Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi's visit to South Korea over the weekend, coming after the naval clash between North and South Korean patrol boats in the Yellow Sea in late June, has served to spotlight the volatility of inter-Korean relations. The diplomatic fallout from the sea battle, in which the South Korean side suffered heavy casualties, is again casting a long shadow over the Korean Peninsula.

For Japan, as well as for the United States and South Korea, the question, as always, is how best to respond. Their basic policy has been to engage North Korea through dialogue. They should stay the course. Negotiation, not confrontation, is the only sensible way to ease tensions between the two Koreas, which still face off across a demilitarized zone despite the end of the Cold War.

In her talks Saturday with President Kim Dae Jung and Foreign Affairs and Trade Minister Choi Sung Hong, Foreign Minister Kawaguchi reaffirmed the need for dialogue. She told them Japan will continue to cooperate with South Korea and the U.S. to bring North Korea into the international community. At the beginning of this month, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and President Kim agreed that the two nations should maintain a policy of engagement.