TOKYO – When a North Korean dove clutching an olive branch suddenly appears, the world should challenge it to reveal its hidden talons. This is only prudent because Kim Jong-il’s recent soothing words to America’s special envoy to North Korea, Stephen Bosworth, have been heard before.
Indeed, what Kim is now offering is not peace, but a 'peace offensive' – a tactic used by the North repeatedly since the armistice of 1953 in order to sow division whenever the regime’s adversaries demonstrate unity and resolve. So, while South Korea’s government is right to engage in bilateral discussions with the North (as it has just agreed to do), President Lee Myung-bak is also right to bring to those discussions his traditional keen-eyed scrutiny of the North’s behavior and motivations.
