Mikhail Gorbachev's meeting with South Korea's president in San Francisco next week could eventually lead to diplomatic relations between the two nations and unification of Korea, a scholar says.
"I don't expect any particularly shattering development right away, but it's a first step of great symbolic importance," Lawrence Lau, Stanford University professor in Asian economics, said Wednesday."I wouldn't be surprised if diplomatic relations are established out of this."
The Soviet leader, who begins four days of talks today with President Bush, will meet with South Korean President Roh Tae-woo on Monday during Gorbachev's 21-hour stay here, said U.S. officials speaking on condition of anonymity.
Better relations between Moscow and Seoul, for more than 40 years a pro-U.S. foe of Soviet-backed North Korea, would help the Soviets by giving them a cheap, close source of consumer goods and a market for natural resources, Lau said.
"From the Soviet point of view, South Korea also is in a position to help North Korea," Lau said. "Unification is pretty far up the road, but the North Koreans need help, and their principal supporter - the Soviet Union - is no longer in a position to support them."
Youn Ja Shin-Chey, a leader of the Korean Center in San Francisco and a Russian scholar, said the 100,000-strong Korean community in the Bay Area was surprised and thrilled by the meeting.
"There are maybe 60 million Koreans all over the world, and if you asked any Korean, `What is your one wish?' the answer would be, `The unification of North and South,' " Youn said.
Korea was divided at the 38th parallel into Soviet and U.S. zones of occupation after World War II. North Korean forces invaded South Korea, prompting the Korean War from 1950 to 1953; the peninsula since has remained two independent nations.
The nations have no formal diplomatic relations and the Soviets maintain strong ties with North Korea.
In December, the Soviet Union and South Korea opened consular departments in their trade offices in each other's capitals. But officials working there do not have normal diplomatic privileges.