Long distrustful of its neighbor to the north, South Korea reacted positively but cautiously Saturday to what analysts here called a surprisingly broad agreement reached in Geneva by the United States and North Korea.
Government officials and analysts here said that while the accord could defuse tensions on the Korean peninsula, it might end up being only another in a series of seemingly promising agreements made by North Korea that are never carried out.The South Koreans also said the agreement in Geneva failed to explicitly address one of South Korea's central concerns: that there be inspections of nuclear sites in North Korea in an attempt to determine whether it already has nuclear weapons.
Despite some misgivings, South Korea is expected to play a central role in providing North Korea with modern nuclear reactors, costing about $4 billion, as part the Geneva accord.
The offer is expected to be made Monday by President Kim Young Sam in a speech to commemorate the 49th anniversary of Korea's liberation from Japanese rule.
With North Korea and the United States having resolved some of their differences, attention will now turn to whether North and South Korea can resume their dialogue.
The two nations had been planning an initial summit meeting on July 25, but the meeting was postponed after the death of Kim Il Sung.
Analysts expect that South Korea's president, in his speech Monday, will try to restore a more positive atmosphere and will reiterate the South's readiness to engage in dialogue with the North.
But if there is to be any thaw in North-South relations as a result of the Geneva accord, it was not evident in Seoul on Saturday. North Korea's official news agency continued to issue diatribes against the South. And South Korean police again clashed with students who wanted to hold a pro-North Korean rally in honor of Korea's liberation from Japan.
Perhaps not to upstage Kim, and perhaps out of caution, the government here issued only a brief statement Saturday in which it said it took a "positive view" of the Geneva agreement because it set forth the principles for future negotiations.