Left Flank

It wouldn't be the Korean peninsula if every incident didn't have at least three sides, North, conservative and progressive.

South Korean conservatives, under the care of «Dr.» Lee Myung-bak continue to preach and practice reasonableness and patience.

If the [CCTV]footage were turned over to the South, it would be possible to verify the North Korean story that Park walked a distance of 3.3 km in about 25 minutes. Whether Pyongyang will do so remains to be seen.

An Asan staffer said, «We have yet to confirm who is managing the CCTV and whether it is actually operating.» The CCTV footage, if it exists, could offer decisive evidence since there is only one South Korean witness to the incident and the two Koreas are making conflicting claims.

Progressives just see a string of novice political mistakes that improve their chances of returning to power.

The Lee administration seems to have set itself up for a fall. Since Lee's inauguration, his aides have been none too happy about the National Intelligence Service's intervening in inter-Korean relations as they had during the inter-Korean summit in October 2007. President Lee was reported to have instructed the NIS to focus on collecting information on the North, instead of taking the initiative in the inter-Korean dialogue behind the scenes as it has done in the past. Thus, the NIS has abandoned efforts to establish a channel for inter-Korean relations.

The North, too, has made drastic changes in the officials in charge of negotiating with the South. A government official said that a considerable number of related high-ranking officials in the North have been replaced this year due to corruption.

In the past problems have been resolved by South and North Korean authorities through official channels. For the past four months, however, the North has rejected all forms of official contact and demands that the June 15 and October 4 joint declarations be implemented as a pre-cursor to resumption of inter-Korean dialogue.

The deterioration in inter-Korean relations has made dealing with the shooting incident more complicated, and the shooting, in turn, has worsened ties between Seoul and Pyongyang.

This means that it will take more time to resolve difficult problems through official channels, or that there may be limitations in getting problems solved.

As for DPRK, I have to take issue with Gord Sellar:

Because to imagine this is some kind of highly-ornate chess move in a Communist plot against Lee Myung Bak's government is to succumb to the same bloody idiocy, the same moronic paranoia that Park Chung Hee used to stay on top for almost two decades, that Chun Doo Hwan used to justify prolonged dictatorship and slaughter of civilians, the same over-the-top crap that people should have — and many already have — gotten over long ago. Hell, it's the same tactic that now provides us with terror alert levels, so that, you know, we can not just be terrified when terrorists act, but also have that warm, fuzzy creeping feeling of terror all year long!

I like to use mnemonics, like DPRK or «Dr.» Lee Myung-bak, but they're labor-saving devices, not facts. I've passed from a state of adolescent pique that DPRK could exist, to an impishly bemused Piercean state where the existence of two Korean states and four other states leads to an even larger plurality of assertions the entire cabal cannot verify. I hope some metaphysical heads explode. Anyway, if twenty political entities assert twenty facts and commit to twenty courses of action, it's pathetic, but nothing more than human. The last solution the Koreans need is «one truth» dispensed by a «Dr.» or a dictator. Right now, the «truth» about Koreans is on full display.