HONG KONG -- The two Koreas swept the board with the most Asian Institute of Discord Analysis (Aida) "awards" for 2002, in a way reminiscent of the glory days of the Indo-Pakistani antagonism, before those two South Asian nations won the "Rivalry of the Year" award in perpetuity.
South Korea trounced Taiwan for the "Most Masochistic Nation" award when Seoul persisted against all the odds with outgoing President Kim Dae Jung's "sunshine policy" toward North Korea. The South also garnered the "Appeasement of the Year" award when its voters decided in December to sustain that policy for another five years by electing dovish Roh Moo Hyun president.
As the judges tartly observed in their commendation: "This award is given to make nations better aware that appeasement never pays. South Koreans were fully aware that they were paying too much for the sunshine policy while getting little, if any, return, but they still voted to sustain it."