SORRY FOR THE INTRUSION

By Bruce W. Nelan

Stalinism means never having to say you're sorry. The truculent Soviet dictator spent most of his life claiming to be politically infallible, and his proteges in North Korea are just as bloody-minded. Over the decades since their invasion of the South was beaten back, the North Koreans have sent down waves of assassins and saboteurs, seized warships and cargo vessels at sea, blown up at least one civilian airliner, hacked U.S. truce guards to death with axes and committed other barbarities without the slightest sign of self-doubt. After Kim Il Sung died in 1994, his son and apparent successor Kim Jong Il displayed the same steely confidence in his own political correctness. So last September, when a North Korean submarine ran aground on the South's coast and 26 armed infiltrators dashed ashore, Pyongyang erupted with the standard bluster. Not only was the North the "victim," its spokesmen said, but because 24 of its men were killed, it might retaliate a "thousandfold." And, oh yes, the sub must be returned.

Suddenly last week all those precedents were reversed. After 11 meetings between U.S. and North Korean officials in New York, Pyongyang made a rare apology. In a Korean-language broadcast to the world, the North expressed its "deep regret" for the submarine incident, promised to keep such things from happening again and sweetly offered to "work with others for durable peace and stability on the Korean peninsula." The North Koreans also dropped their demand for the sub in return for the remains of their dead. A day later the North agreed to sit down with the U.S. and South Korea to talk about starting four-power (North, South, U.S. and China) negotiations on a formal peace settlement of the Korean War 43 years after its end. North Korea faced a choice: belligerent business as usual, possibly leading to the regime's collapse, or knuckling under to demands from South Korea and the U.S. for better behavior. After reviewing the options, Pyongyang blinked. Says Assistant Secretary of State Winston Lord: "We are poised to make further progress."

No one is suggesting Kim and his minions have turned nice. Just more pragmatic. Their economy has shrunk an estimated 30% in the past five years, and persistent food shortages are threatening to turn into famine. Even their prized armed forces are deteriorating for lack of food, fuel and modernization. U.S. defense strategy is anchored on preparations to fight two major regional conflicts at almost the same time, and the Pentagon has long counted North Korea as one of the two. But that contingency may be fading. The North's leaders are now showing they are interested in survival, not destruction.

Pyongyang has decided to seem cooperative. That way it can count on resuming the vital programs that were frozen after the submarine incident: food and humanitarian-aid shipments, new nuclear power reactors paid for largely by South Korea, relaxation of the U.S. trade embargo. Kim & Co. may still believe they are only becoming more realistic in order to save the regime and stay in power. But, one is scarcely sorry to observe, their turn away from ideology and toward reality could mean the death of Stalinism.

--By Bruce W. Nelan. Reported by Stella Kim/Seoul and Irene M. Kunii/Tokyo

With reporting by STELLA KIM/SEOUL AND IRENE M. KUNII/TOKYO