Sunshine for North Korea

North Korea has never been known for subtlety. Thus last weekend’s sudden turnabout and claim that it was ready to reopen talks with South Korea had all the appearances of a clumsy attempt to influence Seoul’s politics rather than a sincere effort to reduce tensions.

The supposed change of heart came a day before Chinese President Jiang Zemin arrived in the North Korean capital of Pyongyang. More important, it came a day before South Korea’s National Assembly voted to impeach Unification Minister Lim Dong Won, an architect of his nation’s “sunshine policy” of rapprochement with the Communist North. Like the majority of South Koreans, Assembly members are upset at what they feel is President Kim Dae Jung’s excessive generosity to North Korea. They expressed their anger by ignoring North Korea’s awkward overture and voting to oust Lim. The rest of the Cabinet then resigned and left the president lamely claiming he would stay the course.

Kim Dae Jung’s historic visit to Pyongyang last year had nudged the countries closer. But North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il has failed to reciprocate. Making matters worse, the North stopped talking to the South six months ago because of anger over the Bush administration’s chilly stance toward Pyongyang. Still, the world can cling to a slim hope that relations between the two Koreas will improve. China’s president deserves credit for prodding Kim Jong Il to resume talks with South Korea. But it’s up to the North Korean leader to finally show that he too can stand a little sunshine. It’s past time for him to pay a visit to his neighbor to the south.