hankyoreh

Hong Se-hwa, public editor

What do war documentaries show us? Falling bombs. Guns being fired at the enemy. Bodies in the streets. Children playing in piles of destruction. People standing in doorways, talking as if they have nothing left to live for. Nikita Khrushchev once said war is "far more cruel, dirty, unsightly, and miserable than what you see in documentaries." It was because of his wartime experience that he was able to avoid the temptation to plant missiles in Cuba, right in front of the United States, and negotiated with the U.S. instead.

Amidst this time of crisis stemming from North Korea’s nuclear test, there continue to be calls for adventurism in war. In the course of the discussion about strengthening sanctions against Pyongyang and South Korea’s participation in the Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI), Grand National member Gong Sung-jin said the country has to be ready to "endure a limited war," as if someone can guarantee that any fighting would stay limited. Fellow GNP member Song Young-sun said the South "needs to be mentally prepared to go to war if it really wants peace," as if peace that accepts war is truly peace at all. The Chosun Ilbo, Dong-A Ilbo, and JoongAng Ilbo all joined in, and spent days attacking Kim Dae-jung’s Sunshine policy and Roh Moo-hyun’s policy of engagement. None mentioned the fact that without those policies, right now the country would be scurrying around hoarding food and supplies, packing up and going overseas, and that the stock market would be in a state of chaos.

For half a century, we were forced to deal with an ideology of security that put freedom, democracy, and human rights on hold so as to prevent even the very slightest of security crises. Now, some want to go to war for the sake of peace. Being "mentally prepared to go to war": that is not talk that we can afford to take lightly. But is it because we are so used to talking about "security" that it becomes so easy to say the word "war"? I’m probably not the only one who thinks the media is all too relaxed about this. These are the types that have long preached about security, so naturally it is they who are now talking of being mentally prepared to fight and criticize recent government policy. It’s a classic example of "having your position do the talking instead of your mouth."

Diplomacy is all about finding ways to prosper in tandem with other countries, despite conflicting national interests. North Korea had its channel to finding reasonable compromise blocked when the Bush administration called it part of the "Axis of Evil" and demanded it raise a white flag of surrender. It made a desperate choice, and has played its last card. People often say the North uses "brinkmanship tactics," but the North is not at the brink because it wanted to end up there: even in the U.S., members of the Democratic Party are calling Bush’s North Korea policy a failure, and some Republican Party members are calling for dialogue with Pyongyang.

The ultimate goal of the Bush administration’s policy of refusing to talk with North Korea is a regime change in North Korea. Even in South Korea, it has become easy for some to give in to the temptation of wanting to oust Kim Jong-il this time around, and that temptation is what is leading to calls for limited warfare and being ’resolved about going to war.’ Given the uniqueness of the North Korean system - that Kim’s government ’is’ the North Korean system - you don’t even have to ask whether Bush’s policy of pushing Pyongyang could bring about a stable and peaceful change of government there. The collapse of Kim’s government means the collapse of North Korea, and no one can say for sure what kind of situation would unfold were that to happen. You can’t say for sure exactly what the situation would be, but it is clear there would be destruction on a massive scale.

The way of peace is an essential one for us, not a matter of choice. So, therefore, is the need for the notion of peace in current government policy. The Korean people need to strongly demand of president Roh Moo-hyun and the Participatory Government that they stop vacillating when dealing with the U.S., and the Hankyoreh need to make it clear that political elements that tolerate "war advernturism" are not qualified to assume power.