Interesting article...

This article does not make me feel great, but again and as I've said before, there is a large disconnect between the government and the people. Good thing too...


A Korean meeting of the minds

By Sung-Yoon Lee

South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun and North Korean leader Kim Jong-il both believe that the Republic of Korea "is a country that should not have been born" on August 15, 1948. Therefore, to both Roh and Kim, Syngman Rhee, the first president of the ROK, is a traitor and a pawn of US imperialists.

Note that in Roh's address to the nation on Liberation Day, August 15, he made no mention of who did the actual liberating or who the founding father of the republic was. Roh and Kim both believe that the Korean War initiated by Kim Il-sung on June 25, 1950, was a just and noble war of unification, spoiled by the United States just as the North Korean liberating forces were on the cusp of victory. Both detest General Douglas MacArthur and his Inchon Landing. Roh remarked last September, on the controversy over the dismantling of a statue of General MacArthur: "We have to accept the good with the bad."

Both believe that North Korea has a right to develop nuclear weapons for self-defense, as it faces "external threats". As a corollary, both believe that the seven-rocket salute on July 5 (July 4 in the US - Independence Day) was a mere "political gesture" or a "routine military exercise of a sovereign nation". Both believe that US forces in the South are an unwelcome occupying force. Consequently, both desire South Korea to "wrest away from the US" wartime operational control. Their next step is the complete, verifiable, irreversible dismantlement of the US-ROK Combined Forces Command. Both dream the ultimate dream of the withdrawal of US forces. Both get a kick out of bashing Japan; however, to both men, the United States is the ultimate enemy, although they both love the US dollar. Both fear and loathe President George W Bush (the sentiments are requited by the US president). Both Roh and Kim support violent anti-US protests in South Korea. Further, they both love China.

Neither admits to the ghastly conditions of life in North Korea and the state's systematic and pervasive oppression of the most basic human rights of the majority of its people. To both men, public criticism of North Korea's human-rights violations is anathema. Neither wishes for the collapse of the North Korean state. Each does his best to prevent it - Kim, with the instruments of fear, isolation and collective pauperization of his people; Roh, with unprincipled and unconditional provision of economic aid, in addition to frequent rhetorical defenses of the Kim regime. Neither has any qualms about state-directed criminal activity, such as abducting civilians, development and sales of nuclear materials and weapons of mass destruction despite pledges to the contrary, counterfeiting, money-laundering and the production and sales of illicit drugs. In fact, both blame Bush for raising such issues.

Neither wishes the victory of a candidate from the Grand National Party in South Korea's presidential election in December 2007. Each will do his best to prevent it - Roh, with the time-tested politics of anti-Americanism, and Kim, with his own time-tested method of creating strategic instability, including terrorism. Both men are failed leaders, reviled by the vast majority of their own respective population, and loved mostly by communists, pro-communists, and solipsistic ethnic nationalists. Each fears for his own well-being and legacy once removed from power.

Notable differences between Roh and Kim:

Roh loves Kim, but Kim doesn't love Roh. Kim loves himself and no one else. Roh's days are numbered, while Kim's are not. Consequently, Roh is desperate for a summit embrace, while Kim can sit back and dictate a pricey admission fee. Roh genuinely wishes not to visit the United States, but he must. Kim genuinely wishes to visit the US, but he cannot. Kim wishes to speak with Bush but cannot, whereas Roh wishes not to speak with Bush, but must. Roh loves to travel abroad at government expense and act presidential; Kim prefers to party at home and act like a general before his own men, as he is plagued by fears for his own safety abroad.

World leaders itch for an opportunity to visit Kim in his mythical kingdom, while major world leaders shy away from visiting Roh in Seoul. Since the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Pusan last November, not a single leader of repute has visited Roh. Kim welcomes South Korean as well as other defectors to the North; Roh assiduously shuns North Korean defectors to the South. To date, Roh has not met a single North Korean defector among the more than 8,000 who have made their way into South Korea. Kim loves movies and opera; evidence of Roh's affinity for culture remains as yet thin. Kim knows how to hold a champagne glass properly, as he demonstrated when he cozied up to former US secretary of state Madeleine Albright during her visit in October 2000. Roh does not know how to hold a Korean teacup, as he demonstrated when he cozied up to Korean-American football star Hines Ward during his visit this April (Roh gulped his tea down as if he were taking a shot).

By now you see that I am really struggling to come with differences between the Roh and Kim, which raises the all-important question: With so many more compelling similarities than differences between Roh and Kim, can we be assured that Bush, when he greets Roh at the White House on September 14, will not confuse the two Koreans at some point in his conversation with the South Korean?


Sung Yoon-lee is Kim Koo associate in research at the Korea Institute, Harvard University. The opinions expressed here in no way represent the official views of the Kim Koo Foundation or the Korea Institute. (Copyright 2006 Sung-Yoon Lee.)

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