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| A man passes a big banner wrapping a building in Seoul wishing well for Friday's inter-Korean summit, Thursday. / Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul |
By Oh Young-jin
Often in our history, we Koreans have had our fate determined by others.
The division of the nation at the end of World War II was the work of the victors ― the United States and the Soviet Union. As the colony of the vanquished Japan, liberation was thrust upon us ― giving birth to the conjoined twins that act as if one's life depends on the death of the other.
Indeed, that exploded into the 1950-1953 Korean War as the Soviet-backed North invaded the U.S.-assisted South in one of the first ideological proxy wars in the Cold War-era. Millions of Koreans were killed in a fratricidal conflict ― the result making Koreans sworn enemies of each other.
Then, the ensuing seven decades are fraught with many close calls that are combined into one big cold standoff that is occasionally punctuated by sunshine in their relationship.
Now, the April 27 summit at the truce village of Panmunjeom or at least in the lead-up to it has emerged as a rebuttal to all of the above or the first real case of self-determination.
True, there is a great deal of skepticism. The skeptics argue that the North's abrupt about-face from its hostile policy toward the South is due to pressure of international sanctions and is a trick to trip the United States to gain recognition as a nuclear weapon state. Just as credible, is the assertion that the North is using the South to get the U.S. off the Korean Peninsula (the new U.S. secretary of state is said to have heard the North say it no longer insists on a U.S. pullout).
The Friday summit is not entirely about clearing up all this old historic baggage at once, but about Korea taking ownership of its future.
At the center is President Moon Jae-in. When he first talked about getting in the driver's seat of the vehicle called our fate, it sounded like a new slogan and a childish one to boot. Many Koreans and other people held a strong sense of doubt. Moon was further reduced to a hopeless idealist when he kept saying "no more war," being caught in the slugfest between the U.S. and the North.
The North came close to perfecting a nuclear-armed long-range missile that could hit the U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to wipe out the Kim Jong-un regime.
Then, a surreal sequence of events followed. The North sent the dictator's sister, Kim Yo-jong, to the South during the February Winter Olympic Games in PyeongChang. Mike Pence, U.S. vice president and chief delegate of its delegation, avoided an encounter with her but in hindsight there was more than what met the eye underway, when the presidential office, Cheong Wa Dae, admitted that the two archenemies tried to get together through Moon's good offices.
Moon sent his envoys as a reciprocal move to Kim Yo-jong's southern trip to Pyongyang. Then, the envoys ― Moon's national security adviser and National Intelligence Service director Suh Hoon ― came back with incredible news ― the first summit with Moon and the second with Trump.
Instead of war, much anticipated after the Olympics, came a chance for a way out from the 70-year-old stalemate that was often felt to never end.
Moon gave credit to Trump for this unexpected turn of events. Trump took it and basked in the limelight. Perhaps, it was a typical combination of Asian modesty and a Western style of not missing out on credit when it comes, taken together; it was the first time when Moon's claim of being in the driver's seat was seen as more than just lip service.
That feeling of change was made even more apparent when it was juxtaposed with the spectacular failure of Moon's mentor, the late President Roh Moon-hyun's pursuit of the role of balancer, an honest broker in the region where interests of big powers collide with each other. Few took Roh's initiative seriously but an identical approach with a different name is gaining traction 10 years later under Moon.
If Moon is really taking the center stage and showing Koreans they are in charge, it wouldn't be possible without the "help" of two other protagonists.
Kim Jong-un also played a perfect partner for Moon in their political tango.
The 30-something dictator, whose previous actions fit the behavior of a mad power monger when he assassinated his half-brother and executed his uncle, started to act normal and showed maturity that belies his age. He rubbed shoulders with China's Xi Jinping in Beijing during his first overseas trip as a leader.
Trump's relentless pursuit of his America First policy pushed the situation to critical mass that made the status quo no longer a viable option. His "fire and fury" or vow for the North's total destruction sounded crude at first but when the U.S. president's rhetorical brimstone added up, the North wilted, obviously.
Whatever will come out of the summits, even if they turn out as a case of "much ado about nothing" or aggravate the situation, it would be hard to squelch Koreans' sense of ownership of their fate. We have felt it. If not this time, we would be more certain about it next time.
