South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun yesterday walked through Panmunjeom in the Demilitarized Zone as he headed toward Pyongyang to attend the second Inter-Korea summit. It was also the first meeting of South and North Korean leaders in seven years. Apparently it was Roh's last big political stunt before leaving office, but it remains to be seen what achievement the summit will deliver.
The governments of both sides had extensively promoted the summit's historical significance before it convened: It would establish a peace mechanism on the Korean Peninsula, start an era of common prosperity and help realize the eventual reunification of Korea, they said.
Instead of striving for the improvement of North-South relations, Roh seemed to be taking advantage of the summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-il to boost sagging support for his presidency and to stimulate the ruling party's support base ahead of the presidential election in December. Of course, if the summit could gain as much international attention as the Inter-Korea summit did in 2000 -- for which former South Korean president Kim Dae-jung won the Nobel Peace Prize -- it could help wipe all Roh's domestic and diplomatic failures from the public's memory.
Kim Jong-il, of course, counts on the wishful thinking of Kim Dae-jung or Roh Moo-hyun. Being visited by a lame-duck president has no meaning for the future. But when the fat sheep comes knocking at the door, the lion would be crazy not to open its mouth. So Kim Jong-il agreed to talk, but he didn't want to talk about nuclear weapons or human rights. What he wanted to talk about was economic cooperation and aid. He managed to squeeze major economic benefits from his opponents who are desperate for a summit to scoop up political benefits.
Stability on the Korean Peninsula and unification of the two Koreas is only propaganda to fool the public and the international community. After the first summit between Kim Dae-jung and Kim Jong-il, the situation on the Korean peninsula did not become safer. North Korea was still working hard on the development of missiles and nuclear weapons, which was why six-party talks followed between North Korea, South Korea, China, Japan, Russia and the US.
The process of halting the six-party talks was manipulated by Kim Jong-il. Although Pyongyang agreed to close down its nuclear reactors, it is highly unlikely that the paranoid North Koreans will follow up on the promises they made during the talks and give up their nuclear aspirations.
If North Korea were to sincerely lay a foundation for peaceful unification in the Korean Peninsula and honor the international community's demands to shut down its nuclear facilities, then it should have already reached an agreement with other states in the six-party talks.
Unfortunately, it has all turned out to be the other way around. As a result, there are no high expectations for the summit. It is being held because South Korea needs something from North Korea. But this is just Roh's wishful thinking, and Kim does not expect much from Roh's North Korea visit.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou (
Wherever one looks, the United States is ceding ground to China. From foreign aid to foreign trade, and from reorganizations to organizational guidance, the Trump administration has embarked on a stunning effort to hobble itself in grappling with what his own secretary of state calls “the most potent and dangerous near-peer adversary this nation has ever confronted.” The problems start at the Department of State. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has asserted that “it’s not normal for the world to simply have a unipolar power” and that the world has returned to multipolarity, with “multi-great powers in different parts of the
President William Lai (賴清德) recently attended an event in Taipei marking the end of World War II in Europe, emphasizing in his speech: “Using force to invade another country is an unjust act and will ultimately fail.” In just a few words, he captured the core values of the postwar international order and reminded us again: History is not just for reflection, but serves as a warning for the present. From a broad historical perspective, his statement carries weight. For centuries, international relations operated under the law of the jungle — where the strong dominated and the weak were constrained. That
The Executive Yuan recently revised a page of its Web site on ethnic groups in Taiwan, replacing the term “Han” (漢族) with “the rest of the population.” The page, which was updated on March 24, describes the composition of Taiwan’s registered households as indigenous (2.5 percent), foreign origin (1.2 percent) and the rest of the population (96.2 percent). The change was picked up by a social media user and amplified by local media, sparking heated discussion over the weekend. The pan-blue and pro-China camp called it a politically motivated desinicization attempt to obscure the Han Chinese ethnicity of most Taiwanese.
The Legislative Yuan passed an amendment on Friday last week to add four national holidays and make Workers’ Day a national holiday for all sectors — a move referred to as “four plus one.” The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), who used their combined legislative majority to push the bill through its third reading, claim the holidays were chosen based on their inherent significance and social relevance. However, in passing the amendment, they have stuck to the traditional mindset of taking a holiday just for the sake of it, failing to make good use of
RSS