Grave Danger for South Korea

At least one writer in South Korea sees the danger of coddling the North. We Boost North Korea's Confidence at Our Peril by Kim Dae-joong

The North Korean regime seems to have gained in self-confidence regarding its relations with South Korea. A recent squabble over taking down a statue of General Douglas MacArthur, a hero of the Korean War to some, and a remark by Prof. Kang Jeong-koo of Dongguk University that the Korean War was fought for "unification” send a signal the National Liberation forces, hibernating since their suppression by South Korea's anti-Communist forces, are emerging above ground. Amid a climate where leftist or pro-North Korean forces in the Roh Moo-hyun administration have boosted aid to the North and increased the frequency of inter-Korean events while promoting the posthumous award of a medal to a leader of the former Korea Communist Party, the NL forces are at last showing their faces above the parapet to ride anti-American sentiment and a mood of inter-Korean cooperation.

A North Korea expert says the NL, pro-Pyongyang forces that infiltrated campuses and academic circles, have concentrated on education and propaganda since the 1980s democratization movement following a time in hiding under the military regimes. Now, he says, they are reasserting themselves on the back of Seoul’s "sunshine policy" and a new mood of nationalism. Recently, too, a retired general involved in a drive for a veterans body to counter the Korean Veterans Association proudly revealed that his father was a member of the South Worker’s Party of Korea, while a protester at a rally against the MacArthur statute reportedly shouted, "Yes, I'm Red. What are you going to do about it?"

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But it is a fantasy that it would contribute to security on the Korean Peninsula and peaceful coexistence if North Korea took advantage of this mood, as the pro-Pyongyang forces would have us believe. We need only to listen to North Korean defector Kim Tae-san, who said the only way for North Korea to survive its structural food and power shortages “is eventually to get a hold over all of South Korea -- that is Kim Jong-il’s innermost aspiration." That these developments are taking place even as North Korea’s dismal human rights record and its desperate economic plight and food shortages are exposed to the glare of world attention is one the great historic ironies.

Liberals in South Korea who appease evil, as they do everywhere, could precipitate one of the great tragedies of history. Should the Dear Monster geat his hands on South Korea - "unifying the peninsula" then millions of innocent people would be simply murdered even after the completion of the conquest. It does not seem to us now that this is possible, but the past two generations of South Koreans have no experience with war or communism and have been thoroughly propagandized by the same kind of academic Leftists™ that we have here in the United States.

South Korea needs to inflict political defeat on her liberals in order to stay secure in her fight against Communism, as we in the U.S. have to defeat our liberals in out fight against Islam.

Neither of us can afford to lose the fight.