To the Point

The US and the Two Koreas

While the US and UN are focused on Iraq, the Korean peninsula continues to be one of the world-s most dangerous places. From heavily armed North Korea, there have been missile shipments and credible threats to build nuclear weapons. In South Korea, the campaign for tomorrow-s presidential election has revealed divisions that could be critical to the United States. Is it time to get tough with the North or should the Bush administration respond to North Korea-s call for normalizing relations? We investigate America-s options and the role to be played by the voters in South Korea with a political scientist in Seoul, a former ambassador to Korea, the coordinator of the 1994 US-North Korea Agreed Framework, and Congressman Christopher Cox, who helped investigate North Korea-s weapons program in 1999. Newsmaker: UN Plans for Humanitarian Debacle in Iraq While the White House is likely to declare that Iraq has failed to account completely for its weapons programs, President Bush will defer from making any pubic statement until after Chief Weapons Inspector Hans Blix makes his report to the UN Security Council. Michael Phillips of the Wall Street Journal says that UN agencies are preparing for the fallout of a US decision to pursue military action in Iraq. Reporter's Notebook: World Trade Center Plans Unveiled After six proposals for rebuilding on the site of New York-s World Trade Center were rejected by critics and the general public, some of the world-s most prominent architectural firms were asked to produce more -flexible and creative- designs. The New Yorker-s Paul Goldberger, author of The World Trade Center Remembered, reports that the 9 new visionary designs combine security, skyline gardens and civic space.