The new South Korean anti-Unification Minister Lee Jae-joung has called for what President Roh must think can be the only thing that would give him any symbolance of a legacy after his presidency ends next year:

 Senior government officials and politicians have been talking up the possibility of a second inter-Korean summit and are concentrating their energies on bringing it about. The new Unification Minister Lee Jae-joung said Monday an inter-Korean summit was a long-pending issue. South and North Korean leaders agreed to hold one in 2000, and President Roh Moo-hyun has stressed the need for a second summit several times, he said. Speaking after his inauguration, the minister told reporters arranging the summit was a task for the leaders of both Koreas. But he added it remains to be seen when and how another inter-Korean summit will take place.

Is it any wonder now why the South Korean government would rather better fund North Korea than the US-ROK Alliance by sending a billion dollars of aid to the North next year.  Is it also any wonder why South Korea isn’t going to ignore North Korean human rights violations along with the ruling party doing everything possible to cover up the South Korean spy scandal:

More than half of the Korean public suspect that the government has been less than aggressive in hunting down North Korean spies, while a majority feels that there is a problem with the way that people here perceive national security issues regarding the North.

On a commission from the Chosun Ilbo, Korea Gallup conducted a telephone opinion poll Monday in which 60.3 percent of respondents agreed with the statement “Even though there have been many spies in the country the government has intentionally not caught them,” while only 26.4 percent thought that, “The government has caught every spy it found.”

Looking back, you have to Kim Dae-jung credit; it only cost him $500 million in bribes to Kim Jong-il to secure a summit.  President Roh on the other hand has steadily increased the aid to North Korea throughout his presidency to where now South Korea is giving over one billion dollars in aid to the North a year.  What does President Roh have to show for it?  Let’s see, a weakened US-ROK Alliance, a sluggish economy, a North Korean spy scandal, North Korean missile and nuclear bomb tests, along with a host of other issues that has made President Roh and his ruling Uri Party extremely unpopular in South Korea with a 5.7% approval rating.
Instead of choosing to do things that would leave him some sort of positive legacy after he is gone, President Roh has instead chosen that getting a photograph of him toasting Kim Jong-il is more important.

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