From wharms@soback.kornet.nm.kr
Date: Tue, 24 Sep 1996 17:07:58 -0900
From: Bill Harms 
To: moogoonghwa@UCSD.EDU
Subject: KT Editorial on US policy

[Korea Times Editorial] U.S. Policy on Provocations

96-09-21 15:56:11

``We wish all parties would refrain from taking further provocative
actions.'' This remark was made at a news conference Thursday by U.S.
Secretary of State Warren Christopher on the infiltration of an estimated 26
North Korean agents into South Korea aboard a submarine. Unless the
secretary of state made a slip of the tongue, the terse comment is hard to
understand. 

The wording, ``all parties,'' indicates both South and North Korea.
Christopher should have urged North Korea to stop further provocative
actions. By saying ``all parties,'' however, Christopher failed to condemn
the North for committing the grave transgression. Besides, his statement
even suggested that he was urging the South, as well as the North, to
exercise restraint as if the South was going to retaliate with some form of
military action. 

Even if it were a slip of the tongue, the statement by the top official in
charge of foreign policy of the strongest country in the world will invite a
great deal of misunderstanding and generate widespread controversy. 

Later, a State Department spokesman said that Christopher was ``certainly
referring to North Korea'' and that he was warning Pyongyang against further
provocation. The spokesman's statement suggested the State Department
realized a mistake had been made. Christopher's statement, whether
deliberate or not, smacks of a sort of equidistance policy towards the two
political entities on the Korean peninsula, and this is a distinct possibility
judging from recent developments involving Washington and Pyongyang. 

So far, Seoul and Washington have taken different stances on the issue of
food assistance to the flood-stricken North. Now, for the United States,
which is bent on improving relations with the reclusive country, the incident
could do great harm to its program to soothe the belligerent Stalinist
state. The Clinton administration does not want the incident to inflame the
situation on the peninsula in the run-up to the Nov. 5 presidential election. 

One of the brilliant diplomatic feats of the Clinton administration has been
the pact with Pyongyang which required North Korea to mothball its suspected
nuclear weapons development program. To help Clinton win the coming
presidential election, the U.S. administration has to keep the North Korean
nuclear weapons program frozen. 

So Washington does not want the heightening of tension on this peninsula and
therefore it has avoided any action that it thinks will provoke the militant
North. In other words, the United States seems to wish that South Korea will
continue to play its part in the construction of nuclear reactors for the
North by providing its technology, materials and money, and furnish
humanitarian aid for it no matter what provocative action it
commits against the South. 

As testified by the infiltration of armed agents, Pyongyang's traditional
policy of communizing the South by military force remains unchanged even
under its current economic difficulties. This policy is independent of such
other policies as seeking to attract foreign investment for the development
of the Rajin-Sonbong free trade zone at the moment and improving relations
with the United States. 

As far as policy on North Korea is concerned, mutual understanding and close
cooperation are essential between Seoul and Washington which are bound by a
treaty that provides substantial obligations to help each other in
maintaining their national security. The two allies should seek to reach a
consensus on all major issues, first of all respecting any one side's
assessment of the situation regarding its security. 

Washington is advised not to evaluate the current situation on the peninsula
on the basis of its domestic political considerations. A short-sighted North
Korea policy by any chance affected by presidential campaign strategies will
put a crimp in the peace-keeping efforts. On the part of the Korean
government, more diplomatic efforts to help Korea's neighbors and other
foreign countries gain a correct understanding of the Korean situation is
necessary. 

The United States is called upon to clarify its stand on the incident by
stating its determined opposition to such adventurism bordering on insanity.
A noncommittal attitude will only encourage the militant communists to
continue with their provocative acts.






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