The Marmot’s Hole

I’ll be updating this post as news comes in.

• OK, this is interesting. Kim Jong-il has reportedly asked President Roh to spend an extra day in Pyongyang. Roh responded by saying he needed to discuss it with his staff, but it looks like he’ll accept (UPDATE: Nope, he won’t, the press team in Pyongyang now report). Money Today (Korean) reports this might mean a joint “peace declaration” is in the making, including agreements on military issues that have held up larger intra-Korean economic cooperation projects. At the same time, however, the schedule this time around has been a mess with cancellations and delays, and Kim’s undiplomatic behavior — perhaps aimed at giving him control over the talks — has rubbed some the wrong way
• This is adorable — in order to get to netizens into the summit mood, the Ministry of Finance has created special skins, featuring President Roh and Kim Jong-il, for Naver blogs and Cyworld homepis. Here’s skin 1, skin 2 and skin 3 (there are three other ones for Cyworld). According to the ministry, some 4,000 netizens have downloaded the skins, which are the first ever to feature the North Korean leader. No word yet, however, on when the ministry will release its Stalin and Mao skins.
• President Roh and Kim Jong-il will jointly announce tomorrow morning whatever it is they agreed upon today.
• Let nobody ever call President Roh cheap. The South Korean president brought known film buff KJI some 150 DVDs of South Korean dramas and films. At the top of the list, of course, was drama “Dae Jang Geum” (starring the remarkably lovely and articulate but for-reasons-I-can’t-quite-explain annoying as hell Lee Young-ae) and, as mentioned here on this very blog, “D-War” (which should set intra-Korean relations back a decade). Also given were popular drama “Winter Sonata,” “Marathon,” “YMCA Baseball Team,” “Chihwaseon” (a fine film, I should say), “Radio Star,” “Hwang Jinyi,” and Lee Young-ae films “JSA” and “Sympathy for Lady Vengeance.” Kim is reportedly a big Lee Young-ae fan, hence the number of her works included. No word on whether “Tajja” was included in the gift basket. It would be nice for KJI to get some exposure to good Korean films, but the thought of him beating off to Kim Hye-soo is a bit too much for me to handle. Reuters also notes the irony of presenting the North Korean leader with DVDs that are illegal for North Korean citizens to watch.
• President Roh sat through the “Arirang” performance, but sadly, Kim Jong-il was unable to attend. Bummer.
• During lunch following the morning talks, President Roh said the two had made a firm commitment to peace on the Korean Peninsula, but there was a “wall of distrust” between the two Koreas:
  

  He said that Kim appeared to distrust the South on some points and rejected discussing issues of economic reform in the North and market opening, adding that developing mutual trust would take time and the South Korean people should be patient (Marmot’s Note: In other words, South Korean taxpayers should be prepared to keep the money flowing North, but expect very little in the way of actual change from Pyongyang).

  Roh added that there exists a perception gap between the two Koreas, citing as an example the Gaeseong Industrial Complex where North Korean workers are employed by South Koreans to manufacture goods.

  “We evaluate the Gaeseong Industrial Complex as a successful project and a good example of reform and an open North Korea, but that is just our perception. We need to respect the North’s view on this also,” he noted.

  Yonhap (Korean) discussed further the “distrust” and “rejection” mentioned by Roh. The North Koreans are apparently still under the impression that South Korea’s policy of engagement is essentially an anti-North Korean policy that aims to bring about the collapse of the North Korean system. Pyongyang has suspected this since the early years of the Kim Dae-jung administration; it’s why, for example, DJ stopped using the term “Sunshine Policy” in official discourse. About the Gaeseong Industrial Project, Roh explained that the North was unhappy with the slow development of the project.