It Makes a Difference to the Sheep

Have spent the last couple of days attending various luncheons and talks hosted by well-known think tanks around town. A few interesting observations that emerged include:

There is a significant (and probably growing) element of the South Korean population that is convinced that the U.S. wants to keep the Koreas divided in order to further American hegemonic ambitions in the region.

I think one could actually turn this argument on its head and conclude that since the Bush Administration is the only power that openly talks of regime change in North Korea, the U.S. is actually the only power that is interested in unification anytime soon. If it were up to the powers that be in the ROK, unification would happen decades in the future at best. If it were up to Bush, it would happen tomorrow because the ROK would have no choice but to move in to fill the power vacuum left by the hoped for collapse of the Kim Jong Il regime. Of course since I don't think that it is all that likely that the Kim regime will collapse, I'm not necessarily an enthusiastic backed of Bush's hard-line toward North Korea but that doesn't mean Bush is anti-unification.

More later. I have another talk to go to.