Empress Park Geun-hye

By Oh Young-jin

President Park Geun-hye, the first female head of state, has been doing what the combination of her three male predecessors failed to do. With a little hyperbole, Park may end up being part of the credible myth in which Korean women excel men. Sportswomen's lofty achievements in the global arena often being cited as an example. In Park's case, it is still a tossup whether she is doing the right job.

Regarding North Korea, she has turned the clock back to the height of the Cold War.

Admittedly, it is not her bidding that the inter-Korean standoff has come to the worst point in recent memory. The North brought in the New Year with the test of what it claims was an H-bomb test but experts believe to be a boosted-fission bomb, and followed it up with a long-range missile test in February.

Although her exact role is opaque by her high-profile wheeling and dealing, pitting the U.S. against China, it's certain that Park will not be pushed aside into the margins as her predecessors were.

A week after the North's nuclear test, Park called a press conference and talked about her intention to allow the controversial advanced U.S.-made Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense system, or THAAD. Previously, the advanced missile defense system was regarded as a taboo issue for her government, which took pains not to reveal its position on it.

Irrespective of whether to give her credit or not, it can't be denied that the THAAD issue proved to be a pressure point that forced China to drop its protective stance on the North, which embarrassed it by firing the long range missile only a couple days after a senior Chinese official's visit.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi met his U.S. counterpart John Kerry in Washington to broker a deal in which Beijing promised to go with what was to be the toughest U.N. sanctions against the North in return for a delay in THAAD deployment.

A Chinese official here said that THAAD was a sensitive issue to China without commenting on the alleged Beijing-Washington deal.

Park's decisiveness was also highlighted by her decision to pull out of the Gaeseong Industrial Complex, the flagship inter-Korean economic cooperation project that dates back to the presidency of the late Kim Dae-jung, affectionately known by his initials DJ, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2000 for his Sunshine policy of reconciliation with the North. In 2013, the industrial park was temporarily closed by Pyongyang, which accused Seoul of "blaspheming" Kim Jong-un, its leader.

The Gaeseong closure was a daunting political decision that not only meant the severance of what little ties remained between the two Koreas but also caused a great deal of financial damage for 124 tenant factories to the tune of billions of dollars .

Her government said that it was inevitable in order to convince other countries, notably China, that Seoul was serious about getting tough with the North. Beijing reportedly dared Seoul to cut off the $100 million in annual wages to North Korean workers in Gaeseong.

DJ pressed on with the construction of the Gaeseong complex even after a naval conflict in July 2002. Lee Myung-bak, Park's conservative predecessor who was elected on stricter reciprocity in inter-Korean relations, kept Gaeseong open even after a South Korean woman was shot to death by a North Korean guard during a tour to Mount Geumgang. The North refused to apologize for the death, forcing Seoul to close its tours to the scenic North Korean mountain.

Now, Park has dug her heels in, going head to head, toe to toe with the North. Under her watch, the South is conducting a major drill involving U.S. strategic assets and half of the ROK Armed Forces, while Park is showing no signs of backing down despite the North's firing of new multiple launch rocket systems that can strike Seoul; and its latest claim backed by the photo of its 33-year-old leader Kim Jong-un checking out what it claimed was a miniaturized nuclear warhead.

She even talked about a regime change in the North, which could be interpreted as her intention not to make a deal with the North. It wouldn't be surprising if some in the North's leadership felt Park deviated from the usual pattern of behavior by the South's leaders.

She was not less tenacious with the U.S. During her Washington trip, she accompanied her Defense Minister Han Min-koo on his visit to the Pentagon. Han was on a mission to ask his counterpart Ashton Carter to be more generous about a technology transfer in connection with Korea's purchase of F-35 fighters. Her presence was obviously aimed at putting pressure on the U.S. although Han's request was rejected.

Then, what caused her to be bold, if not audacious?

An easy answer would be the influence of her father, the late Army general-turned-President Park Chung-hee, a hard-headed leader who is credited with laying the groundwork for the nation's industrial development at the cost of human rights and democracy.

There are many anecdotes about Park with U.S. presidents, trying persistently despite causing red faces on both sides to gain bigger financial support from Lyndon Johnson for sending ROK soldiers to help the U.S. in Vietnam and to prevent Richard Nixon from reducing the size of U.S. troops to be withdrawn from Korea, for example.

With her family background, it was inevitable she would have a sense of mission.

It's laudable for her to have it, but the real question is whether she can make a success out of her initiative. For now, the jury is still out.

Oh Young-jin is The Korea Times' chief editorial writer. Contact him at foolsdie5@ktimes.com.