North Koreans want talks with South to form anti-US alliance

[DuctapeFatwa]

North Korea has called for talks with South Korea to plan for reunification and pool resources for a joint struggle against the United States.

Top officials from the Communist Party and the government set the agenda for "energetically pushing forward the movement for national reunification this year" at a meeting in Pyongyang on Monday, North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency said.

Preparatory meetings were proposed for Pyongyang, Seoul, Mount Kumgang, a South Korea-operated tourist resort in North Korea, and other locations between officials from North and South Korea "to pave a wide avenue for independent reunification through national cooperation," KCNA said.

http://sg.news.yahoo.com/040120/1/3hdsg.html

[youngred]

1. very very interesting

the south just might bite on some of this

[LeftPeopleFinishFirst]

2. wow.

another result of our really crappy foreign policy.

[Don Claybrook]

3. He really is a uniter, isn't he?

Unbelievable.

[54anickel]

16. In a way he is. Tick off enough people and you become the common

enemy. The enemy of my enemy....

It's a round about way of uniting people, and unfortunately we will be the island with no one to unite with but what the hey. Can hear his speach of how he helped to unite the Korea's thru the threat to the Norths nukes and our troops intimidation of the South.

Can't ya feel the love? I can just hear Shrub singing the old Coke jingle - I'd like to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony....

[chester2003]

4. Do you really think the South Koreans want to join with the North?

We gave the north Koreans 4 billion dollars in the 1990's to stop developing nuke's. They secretly went ahead and developed them. They starve their people and build a military to stop an imaginary invasion threat. The south Koreans aren't dumb enough to want to join with their enemy of 50+ years.

[youngred]

6. not out of love

but they hate the US right now, they've been trying at reunification for decades but the north has always said no. with that and anti-us sentiment going strong in the south they just might

[youngred]

7. since you edited after my reply

allow me to expand.

The South Koreans have been engaged in the Sunshine policy for most of the last decade with the express and sole goal of REUNIFICATION. It is something they want a LOT. The North has decided to step out of its traditional role as the "hermit kingdom" and is using existing sentiments in the South to its advantage. Do remember that the South Korean *people* hate the US right now for its military presence (US troops have raped women off base, have accidentally run over and killed Koreans and they don't like accepting US demands because of the military presence).

The other power players in the Area would likely be for this. Japan which is terrified of a militarily armed North would hope for the South to provide a calming and rationalizing effect on the North. China would love nothing more than to see N Korea get out of its pocket (yet always remain in their nominal control).

[argyl]

13. They may be enemies now,but they were kinsmen for millenia.

[TreasonousBastard]

5. Whao!

The day before SOTU?


Gonna keep those speechwriters up all night.

[Bridget Burke]

8. The speechwriters can handle it....

It's the Speach Reader who might have a problem. Don't you know he's been rehearsing his great oration for some time now? Any late changes might cause a problem....

For Clinton's 1994 SOTU, an old speech was fed into the teleprompter. He went ahead with it until the mistake was corrected.

[Just Me]

9. Hmmmm,...I see a world against "imperialism",...

,...hard to tell what the outcome of this particular endeavor will be but it sure as hell is one of the thousands slashes against the neo-con imperialistic agenda, huh *LOL*!!!!

[bemildred]

10. I would not be surprised if this gets a positive response. nt

[chenGOD]

11. I just dunno which part about this post and it's replies is funnier...

That people would actually
A) believe anything that comes out of the KCNA
B) believe that there is a strong anti-US movement here in South Korea
or
C) believe that the majority of South Koreans think of the North as "the enemy".

Here's how much that statement from the North actually means: ZERO. NADA. NILCH. ZIP.


edit for spelling.....

[Snow]

14. Take care, my friend.......

you're representing yourself as an expert on Korean politics and popular sentiment, when it may be you're another blind man feeling the elephant. I agree with your point A, although their unreliability doesn't mean they always lying. Straightforward to check other sources.
Point B you're saying is laughable? I'd like you to expand on that a bit, since it's contrary to my admittedly limited experience.
Point C - I dunno - could use some expansion as well. I think there a a number of people in South Korea who fear the military of the North, don't you?

Statements from the North are often gamesmanship, but not meaningless. This is a very complex country, not possible to describe quite as succinctly as you just did.

[demdave]

15. I'll give it a try

While I am not an expert on the DPRK I have followed their progress, or lack thereof, under Kim Jong Il.

1. I read the KCNA http://www.kcna.co.jp/index-e.htm daily. I really like their 1950's American gingoisms. Some of the more entertaining features are the anecdotes about President Kim Il Sung's immortal exploits, such as visiting a mountain pasture and having all the flowers spontainiously bloom for him. I am sure the relentless reporting of gift fruit baskets from foreign dignitaries sits well with the starving masses.

