hankyoreh

Oct. 29. North Korea is covered in darkness. This picture from a U.S. Navy research center was made public through the homepage of Radio Free Asia on Dec. 10.

By Ahn Chang-hyun, Staff Writer

“Yeonpyeong Island was turned into a sea of fire, yet we have these out-of-their-minds pro-North Korea types and North Korea puppets calling for dialogue to build a permanent peace regime.”

This was the statement made by Grand National Party floor leader Kim Moo-sung during a Nov. 28 meeting with journalists. The “out-of-their-minds pro-North Korea types and North Korea puppets” he referred to were the Democratic Party and other opposition parties. During the National Assembly’s adoption of a resolution denouncing North Korea on Nov. 25, opposition parties had tried to insert a phrase about “building a permanent peace regime,” which was rejected by the ruling GNP.

Following an increased sense of security vulnerability and surging citizen anger about the deaths of civilians following the artillery attack on Yeonpyeong Island, the Lee Myung-bak government launched a national security drive, calling for a hardline military response. This was accompanied by a political offensive pinning responsibility for the national security concerns on the Sunshine Policy of the Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun administrations. Apparently factoring into this attitude from the Lee government was the determination that it might be possible to use citizen indignation toward North Korea to deal a simultaneous blow to North Korea and the opposition and quell criticisms of the government’s flawed response to the attack.

Backing this hardline drive by the ruling party were certain conservative outlets that attempted to amplify the situation by branding those calling for a peaceful response as “internal enemies” and calling for a resolute response.

In particular, JoongAng Ilbo commentator Kim Jin wrote a Nov. 29 column entitled “The F-15K Is Weeping,” in which he criticized the government for not bombing North Korea with fighter planes and said, “Pyongyang will be Baghdad within a few days.”

On Dec. 6, he likened the attack on Yeonpyeong Island to a thug sexually violating the wife in front of a helpless husband.

There was also an anachronistic reprise of “pro-communist” allegations. In a four-installment feature beginning on Dec. 4, entitled “The Only Way to Preserve Peace Is to Guard the Front,” the Chosun Ilbo made the Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun administrations, civil organizations, and the Korean Teachers’ and Educational Workers’ Union (KTU, Jeon Gyo Jo) out to be the cause of the Yeonpyeong bombardment. The Dong-A Ilbo also ran an editorial on Dec. 2 in which it characterized calls for a peaceful resolution as “intended to deal a blow to a conservative administration through support for North Korea and opposition to the U.S., and ultimately to destabilize the Republic of Korea.”

But many observers say this attitude from the ruling party and conservative media represented “national security commercialism,” an attempt to exploit popular anger for political gains. It enables ruling party is able to seize the political initiative while dodging criticisms of national security incompetence. Indeed, the GNP cited a “quasi-wartime state” as one of its reasons for unilaterally pushing through the 2011 budget Wednesday.

It also presents a golden opportunity for military reinforcement for the armed forces and weapons sales for the munitions industry.

“The anger South Koreans feel is justified, but what they want is crisis management and the establishment of peace, not all-out war,” said Chung-Ang University Professor Shin Jin-wook. “But the ruling party is going in entirely the opposite direction.”

“This is a time when a realistic and rational response is required,” Shin added.

Meanwhile, a key staff officer who was in a position to know the detailed situation in the Cheong Wa Dae (the presidential office in South Korea or Blue House) and military at the time of the Yeonpyeong Island attack said that a direction to prevent escalation was indeed communicated to the military, contrary to the Cheong Wa Dae’s official account.

“As soon as the North Korean attack on Yeonpyeong Island became known, the Cheong Wa Dae emphasized the importance of preventing escalation and determining the situation with civilian casualties to the Ministry of National Defense,” the officer said Friday.

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