North Korean enemy should be made friend

CHICAGO -- President Bush said it again.

During his recent visit to South Korea, he peered at North Korea as he stood in the Demilitarized Zone that separates the two nations, pondered an ax murder of American soldiers in that zone and mused, "No wonder I think it's evil."
He called North Korea a despotic regime that starves its citizens and feeds its military. He implied that while he was willing to talk, North Korea was unresponsive.
And once again I thought of the North Koreans I have come to know. Refugees from the famine that has afflicted that nation since 1994, they crossed the Tumen River into China in desperation. Farmers, intellectuals, Communist Party cadres, factory workers, artists and musicians, they left the certainty of starvation for the uncertain life of an illegal migrant.
They form a wave of refugees from North Korea the like of which hasn't been seen since the 1950-1953 Korean War. Out of a population of about 21 million, nearly a million or more have fled in the past six years. Some find their way to South Korea, but most are in China, where their presence is illegal.
You might expect them to agree with Mr. Bush. Yet most do not. The refugees I spoke with were nearly unanimous in their belief that North Korea is ready to open up. They are baffled that America views North Korea -- a starving, impoverished nation -- as a threat.