Anyway, the regime of Dear Leader Kim Jong-il seems to be having problems even with this, at least when it comes to the train scheduled for this Thursday, the trial run of the much ballyhooed railway link, which was the first railway crossing in more than half a century.
Does this mean former President Kim Daejung will be taking the bus?
From the "News that should come as no major shock to those who criticize the Roh-Chung Administration for kowtowing to Pyongyang and never demanding any quid-pro-quo reciprocity" Department, South Korea's Unification Ministry today announced that North Korea was asking for a cancellation of the trial run. Vice Unification Minister Shin Eon-sang called the development "very regrettable."
The Unification Ministry said the North's powerful military had given no guarantee of secure passage ahead of the planned runs. Park Chongsong, North Korean representative to railway talks, said "it is impossible to conduct the trial operation" as scheduled because of the failure of the two Koreas to reach a military agreement on operation of the trains.
Pak also sought to use the issue to drive a wedge between the ROK government and their US allies. In a message sent to his South Korean counterpart, he criticized "pro-U.S., ultra-right conservative forces" in the South for burning the North Korean flag and "pushing the situation in Korea to an extreme phase of confrontation and war."
"We will wait for an appropriate time to come for the trial train operation between the North and the South after a military guarantee is provided by the military authorities of both sides and the situation in the South returns to normal," Pak said.
An appropriate time = after the next check has cleared. Maybe.
Oh, and the situation in the South will never return to normal. North Korean propagandists have been harping on that for years.
South Korea wants the train connection, if for no other reason that it would be a sign that the Sunshine Policy is working. The western rail link would help in the shipment of goods in and out of the Kaesong industrial complex where South Korean companies produce goods at factories using cheap North Korean labor and land. The eastern rail link, visible from the Unification Observatory on the east coast, would help in the tourism trade for groups going on Hyundai-run tours to North Korea's Mt. Kŭmgangsan and beyond.
North Korea, probably knowing full well that more trains means more people and more people means it's that much harder to keep their country hermetically sealed, is less enthusiastic.
There's also the possibility that Pyongyang is going to try to squeeze more from Roh in order to get this rail link, and/or the technologically suspect North Koreans simply haven't been able to keep up with their end of the bargain.
Photo: The train ride at Knott's Berry Farm in Orange County, California. The theme park ride bears amazing similarities to the Kyŏng-ŭisŏn line the South is pushing the North to finally open: It's mostly for show; bandits hired by the people who operate the train wait to rob the people who get on board; passengers get on even though they know they will be robbed; and despite a bunch of track being laid, the train doesn't actually go anywhere useful.
Hehehe. Good analogy between two fantasylands.
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