Posted on: Tuesday, August 10, 2004

EDITORIAL
U.S., Seoul differ in N. Korea policy

In the long-running, barely cold war between the United States and North Korea, it is a given that any statement out of the Bush administration will stress the solidarity between Washington and its allies in the region on the matter.

In fact, however, serious differences have arisen between Washington and South Korea — differences that North Korea has sought to exploit.

One South Korean initiative that upsets the Bush administration is Kaesong, an industrial complex being built in North Korea, close to the DMZ.

Washington points out that South Korea, like 32 other countries, is banned from sending strategic facilities to North Korea. The South Koreans say all of the equipment will remain under the control of its companies within the complex, but Washington is understandably worried that it could fall into the hands of the North.

The complex is to be used by hundreds of South Korean companies that want to use cheap, skilled North Korean labor. It badly erodes Washington's policy of extreme isolation of the North.

Many South Koreans, meanwhile, are upset by realignment and withdrawal of U.S. forces in the country with, they say, a minimum of consultation.

South Korea continues to espouse a sunshine policy of reconciliation with the North. It's a policy that affects the Bush administration rather like fingernails on a chalkboard, but one that seems no less likely to bring a change of heart in Pyongyang than Washington's cold shoulder.