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The Korean Peninsula: Thaw or Permafrost?
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19076 |
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Section : |
CURRENT ISSUES
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| Issue
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1 / 1991 |
6,635 Words |
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Joseph C. Goulden, a veteran Washington writer, is director of
media analysis for Accuracy in Media. |
The World & I: Do you think the reunification of Korea is possible?
LUGAR: It is certainly possible, and the South Koreans decided to pursue this as a major point of President Roh Tae Woo's policy agenda indicated in a recent address in which he said that this would be the dominant theme of the remainder of his term of office.
Clearly the initiatives that he has taken, some of which have been responded to by the North Koreans, have indicated a political will on his part to take some risks. But I would say the thing I am struck by most is the fact that the North Korean government appreciates that its maintaining control depends upon staying in a time warp.
The degree of insulation from outside activity is certainly a paramount consideration, and therefore, some of the elements that have been present for previous unifications by countries that have come together clearly are not present here, namely, there is not a common television, radio, newspaper, or even very much human traffic; in fact, there is very, very little.
And the few attempts [like] the president of Hyundai's visit there to try to set up some tourist traffic foundered fairly rapidly. I think the leadership of North Korea saw the implications of even that limited enclave of people coming through.
The breakthrough at this point still has to come at some major entry into that society, some ability for a people in North Korea to measure what is going on in the rest of the world. It is our ability to be part of that.
W & I: Moscow's establishment of diplomatic relations with Seoul, China's trade with South Korea, and Japan's initiatives toward North Korea indicate major international policy shifts in Asia. Is the United States moving too slowly in bettering relations with North Korea?
ALLEN: Not in my view. I think that U.S. Pacific Basin policy over the course of the last decade is one of the great unheralded successes, and also unclaimed. It's unusual for administrations to fail to lay claim to achievements, but certainly that is one of many accomplishments of the last decade.
I think we've had, by and large, over the last 20 years a farsighted Pacific Basin Policy that urged countries
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