[Editorial] President Kim`s inadequate perception of stark realities

An air of concern is on the rise about the way President Kim Dae-Jung perceives our stark realities, be they about domestic politics or inter-Korean relations.

The gist of the contents the Millennium Democratic Party's 13 first or reelected legislative members discussed at their meeting on Friday, can be summarized as their concern on President Kim's lack of adequate understanding about the present crisis.

The lawmakers were strongly critical about the deplorable developments of the recent situations which include the suspicions surrounding Hanbit Bank's unlawful loan scandal; people's suffering from setbacks of newly implemmented practice to separate professional roles between doctors and pharmacists; and the railloading of the bills for the revision of the National Assembly Law as well as the lack of vitality and irresponsibility of the MDP leaders.

They were of the opinion that the present, deadlocked state affairs and pandemonium with no resolutions in sight could be attributable to President Kim's inadequate perceptions about the seriousness of our present crisis.

Chong Wa Dae, however, appears to flatly reject such concern as their indiscreet and imprudent behavior which, according to Chong Wa Dae,reflected their inaccurate comprehension of present situations.

President Kim is also firm in reiterating his views that all the pending issues should be tackled by what the principles dictate, such as the rules prescribed by the National Assembly Law or the results of prosecutors' investigations as the case may be. In view of the nature of our present impasse, the principles alone can hardly become a viable means to tackle our present crises.

In addition, an analysis of President Kim's recent statements assures us of his erroneous understanding on the South-North issues. While we respect President Kim's eagerness and ambition to realize the nation's long-cherished desires, we think that President Kim must be able to make a cold and realistic assessment on grim inter-Korean realities as well as people's opinion.

President Kim reportedly stated at the six MDP major office-holders'weekly briefing to him that Pyongyang made more concessions for Seoul,because the North withdrew its insistence on the withdrawal of U.S. forces stationed in the South, revision of the National Security Law and its unification formula for Koryo federation. This sounds as if we have obtained great concessions from the North, but Pyongyang has not indicated so far any changes in its stand on those three critical issues.

We may lose a sense of proportion and objectivity if we conduct our North Korea policies on the illusion that we attained the North's concessions.

To be sure, criticisms are on the rise against the way Seoul appears always being dragged by Pyongyang because the North's unilateeral suggestions for the time and place of the inter-Korean contacts are always accepted by Seoul.

In this regard, we should also point out the use of unduly respective expressions to address Defense Chairman Kim Jong-Il in the South-North joint communique on September 14, as well as the excessive hospitality extended to Secretary Kim Yong-Sun by some officials in the South. Seoul's loss of objectivity to accurately comprehend Pyongyang could have been responsible for extending such a lamentable protocol to them.

As some people rightly fear, any excessive preoccupation with accomplishment and achievemnet in inter-Korean relations can easily blind our sense of objectivity to assess the North and may cause as well our officials to act and behave in the way they lose face and confidence.