South Korean President Kim Dae Jung's announcement of a proposed "package deal" with North Korea, put forth once again on the first anniversary of his inauguration, represents a valiant attempt to save two very important initiatives: his own constructive engagement policy with the North (also known as the "sunshine" policy), and the Agreed Framework/KEDO (Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization) process, which is aimed at halting North Korea's suspected nuclear weapons program. Both initiatives are in danger of coming apart, due to lukewarm support and domestic partisan politics in South Korea, the United States and Japan; both, I would argue, are worth saving.

During the regime of Kim Dae Jung's predecessor, Kim Young Sam, the United States was frustrated with South Korea's failure to develop a coherent, comprehensive, long-range policy in dealing with the North. Kim Dae Jung has risen to this challenge.

His constructive engagement policy is forward-thinking and clear-headed. Its first pillar is a firm determination (backed by the U.S.-South Korea security alliance and 37,000 U.S. troops) not to tolerate aggression by the North. But it also extends an olive branch to Pyongyang by renouncing a policy aimed at absorbing the North or provoking it's collapse in favor of one that aims at setting the stage for eventual reunification by stressing cooperation and confidence building today to bring about a gradual opening up of the North. It aims to separate economics from politics; it stresses people-to-people and other exchange programs, based on North Korean reciprocity.