NO BILATERAL TALKS WITH NORTH KOREA

With the war in Iraq set to begin (again), the Bush administration has once again denied a North Korean demand to open bilateral talks regarding its nuclear program. While the Bush stance may seem unreasonable, even counterproductive, it is actually the right course.

The North's aim in demanding bilateral talks is two-fold. The first goal is to extract concessions from the US--more money, more food aid, more technological assistance. The second goal is more subtle. The Kim cult that runs North Korea believes that it is the only legitimate ruler of the Korean Peninsula. This ideology stems from two sources, which are Kim Il Sung's role as a guerrilla fighting the Japanese imperial expansion into Korea in the 1930s, and his own relationship with Stalin who hand-picked him to rule Korea with Moscow's backing. From this history, Kim developed the view that only he or his desendants should rule Korea--not just North Korea, but all of Korea. This ideology led to the creation of the cult of personality by which Kim Il Sung, and now his son, have ruled North Korea unchallenged in spite of terrible hardship for nearly a dedace.

By demanding that the current nuclear standoff be resolved only through bilateral talks between Pyongyang and Washington, Kim's son and successor is seeking to marginalize and delegitimize the South Korean government. The North Korean thinking goes that by talking only to Washington to resolve the crisis, the South Korean government and position is frozen out, and that over time the South Korean people will come to view their own government as little more than a puppet of the US. The South Koreans will in time come to see Kim's government as on a par with Washington, while the ROK government amounts to little or nothing. The North will thus have destroyed the ROK's credibility, and the people of the South (whom the Kims have always believed saw them, and not anyone else, as their rightful rulers) will then welcome Kim Jong Il's rule to extend to the southern part of the peninsula.

It's a fantasy to be sure, but a fantasy that is driving the North Koreans' tactics and rhetoric. And for that reason, the Bush administration is wise to deny Pyongyang this request that seems to simple. Allowing bilateral talks will play right into Kim Jong Il's hands.