South vs. North

Ryan Miller

October 14, 2009

Current Event #2

South Korea Accepts North’s Apology

Last month a flash flood killed six people in South Korea after North Korea released dam waters without prior warning. The article I chose, composed by “CNN Asia,” deals with Inter-Korean relations and how they’ve been influenced by this event. According to the article, Inter-Korean relations had deteriorated since the inauguration of South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak, who advocates more of a hard-line stance towards the North. North Korea apologized for the flooding incident that killed six people in South Korea, a gesture that showed a "willingness on the part of North Korea to improve relations," a South Korean presidential spokesman said. The North’s apology was accepted on Wednesday after officials from the two Koreas met to discuss ways to prevent floods on a river that flows between them. At the meeting the North Korean delegate expressed regret for the deaths and condolences to the families of the victims, and also claimed that they had no choice but to release the water to prevent an even greater incident.

The primary theme of our text is centralized around foreign relations and international politics. Despite the two obvious key parties in this article, North and South Korea, many other nations have a stake. North Korea showing signs of cooperation and compliance is a huge step in the right direction, especially when referring to nuclear arms and peace negotiations. I don’t really know what to think of North Korea because we all know that they are a potential threat and it’s difficult to determine whether or not their actions are as innocent as they claim them to be. Earlier this week, North Korea tested five short-range missiles from its east coast into the waters between Korea and Japan. While some think this could be North Korea's attempt to raise tensions on the Korean peninsula ahead of possible talks with the United States, others considered this a normal...