North Korea Attacks South's President

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/02/world/asia/02korea.html?_r=1&ref=world&oref=slogin
by choe sang-hun

Summary

This article was about how North Korea has turned against South Korea once again. North Korea has said that South Korea’s new President, Lee Myung-bak is a traitor and that with his policies that it will affect the international efforts to end the North Korean Nuclear Weapon Program. Because of this dispute, Lee is to have a meeting with President Bush on how to deal with North Korea. North Korea at the time has been making some steps in putting the blame onto Washington and putting Lee into an uncomfortable spot. Recently the North has said that there might be some naval skirmishes with the South and that they plan on turning the South into “ashes”. The South’s new president is now in a tough situation, and knows that he must get tough with the North to solve this problem. Lee has proposed an offer to the North, that he will give them an income of $3000 a year within 10 years, which is a large step from their $500 a year if the North does not use their nuclear program anymore, if they do not except then he will reduce economic help. However, North Korea thought it was too low. Now there has been six-nation talks about North Korea and it dismantling its program. Many people are getting the impression that Lee is a weaker president, not showing the South’s role in the denuclearization process.

Reactions

- This article relates to the theme Impact of interaction among and within major societies. This could definitely fit this theme because it is all about the disputes between North and South Korea, and how it is affecting both sides.
- North and South Korea have been against each other for a long time. After World War II the Soviet Union and the United States occupied the north and south parts of the Korean peninsula. The two rivals established their own governments in their occupied area. This is what caused both halves to split, the communist north and the capitalist south. For years they have been butting heads with one another, one major even was the Korean War, when the north attacked the south.
- The author of this article, Choe Sang-Hun is a Korean journalist. This fact would give the reader a better understanding on what is going on in that part of the world since Choe is from there and is experiencing and hearing these things. However, there is some bias shown in the article, and so one can conclude that Choe is from the North. This is seen from some of the explanations of things. For example, Choe clearly described the South’s new president as being very weak, and was aggressive towards the South as well, giving one the impression that he was from the North.
- I would have liked to hear more from the U.S. and their perspective on this issue. The U.S. has been sucked into this dispute among North and South Korea. Is what’s happening in the Korean peninsula going to affect us much? Knowing how the U.S. is reacting to this can help one understand how this situation is affecting us internationally.
- When I read this article, it reminded me of learning about our own history, the Civil War. I do not think that it is a healthy thing for one country or nation to be split like that; we can see from our own history the issues that it has caused. I also don’t think that the North’s approach is very professional. It seems a bit immature, using propaganda to bash the South’s president and all of a sudden after eight year of peace threat to attack the South. Isn’t there an easier way to deal with the situation? A compromise or a deal that can be made?