"We cannot afford a collapse of North Korea," a senior aide of the South Korean president said recently. "This is not like West Germany absorbing East Germany. And what happens if the North Korean state falls? A military government takes over, and the prospect of a last desperate war becomes very real." It will take considerable time before this thinking is understood, let alone appreciated in Washington. One problem is Kim Dae-jung, whose term expires in less than two years, simply does not have this time. There is one person who could help the beleaguered South Korean president out of the corner. This someone is the North Korean strongman, Kim Jong-il. It is high-time for Pyongyang to prove to the world, with practical moves, that it takes the process of inner-Korean reconciliation seriously. That would be the best Korean answer to the skeptics on the other side of the Pacific.
Ronald Meinardus is the Resident Representative of the Friedrich-Naumann-Foundation in Seoul and a commentator on Korean affairs.
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