When South Korea's president, Kim Dae Jung, met his American counterpart on March 7th in Washington, the warmth was genuine. George Bush wants to burnish ties with America's allies; South Korea, home to 37,000 American troops and at the heart of the diplomacy with still prickly North Korea, is a close ally. Mr Kim, for his part, had wanted Mr Bush's blessing for his "sunshine" diplomacy towards North Korea, which has offered the regime there all manner of economic inducements to warm relations. Despite the goodwill, that was not quite how it turned out. Indeed, the two men are in danger of getting at cross-purposes.
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