Standoff between South and North Korea

Right wing talking heads and journalists in Washington are on the qui vive when it comes to the divided Korean peninsula. Especially worrysome is the new cold war of words between Seoul and Pyongyang, which they see as a North Korean ploy to put a wedge in the spokes of Washington's relations with South Korea, thereby forccing the US to choose between its long standing ally and Kim Jong il. Well, this standpoint has an odd logic to the like of the Heritage Foundation and the American Enterprise Institute for example, but it is a big pill to swallow hold. What may give it urgency is that these neo cons for the most part, are out of Mr. Obama's loop, and so a lot of second guessing is going on. Let's look at the lay of the land, as North Korea threatens to close the border at the 38 parallel on 1 December 2008, and the effects of the revived 'cold war' between Seoul and Pyongyang. Trouble lay ahead with the election of Lee Myung bak as South Korea's president. He campaigned on a get tough policy towards the North, Once in office, he dismantled the 'Sunshine Policy', cut off fertilizer shipments to the North in the face of a growing food crisis and imminent starvation of North Koreans; he engaged in a Bush like policy of moral posturing and verbal threats unless the North bent to his demands. This strategy may have played well in Washington, but it didn't in Korea. Furthermore, one had to wonder whether Mr Lee had an understanding of North Korea, or the slightest hint of face among South Koreans. With the absence of Kim Jong il and the questions about his health, Mr. Lee's policy has encouraged groups to send by balloon pamphlets denoucing the North's Dear Leader; this has not gone over well at all, if anyone needed to be told. It has raised the North's temperature and with anger came the bluster of warlike words. Looking from the South, the killing of a tourist last spring at Kumgangsan brought no apologies from Pyongyang. As a result the North Korean resort has gone downhill since visitors from the South have steadily declined. And so we have a shaky standoff which Mr. Lee has let deteriorate and has tried to use to his advantage. However this has backfired, for if North Korea closes the border crossing, the South's free trade zone at Kaesang will suffer and have to close down, and in the face of the growing recession which has bitten large into Seoul's export economy, this is bad news. Now let's turn our attention to US South and US North Korean relations. One, the newly elected president Barack Obama has already sent a message reaffirming US' support and traditional friendship to Mr. Lee. Korea is not at the top of his agenda. As for US North Korea relations, president Bush has perced the enflamed abcess of long standing grievances as to Yangbyon and the nuclear question, by taking Pyongyang off America's list of terrorists states, thus opening the path for North Korea to tap the world's capital markets to repair its economy so on and on. American neo cons viscerally hate North Korea so that they see one under every bed as though the spirit of America's witch hunters could smell a 'Commie' a kilometre away. Well times are changing despite the scare tactics and wild scenarios of theirs. And more likely than not, Mr. Obama will stay away from this madding dispute between South and North. Mr. Lee began a fight which he cannot win, and that's the simple and plain truth.