Where I Stand — Mike O’Callaghan: President’s tough talk

Friday, March 29, 2002 | 5:17 a.m.

AS A CRITIC of North Korea for a half century, I should have been pleased with President George W. Bush's remarks calling it a member of an "axis of evil." There is little doubt that what is happening to the North Korean people is evil.

Dr. Norbert Vollertsen, a German who worked in North Korean hospitals from July 1999 to December 2000, recently wrote in the Wall Street Journal:

"It became clear to me that Kim Jong Il and his Stalinist regime had made little effort to distribute medical supplies and food to the people who needed it most. I soon realized that North Korea's starvation is not the result of natural disasters or even lack of natural resources. Like the Holocaust in Europe, the horror in North Korea is man-made. Twenty-two million people suffer under a dictatorial regime that uses torture, surveillance and starvation as tools to control its own people. Only the regime's overthrow will end it."

Vollertsen has been participating in helping North Koreans escape into China and eventually arrive in Seoul via the Philippines. He recognizes that Koreans living in both the North and South are the same people. He sees the few refugees now leaving North Korea to eventually result in what brought down the Berlin Wall separating East Germans and West Germans, both the same people.

The major problem this kind of thinking faces is that China allows very few refugees from North Korea to eventually make their way to Seoul. Most of the people the Chinese intercept are captured and returned home to labor camps, prisons or death. The largest group to escape capture, 25, invaded the Spanish Embassy in Beijing to gain international attention. They were most fortunate.

The world knows that starvation has penetrated the shield of secrecy surrounding North Korea. During the last years of the Clinton administration, progress was made in opening even further the government and society of North Korea. South Korea President Kim Dae Jung went to Pyongyang to visit Kim Jong Il in 2000. That was the same year that 200 relatives from both ends of the peninsula were allowed limited visits in the two Koreas. Also U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright was entertained by Kim Jong Il with a chorus of 100,000 people in Pyongyang's sports stadium. Even President Bill Clinton had planned to accept an invitation to Pyongyang but time ran out for his administration.

All of this progress ceased with the entrance of the George W. Bush approach to hard-line diplomacy. Former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher believes that Bush's tough approach is the most effective policy. This remains to be seen.

Our president's State of the Union address that included his "axis of evil" remark resulted in the North Korean cancellation of a very important visit by four prominent Americans who best understand both Koreas. One of them, Donald Gregg, was our ambassador to South Korea during the first Bush administration. Prior to that he had spent several years as the CIA station chief in Seoul. Two years ago I watched Gregg work with the Koreans in sensitive high-level discussions and he earned my respect. It's a shame that Gregg and three other former ambassadors to South Korea had their trip to North Korea put on a back burner by their host.

I'm not an expert on the Koreas, but do know the people well enough to see them as proud and strong to the point of being stubborn. They have close family ties, but feel isolated as a people from much of the world. South Korea has evolved as both a democracy and an economic power. There's no good reason that these same people can't accomplish equal progress north of the 38th parallel.

It will be interesting to see if our president has gotten the attention of North Korea and will move to use the wealth of diplomatic skills available to him from people now outside of his present advisers. In the meantime, the president of South Korea continues efforts to again light a candle of peace and cooperation between the North and South. The two countries start a new round of talks this week.