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.
(Copyright 2007 Asia Times
Online Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact us
about sales, syndication and republishing.)
Head
Office: Unit B, 16/F, Li Dong Building, No. 9 Li Yuen Street East,
Central, Hong Kong Thailand Bureau:
11/13 Petchkasem Road, Hua Hin, Prachuab Kirikhan, Thailand 77110
