Mixed Messages on U.S. Role as Two Koreas...

[cstaylor]

Mixed Messages on U.S. Role as Two Koreas Begin Joint Projects

The full-court media press comes as North and South Korea prepare to inaugurate the industrial park in two weeks. Seizing on American objections to the use in North Korea of 39 American-made high-tech electronics and communications items, or 3 percent of 1,200 items reviewed by Washington, North Korea has been hammering on a message that the United States wants to block the pioneering inter-Korean venture.

This perception of the United States as opposed to Korean reunification is now widely held among young South Koreans, according to a poll released Tuesday by the Advisory Council on Democratic Peaceful Unification, a presidential panel. South Korean teenagers cited Russia as the nation most favorable to Korean unification and the United States as the most hostile.

This response seemed to be out of a North Korean playbook.