Editorials
Tuesday, April 21, 1998

North Korea rebuffs
South’s Kim Dae-jung

KIM Dae-jung's efforts to warm the frosty relations between the two Koreas have been set back by the collapse of talks in Beijing between Seoul and Pyongyang. Each side blamed each other for the breakdown after their first high-level contacts in four years.

North Korea's official newspaper blamed South Korea's new president, Kim Dae-jung, calling him as bad as his predecessors for failing to support withdrawal of U.S. forces. The newspaper accused Kim's government of "pursuing treacherous, separatist, confrontation and war moves little different from those of the 'civilian' dictators."

This sort of language might have amused Kim Dae-jung, for decades a leading critic of military-backed governments. Kim, who took office in February, has tried to win North Korea's trust by lifting restrictions on the flow of gifts, goods, investments and travel to the North. He has encouraged fund-raising activities to provide aid for the people of the impoverished country. His policy is described as coexistence, not supremacy or reunification, the traditional aims of the South.

Kim also wanted to give a boost to the four-party peace talks in Geneva. Those talks, which China and the United States are refereeing, broke down last month.

North Korea's agreement to talks at the deputy minister level inspired hope that a thaw might be in the making. But the negotiations collapsed Saturday over Seoul's insistence that it would offer aid only if North Korea agreed to permit reunions of tens of thousands of families separated since the Korean War. North Korea insisted that South Korea first provide the fertilizer aid before talking about what it called "political issues" such as family reunions.

"They (the North Koreans) are reluctant to get families together," explained an analyst in Seoul. "New ideas could creep into the closed system." The deadlock illustrates the difficulty the Communist regime has in making concessions even in dire conditions. North Korea is suffering from famine. People are dying. Yet it resists granting even the humanitarian concession of family reunification.

South Korea is experiencing its own economic problems and the government fears the collapse of the North would place an intolerable burden on the South. Kim Dae-jung's non-confrontational policy is a prudent one. But the latest breakdown shows that it will take considerable patience to achieve even modest progress in talks with North Korea.

Chinese history center

DURING the best of times, state Sen. Rod Tam's proposal to create a Chinese historical center might have merit. However, Tam should have known better than to go forward with the proposal while the state tries to cope with economic problems and the Bishop Museum plans layoffs. Any expenditure of tax dollars on a new museum should come from a budget surplus, and that is not expected anytime soon.

Governor Cayetano's Economic Revitalization Task Force recommended that Hawaii high schools require more stringent foreign language and computer literacy. That would involve expenditures for more laboratories and teachers. Tam, co-chairman of the Senate Education Committee, pronounced the recommendation premature and instead injected $200,000 in his committee's appropriation bill to create a Chinese historical center.

The state's annual grant of about $800,000 to the Bishop Museum, Hawaii's premier natural science and ethnic museum, comprises 3 percent of the museum's budget -- down from 14 percent several years ago -- and Budget Director Earl Anzai has called for even deeper cuts. The museum laid off two workers from its Hawaii Maritime Center in February, plans to lay off 11 museum employees and will eliminate several vacant positions.

As might be expected, Tam's proposal to build such a center in Chinatown, displaying information about Chinese immigration to Hawaii and the contributions of residents of Chinese ancestry, was well received by Hawaii's 120 Chinese organizations. Let them fund it.

LH litigation

HAWAII'S retailing universe, comprised of shoppers, suppliers, business reporters and bankruptcy voyeurs, should send a collective mahalo to Judge William H. Yohn Jr. in Pennsylvania. Last week, the U.S. District Court jurist ruled that the case involving the temporarily thwarted takeover of Liberty House, Hawaii's biggest and best-known retail chain, should be heard in Honolulu.

Thanks to his decision, the battle for control of LH will be fought in the venue most interested and affected by its stunning filing for bankruptcy protection last month. Pull up a chair; this is going to be fascinating.

Two warring boards of directors are claiming jurisdiction. The "old" board wants to maintain control after what it characterizes as a surreptitious takeover attempt by the "new" board, made up of a Bank of America-led group of lenders.

The main issue before the Hawaii court will be whether the lending group was justified in obtaining an injunction barring the old board from running LH after the company defaulted on a $1 million loan payment. The new board members wanted the case heard in Pennsylvania because, they said, it would be more convenient for the principals, based in Illinois and Massachusetts.

Too bad, said Judge Yohn, who ruled that the drama should be played out on the stage where LH operates and where bankruptcy proceedings are in progress. Now the Hawaii audience -- including many unpaid local suppliers -- will be better able to follow this riveting story.

---

Published by Liberty Newspapers Limited Partnership

Rupert E. Phillips, CEO

John M. Flanagan, Editor & Publisher

David Shapiro, Managing Editor

Diane Yukihiro Chang, Senior Editor & Editorial Page Editor

Frank Bridgewater & Michael Rovner, Assistant Managing Editors

A.A. Smyser, Contributing Editor