A welcome interlude

The recent visit by the most senior government officials of North Korea, Vice Marshal Cho Myong Hok, to Washington to meet U.S. leaders bode well for peaceful relationship between the former enemies of the Korean peninsula.

A new spirit of goodwill toward better understanding seems to have dawned. Surely, the North Koreans are intent on avoiding the impression that they have stooped to the West for a compromise.

On the contrary, North Korea still insists that U.S. troops should be withdrawn. So the air of suspicion behind the diplomatic smile has not evaporated.

The North Koreans want to be seen as a strong nation militarily. Maybe that is true but economically it is weak, judging from the famine reported in many areas. Economic assistance is urgently needed. Many would have expected North Korea to approach the South Korean leadership to continue to work for a unification in the same way as former West and East Germany.

It may become the news of the year if US President Clinton indeed visits Pyongyang later this year as indicated by Madeleine Albright, the US foreign secretary, known for her bright ideas. Ideally, unification should be brought about through a natural process not by one imposed by any superpower or regional blocs.

In my view, Cho Myong Hok's visit must be seen as a strange but welcome interlude.

One must not forget that there are more South Koreans than North Koreans who in their hearts long for a genuine unification partly due to the fact that North Korea is a closed society where information is not flowing freely.

Also unlike China, the communist state has not been able to copy the market economy and free enterprise with tangible results for its people.

The Korean unification problem is to many Indonesians a remote thing to understand or speak about in their daily life. Confronting two hostile camps each looking for a peaceful and honorable solution, one should derive one's hope from the knowledge that man is a peace-loving creature and only goes to war if forced by circumstances or by his instincts and bestial urges.

So one day we may see the two Koreas unite and bring an end to the sufferings of their peoples.

GANDHI SUKARDI

Jakarta