Korea Is No Safe Zone From Unexpected Attacks
The recent arrest of a suspected Taliban leader here shows Korea might be dragged into the war with terror deeper than it thinks.
According to the police, the Pakistani imam (Muslim clergyman) has brainwashed and trained about 30 Uzbek students in Korea into Taliban agents as well as gathered intelligence about U.S. bases for nearly a decade. He went in and out of the nation as many as 17 times during the period, often with a forged passport using a ``laundered identity."
It's hard to understand how the police and immigration authorities have let the self-proclaimed Jihadist, who also is on the CIA's list of terrorism suspects, swagger about this country. A shiver ran through our limbs when thinking what would have happened had a religious rival not tipped police off.
This is also a chilling reminder that the Islamic militant groups, which have used Korea as a depot for trafficking drugs and other illegal items to raise funds, has begun to use the nation as a stage for cultivating ``autogenous'' rebel groups. Koreans, who have so far thought that Islamic terrorism is a story for Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen and the United States, must be feeling the possibility is far greater ― and nearer to them.
Such chances grow even bigger, considering that Seoul is pushing to send 500 civilian reconstruction experts and their military convoys to Afghanistan in July, and is scheduled to host the G-20 summit in November.
We are not certain whether Islamic fundamentalists would target the leaders of the world's 20 biggest economies, which include some Muslim countries, at the meeting, thus turning the entire globe against themselves. When it comes to hitting Korean targets alone, however, the probability sharply increases, especially because the Taliban has threatened more than a few times to retaliate against Korea's re-dispatch of troops, which it withdrew from Afghanistan 26 months ago.
All this requires the Lee Myung-bak administration to review its policy not just on counterterrorism but on joining the U.S. war on terror from the ground up.
Most urgent of course will be measures to step up anti-terrorism efforts, such as sharing related intelligence with allies, tightening immigration procedures and enhancing surveillance on the possible existence of Islamic extremists, especially at a time when the number of foreign residents has topped 1 million. What makes the authorities' work harder still is that they must take extra care not to aggravate the nation's already notorious treatment of foreign visitors from Asian neighbors.
A more fundamental approach, however, is for the Lee administration to create ― or improve ― an environment to reduce concerns about terrorism by opening up the debate on the troop re-dispatch not just to politicians but to the general public, who could be the direct victims of any governmental decision.
We would like to accept the officials' explanation that sending the provincial reconstruction team to the Middle East is to benefit the Afghan people, and not the U.S.'s and Korea's strategic interests. Even if the latter is closer to the truth, the government should explain it to the people and seek their cooperation.
People deserve to know why they should make sacrifices before being forced to do so, instead of continuing to play the roles of blind proponents and equally blind opponents.
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