Tuesday, October 02, 2007
So far and yet so close


An hour after leaving his office, the South Korean president arrives at the heavily-fortified border between the two Koreas. After stepping over brightly painted demarcation line, he gets into a car again and drives two-and-a-half hours to the North Korean capital.

The distance, or actually the lack of, never fails to amaze me every time I or anyone gets into a car to head to North Korea.

While stepping over the demarcation line, the South Korean president talked about bringing down the wall between the two Koreas. There may not be anything like the Berlin Wall between the two Koreas, but this trip proves once again just how high the "invisible wall" is.

Just a couple of symbolic examples:

No otherhead of state would make the type of trip the South Korean president is making into the North. His people have no idea what will be the official agenda for talks, no idea what the exact schedule for meetings will be. For that matter, no concrete idea who he will be meeting. Thus, the venue for the welcome ceremony was fixed only minutes before the president's motorcade arrived. The president also had no confirmation that the North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il would be there to greet him until just before his motorcade stopped and there he was!

Ant talk about your digital divide! The North Korean government is "graciously" allowing the South delegation of 300 to bring with them, 30 cell phones and use 12 Internet lines. South Korea is one of the world's most wired countries, and more than 90 percent of the population uses a cell phone! The South’s delegation itself includes the head of the world's leaders in this area, LG, and Samsung Electronics!

Can any two countries be so far apart, and yet, so, so close!

-- From Seoul bureau chief and correspondent Sohn Jie-Ae
I think that it;s about time that the 2 Koreas get down and talk peace with each other. Hopefully they can finally agree with each other.
The purpose that Roh went to North Korea is Car parade.

The mass of North Korean were persecuted for a flood.
Well since the End of the Korean War the two Koreas have been on each others throats. And what's happening I guess is what was happening with Russia and United States with the end of the Cold War. With the the 2 Korean leaders shaking hands maybe what happen to the fall of communism in the old SOviet Union there's a chance also for the 2 Korea's to be the same. And when the walls of indiffernce fall down then changes can begin.
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