Asia

The Korean tears to come

The reunion of divided families was a small but important step. Things now get more complicated

|seoul

KOREANS commemorate August 15th as the day in 1945 when they were freed from Japanese colonial rule. But it left a peninsula divided into the capitalist South and the communist North, and later a war which ended in an armistice in 1953, but no peace treaty. This week, however, there was a different sort of celebration. It began when a North Korean airliner landed in South Korea with 100 people who had not met their relatives south of the border for 50 years. On the aircraft's return flight to the North's capital, Pyongyang, it carried 100 South Koreans making a reciprocal visit. The reunions were tear-jerking stuff; some of the families had for half a century been unaware if their loved ones were alive or dead. But the event was also tinged with the sad reality of living in such a divided country.

The North Koreans who arrived in Seoul, the South's capital, were mostly people who in one way or another had risen to prominence within their closed society. They had been carefully selected to represent the communist regime. Even so, they could no more control their emotions than could the South Koreans. An 87-year-old mother wiped away the tears of her 65-year-old son from the North. A famous North Korean film director wept when his 91-year-old and ailing father did not recognise him. A 99-year-old was able to leave her hospital bed having been told her 69-year-old son was in Seoul. The scene was no different in Pyongyang. They all shed tears of joy, wept for lost years but thanked each other for being alive.

During their four-day exchange visits, the 200 people were allowed to spend ten hours or so with their relatives. Their meetings were limited to either convention centres or hotel rooms. Nonetheless, they were the lucky ones; some 7m South Koreans have relatives in the North, most of whom they know little or nothing about.

The reunion was seen as the first visible step towards the reconciliation of the Koreas. It was agreed on at an unprecedented summit held between Kim Dae Jung, the South's president, and Kim Jong Il, the North's leader, in Pyongyang in June. There had been concern in the South that it would be a one-off event. But the North's Mr Kim has indicated that further reunions will take place—the next, perhaps, in September—and that eventually families will be allowed to visit each others' homes. Whether that actually happens remains to be seen.

In 1985, 50 people from each side were allowed a brief gathering with their separated families. But no more meetings or even exchanges of letters were allowed. Some South Koreans have made contact with family members in the North since then through middlemen, which can be a lengthy and costly business. Maintaining contacts can be even more expensive, with requests from the North for money and gifts.

Besides more reunions, the South's Mr Kim is now hoping that the two sides can establish committees to discuss military, economic and social affairs. In a Liberation Day speech, he also proposed opening a military hotline between the two capitals to help reduce tensions. He would also like the two country's defence ministers to meet.

And then the bill

Exactly what the North's Mr Kim expects to get out of all of this is hard to tell. Instead of the secretive recluse he once seemed to be, he has admitted to recent visitors that his regime does indeed face economic hardship. He has hinted at the possibility of opening the door to his impoverished country slightly to investment, especially from South Korea. Chatting with South Korean media chiefs visiting the North this week, he went so far as to offer to mobilise his soldiers to help reconnect the railway that passes through the (landmine-littered) demilitarised zone that separates the two Koreas.

Kim Jong Il also seemed to acknowledge that the North's Communist Party platform, which was formulated in 1945, is outdated. He also appeared to hint that reforms would be difficult, against the resistance of older party members. Recently, the military has increased its power. Did he mean that vested interests, perhaps in the army, will stand in his way if he moves too far or too fast to improve relations with the South? Or was it just an excuse for moving slowly?

He is clearly unwilling to give up his country's programme to develop missiles—certainly not when (or so he told his visitors) the “rockets” bring in several hundred millions of dollars a year in sales to countries such as Iran. Yet he acknowledges that these sales give America headaches. And he believes that it was American aid and the transfer of technologies that helped to drive South Korea's economic prosperity. That could be one big reason for his stated keenness to normalise relations with the United States, and see North Korea removed from its list of countries that support terrorism.

The South Korean media bosses judged the North's leader a realistic sort of chap. But it is too soon to conclude that his pragmatism reflects a strategic shift by the regime, say some analysts in the South. More confidence-building measures will be needed before tensions are really reduced. After all, the two Koreas are still technically at war.

Signing a peace treaty would involve not only the two Koreas, but their respective allies in the Korean war: China and America. That could stir the geopolitical pot, reckons Yu Suk Ryul, a professor at the Institute of Foreign Affairs and National Security in Seoul: bilateral talks, further four-sided peace talks, involving the two Koreas, China and America, and new talks involving these countries plus Russia and Japan on broader issues of security in North-East Asia. Once North Korea, which recently attended for the first time the security forum of South-East Asian nations, stops being the bogeyman, positions may start to shift.

On top of that, North Korea is expected to want to pursue unification without the interference of other nations. In many ways still, the Koreans in the North and the South are one people. That could lead to a growing sense of nationalism as the process of coming together continues.

This article appeared in the Asia section of the print edition under the headline "The Korean tears to come"

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