Wednesday, September 28, 2005

Blood is thicker than water!

It is said that the policy of "containment" and that of "engagement" were both formulated by Washington in order to handle the North Korean affairs during the Cold War period.

To recall, President Truman adopted a policy of containment towards North Korea immediately in and around the time of Korean War. The South followed the policy.

President Nixon's engagement policy towards China saw the continuation of the policy of containment of the Republic of Korea a policy of containment towards its Northern brother.

Experts who have been closely monitoring the North-South relations since long opine that for almost two decades or so, the Inter-Korean relations swung into two extremes: the one of peak strains in their relations and secondly were also a period of "reconciliation".

Now with the advent of Roh Tae -woo's administration in Seoul, determinedly adopted a policy of "engagement" which is at times termed as "Nordpolitic"-North policy. He is said to have bagged comfortable success in this regard.

Seoul's success then could have, experts say, prompted the North to launch her own brand of engagement policy towards the Southern half.

Later Kim-Dae Jung propounded his "Sun Shine Policy" which envisaged and reinforced the policy of engagement with equal force.

At a later stage, US President George bush initiated a policy of "neo-containment" for he thought that the North did not fulfill certain international commitments. This implied that a sort of tough posture be adopted vis-à-vis the North.

This changed for the better when President Roh Moo-hyun took over the charge of the ROK. He is supposed to have rejected President Bush's policy towards the North for which some of his critics within and without criticized him of being "anti-American". His policy is, as the Koreans say, is "pro-Korean" and not the otherwise as is being made to understand. The presumption of President Roh Moo-hyun policy, admit Koreans, is guided by a desire for having peace and stability on the Korean peninsula. Some experts believe that President Roh's policy is not anti-American since the U.S too shares the same goal, along with all the other nations of Northeast Asia and beyond.

Talking to the CNN recently, the ROK President has spoken very mild words for the Northern half, which makes it, clear that though divided ideologically, the two halves still love and respect each other.

Admits Dr. C. Kenneth Quinones, the former North Korea Affairs Director, U.S. Department of State in one of his recent articles that, " engagement as now practiced by Seoul has restrained tensions, facilitated diplomatic resolution of numerous issues and most importantly, nurtured South-North reconciliation". He further says that because of South's sophisticated application of engagement with North Korea, peace and stability persist in Northeast Asia although tensions between the US and the North Korea have intensified since George Bush entered the White House in 2001".

But then yet the incumbent President in Seoul appears to have "convinced" his U.S counterpart to understand the existing "realities" and act accordingly. This appears to have worked in a much more visible manner.

Containment followed reconciliation, which is perhaps following appeasement and finally unification perhaps!

It is no wonder to observe then the Republic of Korea Ambassador Mr. Park Sang-hoon should all in his exclusively Korean traditional values matching with the policy acquired by his President in Seoul should talk in such a "friendly and cordial" manner with his "brother", the Ambassador of the Democratic Republic of Korea in Kathmandu. Talks definitely constitute "engagement".

Blood is thicker than water. This dictum has not been in use for nothing.

Seoul meets Pyongyang not only in China but in Kathmandu as well.