North¡¯s absence may be overreaction

"It was a minor incident. Let`s not blow it out of proportion," a government official said during the evening press conference September 5, as he revealed the effective cancellation of the meeting between South Korean President Kim Dae-Jung and North`s titular leader Kim Young-Nam, resulting from the North`s Kim Young-Nam`s cancellation of his flight to New York.

Although it might have been a minor incident, it is expected to have greater diplomatic repercussions.

The main thrust of the incident arose as the North`s delegation prepared to board the American Airline flight to New York from Frankfurt on September 4. During the boarding process, as the airline employees began to inspect and search the belongings of the diplomatic delegation as non-official personage, the North`s delegation accused it as being a "serious breach of protocol" and canceled their flight.

" North Korea is a state on the terrorist nation list, and the delegation was not used to the security inspection procedure,¡± a panel of experts concerning North Korean issues stated. ¡°There is a great possibility of the North`s delegation `overreacting` and relating the disrespectful treatment by the airport employees to a supposed treatment by the U.S. government."

A source in the U.S. government stated that it had not been notified of the North`s delegation being booked on one of the U.S. airlines and that the airline authorities carried out their normal security inspection. The U.S. State Department stated that the mishandling by a private airline official has nothing to do with the U.S. government and urged the North to understand.

All in all, the current incident seems to have resulted from a misunderstanding between the North`s delegation and the airline workers and might have resulted from the Northern delegation`s failure to properly notify the airline for diplomatic measures.

The North`s titular leader Kim and his entourage is known to have boarded a flight to Beijing on the night of September 5, apparently on a homeward course. However, there remains a possibility and time for the North`s titular leader to attend the U.N. Millennium Summit.

However, should the North`s delegation cancel all of its planned meetings and attendance at the U.N. Millennium Summit for the key-note speech September 9, the North will not be able to escape much backlash by the international community.

Many sources in the government fear such action might greatly damage the North Korean image even as it has been enjoying a new found status as a welcomed partner in the international community.