hankyoreh

The Park Geun-hye administration is in the midst of an all-out effort to demonize North Korea. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs under Minister Yun Byung-se has been leading the charge with a full-scale campaign to paint North Korea in outright evil terms to other United Nations member countries. It’s a rhetorical campaign that features descriptions of the sovereign state as a “weapons of mass destruction development organization” and questions about its eligibility to be part of the UN at all.

Oh Joon

An example of this came at meetings at UN headquarters in New York on Feb. 15 and 16 by South Korean UN Ambassador Oh Joon and Deputy Ambassador Hahn Choong-hee, who both commented that “questions must be raised about whether North Korea is even eligible to be a member state after violating its responsibilities upon entering the UN.” This marks the first time the South Korean government has openly questioned North Korea’s eligibility at an official UN setting since South and North Korea both joined the institution separately on Sept. 17, 1991.

With their questions, Oh and Hahn were following instructions from their government at home. Previously, the ministry sent a “non-paper” to South Korea’s UN mission titled “UNSC [United Nations Security Council] Response to North Korea’s Fourth Nuclear Test,” which contained the arguments it planned to use in urging a forceful UNSC response with the council’s 15 member countries. The document was sent on Feb. 5, just before North Korea conducted its recent rocket launch. It was also distributed to reporters covering the Foreign Ministry on Feb. 7, after the rocket launch went ahead - suggesting the “non-paper” was effectively an official document (non-papers are not meant to be part of formal business, especially in the UN).

In the document, the ministry said that “regular and repeated violations of UNSC resolutions and various other international obligations by North Korea are raising questions about [North Korea’s] eligibility as a UN membership (a preference for peace and the commitment and capability to honor the UN Charter).” It went far beyond mere criticisms of North Korea’s WMD development to accuse the country itself of being “one big WMD development organization.” Needless to say, the ministry discussed the document with the Blue House and got its approval before sending it to the UN mission. In that sense, it can fairly be called a reflection of President Park’s own position. To date, the UN has never once expelled a country or suspended its eligibility.

Obviously, the ministry’s aggressive demonization campaign has its critics.

“At this troubling moment, the Minister is too focused on the mood in the Blue House and staging ‘performances’ that aren’t going to have any practical effects,” said one mid-level official.

A younger diplomat described Seoul’s diplomatic tactics as “humiliating and shameful” and asked, “Is this them saying, ‘We’re just not going to have anything to do with North Korea anymore’?”

South Korean UN Ambassador

As with Park, however, there is no sign of Yun listening to the criticisms.

The biggest problem of all is the way the Park administration - which has just two years left in office - is torching all bridges between South and North and fostering a climate of extreme distrust and enmity that could leave the next administration unable to attempt any new tactics when it takes over. That would put it in dereliction or violation of the Constitutional obligations of the administration (Article 4) and President (Article 66-3) to pursue “peaceful unification.”

By Lee Je-hun, staff reporter

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