A Machiavellian on the loose

A Machiavellian on the loose
March 2, 2001

DJ Kim, a Machiavellian par excellence, is on the loose in the uncharted international water heavily betting his Sunshine Policy on the NMD (National Missile Defense) conflict between the United States and Russia plus China.

He has been losing sleep on his engagement policy for the North Korea since Republican President was selected a US president, because he knew that it would not be a cakewalk to deal with new US Administration as he has manipulated with the Clinton regime.
He has feared that his lust for legacy as a peace-maker would go to pot if the North butts head with him on the NMD issue that the United States decided to develop in order to counter-measure against the threat of limited attacks by the rogue states, like North Korea, Iraq or Iran.

He has therefore maneuvered to employ some delicate diplomatic initiatives before his departure for an audience with his new master in order to under-cut the US pressures and to enhance his dream of rapprochement in the region.
The first trial balloon was the rumor in early February about the imminent visit to the South by Kim JI that triggered a US call for South Korean Foreign Minister to Washington followed by an unscheduled rendezvous between the South Korean Spy Chief and various officials from the Bush Administration. (The Korean Spy Chief was known as a main architect in consummation with North-South Summit on June 2000.)

DJ has observed that he is in a hellhole and will get burned alive during his audience with Bush.
1. George Bush Jr. would never allow the South to welcome a renowned terrorist Kim JI without specific reciprocity from the North.
2. No South Koreans would accept his Sunshine Policy plausible without the return visit by the North’s leader.
3. Kim JI would never head for the South without a substantial political recognition and economic largess from DJ Kim, as DJ had allegedly paid off to Kim JI’s bank account just months before the June Summit in 2000 (refer to an article from the International Herald Tribune on Jan. 31 2001, which the South Korean Government retracted from the blackmail that they would file the libel suit in the court.)
4. DJ hooked Mr. Putin with the deal that Russian president could not decline: a. The South Korea purchases the military hardware from Russia with payment half from cash and other half from $1.8 billion loan Russian owed.
b. The South sweetened the pot promising Mr. Putin to invest $1 billion on the railway to Vladivostok, if Mr. Putin would succeed to persuade Kim JI to come down Seoul..

However, the Russian bear is not so much a naïve fool but a smart Alec, insisting to have a joint declaration against the US intention to declare the 1972 ABM (Anti-Ballistic Missile) Treaty invalid if necessary in order to build missile defenses (NMD) for the protection of the US Continent.
Mr. Putin would not have any problem to persuade Kim JI to refrain from the further development of long-range missile and nuclear capabilities on the condition that the US should not deploy the NMD system against the North Korea.

When the New York Times accused DJ of siding with the Russian bear regarding the NMD plan, the major defense policy of the new Administration, the South Korean chickened out and turned the tail, denying that the joint statement on ABM stance does not mean to oppose the NMD initiative, and a senior South Korean government official admitted that the draft of the Russia-S.Korea communiqué was sent via the Korean Embassy in Washington to the US government during the Putin-DJ talks.
With uproar on the South Korean stance over the NMD snowballing, the Foreign Minister of the South expressed sympathy with the Bush Administration’s defense program. (Would the servant be in a position to express sympathy on the master—it’s a sheer joke.)

On March 1, DJ’s spin doctors grabbed a serendipitous moment of avoiding further embarrassment and immediately engaged in full court press distracting the people from the NMD fiasco to the false account of Japanese history book.
The March 1 ceremony of this year was pompous and theatrical to re-enact the atrocious acts of the occupied Japanese soldiers who beat and torture the Korean demonstrators.
They even mobilized old and infirm group of comfort women whom the governments have neglected to support for the compensation from the Japanese government, and the civil group marched the main boulevard in the city after burning Japanese flags and effigies.

The South Koreans have been enjoying the proud image of their country as a sovereign and independent state that was liberated from their colonial enemy Japan.
They gather at the Pagoda Park on the first day of March every year and holler “banzai” and raise their hands high in the commemoration of their resistance against Japs.
Koreans, young and old, dislike Japanese intensely and passionately as the colonial master who took away Korean sovereignty and insulted the Korean dignity.

Would it be a shock or dismay to hear for the South Korean people that their government has no sovereign power to engage independently in diplomatic talk with other countries sans seeking the pre-approval from the United States of America?
Not at all.
The South Koreans know very well that they were leashed on their neck by Uncle Sam for half a century, have no idea when the leash would ever be cut off, and simply feign not to know the neo-colonial status of the Republic of Korea, as they behaved during the Japanese occupation of 36 years.
It has been too painful and insulting for them to believe that their country has been a vassal state since its erstwhile liberation from Japan.

DJ ‘s hamfisted maneuvers in the international diplomacy appear to get him hoisted by his own petard.
Russians would raise a Cain to hear that their counterpart in the summit talk had leaked the contents of the talk to their enemy and sought after the permission to proceed.
It is an epitome of diplomatic faux pas and shameful act of the sovereign state that the South Korean government has to report and seek for pre-approval from the US on the agendas in the summit talk.
Where is the South Korean rage and disgust on DJ’s obsequious flip-flop?

The Bush Administration is already on the warpath with respect to their foreign policy in the Pacific region that clearly exhibits DJ is a wart on their nose, and they began to pinch the wart off.
The US Senate has passed the non-binding resolution that the South Korean government should stop injecting the IMF funds into the troubled industries, like Hyundai Group, whose subsidiaries are paying the North Korea $12 million per month, and the resolution directs the US government to impose economic sanction against the South Korean export if the South Korean government does not comply with the resolution.
The bottom line for the Bush Administration is that the US would not tolerate any more DJ on charity drive for the international terrorist, since no national security officials in the new Administration buy the theory that the North Korea would abide by the commitment for the 1994 Agreed Framework, as the Clinton Administration has based upon it in their foreign policy.

During the Town Hall meeting on the eve of anti-Japanese movement, DJ has assured the audience that he has faith bringing the North and the South together on overall peace package within this year, and the audience have nodded yes with a resounding applause.
The Korean People want desperately to believe that their president goes to Washington for a routine consultations between two allies standing on the same pedestal, and their leader DJ would never let this people down when he comes home after the meeting with Bush.
DJ would submit a report card to his people: Everything is copacetic. George blinked.
And, as usual, the South Korean media would drum up the people who extol with abandon: Hallelujah, our Papa, DJ Kim.

Who will tell the people that they are in a pipedream?