Entente inevitable, but still remote

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.