Editor:


Since the passing of Kim Il-sung last month, the United States has continued its previous diplomatic strategy vis-?-vis Pyongyang on the short-sighted premise that the heir apparent, Kim Jong-il, supported by the military and vested interests in the top political echelons, intends to maintain North Korea's old foreign policy: namely, to bargain International Atomic Energy Agency inspections of its nuclear facilities for diplomatic recognition by Washington. The only real point of difference between Washington and Pyongyang seems to be the pace of the diplomatic recognition process and the increasingly elusive degree of South Korea's role in what it essentially views as a bilateral problem.


In order to move beyond the nuclear problem, the United States and South Korea must tackle the issue in a comprehensive manner that takes advantage of Russia's potentially constructive role. Only in this way could effective moderation of the North Korean threat to both regional and global security take place.


The United States and South Korea must realize that the dust has not yet settled in the North, since Kim Jong-il does not yet hold the official title of president or that of general secretary of the Korean Workers' Party. They should also recognize that a major diplomatic breakthrough could play a role in any power struggle that may be going on at this politically sensitive time.


Given the maximum political incentive to reach a breakthrough at this point, both the United States and South Korea must stick to their basic demands: a guarantee of both past and future accountability for the North's nuclear reactors and IAEA inspections, as well as an immediate end to the continuing political subversion against Seoul which has taken the form of organizing, for instance, the most radical wing of the South Korean student movement.


Active inter-Korean economic intercourse should be negotiated, to be accompanied by concrete bilateral confidence-building measures including the enlargement of the demilitarized zone, or DMZ, the true "demilitarization" of the DMZ (no infiltration tunnels, etc.), and a gradual reduction in the number of conventional forces on both sides.


The reunification of divided families and other humanitarian steps may also help, to be eventually followed by diplomatic recognition by Japan and the United States. Such a strategy will necessarily "re-Koreanize" the negotiations, which have so far proven highly ineffective.


Washington should take the initiative in creating a favorable four-power consensus with China, Japan and Russia to support the Seoul-Washington strategy and to strictly enforce the non-transfer of any dual-use technology to the North.


Only time will tell whether such a strategy will work, but the United States and South Korea must not lose this opportunity while the political contour emerging in North Korea is bound to be less rigid than under Kim Il-sung's rule. The West must play an active, engaged role in this momentous change on the Korean peninsula.


Byungki Kim,


Visiting Fellow


Institute of USA/Canada Studies


Scientology Is No Joke


In response to "The Russian Soul Meets Dianetics" by Genine Babakian (August 2).





Editor:


I am particularly shocked at the good-natured tone of your article.


I usually appreciate the editorial quality of your publication, especially when it makes me feel part of your family: Hey Jean, that Stan would have deserved a good smack; how little Tom is climbing trees and not able to recite a poem in French; some of your contributors' money problems in search of a local restaurant, and so on ...


But you should inform your readers that Scientology is neither a "church" nor a science. It is a well-oiled machine aimed at transforming its victims' personalities and exploiting feelings of loneliness, genuine self-doubts and uncertainties in a hard and competitive society. Have you ever seen what is left of someone after their so-called "auditing"? Moreover, not only is it "controversial," it is also banned in some countries, including Germany.


It is a little bit as if you had run a piece titled "A New Place to Enjoy Heroin in Moscow" with but one cautionary paragraph starting,"Although critics in the United States say that heroin may be bad for your health... "


Since you opened the subject, please go on telling your readers about Herbal Life, Scientology, Hare Krishna, the Unification Church, Sokka Gakai and other cults thriving here on the locals' credulity. But please be careful to investigate what is behind these groups. In comparison, MMM and even some mafia are truly sympathetic.


Bruno De Boni


Moscow