[Editorial] Sunshine Administration Unable to Say "No"

North Korea stabbed us in the back again. On one hand, North has made us obsessed with a fantasy about it by sending athletes and cheerleaders to South for the Asian Games. On the other hand, behind our back, it has been developing nuclear weapons. Indescribable is how much we feel betrayed and shocked. In the meanwhile, Kim Dae Jung administration has boasted of the achievements brought about by its Sunshine policy ever since the June 15th summit between North and South. Now, it has become crystal clear that the nuclear threat of North is imminent and danger, confirming that the nature of North Korean regime has not changed at all. The debate about the nature of the North Korean government no longer conveys any meaning. It is high time to cope with the dangerous intention of North Korea, which would not budge despite the Sunshine policy.

By North`s admission of its nuclear weapons program, the clock of the Korean Peninsula has to be turned back to a time before the year of 1994. It is more shocking to find out that North Korea has enriched uranium to make weapons. In the past, it took out the plutonium out of the waste left over in the process of generating electricity. Without any further explanation, the development of the nuclear weapons is in direct violation of the Geneva Agreement. We no longer see any grounds for the construction of the light-water reactors in North and supply of oil by US in return for North`s promise to freeze its nuclear development.

Even under these circumstances, Kim Dae Jung administration issued a silly statement yesterday. Nowhere in the statement, we could find the cliché of "expression of regret, " not to mention an expression of protest. Even US Department of State acknowledged that North`s development of nuclear weapons is a severe violation of the Geneva Agreement, the Nonproliferation Treaty and the terms of the IAEA, to name just a few. Nevertheless, Kim administration is determined to cater to North and issued just a moderate statement.

The government announced that it would discuss solutions of the nuclear program with US and Japan in a meeting scheduled for late this month, and make issue of the matter through the normal diplomatic channels. But we doubt whether this kind of lukewarm responses would bring any result at all. It seems that Kim Dae Jung administration does not know at whom North Korean nuclear warheads are aiming. We have put our lives in the hands of Kim Dae Jung and his followers, who are so obsessed with the Sunshine policy that they do not see the real intention of North.

Now it is clear that North has broken up its promise, which conveyed a grave meaning to us. Therefore, Kim administration should put itself out the hallucination of the Sunshine policy, and change its attitude and way of thinking about North. It should stop mimicking what US does to North. Kim administration must make a strong protest to North and have it promise to give up its nuclear program. North Korea`s nuclear weapons are not just a matter between US and the North. Basically, it is a matter between North and South. What concerns us more is the fact that even Foreign Ministry officials do not know what evidence US has shown to North to prove the existence of the North`s nuclear program. If the ministry has failed to obtain the evidence, it means there is a grave problem with the cooperation between South and US. If the ministry just has hid it from the public, it simply means that it has lied its citizens. We will watch the responses Kim administration takes.