WASHINGTON -- Now that the novelty and euphoria of the remarkable Korean summit have faded, the world is left scratching its head and wondering what it all adds up to. Has one of the world's most dangerous flash points suddenly been defused? Have the tectonic plates of the East Asian strategic equation begun to shift? The short answer is everything has changed, yet nothing has changed.
However symbolic, the first such summit in half a century was indeed a historic achievement, perhaps the beginning of a protracted endgame in Korea. It offered new hope of peace and national reconciliation. To see the world's most mysterious political figure prove to be a not particularly unusual fellow, though one with an impressive sense of political theater certainly made fools of most Western analysts who for years have portrayed Kim Jong Il as either a bizarre wacko or a buffoon. Not to mention all the bright lights at the highest reaches of the Clinton administration, who quietly argued his regime was about to collapse. And for political courage and strength of character, Kim Dae Jung has certainly earned his place in history -- and a good shot at the Nobel Peace Prize
Yet all the smiles, embraces and pledges notwithstanding, five decades of Cold War ice have hardly melted overnight. Nor has the big question been answered: Is Kim Jong Il's radical shift one of style and tactics or is it strategic -- is North Korea really changing? The North Korean divisions, artillery and Scuds are still deployed near the demilitarized zone. It still has its chemical weapons. Pyongyang is still working on its third generation of ballistic missiles and in all likelihood a covert nuclear-weapons program. Nor are there new signs that Pyongyang is suddenly opening up or adopting radical economic reforms as China did two decades ago.