Entente inevitable, but still remote

By Karl Grobe

FRANKFURT (DPA): The recent Korean summit meeting would appear to have removed at least one source of recurring tension in Southeast Asia. And if the current exchanges over the Taiwan Strait between China and Taiwan, once decoded, also prove friendly, another potential hot spot in the region will have been extinguished.

What South Korea's president Kim Dae-jung has described as sunshine politics may yet come to signify not just a bright interlude but a whole new Asian weather system. Unfortunately, one of the inherent characteristics of many a metaphor is that it does not quite fit the bill.

Southeast Asia has yet to digest the experience of two international wars and one terrible civil war, in fact it has barely made a start. The Korean War, which began when troops from the north crossed the border heading south just over 50 years ago, has never officially ended, although the ceasefire agreed in 1953 has more or less been adhered to by both sides.

On the line of demarcation, the opposing armies are encamped in large numbers either side of a demilitarized zone several kilometers wide. In fact, 80 percent of the peninsular's total armed forces are crammed into this tiny region.

Even if the Pyongyang summit has paved the way for a relaxation of tension on this border, the two Koreas' agreeing to act in a neighborly fashion, including the family reunions, freedom of information and restoration of rail links this would entail, in no way constitutes a peace settlement. Such a settlement may be inevitable, but there is still a long way to go.

Ever since the war, U.S. troops have been stationed in South Korea. Not only have they served to preserve the status of the demarcation lines as they were when the ceasefire was declared. In times of military dictatorship they have also ensured that attempts by the likes of Syngham Rhee and a number of his followers to launch another offensive against the North never came close to becoming reality.

The troop presence in South Korea is not entirely uncontroversial and all the country's political parties are looking to review the agreement governing their status with a view to guaranteeing and perfecting South Korea's sovereignty.

They have made incidents such as the dumping of several hundred liters of formaldehyde in the Han river (which runs through Seoul) or the damage caused by a U.S. firing range the subject of numerous diplomatic protests. Similarly, they are demanding explanations of massacres of the civilian population carried out by U.S. soldiers after 1950 as well as those aspects of the occupation which were only agreed after the military dictatorship had come to power.

Much of this criticism is justified. The crucial point is that it is now being delivered in a completely new tone, brimming with national self-confidence.

The South Koreans are also making demands of Japan. They are pushing for compensation for the many "comfort women" -- those Koreans who were forced into prostitution for the Japanese army during the World War II -- and the recognition of the rights of Korean forced laborers.

They are also calling for Japan to take a self-critical approach to its 40-year colonial rule of the peninsular. Not long ago the high court ruled to settle a case brought by three forced laborers and twice Japanese firms have settled out of court.

The Japanese government has already taken a step in the right direction by agreeing recently to pay compensation to relatives of Korean and Taiwanese members of its army. In return, South Korea has granted its citizens long overdue access to the Japanese pop, Internet and film culture. But once again, there is still much work to be done, from establishing a climate of mutual trust to the rewriting of censored schoolbooks.

The same can be said of transpacific relations -- Japan was punished by the United States for its war crimes until Washington recognized its importance as an outpost of the cold war. Other wartime events, such as the destruction of Japanese cities by U.S. bombing and above all the atomic bomb attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki may now be condemned as war crimes by American historians, but certainly not by politicians in Washington.

The Japanese authorities have found it difficult to throw off the weight of the country's wartime activity in China. The Rape of Nanking, the annexation of Manchuria and experiments with chemical and biological weapons carried out on Chinese citizens are issues which have time and again provoked mistrust in China when Japanese politicians have spiced their words with imperial vocabulary, be it unintentionally or with a specific electoral group in mind.

Moreover, China continues to view Japan as a blatant ally of the United States in its pursuit of hegemony. The U.S. Defense Secretary was reminded of Beijing's stance on a recent visit to China, not least on account of Washington's planned national missile defense system and the implicit guarantee of Taiwanese independence the scheme would provide.

The disputed island is probably the most dangerous hotspot in the region but even here rays of sunshine politics are breaking through the diplomatic cloud -- more small steps in the right direction are well within the scope of the new Taiwanese government, which is both ready and willing to make progress.

Now it is up to powers that be in Beijing to break the mould forged by the violence of the Chinese civil war, which still casts its ominous shadow over the Taiwan Strait.