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Dear Realpatriot:

First, a tip of the hat to AmericaninTokyo. Your posts are first rate. You see stuff over there in Japan that I don't see on South Korean TV. The perspective is just a little different and very welcome.

To realpatriot: Leaving NK alone is basically the policy we have followed for fifty years, ever since the end of the First Korean War. This seemed to be a very suitable policy, given their national political philosophy of juche, or self relaince. They wanted to be left alone, good for them.

But they have never really wanted to leave others alone.

August 15, 1974: A North Korean agent based in Japan attempts to assinate South Korean president Park Chung Hee as he read a speech at the National Theatre. The assassin bungles the attempt, but succeeds in killing South Korea's First Lady.

October 9, 1983: North Korean agents explode a powerful bomb at a reception in Rangoon, Burma, intending to assasinate South Korean President Chun Doo Hwan. North Korean Army Major Zin Mo mistakenly sets the bomb off prematurely and instead of the President he only succeeds in killing four South Korea cabinet members, two senior presidential advisors and the South Korean Ambassador to Burma. Other lesser lights are also killed in the explosion.

November 29, 1987: In an attempt to harm South Korea's Olympic efforts, Kim Jong Il, the present Deart Leader of North Korea, orders the bombing of a South Korean Airliner. Two North Korea operatives are given this assiignment. They carry it out very well and on November 29, KAL 858 is blown out of the sky on a flight from Dubai to Seoul. All 115 on board are killed.

September 18, 1996: North Korea is caught infiltrating a large number of special forces into South Korea when a taxi driver sees them crouching by a roadside in a remote part of rural South Korea. Eleven are killed by their own North Korean commander to avoid their capture. Several more try to escape. Eleven are tracked down and killled in firefights with South Korean authorities. At least one is caught. Some are never found. North Korea has at least 48 of these infiltrating submarines and there is no reason to believe that they have halted their use.

All of this must be taken along with a history of continual probing and infiltration of North Korean teams deep into South Korea. In 1976 a North Korean team was cought just north of Seoul, wearing South Korean military uniforms. Earlier, another team of North Korean infiltrators were caught sketching American airbase facilities near Kwangju, 400 kilometers south of the DMZ.

Then there is the issue of North Korean nuclear weapons. Do you suppose they are developing these to use within their own territory?

I'm sorry, but North Korea cannot be just left alone.