And They Still Won’t Even Take His Calls

After all this, where exactly has the Please Don’t Hurt Me, Just Take My Wallet Sunshine Policy gotten South Korea? As Dave at No Illusions has noticed, South Korea still can’t even claim to have a direct channel of communication with Pyongyang. It must be hard to get the lean, hungry barbarians to the North to take you seriously when you’re a decadent, soft-eyed milquetoast with ‘nads of Nerf and a loose wallet.

What else has appeasement not accomplished? Disarmament. North Korea continues to crank out more accurate short-range missiles specifically designed to hit South Korea.

The missiles have longer ranges than North Korea’s existing arsenal of 600 Scud B (300km) and Scud C (500km) missiles. They are also more accurate. The source said the missiles are capable of striking targets in nearly all of South Korea even from bases in rear areas of the North. . . . [T]he range of the new Scuds is considerably shorter than that of Pyongyang’s arsenal of Rodong missiles (1,300km) and newly designed intermediate-range ballistic missiles (3,000 – 4,000km), which have already been deployed; its Taepodong-1 missile (2,500km), which was test-fired in 1998 but never deployed; and the Taepodong-2 missile (6,700km), which is currently under development. However, [the other missile designs] are reportedly all aimed at Japan and the U.S. rather than South Korea. The Scud upgrades, by contrast, were designed with South Korea in mind, and intelligence authorities believe they represent a greater threat than the long-range missiles.

. . . since those long-range missiles would only kill Americans and Japanese, apparently. After eight years of the Sunshine Policy, South Korea isn’t even asking North Korea to discuss controlling the growth of the burgeoning arsenal of weapons aimed at its territory. After eight years, tons of fertilizer, and perhaps trillions of won in aid and bribes, North Korea still won’t take Roh Moo-Hyun’s phone calls.

We aren’t getting our troops out of Korea fast enough.

UPDATE: The Chosun Ilbo is observing pretty much the same thing. Seoul’s role in the latest crisis has been to ask the U.S. and China to handle it. Where’s all the influence that the Sunshine Policy gained for Seoul? Meanwhile, they’ve lost most of their influence with the United States, and China certainly doesn’t show them much respect.