IT CAME LIKE a bolt from the blue on Wednesday and disappeared almost as quickly, but spoke volumes about how international perceptions of Hong Kong have altered since 1997.
South Korea's suggestion that the SAR be the venue for historic talks between its defence minister and his North Korean counterpart next week was aired in a strategic leak to its official Yonhap news agency.
In Seoul, officials nowadays routinely leak sensitive proposals to the media to gauge international and domestic reaction, a practice known there as a 'media play', and they chose the mid-Autumn festival public holiday to release their idea.
It was buried amid dispatches about an agreement being reached for 'Dear Leader' Kim Jong-il to visit the South, which remains technically at war with its Stalinist neighbour.
The proposal took diplomats by surprise in the Hong Kong consulates of both Koreas. There was a flurry of activity on Thursday when diplomatic missions re-opened their doors after the holiday as Western and Asian envoys scrambled to learn more.
Speculation was frenzied about the rationale for proposing the SAR as a 'third nation' venue for the first talks ever to be held between defence ministers of the two nations which have been on a rapid rapprochement track during the past six months. Then on Sunday came news that the ministerial meeting would take place on the South Korean resort island of Cheju next Monday and Tuesday.
The leak, it seems, was more than just a 'media play', as one envoy privately called it. The proposal was part of an intricate diplomatic dance which carried a symbolic victory for Seoul.