(EDITORIAL from the Korea Times on May 29)

Peninsula in Peril
All Sides Should Regain Calm, Return to Dialogue

Military tension between the two Koreas has been escalating lately to its highest
point in a decade-and-a-half. In a way, the situation could be even more
dangerous now than in 1994 when South Korea was not aware of the reported U.S.
plan to preemptively strike North Korea's nuclear plant. These days, Seoul seems
poised to not only endorse but encourage such U.S. action in retaliation against
any provocations from the North.
Looking back over the past six months or so, it is certain Pyongyang has provided
most of the causes for this sorry ??? and perilous ??? state of affairs. The
Stalinist regime should have waited a little longer for the new U.S.
administration to sort out its priorities in global strategy, however urgent its
domestic situations, including Kim Jong-il's failing health and resultant power
transfer, were.
Caught off guard, the Barack Obama administration seems annoyed than embarrassed,
shifting its weight of policy from benign neglect to tougher sanctions. By so
doing, Washington is also moving from the denuclearization to non-proliferation,
recognizing Pyongyang as a nuclear power.
One can raise two points in watching the whole development. First, has Seoul been
informed of this U.S. policy shift at major junctures amid repeated U.S.
assurances of a watertight alliance with South Korea? Second, going further back
to one-and-a-half years ago, would Pyongyang have behaved the same way had the
Lee Myung-bak administration inherited its predecessors' policy of engaging the
isolationist regime?
Few could answer these questions with certainty. One thing that is for certain,
however, is both North Korea and the United States appear to be going according
to their respective schedules, either active or passive. Unfortunately, it is
difficult to say the same about Seoul. The Lee administration has no fixed
schedule or even its own plans in dealing with Pyongyang, except for the
knee-jerk pledge to hit back at any strike from the North.
From North Korea's ??? and some neutral spectators' ??? standpoint, Pyongyang
thinks it has fulfilled its commitments concerning the six-party denuclearization
process, complete with the demolition of a nuclear cooling tower, but South Korea
and Japan failed to deliver the fuel oil supplies they agreed to provide. It also
believes the other parties also demanded written verification guarantees at an
earlier phase than called for in the 2007 agreement.
These are points of contention to be discussed and settled through dialogue, but
all contacts with the North have been cut, just months after the Lee
administration took office.
It's as if the appearance of a hard-line administration in Seoul has brought
about the emergence of hawks in Pyongyang, which in turn has enhanced the
position of the conservative U.S. policymakers and commentators.
As things stand now, there is no end in sight to get out of this dark tunnel of
escalating tension ??? until rather some military conflict of a limited scale
might occur. Most tragic wars started from rhetoric to develop to perception,
regional dispute and to an all-out one. Only those who remain calm and cool can
break this chain reaction. Sadly, Seoul seems neither able nor willing to do so.
(END)