Opening a Door to North Korea

It is refreshing to hear directly from North Koreans in the article “N. Korea, Without the Rancor” (March 3). Indeed no other media in the U.S., as far as I can recall, conveyed the opinions of North Koreans directly. What’s clear from the article is that the leaders of North Korea are desperate to improve their relationship with the U.S. I firmly believe that the desire has been genuine all along since the early 1990s, throughout the negotiations with the Clinton administration.

Now the Bush administration should seriously consider this question: Why can’t the United States normalize its diplomatic relationship with the small and powerless country in the post-Cold War era, when through negotiation it could guarantee nonproliferation of nuclear weapons in the Korean peninsula and promote the chance of democracy in North Korea? The question should be thought-provoking when it is remembered that China (or Pakistan) has more nuclear weapons and an equally bad human rights record.

Jong-Il Park

Los Angeles