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Breaking the Korean ice

TIME now for more cheer on the Korean front; yet, with a note of caution: there are the imponderables. For a start, however, it would look as if North Korea’s Dear Leader, Kim Jong Il, is courting peace: peace with the West and peace with his neighbours. And, adding a new fervour to this momentum, his South Korean counterpart is playing along.

If the past three months have been a period of intense activity on the Korean front, the results have been impressive. First, it was the holding out of an olive branch from the US side. Pat came the reciprocation, with an announcement three months ago by North Korea of the decision to shut down its sole operating nuclear reactor at Yongbyon. Two days ago came a new fillip: the Beijing declaration, about Kim’s offer to disable all of North’s nuclear facilities and fully declare its nuclear programmes in another three months’ time.

Fresh evidence of Kim’s good intentions is seen in the way he hosted a summit with his South Korean counterpart, the first ever such meeting between the two heads of state. The summit opened many a closed door, and is topped by an agreement to craft a new peace treaty between the two Koreas, replacing the contentious 1953 cease-fire document. A prime minister level meeting between the two sides is slated for next month, to be followed by more summits in the months ahead.

The ice is broken. Perhaps. For, Roh Moon-hyun is already a lame-duck president. He is politically in deep trouble back home, and is essentially seizing an opportunity for performance. Elections in South Korea are just two months away, and chances are that his conservative rivals will upset his applecart. However, the unity cause being so dear to all Koreans and the region as well, there cannot but be continued momentum to what Kim and Roh have set in motion. More so, as both China and the US, the big behind-the-scene players in the region’s defence build-up and proxy war, are involved in the ongoing six-party peace initiative.

With the two Koreas promising to build bridges, both sides would eventually stand to benefit. The South has technology and industrial prowess, and is part of the developed world. The North, that lacks them, have cheap labour, and land at low prices. Which was why, some top industrial houses took the initiative in the much-publicised Korean family reunions, a process that had begun in the year 2000 that so far has benefited some 18,000 families split by the Korean War and its aftermath. The emotional bonds between the two sides are there for all to see. That’s reason why, Roh or no Roh, the North-South engagement will continue if Kim is in a responsive mode. It should, for the region’s well-being and to reduce the threat perceptions there. A new front for peace is opening up, hopefully.