Seoul - A Republican administration would likely take a harder line on North Korea and that could prompt Pyongyang to step up its diplomacy in the dying days of the Clinton Presidency, analysts said yesterday.
Once seen as the world's most isolated state, communist North Korea has opened up considerably since the South Korean President, Mr Kim Dae-jung, took office in February 1998 and embarked on his "sunshine policy" of engagement.
That policy is ostensibly aimed at bringing North Korea out of its Cold War shell, but also preventing a collapse of the military government of Mr Kim Jong-il. That would be Seoul's worst nightmare, unleashing social turmoil across the border and an outpouring of refugees that could overwhelm the country's recovering economy.