Suzy Kim, former international secretary of MINKAHYUP Human Rights Group in Seoul, Korea, and a visiting assistant professor of East Asian Studies at Oberlin College, and John Feffer, co-director of Foreign Policy In Focus at the Institute for Policy Studies, write, “What’s at stake is an end to more than half a century of hostilities in U.S.-North Korea relations, 20 million North Korean lives, and a peaceful and prosperous East Asia. The United States has to commit to the long haul. It’s time to give engaged diplomacy a chance.”

Aidan Foster-Carter, honorary senior research fellow in sociology and modern Korea at Leeds University, England, writes, “South Korea’s real problems run deeper than soundbites. They include jobless graduates – too many study the wrong subjects – and, above all, how to create a growth model to meet China’s challenge. That entails boosting services, which means more FDI. Mr Roh, to his credit, saw this. Does Mr Lee?”

Mark J. Valencia, a Maritime Policy Analyst and Nautilus Institute Associate, writes, “But if the mighty U.S. Navy vessels truly felt threatened by the lightly armed speedboats, then they should have argued they were engaging in self-defense or have even taken the issue to the UN Security Council. But to claim and pursue transit passage in a provocative manner while refusing to ratify the Convention-and then crying ‘foul’ –smacks of hypocrisy or worse.”