The charm offense

The Korea Times

The Korea Times

Opinion

Bernard Rowan

The charm offense

Posted : 2014-10-14 17:08

Updated : 2014-10-14 17:11

By Bernard Rowan

So, dear friends of Korea, North Korea's latest charm offensive is distinctly lacking in charm. The recent surprise visit by three high-ranking Pyongyang officials at the end of the Incheon Asian Games was mostly insincere. This ploy was a test simply to see South Korea and its allies' willingness to engage diplomatically. Let this call for talks fade into the archives of fake overtures.

Mind you, Koreans and friends of Korea should not lose sight of the need for unification. The division of Korea's people and society is a monstrous sadness. The North's ideological relics of the Cold War and its personality cult are a defense shield for dysfunction. The wasted financial and human capital needed to protect the peninsula against war is a large sum that grows daily. The icon of divided families on either side of the DMZ testifies to another Berlin Wall that one day must come down.

North Korea is no one's friend. The Kim dynasty continues its sly efforts to perpetuate itself. The North Korean military is no mere punk either. We must respect its armaments and war preparations. On occasion, relying on the sobriety and reason of the South's leadership and its allies, Pyongyang engages in acts of danger and irrationality. The Sewol tragedy weighs heavily today, but our memory of the sinking of the Cheonan, a South Korean naval vessel, in March 2010 and many other similar incidents should not fade.

We remain in an era of regional containment, if not mutually assured destruction, should a conventional war break out. This is no détente. Global media trades in bizarre oddments like North Korea. Kim Jong-un's state and society show off its exotic if eccentric culture; pitifully, they then seek pity. But remember the prisoners it captures and use as pawns, just like a terrorist organization!

Pyongyang wishes to play on the peaceful goals of South Korea: regional and global citizens must meet this with cold water realism, however. Chinese and Korean subsidies for the North have now slowed to a trickle. Meanwhile, North Korea aligns with other anti-status quo countries for arms and other unlawful and black market activity. They're not going to stop; they're desperate you know.

I regularly follow commentary on Park Geun-hye's foreign policy. These days it seems fashionable to describe it as one of disengagement or the continuing of the hostile, no bones and no incentives policy of Lee Myung-bak. If you ask me, and it would take more space than I have to write, I prefer the policies of Roh Moo-hyun and Kim Dae-jung. However, we must respect the present reality.

The world family of nations, of which North Korea chooses not to play a part, has stated the basis for moving toward resumption of diplomatic talks. The North must reject, comply with, and allow international confirmation of denuclearization. I don't think Pyongyang is even close to ready for this evolution in state-leadership thinking.

Both Koreas must agree to scale back conventional weapons, as part of future disarmament. The history of relations between the former Soviet Union and the United States comes to mind in several ways.

North Korea's 2014 charm offensive hides a cynical wish to undo support for Park Geun-hye's continuation of the "conservative phase" in South Korean and allied foreign policy. It seeks to play on the goodwill that always exists during events like the Asian Games. It also sees our fatigue in this era of combating global terrorism. It also hangs on to persistent economic sluggishness. Like China, it plays on Korean hostility toward Japan. The North survives by tactics, not a grand strategy.

We long for a co-prosperity development of economic and cultural links. The positive parts of Park's Dresden Declaration should come true one day. However, I think Park's standoffish policy should continue for now. It has passed the time to settle for meetings that only result in benefits for Pyongyang and reneged promises for everyone else. Can Pyongyang understand? This petulant teenager must grow up! Tantrums can't be met with consent and even more money.

In the eyes of the world and sober-thinking folk, North Korea's diplomatic posturing is a joke and masquerade. Let's not gratify it with smiles and time.

October's charm offensive is more offence than anything. Do we believe it?

Bernard Rowan is assistant provost for curriculum and assessment, professor of political science and faculty athletics representative at Chicago State University, where he has served for 21 years. Write him at browan10@yahoo.com.