KOREAN BREAKTHROUGH. "Peace in our time" it is not yet. But last week's nuclear deal between the United States and North Korea could prove to be the end of Asia's lingering cold war. Pyongyang, suspected of making nuclear weapons, agreed to open its nuclear program to inspection and eventually dismantle reactors and plutonium reprocessing facilities in exchange for a pile of goodies -- too many, critics charge. The United States agreed to give North Korea diplomatic recognition, ease trade sanctions, supply fuel oil and help it establish $4 billion worth of relatively safe nuclear power plants. The deal should help strengthen Kim Jong Il's fledgling government -- a change most South Koreans welcome. Stalinist Kim may be the enemy, but no one wants to pay for the cost of a sudden collapse of impoverished North Korea.
Still, South Koreans are skeptical. One poll found that 62 percent believe North Korea will renege on the deal and keep making nuclear arms. The project will require hundreds of pages of detailed negotiated contracts and perhaps thousands of South Korean engineers going north for feasibility studies and construction, all requiring a level of openness, cooperation and good faith uncharacteristic of the isolated regime. And Pyongyang will retain its nuclear card -- the equipment and materials to make plutonium -- for nearly 10 years. While hardly perfect, the deal may be the best option following Bill Clinton's fruitless effort in June to impose economic sanctions.
