President Roh Moo-hyun has agreed with the leaders of China and Japan to set up a high-level consultative body to coordinate dialogue on global and regional issues including the North Korean nuclear weapons program.

http://english.kbs.co.kr/news/.....2007011408

Was it an inadvertent typo/ error on your part, or a subtle bit of sarcasm? At first I thought the former, but now — I’m not so sure. After all, technically, the two “no’s” cancel each other out, leading to what some would regard as the “perfect” diplomatic doublespeak.

This may get off-track in a big way, but English ain’t algebra. The double negative is just fine with writers from the Rolling Stones to William Shakespeare.

According to an opposition party member’s estimate just a few weeks ago, well over a billion dollars. As he was saying, North Korea won’t come cheap because it would be the second…and it knows all too well that Roh dearl needs some good press before he leaves office.

What are South Koreans in the North going to do? Place flowers in honor of Kim Il Sung?

Actually - yeah - that is exactly what the guy is talking about.

The summit isn’t going to happen. If it does, it will show the North really isn’t as sophisticated at analyzing the outside world as many (including myself) believe it to be.

Pyongyang has thrown Roh almost no bones to play with over the years. If it wanted to turn the South Korean government, it would have done more for Uri over a period of years to prevent it from being in the very sorry state it is in right now. If NK were to suddenly change course and throw the doors open for Roh and crew, not only would it probably not work, it would make them look foolish for going about it in a non-productive manner.

The only way Roh could pull off a summit, given the record in not helping Uri Kim JI has shown, is to have an incredibly big pay off, and that won’t happen. If Kim Dae Jung’s payoff became known even after the euphoria of the first summit - if the sea-change in South Korean thinking and desire to feel wonderful about the 1st summit - did not lead to a cover up of the pay off, there is zero chance Roh trying to send the amount of aid necessary to buy a 2nd summit isn’t going to be publicized even beforehand - and that would torpedo Uri. Not only would those guys lose another election, it would anger the society enough to throw many of them in jail, including Roh.

If Uri had half the smarts that Pyongyang has shown over the years in manipulating outsiders, they would drop this summit talk altogether.