.S. influence in Northeast Asia will dwindle. Again, that may motivate the U.S. that trying to resolve the nuclear standoff and the human rights issue through a direct negotiation with the North is more effective than going via a recalcitrant South.

If the Kim Jong-il regime goes on the political offensive against Seoul and Washington by cashing in on these favorable developments, it could put all of South Korea, and its traditional and conservatives forces in particular, in a corner. Their position, it must be said, is not helped by revelations of a clandestine bugging operation by the security agencies and resulting tapes revealing the collusion between big business, the media and politicians.

But it is a fantasy that it would contribute to security on the Korean Peninsula and peaceful coexistence if North Korea took advantage of this mood, as the pro-Pyongyang forces would have us believe. We need only to listen to North Korean defector Kim Tae-san, who said the only way for North Korea to survive its structural food and power shortages “is eventually to get a hold over all of South Korea -- that is Kim Jong-il’s innermost aspiration." That these developments are taking place even as North Korea’s dismal human rights record and its desperate economic plight and food shortages are exposed to the glare of world attention is one the great historic ironies.