[Editorial] Our hopes for the coming year

Posted on : 2011-01-01 14:51 KST Modified on : 2011-01-01 14:51 KST
Peace Must Bloom in All Our Hearts

South Korea’s three southern provinces were covered in snow. Outwardly, it was a dazzling peace. It might be futile, but we greet the morning of the Year of the Rabbit by earnestly praying that this peace penetrate the skin of this land and take root.

The reality is more bitter than the biting midwinter wind. There is news that in North Korea, they are conducting large-scale amphibious landing drills predicated on capturing the Five West Sea Islands. It is a continuation of the Yeonpyeong Island attack. The South Korean government has made as its New Year’s policy goal inducing North Korea to change. It seems to imply a regime collapse in North Korea. It is not difficult to predict North Korea’s response.

A clash has been avoided, but sharp confrontation and crisis continues. The Barack Obama administration in the United States went into a state of readiness last month with the possibility of war in mind. It is said the concentration of three U.S. carrier groups, including the U.S.S. George Washington, in the Western Pacific was not unrelated to this. It was just 16 years since 1994, when we stood at the brink of war. The United States has used tension on the Korean Peninsula for its own political strategy in Northeast Asia, but it wants to avoid a direct clash.

Accordingly, it has appeared to be uncomfortable with the Lee Myung-bak administration, which has closed the door of dialogue with North Korea.

About this situation, Chinese newspaper The Global Times wrote that the Korean government confuses the edge of a precipice for a football pitch.

This is not simple ridicule. At the time, Chinese President Hu Jintao was keeping North Korea from launching a second provocation. Calls for China to also do something about South Korea were made recently. This is also why the Christmas message of Pope Benedict, who prayed for reconciliation and peace on the Korean Peninsula, was not welcomed. It was just embarrassing.

This desperate reality was reflected in the fact that at the end of the year, elders of society, progressive and conservative alike, released an emergency statement calling on the North Korean and South Korean governments to work for peace. The Lee Myung-bak administration, however, has continued to ignore these calls. President Lee mentioned resolving the nuclear issue through the six-party talks, but the context of his remarks reveals that his sincerity is doubtful. This is why it seems he said it to keep up appearances, thinking of the United States and China. 

Peace is life and food

The United States, which was prepared for a full-scale war in 1994, changed its plan because of its estimates that 1.5 million people would be killed at the start of the conflict, in particular, 52,000 U.S. troops. A war game conducted by the South Korean military the year before last showed that 2.2-2.3 million would die at the start of a war. This is just the human losses. The monetary cost of damages, as estimated by Yonsei Professor Moon Chung-in, comes out to 3 trillion dollars in war costs, 1 trillion dollars in relief costs, and 2.7 trillion dollars in reconstruction costs, for a grand total of 6.7 trillion dollars. South Korea would be in ruins, even if it wins.

Even in a situation where the peace is threatened, the burden on us is considerable. Not long after China began to talk about something needed to be done about South Korea, Seoul quietly released Chinese fishermen who used violence against Korean Coast Guard personnel who tried to stop them from illegally fishing in Korean waters.

South Korea’s trade dependency on China is already over 20 percent. That is more than Korea trades with the United States and Japan combined. The place South Korea offsets most of its trade deficit is China. It is not just North Korea that now depends on China: Beijing also holds the key of life and death for the South Korean economy. This is why the foreign press has continued decry Seoul, which oddly relies entirely on the United States for security while depending on China economically.

Let’s Recover Reason and Common Sense

The time has passed for security commercialism used to keep power and increase authority. We are no so backwards that unreasonable propaganda and barbaric madness runs rampant. Nobody opposes reinforcing our military power , but nobody looks favorable on a government that frets about not being about to use it.

The North Korea nuclear issue is a matter to be solved internationally, but inter-Korean cooperation is something that must be resolved between North Korea and South Korea. Frankly, the North Korean government wants dialogue. The party that has consistently conducted a policy of pressure to get North Korea to abandon its nuclear program is the Lee administration.

The plea by the elders of society says, “North Korea and South Korea, end the propaganda and madness and recover your reason and common sense!”

They also call on the Lee administration to look at itself with the spirit of practicality and rationality that it at first espoused.

In his poem “Snow Falls on the Three Southern Provinces,” South Korean poet Hwang Dong-gyu, lamented the reality of 120 years ago and 40 years ago, which was similar to today’s.

“Behind the King there is a Big King

The Big King whips!

Beneath the winter fog of the Big King’s horse, which repeatedly crosses the border without permission

Cannons cry like the children of the land, splitting the land like the ribs of a fan.”

North Korean poet Lee Yong-ak longed for the place he had left in his poem “Longing.”

“Does snow fall even in the small village

where I left you?

Why do I wake up this night when the ink bottle freezes?

The place I miss, and miss again

Does it snow in the north?

Does it snow in large snowflakes?”

The fury and earnest longing these poems inspire communicates. This is how we feel today. We dream of a peaceful land, like the snow-covered plains in the poem. If the ruling government continues to disagree, we will have to move forward with the people at the lead.

Please direct questions or comments to [englishhani@hani.co.kr]