			Foreign Correspondent

		      Inside Track On World News
	    By International Syndicated Columnist & Broadcaster
		 Eric Margolis <emargolis@lglobal.com>

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FAREWELL MY CONCUBINE
by
Eric Margolis 15 Feb 96

Geneva, Switzerland - Geneva is very Swiss: solid, quiet,
and discreet.  But on occasion, the international intrigue
that percolates under its staid surface breaks into the
open.  

Indeed, I recall one of my favorite such events, that
occured during my Geneva student days  in the late 50's:
French intelligence liquidated  an irritating African
nationalist leader by slipping cyanide into his cocktail at
a fancy reception. The Swiss were not pleased. 

Yesterday, it was revealed that the former wife (or perhaps
mistress), of North Korea's bizarre ruler, Kim Jong-il,
disappeared from a plush villa here in Geneva and defected,
possibly to South Korea, via Germany.  South Korean
intelligence agents, apparently  aided by CIA, slipped the
57-year old Sung Hae Him and a sister past North Korean
guards and out of Geneva.

This defection is a bombshell. North Korea, racked by famine
and floods, is careening towards economic collapse.  This
danger is so grave that the Clinton Administration is
planning to give food and oil to the North to stave off a
mass stampede of starving North Koreans into neighboring
China, South Korea and Japan.  

Sung, a former movie actress and one of Kim Jong-il's many
paramours, was the mother of his eldest son, who is
currently being groomed to succeed the senior Kim in the
world's only Stalinist dynasty.  When Kim dumped her for a
younger concubine,  Sung was eased off to European exile, 
consoled by a lavish stipend.   

Her defection is a major humiliation to Kim, causing him
great loss of face, and a triumph for the gleeful South
Koreans. It follows a recent  spate of defections, including
yesterday's attempt  by a North Korea asylum-seeker to shoot
his way into the Soviet trade mission in Pyongyang. All this
suggests North Korea may be about to either implode or
explode, take your pick.     

Implosion would mean the collapse of the economy,  mass
starvation, and national chaos.  Such a catastrophe would
produce tidal waves of desperate refugees. South Korea and
Japan are understandably anxious to avoid having to feed and
care for 23.9 million destitute North Koreans. The Seoul
government has long feared such an `unanticipated
reunification:'  South Korea's enormous economic advances
would be swallowed up by having to rebuild and feed the
north.  Many South Koreans actually dread reunification. 


Explosion means the dour generals who share power with
`Beloved Leader' Kim might unleash the North's 1.1 million-
man army against the South in a last, desperate attempt to
save themselves.  North Korea is believed to have up to
three functioning nuclear devices.  An invasion by the North
would immediately fall on the 36,400 US troops in  South
Korea.

Either scenario is ghastly.  To stave off trouble in Korea
until after American elections, the Clinton Administrations
has been trying to buy off the truculent North Koreans for
the last 18 months, offering free oil, food and nuclear
technology.  South Korea has halfheartedly tried similar
blandishments.  But the enigmatic northern leadership is
split over accepting foreign help. Doing so would violate
the north's most cherished dogma, `Juche,' or total,
autarkic, self-reliance.  

Trouble is, the prime recipient of any foreign aid will be
North Korea's huge armed forces, the regime's foundation. 
As long as the soldiers eat, and their tanks move on
imported oil, the regime may survive.  If the regime admits
failure by accepting outside aid,  North Koreans will see
the communist emperor has no clothes and could rebel.

South Korea, Japan and the US can't decide whether the
explosive North is better kept alive, or allowed to die.
Either way spells immense danger.  

The moment of decision for North Asia has moved closer  -
all because a jilted North Korean actress decided she was
tired of living like a caged bird in Geneva.  Who says
Switzerland is dull?

eric margolis   copyright 1996

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