"Despite the domestic pressure on a solution of the kidnappings, Japanese government is hoping to rescue its bankrupting popularity through achieving diplomatic breakthroughs, such as normalizing ties with North Korea," said Professor Liou.
And he said that Tokyo hopes Beijing would assist and facilitate Japan's normalization of relations with Pyongyang. Professor Drifte notes that "Japan is the only country which has the money (or will have to pay) which North Korea needs", but a general feeling among analysts is that the normalization between Japan and North Korea would come only after that between the US and the latter.
The overall situation on the Korea Peninsula after the inter-Korea Summit is largely stable. But even President Kim Dae-jung himself reckons that the rapprochement in the Korea Peninsula needs to be a steady process and cannot be rushed through. Dealing with a highly unpredictable regime like Pyongyang, no one can be certain about the future. But as the achievements of KEDO and of President Kim's Sunshine Policy so far have shown, engagement, rather than containment, is the better option. South Korea does not have the capacity to absorb the North's stricken economy the way West Germany absorbed the East's.
Internationalization of the rapprochement in the Korean Peninsula-multilateral participation in KEDO, an internationally-endorsed `Seoul Declaration on Peace on the Korean Peninsula,' and membership for North Korea in various regional and global international organizations -- is the right and positive direction towards the eventual unification of the Korean Peninsula.
Wu Pei-shih (
RSS