The Koreas Wary Hands Across the DMZ

By William R. Doerner

North Korean Prime Minister Yon Hyong Muk sounded anything but upbeat as he described the mood of "gloom" after 15 months of fruitless discussions between Pyongyang and Seoul. But at the fifth round of talks last week, Yon's spirits took a sudden upturn when his South Korean host and counterpart, Chung Won Shik, dropped an unexpected secret: removal of the last American nuclear weapon on Korean soil was complete. That announcement, long sought by Pyongyang, broke the negotiating logjam. Twenty hours later, following an all- night session, the two sides announced agreement on a nonaggression accord that in effect ended their 41-year-old state of war. Said Chung at the signing ceremony Friday morning: "Today the tide of reconciliation and cooperation flowing worldwide has reached this land."

Perhaps. But skeptics were quick to point out that the two Koreas had seemed on the brink of peace before -- most notably in 1972 -- and failed to achieve real reconciliation. Nor, despite Seoul's unilateral concession on nukes, did the latest agreement mention the region's most pressing security concern: the North's rapid progress toward developing a nuclear bomb. Even Washington, South Korea's closest ally, coupled its pro forma congratulations with signals of misgivings over the lack of progress on the nuclear front.

Yet some were convinced that the adversaries in the cold war's last active confrontation might really be ready for peace. Chung Yong Suk, a professor of political science at Seoul's Dankook University, points out that the two sides for the first time used their official designations in signing the document, in effect according de facto recognition to each other. Kim Dae Jung, co- chairman of the South Korean opposition Democratic Party, called the pact a step through the "door of peace and reunification."

The accord calls for the two countries to re-establish links in the form of roads and communications. They will also set up a liaison office to help reunite some 10 million families separated by the peninsula's hostilities from 1950 to 1953 and the long standoff that followed. These human bonds have long been sought by South Korean President Roh Tae Woo and opposed by the xenophobic regime of North Korea's Kim Il Sung. Pyongyang's about-face seems to reflect its concern over growing diplomatic isolation and sharp setbacks to its own economy.

The pact's failure to deal with the nuclear issue is a serious but not necessarily fatal flaw. The two sides agreed to take it up in separate negotiations scheduled to get under way this week in the border village of Panmunjom. If Pyongyang shows that it is not merely playing for time, the two governments plan to hold further meetings in February, with a summit between Roh and Kim a much touted possibility.

With reporting by Richard Hornik/Hong Kong and K.C. Hwang/Seoul