There's no war in Korea

The Korea Times

The Korea Times

National

Wed, December 6, 2023 | 19:44

Editor’s Note

There's no war in Korea

Posted : 2013-04-16 17:54

Updated : 2013-04-16 17:54

By Oh Young-jin
Managing Editor

A week or so ago, I had a call from my aunt who lives in the United States.

"What's going on?" she asked me. She worried that war was breaking out in Korea.

I tried to reassure her that there was no war. "North Korea barks too much," I told her, reminding her of an old saying.

On Monday, I received two Norwegian journalists at my office, who are here because they thought the North was about to invade South Korea as it did at the start of the three-year Korean War in 1950.

"Have you felt there would be another invasion?" one of them asked me.

I answered yes. "And it was the 1,000th time that I have felt so," I said, with a smile on my face.

Then, I explained to them the first time that I felt there might be war soon.

It was when my family returned from an excursion and my father pointed out that an U.S. airstrip was filled with helicopters. To my young eyes, they were so many that it looked like a nasty swarm of ravens sitting with its beady eyes turned on us. My father observed, "They were not here in the morning." I still remember a look of deep concern on my father's face that gave me an unclear inkling about war.

I recall that day was the Aug. 15, 1974, Liberation Day anniversary, when first lady Yuk Young-soo was killed by a stray bullet shot by a North Korean sympathizer from Japan during the televised ceremony. The assassin, Moon Se-gwang, intended to kill President Park Chung-hee, the father of current President Park Geun-hye.

Or it may have been around Aug. 18, 1976, when two U.S. Army officers were slain by ax-wielding North Korean soldiers while trimming a tree inside the Joint Security Area (JSA) in the truce village of Panmunjeom.

On both occasions, we came very close to a second war on the Korean Peninsula.

Back in my meeting with the Norwegians, I told them, "If war occurs this time, there would have been the 1,000th war, imaginary of course."

It was my attempt to bring levity to our conversation but it obviously sailed over their heads.

I also had a chat with two ambassadors about the North.

It was obvious that their home countries were paying keen attention to the situation.

They said that they tried to reassure their foreign ministries. "For our job, the phrase ‘as of now' is very important," one of the two joked. I somehow took his remark as an indication that he might have thought of the possibility of an imminent war. Or I may have overanalyzed it.

Even native Koreans appeared to take the latest North Korean brinkmanship differently.

"Are we having war?" one of my friends asked me, obviously thinking that I as journalist might have extra insight.

I reminded him of what experts say are the grounds to believe that North Korea won't be able to wage war, unless it decides to run the risk of annihilation.

Even as I explained, however, I felt a little unconvinced before realizing it was a textbook case of the North's psychological warfare.

Its tactics call for a step-by-step escalation of tensions by the combination of warlike rhetoric and occasional provocations.

When the tension reaches a crescendo, the North knows that the opposing side ― South Korea and the U.S. ― will try to placate the communist country.

Pyongyang would then act as if it were gracious enough to accept the other side's peace gesture or gain concessions.

This vicious cycle has been repeated countless times.

It has helped the North survive so far, while giving us heartburn at being bullied around by a rogue state like the North.

That was the question asked by the Norwegian reporter toward the end of the interview.

"Don't mistake our humanitarian concern for cowardice," I told him. "We are bigger and better than the North so it's our obligation to bring this smaller, poorer country under control without letting the situation get out of control."

Inside, I asked myself, "If we are better and bigger, and want to control the North, why don't we beat the daylight out of it just this once?"

When my thoughts reached this stage, I felt the latest standoff was being resolved without war.

I wonder whether I can console myself with the Spiderman-like "with-great-power-comes-great-responsibility" mantra the next time the North provokes.