Sung Hee Myoung stressed

The priorities for President Lee Myung bak are less obvious.

President Lee is a conservative, and relatively pro Japanese.

Hu, having recently met with South Korean President Lee Myung bak, may have discussed the issue with Kim, as well as the intense pressure Lee is under to respond, if not retaliate.

Indeed, South Korea s president, Lee Myung bak has reportedly abandoned hope of denuclearization, an opinion held across the international community.

But one way or another, President Lee needs to find a way to get inter Korean relations back on a peaceful track.

In early August, Lee Myung bak became the first South Korean president to visit the islets Japan s government responded by proposing to take the sovereignty issue to the International Court of Justice.

South Korean President Lee Myung bak has wisely begun to prepare for that contingency by proposing a special Unification Tax to help pay the costs of the Kim dynasty s eventual disintegration.

The Sunshine Policy, which for a decade sustained hope of North South reconciliation, ended abruptly with President Lee Myung bak s election in South Korea in 2008.

Instead, the North procrastinated, sending Vice Marshall Jo Myong rok to the US only in October 2000, near the end of Clinton s presidency.

On August 10, South Korean President Lee Myung bak visited the island of Takeshima (called Dokdo in Korean), which has been the subject of a territorial dispute between Japan and South Korea for 60 years.

Indeed, South Korean President Lee Myung bak has used the occasion to demand a formal apology for the war from the Japanese emperor, and financial compensation for Korean women who were forced to serve Japanese soldiers in military brothels during the war.

North Korea s unpredictability and China s cynical irresponsibility appear to be boxing in South Korean President Lee Myung bak s conservative government.

TOKYO The Korean peninsula is stirring. In December, South Koreans will go to the polls to choose President Lee Myung bak s successor in what is currently a three way contest.

In South Korea, President Lee Myung bak s political base wants to roll back, not reinvigorate, the Sunshine Policy, and there is a widespread (though by no means universal) weariness with engagement.

South Korean President Lee Myung bak, through his flip flops, and Kim Jong Il, with his renewed nuclear blackmail, both seem determined to see relations deteriorate.

Local analysts point out that President Lee Myungbak s rash behavior stems from concerns that construction of the naval base could be placed in permanent jeopardy if the ruling party loses its parliamentary majority in April's general election.

In the face of the North s provocations, South Korean President Lee Myung bak has demonstrated more of the statesmanship he showed in the recent G 20 summit in Seoul, when he successfully crafted a new focus on development for the group.

While South Korean President Lee Myung bak held bilateral talks with Chinese President Hu Jintao, talks between Noda and Hu, and a scheduled meeting between Keidanren Chairman Hiromasa Yonekura and Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi, were also canceled.

South Korean President Lee Myung bak has wisely begun to prepare for that contingency by proposing a special Unification Tax to help pay the costs of the Kim dynasty s eventual disintegration. Japan and the rest of Asia should prepare for that day as well.

Rather than criticize China, US President Barack Obama and Lee should now reach out to the Chinese for thorough debriefings about what was learned from Kim s visit on security as well as economic issues.

But the ICJ cannot exercise jurisdiction in the dispute without both countries consent, and South Korea has rejected Japan s proposal, maintaining that Lee was within his authority to visit the islets, given that Dokdo is unquestionably South Korean territory.

Meanwhile, the Republic of Korea and Japan are engaged in a territorial standoff over the islets of Dokdo (called Takeshima in Japanese). In early August, Lee Myung bak became the first South Korean president to visit the islets

Some elements are borrowed from Stalinism and Maoism, but much of the Kim cult owes more to indigenous forms of shamanism human gods who promise salvation (it is no accident that the Reverend Sun Myung Moon and his Unification Church came from Korea, too).

At the end of March, South Korean President Lee Myung bak will host a follow up meeting to Obama s successful Nuclear Security Summit in 2010, which brought together 47 government leaders to agree on a comprehensive program aimed at securing all such materials within four years.