A Korean opportunity?

To the volatile Korean mix has been added the stunning defection of a senior North Korean official to the South Korean Embassy in Beijing. The immediate drama arose from China's squeeze between its longtime ideological partner of North Korea, which demanded the return of Hwang Jang Yop, and its new commercial partner of South Korea, which wanted to remove him to Seoul. The question is whether this incident may precipitate some sort of major political break in the famine-ridden Stalinist pariah state in the North.

South Korea has suggested that Hwang's defection hints at the possible disintegration of a regime unsure whether its hesitant approaches to the United States and South Korea should go forward or back. North Korea's record of violence and treachery makes it only prudent for the United States to take an attitude of vigilance and see what develops behind the iron curtain around Pyongyang.

At the same time, this high-level defection may open up to South Korea and the United States a novel opportunity to sharpen their reading of North Korea and its leadership. Hwang could become, as some of his Western acquaintances suggest, not just a source but also a possible interlocutor. This is at a time when the American-sponsored effort to buy North Korea out of the nuclear business and draw it into a community with its neighbors is at another crucial phase.

-- The Washington Post