Seoul plays tough with Pyongyang… kinda

(Since everyone here at the Marmot’s Hole is sick of posting on Nork denuclearization, I am taking one for the team here.)

It seems that the Roh administration is actually asking for some limited reciprocity from North Korea in exchange for all the aid it is giving them (Chosun):

Unification Minister Lee Jae-joung on Monday said Seoul will start sending rice aid to Pyongyang once North Korea starts meeting its obligations under a Feb. 13 six-nation agreement. He indicated the North can get rice aid if it honors just one of the requirements — shutting down its nuclear facilities in Yongbyon or readmitting inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency.

I don’t know if the Anti-Unification boys are doing this in order to look tougher in an election year, but at least they have taken a small step in the right direction.

4 Comments

  1. leguwan your flag
    Posted April 25, 2007 at 9:32 am | Permalink

    Maybe it’s another manifestation of the depressed versus the mentally ill?

  2. michael your flag
    Posted April 25, 2007 at 9:45 am | Permalink

    Well, the Unifiction minister talks tough (sort of) and yet S.K. already agreed to send unmonitored rice aid, so any demands will look toothless right now.

    Also, Uri Party officials are bending over frequently to service KJI with promises to cohost the 2014 Olympics (does S.K. even have that in the bag?) and appropriately, “Lee Hwa-young made a private deal with North Korean officials to build a W5 billion (US$1=W926) pig farm in the communist country.” So Pig Kongil can have some playmates.

    http://english.chosun.com/w21d.....40023.html

    It’s just a big lovefest between Uri and the norks.

  3. SomeguyinKorea your flag
    Posted April 25, 2007 at 10:50 am | Permalink

    I’m starting to wonder if the nuclear crisis was created to divert our attention away from the human rights conditions in North Korea. Think about it, if this wasn’t going on, we’d be demanding instead access for human rights inspectors. It would certainly put a damper on the NK/SK industrial park project.

  4. R. Elgin your flag
    Posted April 25, 2007 at 12:38 pm | Permalink

    Touche “leguwan”. That was wicked.

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