Tuesday, August 19, 1986;
"The Kims are so wise that they understand the most complex industrial project better than do the engineers in charge. Kim Chong Il is seen in a North Korean film giving instructions on installation of showers in a school."
"Visitors say nutrition appears to be uniformly strong. Doctors are in good supply, although it is unclear how much training they get. "Children's palaces," facilities that combine day care, schooling and political education, are found around the country.
The economy is modeled on Soviet-style central planning and suffers from some of the same ailments of poor management, shop-floor ideology and mismatched quotas as the original.
The Kims constantly intervene. Their support is critical for getting major projects moving, but no one knows how many have been put on the wrong track by some chance gesture or remark they make during a visit."
"It is not all explained by Confucianism, however. Where that creed does not fit, it is discarded. Hereditary succession is anathema to Confucian principles of legitimacy through merit. So are statues and self-aggrandizement; the ideal ruler is supposed to be humble, willing to learn."
"Juche is also evident in economic strategy. While the south is thriving by tying its future to the world economy, its rival has relatively little foreign trade (about $2.5 billion in 1985, Japanese officials say, compared to the south's $31 billion). It prefers to make everything it can itself, ignoring economies of scale. Although it could buy them overseas more cheaply, it makes locomotives, trucks, bulldozers and boring machines in its own factories."
"China is engaged in indirect trade with South Korea worth hundreds of millions of dollars annually. China clearly wants peace on the Korean peninsula and is counseling North Korea in that direction, analysts say.
There is plenty of evidence that suggests North Korea has other plans, however. U.S. and South Korean analysts say that in the past 10 years, it has roughly doubled its military strength and today is systematically moving units closer to the DMZ and building forward airstrips and bomb-proof positions."
"For several years, the north has called for three-way political and military talks among itself, the south and the United States. The United States and the south refuse, saying discussions must begin between the Korean parties and make real progress before anyone else gets involved. The north's real intention, U.S. officials say, is to bypass the south and try to work a separate deal with Washington."
"The north has now followed with an equally unacceptable call for a conference to make Korea -- meaning the south -- a nuclear-free zone. Thirty-three years after the armistice, a meeting of minds seems as far off as ever."
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Has South Korea had Nuclear wepons for a long time?
