Koreas Ease Tensions With Small Gestures (NY Times)

[pinto]

Koreas Ease Tensions With Small Gestures
By CHOE SANG-HUN
Published: May 31, 2010

SEOUL — North Korea expressed a desire to keep a joint industrial complex in operation, South Korean officials said on Monday, while the South indicated that it might reconsider its decision to revive psychological warfare against the North.

The two movements showed that the two Koreas were carefully weighing the option of easing their confrontation, analysts said.

Tensions on the divided Korean Peninsula have deteriorated to their worst point in years, after a South Korean warship sank on March 26 in a blast blamed on a North Korean torpedo attack.

“Neither side can afford to keep building up tensions,” said Kim Yong-hyun, a North Korea specialist at Dongguk University in Seoul. “Both sides have been raising tensions the way you blow into your balloon, and now they need an excuse for each other to stop blowing so that the balloon won’t burst.”

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http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/01/world/asia/01korea.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

[Forkboy]

1. Fingers crossed.

[pinto]

2. Yeah. My casual take is that they both know this dance, neither wants blatant confrontation.

'Least I hope so. :hi:

[Forkboy]

3. NK definitely likes to play games and is big on bluster.

But I think even they know that it was getting too dangerous this time, and with China not exactly rushing to defend them I think they also know that war means the end of North Korea.

Famous last words by me. :)

[pinto]

4. I agree. With the enormous challenges the NK population is facing, war without

major support from China may well be the failure of the state. They stand a better chance with some rapprochement, as does the population.