U.S. Relations With North Korea

* Simon Winchester’s article “Demanding to Be Left Alone” (Commentary, March 22) deserves a reading by every American who wants to know what North Korea is about.

North Korea is not a rogue country and its leaders are not villains. They just want to be left alone to live in their own way, if unprovoked. It’s unfortunate that they are communists but they chose communism because it was then considered the most effective and powerful tool available to beat the Japanese. They became anti-American because the U.S. helped install a government in South Korea dominated by those who had collaborated with Japanese rulers in betrayal to their own people. They certainly attacked South Korea in 1950 but they did it in an attempt to eradicate those national betrayers from the Seoul government and reunify the country.

The creation of two mutually antagonistic Koreas and by corollary the existence of an anti-American North Korea are the byproducts of misconceived post-World War II U.S. foreign policy of meddling in the affairs of the Korean peninsula. Why not just leave Korean affairs to Koreans themselves so that they themselves can somehow find the way to fulfill their long aspiration for national reunification? All factors considered, the most likely end result would be the guaranteed disappearance of an anti-American communist regime in favor of an emergence of a unified, peaceful and friendly Korea.

HWAL W. LEE

Granada Hills

* Winchester’s column makes me wonder if human beings ever learn anything from history.

After admitting to going only where the North Korean government wanted him to go, seeing only what they wanted him to see, and hearing only what they wanted him to hear, he is still convinced that he knows what the country’s 22 million inhabitants want--and, amazingly enough, it turns out to be exactly what Kim Il Sung’s government wants them to want! And his paean of praise to North Korea’s police state is truly bizarre, especially after stating at the beginning of his article that he “holds no brief for the country or its leadership.”

I’m really curious about the man--does he really think that he’s fooling anybody?

LEE E. ECKHARDT

Canyon Country

* Please, let’s not do Korea again.

H. J. BLEECKER

Marina del Rey

* I was saddened to read Winchester’s opinions on North Korea. For a member of the press, specializing in the Pacific region, he should know that North Korea should not be left alone, abandoned or even glorified as he has done. North Korea is the biggest threat in the world. With its heavily disciplined soldiers and wide array of war machines, along with nuclear capabilities, it could start the spark that ignites the whole of eastern Asia.

I am Korean, but too young to have witnessed firsthand the turbulent events of the Korean War. I know deep inside my heart that one day the walls of the two Koreas will come tumbling down. I know that some day many of the families that were separated because of the war will be reunited. There is too much cost and too many tears for North Korea to be left alone.

AARON JIN

Los Angeles