As I noted here, my feelings about the upcoming meeting between President Roh and The Dear Leader are unchanged.  The best outcome for this summit is that things remain as they are.  At worst Roh screws up momumentally and gives the staggering regieme in the North a new lease on life.  Roh's continual attemps at opening up the hermit kingdom have been a series of failures that have only given a mesure of undeserved legitimacy to the last of the Stalinist regiemes.  Yet the preparations for the summit go forward despite political turmoil at home and rapidly fading support from the public.

From the Chosun Ilbo: Taking the Roh Moo-hyun Show to Pyongyang

By Kim Dae-joong,

      An old saying has it that you can only do well and exercise your power abroad if all is calm and peaceful at home -- a lesson that a person from a noisy and dysfunctional home can’t accomplish much in society. The same applies to a country. If the leadership puts the country into turmoil with corruption and fosters a society whose members feud and clash, it cannot expect to be treated well abroad, nor can they acquit themselves well. It's impossible for such a country to conduct proper diplomacy.

      Many people watching President Roh Moo-hyun go to Pyongyang early in October will feel that way. A president with less than three months left in his tenure whose closest aides are being grilled by the authorities about corruption scandals; a politically sterile president devoid of a ruling party to lead, whose de-facto party is torn asunder: seeing such a president make a grand entrance in Pyongyang is rather pitiful.

      How will he sit down face-to-face with a self-confident man used to absolute rule? Will he have the nerve to say what he should, and reject what he should, with dignity as the representative of South Korea? Will he be able to act as a bulwark for the South's security and peace, its leader in reality as well as in name? The public is uneasy about that.

      Unfortunately, he keeps betraying public expectations. He ridiculed public hopes that the first point on the agenda of the inter-Korean summit should be the complete dismantling of North Korea’s nuclear facilities and weapons because that was like “provoking a quarrel.” That is incoherent babble from a person responsible for the security of the country.

      Sadly it appears that President Roh is posessed of the same need for peace at any cost that animated the other apeasers of history like Chamblin and Daldier.  His own words make it clear enough that he is far to willing to give up the farm for "peace" with a nation whose stated national policy is the destruction of the nation he leads.

From the Korea Herald: Glimpse into inter-Korean summit

      With only 10 days left before the second inter-Korean summit Oct. 2-4, a rough picture of President Roh Moo-hyun's schedule for his visit to the North is taking shape.

     The president's schedule, which has always been highly confidential, is expected to be announced at the last moment. Roh's possible activities during the inter-Korean summit include watching the North's ultra-nationalistic Arirang Festival and visiting the Gaesong complex to encourage workers.

     Unification Minister Lee Jae-joung said yesterday that Roh watching the Arirang performance together with North Korean leader Kim Jong-il could be a "message for peace to the world."

     Peace huh?  Just how is a nationalistic, jingo-istic anti-South Korean and anti-American display of total subversion to an oppresive regieme that starves its citizens while it spends what little it does have on A-bombs and luxuries for the elite.  Sadly delusion and stupidity aren't checked at the door when one gains high political office.  I would like to see this summit canceled in the wake of the revelations of what is going on in Syria, but that isn't likely to happen.  All anyone can do now is hope that some one on his team will keep President Roh's head screwed on straight and keep him from treading on his three peice set with the old golf spikes.

Posted by: raging tachikoma at 10:57 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 689 words, total size 5 kb.