korean unification studies

The South-North Korean Summit is not getting much international media coverage at this stage. It seems to be inexorably connected to the nuclear talks but luckily, totally free of the controversy that surrounds the Summit in the South Korean domestic scene. USA Today leads with the headline “Historic Summit a test of North Korea’s desperation”, and reports:

The three-day summit, plus Kim’s recent surprise agreement to begin dismantling his nuclear weapons program, has raised hopes that North Korea might be on a path to becoming less of a threat not just to its southern neighbor, but also to the United States and the rest of the world…

 Meanwhile, The Australian newspaper reports:

ROH Moo-hyun plans to walk across the border into North Korea tomorrow to dramatise the peaceful prospects he hopes to realise in this week’s summit with dictator Kim Jong-il…the South Korean President will tomorrow morning walk across the military demarcation line at the centre of the Demilitarised Zone that has divided the Korean peninsula since the Korean War armistice in 1953.

In the next few days this well prepared spectacle is surely going to jump up the media ratings. Indeed, if Kim Jong-Il does meet Roh at the land border as he walks across, as some have speculated, it will get substantial international media coverage…. one more day and we’ll all know…