South Korean will no longer call North Korea the "Main Enemy."

Chong Wa Dae (South Korea's equivalent to the White House) announced it will no longer use the official expression , main enemy, when it discusses North Korea. This is a sign that tensions created over North Korea's nuclear weapons program are lessening and the administration wishes to press forward with its agenda of greater normalization in relations.

In future communications, the South Korean government will use terms like military threat or main threat.

Negotiations between North and South Korean in many cases can best be described as two steps forward and one step backwards. During the administration of Kim Dae Jung the tense relationship between the two governments thawed considerable. However, the current crisis began in October 2002, when U.S. officials confronted North Korea with evidence of a uranium-enrichment program. In turn, North Korean officials reportedly admitted the existence of a nuclear weapons program and began a series of steps to pressure the United States to negotiate with them, despite the U.S. government’s insistence that it would not reward bad behavior with concessions.

As the crisis has escalated, the Bush administration has continued to refuse to negotiate directly with North Korea until it dismantles its uranium-enrichment program. Meanwhile the North withdrew from the nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) and prevented the monitoring of its nuclear power facility.

For the past few years, the United States has mobilized international pressure against the North and sought a multilateral forum for talks that would include the major countries in East Asia.

China, uneasy with the North’s nuclear weapons program, has since brokered a series of six-way talks to reduce tensions in the region.

See my July 12th Blog for the U.S.'s current offer to NK, which stems from the last round of Six-Way Talks.