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President Yoon Suk-yeol and first lady Kim Keon-hee take part in an event commemorating the March 1 Independence Movement at the Yu Gwan-sun Memorial Hall in downtown Seoul on March 1. (presidential office pool photo)

South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol is facing a storm of criticism after remarking that Koreans “lost our national sovereignty [. . .] because we failed to properly prepare for a changing world” in his commemorative address for the March 1 Independence Movement.

Yoon faces criticism not only from the opposition Democratic Party and civic society but also from the ruling party for revealing a colonial attitude to history at a ceremony that was held to honor the spirit of Korean independence activists who resisted the Japanese Empire’s looting of the country.

“I can’t find any difference between the president’s remarks and those of the traitor Ye Wan-yong,” said Democratic Party floor leader Park Hong-keun during a policy coordination meeting on Thursday.

Park had quoted Ye Wan-yong, a Korean politician who infamously went along with Japan’s annexation of Korea in 1910, as saying, “Korea’s colonization resulted from the weakness of the late Joseon dynasty and was the only way we could adapt to global trends.”

Park continued by saying that Yoon revealed “an obviously unhistorical and unconstitutional perspective in a commemorative address that is very important for the state.”

Critics also took issue with Yoon’s remarks during the speech that “Japan has transformed from a militaristic aggressor of the past into a partner that shares the same universal values with us” and that “we also work together to cope with global challenges.” They contended that Yoon “revealed a wholly subservient attitude” without demonstrating any commitment to tackling Korea’s unresolved historical disputes with Japan, such as persuading Japan to show remorse and compensate the victims of forced labor.

“Whether today or 104 years ago, a servile foreign policy of kowtowing without first addressing the mistakes of the Japanese government is no way to restore normal relations,” stressed Park Hong-keun.

“How could the president of the Republic of Korea use such language? It sounded like the Japanese prime minister was making the commemorative address for the March 1 Independence Movement,” said Park Jie-won, former director of the National Intelligence Service, in a radio interview with MBC on Thursday.

Korean civic groups also slammed Yoon’s remarks as “a humiliating remark that will be remembered for years to come” and asked for an apology.

Minbyun-Lawyers for a Democratic Society released a statement responding to the speech on Thursday.

“Far-right figures have a recurring penchant for insulting victims and distorting history for their political ends, but now the president himself has revealed a twisted historical attitude that denigrates the nation’s history at an event designed to commemorate the March 1 Independence Movement,” the statement read. “Yoon ought to make a personal apology for this gaffe, and the government needs to adopt a responsible attitude toward protecting the rights of victims of the Japanese colonial period, including those forced to work for Japanese companies and those who served as ‘comfort women’ for the Japanese imperial army.”

In a statement of its own about Yoon’s commemorative address, Citizens’ Coalition for Economic Justice said, “These are very dangerous remarks since they could be interpreted as meaning that historical issues have been resolved. The president needs to apologize for his predilection for colonial thinking and immediately replace his foreign policy and national security teams.”

Some members of the ruling People Power Party also called on Yoon to update an out-of-touch historical perspective that could be constructed as pro-Japanese.

Lee Jun-seok, former chairman of the PPP, wrote a Facebook post that amounted to an indirect attack on the president.

“We need to hold off on speculating about how colonialism helped Korea modernize on March 1 Independence Movement Day and stop blaming Joseon for its collapse. The problem is that there are some people who, instead of exercising restraint on March 1 Independence Movement Day, consider that the perfect occasion for making [that kind of argument].”

But Chung Jin-suk, interim leader of the PPP, told reporters at the National Assembly on Thursday that Yoon had “made clear” in his speech that Japan had been a “militaristic aggressor in the past.”

“His point was that we ought to take an interest in how the times are changing,” Chung said, adding that Yoon’s remarks “reflect a correct attitude toward our times.”

Chung himself sparked controversy last October when he responded to Democratic Party leader Lee Jae-myung’s criticism of joint military exercises between South Korea, the US and Japan by saying, “Joseon decayed from the inside, which is why it collapsed. Japan never went to war with the Joseon dynasty.”

By Um Ji-won, staff reporter; Sun Dam-eun, staff reporter

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