The US, North Korea tango has begun

Nov 6, 2007
By Sunny Lee
Asia Times (Hong Kong)

BEIJING - Unbelievable things do happen. The US last week assisted an "evil" country, to use the terminology that had once been employed by the American president. Or to use a military metaphor, what the US did almost amounts to "consorting with the enemy".

The US dispatched a navy helicopter to succor a North Korean cargo ship, hijacked by Somali pirates, and even treated the wounded North Korean crew on an American destroyer.

This otherwise very kind act impressed some, but bewildered many, including the American journalists at the Department of Defense who asked for an explanation for this seemingly odd act of helping an enemy nation.

What is happening?

The American government assumed a low-key air and tried to play down the incident with a business-like attitude. "When we get a distress call, we help," said Cmdr Lydia Robertson, a spokesperson for the US Fifth Fleet.

Previously, US naval involvement with North Korean cargo ships was almost exclusively to monitor, inspect and even intercept them when they were suspected of carying materials for arms proliferation. The recent Israeli bombing of a Syrian facility was also based on American Navy intelligence that a North Korean vessel arrived in Syria and may have unloaded materials that would help Syria to go nuclear.

All the more mysterious about the military operation is that the US Navy was clearly informed that it was a North Korean ship before it dispatched a helicopter to the scene. Even after the rescue operation and through the day, the US Navy continued to shadow the North Korean ship, Dai Hong Dan, as if to watch its back against further provocation from Somali pirates.

The unusual "seafaring comradeship" was brotherly enough for North Korean chief nuclear negotiator Kim Gye-kwan and his US counterpart, Christopher Hill, to discuss it when the two met in Beijing last week.

The incident has also made international headlines, with pundits parsing the logic of the military operation. They suspect it as reflecting the improvement in the recent North Korean disarmament talks. They expect it to help improve the unlikely bonding between the member of the "axis of evil" and the "hostile imperialist empire".

It's easy to brush off naffair as incidental. But these days, and particularly in the last few months, there are many "incidentals" that indicate that the mismatched couple have started to warm to each other, perhaps genuinely.

For example, in September, North Korea 's taekwondo demonstration team made its first-ever visit to the US, performing in five American cities. North Koreans also participated in an international boxing match in Chicago. Officials from the New York Philharmonic visited Pyongyang in October to consider a possible concert there next year. Also, for the first time, a team of North Korean medical doctors made a visit to the US in an exchange program with Rice University - all approved by the US State Department.

Then, last week, a team of US nuclear inspectors flew to Pyongyang to carry out the disabling process of the three nuclear facilities in Yongbyon. On Thursday, the US ambassador to South Korea, Alexander Vershbow, said in a lecture at Seoul National University that the US is open to "all" possibilities, including normalization of relations with North Korea and a formal declaration to officially end the Korean War - reinforcing what President George W Bush had said recently.

The United Nations also chimed in to further brighten the mood. Vitit Muntarbhorn, the Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in the DPRK, said in his report submitted to the UN General Assembly that there are - surprise! - "some constructive developments" in North Korea's human rights conditions. The same international body also passed a resolution on Wednesday, saying it supports the summit between the two Koreas held in October and calling for member countries to rally their support for the ongoing dialogue and eventual peaceful unification of the Korean Peninsula.

At the center of this whirlpool of change is North Korea itself. More than ever, the country itself has been showing willingness to reform and open up.

Since pledging to dismantle its nuclear programs at the February 13 Beijing meeting, a raft of the country's ranking officials have been traveling in a global outreach. In July, the country's Number 2, Kim Yong-nam, visited Mongolia, Russia, Algeria, Egypt, Singapore and Ethiopia. In the past week the country's premier, Kim Yong-il, has been to Malaysia, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam. In Vietnam, the North Korean showed a keen interest in its market-oriented economic reforms.

That's not all. In September, North Korea established diplomatic relations with Swaziland, the United Arab Emirates, the Dominican Republic and Guatemala. Pyongyang also has established ties with Montenegro and in recent months restored relations with Myanmar and Nicaragua. The official Rodong Shinmun newspapert cited all this " an epoch-making event".

Of course, a willing South Korea wants to give a hand to Pyongyang's efforts in global integration. In a keynote speech at a meeting of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank last week, South Korea's Finance Minister Kwon O-kyu said that the two financial institutions should accept the membership of North Korea.

The speed of developments has some worried, however. The South Korean government wants to look prudent. "Right now, our top priority is only the advancement in the denuclearization process, but some people are more eying what is coming next," said South Korean Foreign Minister Song Min-soon, evidently trying to nip any premature high expectation in the bud.

But Professor Kim Geun-sik of Kyungnam University in Masan, South Korea, who had visited North Korea for the October summit, said at a recent seminar presentation that "Dear Leader" Kim Jong-il is seen now to have "chosen a path of nuclear renouncement and economic resuscitation" of the country.

So, what's next? We have to wait and see how the two tango from here. But it is clear that neither the US nor North Korea are behaving as we had come to expect.

Sunny Lee is a writer/journalist based in Beijing, where he has lived for five years. A native of South Korea, Lee is a graduate of Harvard University and Beijing Foreign Studies University.