By Oh Young-jin
Critics of President Park Geun-hye claim that her recent turn to a super-hard-line policy against North Korea is motivated by her frustration over Pyongyang’s unpunished provocations, and indignation at China’s failure to help her gain a stronger set of sanctions against its client state.
By and large, the underlying tone in these claims is that it is an act of hysteria without referring to the obvious fact of her being woman, although few dare to use the term out of political correctness.
However, even if her policy is the result of an emotional bout, it is worth following through.
Above all, what she is doing is the first real act of significance taken by a South Korean leader in dealing with the North since the establishment of the Gaeseong Industrial Complex. The complex was pushed following the 2000 inter-Korean summit between President Kim Dae-jung and the North’s leader Kim Jong-il, father of the current leader Kim Jong-un.
The irony is that Park has started her hawkish inter-Korean policy by closing the Gaeseong complex despite opposition by liberals who consider the act as the crossing of the point of no return that deprives the South of its last remaining option in dealing with the North.
It is worth considering how Park has decided to pull out of Gaeseong, while her predecessors couldn’t despite the North’s provocations of less gravity.
One explanation is that Korea has become much stronger than 10 or 20 years ago and Park happens to be on watch, putting that newly acquired power to its maiden use. Besides, if her hard-policy proves to be successful, it wouldn’t be the first time that serendipity has intervened in changing the path of history, although not always in reflection of the best wishes of the parties concerned.
But one credit Park deserves is, however simplistic, for her call to remember Munich in different phrases. British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain gave in to Nazi leader Hitler in what is seen now as the beginning of World War II. “Are we ready to live as hostages to the fear of a North Korean nuclear attack?” is her rebuttal to Chamberlain.
In other words, she has made her mind up to confront the North Korean issue now and fix it instead of passing it on to the next heads of state. By doing so, we are taking a more immediate risk _ risking raising tensions, provocations or even a war. It is true that we have a lot more to lose than the North so we used to appease the North by handing over protection money.
But we are in a situation comparable to an old folk tale about a hungry tiger that would eat a rice cake vendor after having consumed all the cakes in her basket. Just remember why all statues of the North’s late leaders _ Kim Jong-il and Kim Il-sung, the grandfather of the current leader _ face south. It’s because their raison d’etre is to take over the South by force. Any coexistence with the South, in their mind, is a temporary step toward that goal.
Lastly, Park’s father is Park Chung-hee, the Army-general-turned-president, a dictator who led the nation during a period of extreme turbulence between the two Koreas. She lost her mother to a North Korea-hired hit man and closely watched her father dealing with the North and the U.S., both serving as source of her deep suspicions about the North and strong conviction for her hard-line policy.
So it is more than hysteria that underlies Park’s change of mind.
Oh Young-jin is The Korea Times’ chief editorial writer and can be contacted at foolsdie5@ktimes.com.