2. I have known and currently am in daily conversations with several South Korean students. I have found nobody that thought they could trust Kim Jong Il. None of them had the least desire to live under his control and that of the Workers' Party of Korea. When asked about popular support in SK I am consistantly informed that nobody over the age of 30 and only a misguided few college age people show any desire to join the NK in starving to death to prove that Kim Jong Il's Workers'Party of Korea is a success.

3.The North Korean's aren't the enemies of the south any more than the East German's were the enemies of the west. It is the government that is the real terror. Many SK have relatives that are trapped in the north.

The South Koreans are'nt blind or ignorant. They have other sources of info and news besides state run news, unlike the NK. They travel abroad for education and entertainment. They see the real world. Why in the world would they want to live like the North Korean's do?

[Snow]

17. Of course they don't want the North's system,

that goes almost without saying. But, they can still be anti-American, and with good reason, in my humble opinion. A large barrier to reunification that I've heard is the economic cost - the southerners watched the reunification of Germany and its attendant costs with close attention, since south korea has solid ties with germany. That really worried them, since at that time a) the South was not as prosperous as Germany b) the North was tons poorer than East Germany. It's a problem.

But your points are well-taken:
1) The cult worship and rabid anti-americanism are really weird. Okay, the anti-americanism isn't really weird - it's a common technique of dictators to keep things under control - scary external villain.

Having said that, I knew a man a fwe years ago, now very old, a physician who was from Kim Ilsung's home village & went to school with him, etc. Used to visit him regularly until his death, and really liked him. I suspect that was limited perspective to a degree, but still - we get propagandized, too.

2) Totally right - and i hear the same thing from Koreans I know and am related to.

3) also totally right - you have only to watch the scenes of the reunions on tv news to get a very poignant example of this.

Your final point is good, but I hope you realize that being anti-american doesn't mean being pro-North Korea. I remember a conversation I had with a man who lived in a fairly isolated spot, but who was still very politically sharp. He was a Buddhist monk in a small temple in south Cholla province. We were just sitting talking, and he commented that Koreans felt a lot of sympathy for the Vietnamese people (this was in 1972). I asked him why, and he said because both countries were occupied by the american military. So that antipathy has been there a long while....and reasonably so, IMHO.

[chenGOD]

18. And a good try it was....but you miscontrued my words greatly

1. Ok we both agree the KCNA is about as reliable as FOX news.

2. I live in Seoul, and have been here for 6 years. I have taught a wide range of people from professors to businessmen to college students and so on down to kindergarten. On of my colleagues is a Russian PhD in Korean studies who organizes tours to North Korea. So he's had some experience in living under communism. He's told me that North Korea is a big market right now. Everybody is trading and buying and selling, just not to outsiders. It's gonna come down to South Korean companies vs Chinese companies. Noweher did I say that South Koreans want to live in North Korea, so I don't know where that statement of yours came from... A lot of the Koreans I know around my age (30ish) don't think of North Korea as anything but a seperate country. Not the enemy, not Koreans, but a different country.

3. The North Korean government is a big mix of hard-liners and not-quite-so-hard-liners. The first group wants to stick stictly to juche while the second group would like to try some of the Chinese style reforms. To say that the whole North Korean government is a terror is a bit misleading...



The only way to solve this problem is through dialogue and increased trade. Once the North Korean leaders see how much money they can make through capitalism, they'll want to jump in early to retain their positions of power.


Oh yeah and Snow: I'm no expert and would never claim to be one. I do feel I'm in a bit more of a position to comment on this though, due to my location....

[Snow]

19. Good - and I'm glad you commenting -

your first post wasn't so much comment as flat statements with no real elaboration. Not very interesting, and likely to raise hackles amongst the other Korea hands here at DU. It sounds like you've got your ear to the ground pretty well - I like your Russian source especially - but I'm sure you're aware that teaching English in Seoul (sorry if I assumed wrong about what you're teaching) can be a different kettle of fish from even the rest of Seoul, let alone the rest of the country. My little brother did the ESL schtick in Seoul for something over ten years, enjoyed it thoroughly, but admits it's a limited world. So all our viewpoints might come closer to what's going on. My own suspicion is that the North doesn't have nukes & isn't even close, much like what the Chinese are saying, but like to rattle the West.

[demdave]

20. I never tried to speak for you, and excuse me if you thought so.

I was merely sharing some of my own experiences. Have fun in Korea.

[donsu]

12. all the countries should ban together against the criminal bushgang

nt