It is too early to tell whether South Korean President Roh Moo Hyun can call his trip to North Korea last week a success, but North Korean leader Kim Jong Il must be happy with the visit. The summit choreography appeared to confirm his status as the senior leader on the Korean Peninsula, and the summit declaration gave him virtually everything that was on his pre-visit wish list.
More important is the Korean public's reaction: If Mr. Roh gets a bump in the polls and boosts the prospects of the progressive candidate in the December presidential ballot, then both men will be able to call the summit a success. But the real measure of success is follow-through on its terms.
The meeting of the two Korean heads of state was only the second in history. Mr. Kim Dae Jung first made the trek north to Pyongyang in 2000, a visit that was heralded at the time as inaugurating a new era on the Korean Peninsula. But tears of joy gave way to anger when it was revealed that Mr. Kim had paid hundreds of millions of dollars for the privilege. Opinions hardened when North Korea's Mr. Kim refused to travel south as promised to return the visit — "the time was never right" — and Pyongyang continued to exploit South Korean generosity. A one-sided rapprochement alienated many in the South, although true believers have not wavered in their faith.
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