SEOUL -- Some days ago I received an e-mail from a friend I hadn't heard from for a while, who teaches North Korean affairs at one of the major universities in Seoul. "I am worried," he wrote. "This is not a good time for South Korean scholars dealing with North Korea to express their views freely." I had heard this sort of complaint before in the recent past. Another person dealing with analysis of North Korea even said that all those expressing opposing views regarding the engagement policy are victimized in a witch hunt of sorts.
"Now if you make even a constructive criticism of the North, this may result in you being condemned as anti-reunification oriented, or accused as a perpetrator of Cold War structures," a commentator of one of the leading South Korean dailies wrote a few days ago.
An important segment of the South Korean media -- and here I refer mainly to the press -- is not at all happy with the pace of Korean rapprochement. On top of this, many South Korean commentators express their concern about the rapid transformation of South Korean public opinion. South Korea's conservative press is worried about a new public disposition that discourages any serious criticism of the dictatorship on the other side of the Korean divide.