By Andrei Lankov
President Lee Myung-bak has been unlucky so far: elected amidst much expectation, he was bound to cause eventual disappointments even had things gone extremely well. Unfortunately, things did not go well, especially at the economic front ― but North Korea also makes a lot of trouble.
Inter-Korean relations haven't been this bad in more than a decade: North Korean media erupted with verbal abuse of Seoul, the exchanges were dramatically scaled down by Pyongyang, and military provocation seems likely.
When President Lee took office a year ago, he faced two options in dealing with the North. It could have been business as usual, accepting President Roh Moo-hyun's policy of unilateral concessions and unconditional aid and pumping more and more money toward Pyongyang.