I think the S. Korean opinion on being shut out of the 1994 agreement was correct - They had virtually no say in the deal the US cut during President Carter’s trip, but SK and Japan had to pay for much of it. I wouldn’t have liked that if I were in those governments….

Next, I find the typical Korean thinking that the nuke issue is an American thing very annoying. If you go back over the issue in the papers, you will see a stark contrast between the first month or so and the rest.

The first stories came out as Kim Dae Jung was winding down his presidency, and the stories were strong in saying, “South Korea will not be shoved aside this time! We will not sit by and let the US dictate an agreement we then have to pay for with our having no say!”…

But not long after North Korea said it would only talk to the US and very publicly told South Korea to shut up about the nukes at a couple of well publicized meetings on other things, the tone CHANGED dramatically —-

They decided to go along with North Korea in how it wanted the nuke issue solved rather than keep losing face with the North and rather than making the (seemingly) difficult change in the sunshine policy.

The government and the media quickly dropped the “SK must have a voice at the table” and started writing about how the US needs to drop its hardline policy and negociate with NK (alone) “because it is millions of Korean lives at stake — not Americans” (Roh said this directly in the run up to the election).

But, I have to admit the idea Kim Dae Jung had about the usefulness of the six party talks is right —- the reason why I kept telling all the nay sayers 1-on-1 talks were not a good option was because the best the US could probably hope for is to get China and South Korea to commit to firm reprecusions the next time the North breaks the deal.

Of course, the chances of success are very low, but nobody wants to talk about alternatives. So what can Kim say?

China and SK (and some in the US) don’t want to risk a collapse in the North much less military strikes against it.

And the US is unwilling to play the bad guy and twist China and SK’s arm to get them to twist the arm of NK enough to either faciliate a collapse or force them to fullfill a real agreement.

I think the US should be more aggressive in telling SK and China that they will greatly damage their bilateral relationship with the US if they can’t help us much on an issue that everybody agrees greatly effects us all.

But I haven’t seen a sign of the will to do this in the US at all…

Happy new year. Sometimes it’s hard to see the difference between Hankyoreh and the Nodong Shinmun. I’ll never forget (or forgive) Hani’s editorial after 9/11 in which in effect it said America deserved it.