By Jay Kim
March 26 marked the one-year anniversary of the Cheonan incident, where 46 South Korean sailors were killed by a torpedo attack from North Korea. The scars from the sorrow of the families of the victims, mourning their sons and brothers, will remain for a long time. However, I am puzzled by the behavior of a certain part of South Korea.
A civic group called Simin Yeondae sent a letter to the U.S. ambassador to South Korea, claiming that “the controversy over the Cheonan incident continues on ― even though the South Korean government claims its report was scientifically verified through joint investigation with the U.S.” They also sent a letter to the Swedish ambassador to South Korea, asking if the investigation process was transparent and truly neutral. I think this is too much.
The international expert investigators from Australia, the U.S., Sweden, and the U.K. verified that the sinking of the Cheonan was caused by a torpedo attack from North Korea. Their report was sent to the U.N. Security Council, which then issued a statement condemning the attack. No nation doubted that North Korea attacked the warship, even though objections from China and Russia meant that the statement didn’t directly condemn North Korea.
A recent poll in South Korea showed that 70 percent of respondents believed that North Korea was behind the ship sinking. I assumed there wouldn’t be any more controversy on the cause of the sinking, but there are still very tenacious people who continue to doubt the official reports. This is an international disgrace.
I think that those who, instead of trusting their own government, trust North Korea’s outrageous claim that the Cheonan sinking was a figment of the Seoul government’s imagination, should be allowed to form their own independent investigation teams.
However, they should be forced to pay for their own cost of reinvestigation. Not one penny should come from taxpayers’ money. This is only fair, given how these people have hurt the families of the lost Cheonan soldiers by causing speculation and confusion.
As a consolation, there was a recent newspaper article about the Cheonan generation that greatly moved me. People in their 20s asked citizens to lay flowers at the memorial site of the 46 soldiers, located in front of the Gwanghwamun gate in downtown Seoul.
The articles quoted a traveling Japanese professor impressed by this as saying that “it is amazing that university students planned this memorial event on their own.” A 22-year-old student said that he wanted to protect his nation when events like the Cheonan sinking and the shelling of Yeonpyeong Island occur.
Another 25-year-old student said that “they say that one is conservative if he worries about national security and progressive if he talks about distribution, but national security is not a matter of being progressive or conservative.” A surprising fact from the article is that, according to a recent poll, 67 percent of those aged between 19 and 29 trust the government report that North Korea sank the Cheonan.
The son of Warrant Officer Han Ju-ho, who held his father’s portrait while wearing a lieutenant’s uniform at the funeral right after the Cheonan incident, has become a teacher at an elementary school in Changwon, South Gyeongsang Province, in accordance with his father’s wishes.
I was moved by his tears, as he stated that he would teach the right history to young students and would forever admire the lofty spirit of his father and the other deceased soldiers. How could we understand their sorrow?
I can hardly understand why the leftist organizations still remain in South Korea. Who are they that defend the North Korean system, where absolute power is being transferred to someone who is just 27 years old, while millions of people starve to death and where so many people are denied basic human rights? I cannot understand why they don’t just move to North Korea, but remain in South Korea to embarrass the government and the people.
Watching the recent struggles between the downtrodden people of certain Middle Eastern nations and their dictators on TV has made me think about many things. I think that it’s very fortunate to be able to live in democratic South Korea, where personal freedom is fully guaranteed.
If there are leftists who still follow North Korea, they are living in a completely anachronistic way. I think those pro-North Korea leftists will eventually lose steam. Young people in their 20s will learn the truth and turn their backs to the leftists. The unity of our South Korean society will become stronger and stronger.
Our young people, who we are so proud of, will become the important cornerstone of the maturation of South Korea into an advanced nation. This will eventually be the legacy of the sinking of the Cheonan. The loss of those 46 brave sailors will not be in vain.
Jay Kim is a former U.S. congressman. He serves as chairman of the Washington Korean-American Forum. For more information, visit Kim’s website (www.jayckim.com). The views expressed in the above article are the author’s own and do not reflect the editorial policy of The Korea Times.