From the land of the morning calm...

One of the books I picked up again recently is Martin Hart-Landberg's Korea: Division, Reunification, and U.S. Foreign Policy. It's a shockingly angry, heavily-researched work on how U.S. foreign policy has prevented a peaceful relationship between the two Koreas for the sake of American economic/political benefit. Without the long citation of government documents and authorized sources, even I would have to dismiss it as an angry isolationist book. But it's not. One can't deny a State Department document deeming Korea to be a U.S. enemy because its people opposed U.S. occupation just as they had opposed the Japanese occupation.

According to Washington Post: Bush, S. Korean Leader Differ on N. Korea. President Dubya and President Roh of South Korea met to discuss North Korea and possible options for disarmament talks.

The Bush administration has appealed to both China and South Korea to do more to persuade Pyongyang to rejoin the talks and has hinted that it might seek U.N. sanctions if the reclusive communist regime continues to pursue nuclear arms.

But South Korea, which is in the process of improving ties with the North, has taken a softer stance, shows little enthusiasm for going to the U.N. Security Council, and opposes a military option.

Can you only guess why these countries would be EXTREMELY CAREFUL in dealing with their North Korean neighbors? Hm, let's see... they are both adjacent to an alledgedly nuclear-weapon-producing country. If that doesn't spell out "CAUTION," I'm a Republican.

Hm. They stressed the importance of unity, according to The Korea Times:

Experts assessed the message from the Roh-Bush summit as "positive" for the peaceful resolution of the longstanding nuclear impasse, saying it has heightened expectations for the North’s return to the negotiation table.

Roh and Bush, in the meantime, also tried to show a sense of strong unity between the allied powers, which have experienced a tough course of negotiations in the past couple of years on several thorny issues regarding their half-century-long alliance.

I generally want the U.S. to play a minimal role... mainly cuz I feel that its call for disarmament of North Korea is so hypocritical and despicable. But I wish President Roh and his administration the best in dealing with this issue. Ahhh. My book on North Korea should be arriving soon, along with the rest of my AP Government reading.