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SEOUL -- Watching on television Tuesday as North Korean leader Kim
Jong-il welcomed South Korean President Kim Dae-jung to Pyongyang to begin their historic
summit -- which may be the start of the last chapter of the Cold War--the
North's Kim appeared as relaxed as an upstate New
York politician working the crowds.
Is this the man who is followed everywhere by the adjectives
"reclusive," "shy" and "enigmatic"?
The North's Kim, who usually comes off as a crouch, actually smiled,
made some polite and deferential gestures to the South's First Lady Lee
Hee-ho and acted like a human being.
He has been characterized in the world's media as at best enigmatic and
at worst, an ogre.
The two leaders actually exchanged smiles and a laugh or two on the
tarmac. It was a good sign. It was as if two Koreans had met after long
absence and one joked to the other "Did you hear the one about the Japanese
and the American....?"
The two most significant signs to come out of the summit so far--besides
the fact that is being held at all--are first, that Kim Jong-il came to the
airport and gave the warmest pubic performance of his career. His visit to
Beijing recently came in second.
Second was the fact that Kim Dae-jung has entrusted his personal
security for the trip to the North Koreans. Bodyguards, crowd control--the
works.
These are the guys that blew up nearly all of the South's cabinet during
a visit to Burma a few years ago and which sent a commando team on a
failed mission to assassinate President Park Chung-hee.
President Kim Dae-jung once again showed his courage but also set a tone
of trust for the summit.
As far as the North's Kim's report card goes with the world press, it
needs work. He will never be a favorite on a television show like "Meet the
Press. "
He as never given a one-on-one interview to a foreign--and quite likely
Korean--reporter.
He grew up in a Stalinist society where the words "press" and
"propaganda" are interchangable.
Press arrangements for this summit are a good example of North Korean
communist mentality about information.
The South, a bit more modern in these areas, requested 200 slots for
Korean press to travel to Pyongyang an 50 seats for foreign correspondents
based in Seoul, Tokyo and elsewhere.
No, said the North, and allowed only 50 South Korean reporters to make
the trip. Even foreign reporters who had been to Pyongyang before were
banned this time. Even CNN, which had invested
big money to make reports from the North Korean capital previously was
turned down this time around.
As a result, some 1,300 reporters from 300 news outlets are set up in in
the Seoul Press Center, ordinarily banquet rooms of the Lotte Hotel. Of the
total, 628 are foreigners from 114 media outlets in 21 countries.
Everyone knows President Kim Dae-jung would like to get the Nobel Peace
Prize for his work in breaking the Korea impasse. He deserves the award.
But Kim Jong-il set him up by taking North Korea to the brink of
collapse. Just maybe, as suggested by a Polish correspondent whom I
haven't seen since Tiananmen, and others, the two Kims should share the
Nobel Prize.
The summit got off to a good start. If it goes on to help produce
peace and stability in Korea, it will also do wonders for the security
situation in all of Northeast Asia.
Edward Neilan (eneilan@crisscross.com) is a veteran journalist, based in Tokyo, who covers East Asia and writes weekly for World Tribune.com.