SEOUL -- "All contacts have stopped. We had expected North Korea to take up the process again, but they haven't," says South Korean Foreign Minister Han Seung Soo. Since Pyongyang left negotiations last March, not much has happened diplomatically between the two estranged Koreas.
Many explanations are given for the stalemate. For some, the hardening of the U.S. position after the government changed in Washington is the main cause of the collapse of the Sunshine Policy. Others argue that a lack of domestic support for Kim Dae Jung's strategy of engaging the North is responsible. Then there are those who place the responsibility on the North Koreans, saying they are showing their true face again. The truth, I believe, is somewhere in the middle.
In the eyes of the South Korean government, one person could cut the Gordian knot -- Kim Jong Il. A South Korean journalist has counted eight instances in which President Kim Dae Jung reminded his North Korean counterpart in public to make true his promise and commit himself to a reciprocal visit to Seoul.