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President Roh Moo-hyun on Tuesday told Korean residents in Mongolia he will meet Kim Jong-il ¡°anytime and anywhere¡± and talk about anything he wants. ¡°We'll make many concessions¡± if that happens, he said, and offer unconditional institutional and material support. "North Korea seems to be concerned about Korea-U.S. combined forces exercises.¡± He added. ¡°In a sense, it may just be trying to be provocative, but there may be many reasons" why the North should be concerned.
The presidential remarks on the inter-Korean summit break with his earlier principle that any summit can happen only after the nuclear arms issue is resolved. Why has that principle now been abandoned?
Taken at face value, the president's remarks call for an inter-Korean summit come Hell or high water. But the president's "unconditional" offer of talks gives Kim Jong-il no good reason to meet with a president in the waning half of his tenure, or only if the South pays an enormous price, and the people are not in the mood to accept such a transaction. Some pundits speculate that the chief executive was aiming to consolidating his support base ahead of the local elections at the end of the month. If that was the idea, the president has grossly misjudged the voters' minds.
The international community, under the leadership of the United States, is choking North Korea on accounts of its human rights record, currency counterfeiting and other crimes. Some say Seoul's unmonitored aid to North Korea helps maintain the Kim Jong-il regime. Yet our president says he will go in the opposite direction to the world trend. His inclusion of the Korea-U.S. combined force exercises in the list of concessions suggests he is deliberately resisting Washington.
How will other countries respond to the president's Korean-style prescription for the North Korea question? The U.S. and Japan will undoubtedly be cool toward it. Nor will China welcome it. Perhaps now that North Korea is isolated, the president thinks it is a good time for the South to go the same way so the two can seek solace in each other¡¯s arms. It's a strategy for the ¡°one nation" to stand apart from the international community.
Suppose all goes according to plan and the president does meet with Kim Jong-il. Nothing will be resolved when they smile and shake hands for the cameras: not the nuclear program, not the illicit activities, not the human rights abuses. What on earth can have possessed the president when he made the remarks?
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