From JMcDona@fcref.org
Date: Tue, 24 Sep 1996 09:18:23 -0400
From: Jamie McDonald 
To: "'moogoonghwa@ucsd.edu'" ,
    "'POBox95@aol.com'" 
Subject: RE: Another Setback.....

>---------
>From: 	POBox95@aol.com[SMTP:POBox95@aol.com]
>Sent: 	lunes 23 de septiembre de 1996 20:27
>To: 	moogoonghwa@ucsd.edu
>Subject: 	Another Setback.....
>
>Bill Harms (?) said:

Actually, that was me.

>But it seems to me that while reunification is favored by a significant
>percentage of the electorate in the ROK, President Kim Young Sam seems
>to be giving it only lip service (justly so, in my opinion).  Is this
>an accurate perception?

----------------
>The government of S Korea has been giving lip service for some time. 
>For
>decades and still today, while poisoning the climate with a National
>Security Law 

While I don't know much about the National Security Law, isn't President
Kim taking the most sensible path by adopting a "wait-and-see" attitude?
 How is the ROK supposed to "reach out" to the North when the PDRK is
slighting ROK in the Rajin-Songbong investment deal, running operations
(as I think we have to call the sub incident) illegally both in the DMZ
and even into S. Korea, etc?  It seems naive to think that President Kim
should attempt unity with an unpredictable communist government that
consistently proves itself the aggressor.

>the south claims to want friendly relations.  The south capitalizes
>only on high-visibility opportunities to look like the friendlier of
>the two sides by making big media events out of rice shipments to the
>north and the such.  

I think the gifts given to N. Korea *despite* its provocations were more
than just media events.  I was surprised that *any* country outside of
China gave relief to a country that is running itself into the ground --
all the while decrying the governments of the nations who now are
rushing free food to them.

>Kim fatalistically waits to see what will happen up north--hoping that
>starvation will cause implosion rather than explosion.  Either way, the
>results will be disastrous--and shameful--for an unprepared south.

Why is that a fatal move?  The ROK has provided aid.  With the armed
intervention of the North this month, how can they be expected to
continue that aid?  It seems the smart thing to do at this point.  The
ROK knows it can count on the US and most of the rest of the UN for
support in defending itself from the  north, so why not sit back and
wait for the government to collapse -- which is what must happen before
any realistic chances for reunification can arise?  It worked for West
Germany.
>





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