A Korean opportunity?

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