Spreading Sunshine?

When members of the nine-nation Asian and Pacific Council (ASPAC)-gathered in Seoul last week, no one needed to remind them that their organization was rapidly becoming outdated. When ASPAC was formed in 1966, Washington had hailed it as a bulwark of anti-Communist solidarity in Asia. In the wake of President Nixon's trip to Peking, however, many of ASPAC's members are now going to some lengths to play down that anti-Communist line in the hope of improving their own relations with China.

Malaysia's delegate pointedly arrived for the two-day meeting a full day late. Japan carefully explained that it had accepted only because it did not want to offend its South Korean hosts. Australia sent its Minister for Primary Industry as a way of showing its desire to de-emphasize ASPAC's political aspects. Like several members, Australia would like to establish full relations with Peking, and participation in a politically oriented organization that includes Taiwan hardly helps.

The most striking change was that shown by South Korea, long among the most ardent of cold warriors. President Chung Hee Park declared that members should transcend differences in ideology "in order to spread the sunshine of peace throughout the region." Whether all the flowery rhetoric will be enough to give ASPAC a viable future, however, remains to be seen.

-South Korea. Taiwan, Japan, the Philippines, Malaysia. Thailand, South Viet Nam, Australia and New Zealand.

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