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| Credit: Reuters/KCNA |
Wo. Reuters almost slipped this past me, to the side of their front page, with just a small picture and little headline, North Korean leader, in rare address, seeks end to confrontation with South. Although listed last with a group of stories labelled - SOCIAL PULSE - GOING VIRAL. Blown up, the picture above, one has to admit, has that caught in the headlights appearance and Reuters reports it was a surprise New Year's broadcast on state media.
Tell you the truth, though I've never thought about it, I'm slightly surprised myself that they use the same calendar. No?
Not sure about this assumption though, Reuters printing - The address by Kim ... appeared to take the place of the policy-setting New Year's editorial published annually in the past in leading state newspapers. As that possibility would seem to jinx anything potentially progressive by calling attention to something not everyone in their country would be ready to concede yet. |
| www.thinkchildren.org |
Also according to Reuters, Kim said - "An important issue in putting an end to the division of the country and achieving its reunification is to remove confrontation between the north and the south," in an address that appeared to be pre-recorded. "Past records of inter-Korean relations show that confrontation between fellow countrymen leads to nothing but war," he said, speaking from an undisclosed location.
Maybe Kim is looking for money, implies Kim Tae-woo, a North Korea expert at the state-funded Korea Institute for National Unification. "But such a move does not necessarily mean any substantive change in the North Korean regime's policy towards the South."
Ho hum or not, every time Kim peeps some acknowledgement should come his way. But of course understandably, according to Reuters - There was no immediate reaction from Washington.
And Reuters asked Bruce Klingner, a senior research fellow at the conservative Heritage Foundation in Washington, what he thought. He said, "Kim Jong-un's New Year's message was different in format but not in content." It offered further evidence the young leader is following in the footsteps of his grandfather, rather than his father, he said. While the younger Kim's public diplomacy resonates well with the North Korean public, "the new North Korean leader's impact on the outside world is undermined by North Korea's continued provocations and bombastic rhetoric," Klingner said.
All I say is, Korea let Kim really be a great leader.
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| Akhtar Soomro/Reuters/Landov |
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Don't you just love the truly hippy-dippy good stories, that should all really have happier endings?
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| Peace Pilgrim near Topeka, Kan., in the late 1970s. She had walked 25,000 miles by 1964, and continued for almost two more decades. She carried only a pen, a comb, a toothbrush and a map. |
