Letters

Sunday, Jan. 26, 2003
    • The Bigger Threat?

    "We should stop thinking North Korea is just vying for attention. Let's get serious with this hidden dragon and watch our backs."
    Dolores Miller
    Rockledge, Fla.


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    TIME's otherwise thoughtful and balanced account of the Korean crisis veered away from examining the Bush Administration's hostile attitude toward North Korea [World, Jan. 13]. Why did Bush feel he had to go beyond his already lunatic "axis of evil" remarks to say how much he personally disliked North Korean leader Kim Jong Il? No wonder the North Koreans feel that they need to have nuclear weapons. Their pride is hurt, and they're scared. The South Koreans are scared too. Seoul, a bustling city of 10.6 million, lies only 30 miles from the Demilitarized Zone.
    Jack Cooper
    Van Nuys, Calif.

    Kim Jong Il gives the U.S. and other free countries the option that armed thugs have been offering their victims for centuries: your money or your life. Can there be any clearer indication of North Korea's intentions in developing its military and nuclear capacity or of what we must do to prevent this from happening?
    Evan Madianos
    Wayne, Pa.

    The extremes of poverty and suffering in North Korea are in stark contrast to the prosperity and success of South Korea. They make clear the need for renewed steps toward reconciliation. This should be done within a binational Korean framework. By ratcheting up the tension, President Bush may just force North and South Korea into each other's embrace. Let the South help the North; let families reunite and change come as it must. If only there were a South Iraq.
    Jane C. Nielsen
    Los Angeles

    The U.S. should treat North Korea not like a snake but like poison ivy: the U.S. will be harmed only by touching it. Time is our ally. Certainly America needs to address the threat posed by North Korea, but the U.S. should deal with it through diplomacy, not immediate military action. Surely some may think that North Korea is a bigger threat than Iraq. But the threat is bigger only for its neighbor South Korea.
    Thomas Chang
    New City, N.Y.

    A madman, armed to the teeth, holds thousands of people hostage. This is exactly the situation that exists with North Korea; it is holding South Korea and Japan at gunpoint.
    Etienne Forest
    Tsukuba, Japan

    Unjust Compensation

    Your item on the amount of money earned by TV's Judge Judy Sheindlin quipped that she is free from the duties of TV-show hosts and regular judges [People, Jan. 13]. Another thing she does not have to do is decide any cases of real significance. It is disturbing that a TV jurist is paid $25 million a year — or about the same as the combined salaries of 160 federal appeals-court judges.
    Vincent N. Palladino
    New York City

    Correction

    Our item on the increased use of screw tops instead of corks for wine bottles mistakenly referred to Bonny Doon's $130 Cabernet [Your Time, Dec. 30-Jan. 1]. Bonny Doon does not produce a Cabernet or any $130 wine. Our reference should have been to the PlumpJack Vineyard's $145 screw-top Cabernet.

    Sensible Discrimination

    Re your item on efforts by universities to compel Christian student organizations to comply with nondiscrimination clauses and allow non-Christians to be leaders [Notebook, Jan. 13]: Will the schools also go after fraternities and sororities for their single-sex policies? Will colleges insist that Jewish groups be open to Muslim fundamentalists? This policy is a consequence of defining discrimination as making decisions on grounds of race, sex, religion, sexual orientation or ability. Everybody can see that exceptions need to be made. Any ideology-based organization must insist that its members and especially its leaders subscribe to its ideology; otherwise, it risks being sabotaged from within. On the other hand, one might argue that many church leaders don't seem to be Christians. This shows why allowing non-Christians to lead Christian organizations is a bad idea.
    Richard William Pearman
    Calgary