George W. Bush:

On the Korean peninsula, an oppressive regime rules the people living in fear and starvation. Throughout the 1990s, The United States relied on a negotiated framework to keep North Korea from gaining nuclear weapons. We now know that, that regime was deceiving the world and developing those weapons all along, and today the North Korean regime is using its nuclear programme to incite fear and seek concessions. America and the world will not be blackmailed.

Speaker 2:

Fire.

Speaker 3:

Fire.

Narrator:

The president these men served has declared he loathes Kim Jong-il, the North Korean dictator now engaged in a perilous game of nuclear brinkmanship. A mere 12 kilometres away from North Korean's border, the US Army prepares for an attack it says its enemy could mount in a matter of hours.

Speaker 5:

Today we've got mud, we're breaking ice, snow, and below freezing temperatures, but we train in all the type of conditions, so we can be ready to fight tonight whenever that night comes.

Narrator:

The battle theatre on the Korean peninsula is a far cry from the burning sands of Iraq. America's foe here is a very different one as well. Unlike Saddam Hussein's depleted forces, the North Korean Army is well disciplined. It has more than a million men and it said, it's prepared to fight until the bitter end. The North Koreans also have access to one of the world's largest arsenals of chemical weapons, and perhaps one or two nuclear bombs. The fact of the matter is, when it comes to weapons of mass destruction North Korea makes Saddam Hussein look like a relative lightweight.

Narrator:

Living directly in the crosshairs of North Korea's sights are its former compatriots in the South. The 10 million people of South Korea's capital Seoul, go about their daily business knowing that thousands of missiles, many of them loaded with chemicals, could rain down upon them at any time.

Speaker 6:

They have tens of thousands of artillery tubes, heavy calibre artillery tubes aimed at Seoul. They have roughly about 700,000 very well trained, very heavily armed soldiers along the DMZ. It's only 155 miles from West to East, and 700,000 soldiers along this narrow space is a lot of concentration of North Korean military capability.

Narrator:

But, despite the lethal barrage that might be unleashed upon it, South Korea now finds itself at loggerheads with its ally, The United States, over how the North should be dealt with. President Kim Dae-jung and the man who will succeed him in the coming weeks, [Nomule Yun 00:03:38] are enthusiastic backers of the so-called Sunshine Policy of engagement with the North Korean regime. But, the logic of the hardliners in the Bush Administration would suggest that Kim Jong-il is next in line after Saddam Hussein is forcibly removed from power.

Speaker 7:

What President Bush could do to help improve the situation is saying that he is willing to have an open mind, and an open view of the situation. But, I would say it would be difficult from what he has been continuously saying to back down like that. It's going to be very difficult in my opinion.

Narrator:

South Korea's politicians have been responding as well to the growing tide of anti-American sentiment out on the streets.

Speaker 8:

[foreign language hh:mm:ss 00:04:35].

Narrator:

Candlelight vigils are still being held for two Korean children killed last year in a road accident involving US servicemen. This incident and a series of other perceived slights have inflamed public opinion. Among the young in particular, the role of The United States in the peninsula is now being challenged.

Speaker 9:

[foreign language hh:mm:ss 00:05:00].

Narrator:

But even among those South Koreans who have known the deprivation and horror wrought by the North's aggression, there is a yearning for the long cold war on the peninsula to follow in the footsteps of Europe and finally thaw. Nowhere is this more tragically apparent than among those families who have suffered the unspeakable cruelty of being separated by the conflict.

Narrator:

Under the Sunshine Policy, heavily restricted reunions like this one have been allowed where brothers, and sisters, children, and parents are give a few fleeting hours with each other. [Husan Nam 00:06:14] is now waiting for her turn. She hasn't seen her brother, [Sun Eek 00:06:20] for more than 50 years ever since he was stolen away to the North by soldiers when just a school boy. Only recently did she discover that her brother was still alive.

Husan Nam:

[foreign language hh:mm:ss 00:06:34].

Narrator:

Despite North Korea's sabre rattling these past weeks, Hasan Nam believes her government's policy of dialogue is still the best way to prevent war.

Husan Nam:

[foreign language hh:mm:ss 00:07:22].

Narrator:

But, among those with intimate knowledge of the regime in the North like defector, [Kim Sung Min 00:07:41] there is a strong view that many in the South are deluding themselves. Mr. Kim was a captain in the North Korean Army before he escaped into China. "Kim Jong-il," he says, "must be overthrown."

Mr. Kim:

[foreign language hh:mm:ss 00:07:56].

Narrator:

The crisis on the Korean peninsula has made for some strange bedfellows. German doctor and tireless activist [Norvet Voletson 00:08:27] finds himself backing George W. Bush in urging a tough line against Kim Jong-il. Here at the Chinese Embassy in Seoul he has been trying, so far unsuccessfully, to petition China to release more than 1,000 North Korean refugees it is now detaining. For one and a half years, Norvet witnessed firsthand the excesses of the so-called Hermit Kingdom before he was expelled.

Norvet V.:

There is genocide going on in North Korea. These are crimes against humanity, and we have to do something. It's not only a discussion about nuclear [inaudible 00:09:06], it's not only a discussion about war, it's mainly a discussion about concentration camps, human rights, about violation of human rights, and therefore as an emergency doctor I have to act as an emergency case.

Narrator:

Despite being one of the world's great weapons proliferators, for the time being it is Iraq not North Korea which the world is treating as the emergency. Meanwhile, here on the Korean peninsula nerves are on edge as people wait to see how this dangerous game will play out. For the newly elected government in Seoul, the challenge is an unenviable one. How to balance the competing demands of an impatient US ally, and increasingly anti-American electorate, and a neighbour threatening to turn South Korea into ash?