PANMUNJOM, Korea — In his 28 years on the surreal front line that divides the belligerent Koreas, translator C.S. Cho has heard it only twice before.
Sweet North Korean songs are pouring from the giant loudspeakers that normally blast high-pitched propaganda.
It's a welcome change from the usual diet of martial music and tirades about imperialist American occupiers and their South Korean running dogs. But veterans of the demilitarized zone, or DMZ, which President Clinton once agreed was "the scariest place on Earth," have been well trained not to indulge in hope.
"It's phenomenal," said Cho, who serves in the United Nations duty officer command post just a few feet from the dividing line staffed by scowling North Korean sentries. "I don't know if after this summit this phenomenon of sweet music will continue."
American and U.N. forces plan to keep a low profile during the historic summit, scheduled to begin Tuesday when South Korean President Kim Dae Jung is to fly to Pyongyang, the North's capital, for three days of meetings with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il. It is the first meeting between leaders of the rival Koreas since the Korean War began June 25, 1950, with a surprise attack by the Communist North.
The summit had been set for Monday but was postponed for one day for "unavoidable technical reasons" at North Korea's request, a South Korean presidential spokesman announced today.
Not one South Korean or American, officer or grunt, interviewed along the DMZ last week expected the summit to bring immediate change along the 150-mile-long, 2 1/2-mile-wide strip where the Cold War can still flash hot without warning.
"We've seen a kinder, gentler North Korea so far this year," said U.S. Lt. Col. Stephen M. Tharp, a Korea specialist who is assistant secretary of the U.N. Command. "They need to keep that nice behavior up for a while before I'll believe it. But maybe they have decided to join the international community," Tharp said, knocking on a wooden table.
The two nations' massive armies still are going about business as usual--except for the Korean War veterans, hordes of tourists and media who have been flooding the area in recent weeks.
