A Surprising Acceptance

After heavy floods that killed at least 188 South Koreans two weeks ago and caused severe damage to homes and crops, North Korea offered rice, medicine, cloth and cement in humanitarian assistance. Last week, to the surprise of practically everybody, South Korea accepted the offer. If the deal goes through, it will be the first extension of aid of any kind between the two hostile regimes since the Korean War began in 1950.

Some skeptics thought both governments were bluffing: that the North did not expect the offer to be accepted and that the South did not expect the aid to be delivered. But there were signs that the government in Pyongyang really may be trying to improve its relations with Seoul, even if only slightly. The North Koreans are still trying to undo the damage caused by their involvement in the bomb blast in Burma last year that killed 17 visiting South Koreans, many of them top officials, but missed the most obvious target, South Korean President Chun Doo Hwan. Overlooking such examples of past hatreds, the two sides decided to schedule aid talks for this week in Panmunjom, in the Demilitarized Zone that divides the two countries.