On
May 30th
2013, a professor from Inje University, Professor Kim Yeon-chul wrote
a column
for the Hankyoreh (Korean version here)
where he criticized the Park administration’s ‘trust-building
process’ policy in dealing with North Korea. Essentially, it is
the South Korean government’s way of saying that meaningful
negotiations would take place only if North Korea took positive steps
toward nuclear disarmament first.
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| Professor Kim Yeon-chul Source: http://img.hani.co.kr/imgdb/resize/2013/0602/137007006217_20130602.JPG |
Professor
Kim seems to think this approach is all wrong because “Trust
is the product of dialogue, not a requirement for it.” He also
added, “Government officials have talked about their distrust of
Pyongyang before any dialogue has even begun. Do you have to trust
someone to talk to them? That’s not realistic, and moreover it
lacks any grounding in history.”
As
I read Professor Kim’s column, I couldn't help but wonder what it
must feel like to be completely delusional.
Trust
is the product of dialogue, not a requirement for it? Professor Kim
seems to believe that prior to 2013, there had been a complete absence of dialogue between South and North Korea. There had been
plenty of negotiations between South and North Korea from 1998 to
2008. During the period of the so-called 'Sunshine Policy,' both
the Kim Dae-jung and the Roh Moo-hyun administrations negotiated with
North Korea the way the North Koreans wanted – South Korea made
concessions, North Korea made none.
Besides
funding the construction of railroad and the now-defunct Kaesong
Industrial Complex and the Mount
Kumgang Tourist Region, the South Korean government ‘invested’
about $324.3
million
in 2005
alone.
For
ten years, under the policy of “flexible reciprocity,” as
the supposed “elder brother” of the relationship, South Korea
provided fertilizers, infrastructure, humanitarian aid, and monetary
aid to Pyongyang without a single show of good will from the North
Koreans.
Were
these rounds of negotiations not enough for Professor Kim?
I
suppose I’m being unfair to the professor. He did admit that
“quite a few people have talked about how North Korea’s past
behavior justifies mistrust.”
What
a sublime sense of humor Professor Kim must have to be able to
describe so glibly the tragedies that South Korea suffered due to
North Korea’s “past behavior.”
What
exactly were those past behaviors? I’ll just list some of the more
recent ones.
In
2002, during the height of the Sunshine Policy, North Korean naval vessels illegally crossed over the Northern Limit Line and attacked two South Korean patrol boats; killing
four South Korean sailors and sinking one of South Korea’s ships.
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| A model of the PKM 357 at the War Memorial of Korea Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/11/PKM_357_at_the_War_Memorial_of_Korea%2C_23_March_2011.jpg/800px-PKM_357_at_the_War_Memorial_of_Korea%2C_23_March_2011.jpg |
The
North Koreans' generosity knew no bounds in 2010 when one of their
midget submarines, as confirmed
by a team of international experts, torpedoed yet another South
Korean naval vessel, the ROKS Cheonan. Forty-six South Korean
sailors died that day.
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| The remains of the ROKS Cheonan Source: http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/files/2010/06/shipwww.jpg |
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| The discovered North Korean torpedo that was used to sink the ROKS Cheonan Source: http://en.rian.ru/images/15926/84/159268453.jpg |
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| The fallen Source: http://www.dailynk.com/efile/201103/DNKF00007493_2.bmp |
Later
that same year, North Korean troops unleashed a barrage
of artillery on Yeonpyeong Island. Two South Korean marines and two
civilians died that day.
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| Yeonpyeong Island being shelled by North Korean artillery Source: http://38north.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/yeonpyeong-island-shelling.jpg |
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| The aftermath of the town on Yeonpyeong Island |
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| The fallen |
Since
then the North Koreans have not directly conducted another
conventional military assault on South Korea. Instead, the North
Koreans have tested
nuclear weapons, test
fired rockets, and on multiple occasions threatened to turn Seoul
into a ‘sea of fire.’ Furthermore, it is widely suspected that North Korean hackers were responsible for launching a
cyber-attack
earlier in March, which paralyzed South Korean banks and TV
broadcasters.
 |
| How many times has this woman, acting as North Korea's spokesperson, declared that Seoul would burn? Source: http://nkleadershipwatch.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/kctvnnb_121212hha.jpg?w=627 |
South
Korean taxpayers paid to keep the North Korean regime afloat for ten
years. The North Koreans showed their gratitude by killing South
Korean sailors and marines, murdering
a South Korean tourist, and destroying South Koreans’ homes.
To
add insult to injury, Professor Kim had the audacity to claim that
both countries are at fault for the deteriorated state of inter-Korean
relations and went on to claim that what is needed is “the effort
to find the root cause within a two-way relationship.”
Just
how much more blood has to be spilled before Professor Kim and his
ilk realize that there is nothing, nothing at all, to be gained by
talking to the North Koreans? Or do the dead mean nothing to him?
He
even went on to quote President Reagan who once said, “Trust, but
verify.” South Korea did trust the North. And it was verified
that the trust was misplaced.
Professor
Kim and other like-minded individuals who have and still support
‘peaceful dialogue’ with North Korea, regardless of the costs,
are the ones who provided the intellectual ammunition to appease
North Korea, which allowed the North Korean leadership more time to
replenish its treasury and modernize its arsenal while killing South
Koreans and starving its own people. They might not have been the
ones who did the killing but their hands are just as stained with
blood as the Stalinist leadership in Pyongyang.
South
Korea owes North Korea nothing. If anything, it is North Korea that
is indebted to South Korea. However, the matter of debt, even that
of blood, is secondary. What is at issue is that as long as North Korea
continues to kill or threaten to kill South Koreans, that makes them nothing more than criminals and that means that there is nothing to talk to them about.
History
has shown time and time again that the only thing that the North
Koreans understand and respect is strength. That is why despite its
rhetoric, North Korea doesn't dare to actually provoke the United
States or Japan into a military conflict; that is why North Korea walks hat in
hand to Beijing to ask for aid even though it causes them to lose
face; that is why South Korea, being the weakest of its neighbors, is
always ignored, pilloried, and attacked.
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| Source: http://onemansblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/inconceivable.jpg |
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