Korea: February 15, 2002

Archives

The US and South Korea are at odds over how to deal with North Korea. Having been scammed, lied to and extorted numerous times, America has now rejected South Korea's "sunshine" policy. South Korea believes that, ultimately, playing nice to the North will pay off. Moreover, the South feels that, since they are Koreans dealing with Koreans, the US should follow the South's lead. So far, both sides have shown no sign of weakening their position. The US sees the South as being as detached from reality as the North and insists that agreements be made with the intention of being kept. There are many in the South who believe that the communist government in the North will simply collapse in the near future. The US publicly supports South Korean efforts, but won't go along by making similar generous deals with the North. Whether by accident or design, what we have here is the classic technique of using a "good cop" and a "bad cop" to get a criminal suspect to confess.