A letter to Kim Jong-un

By Choi Sung-jin

I'm not too fond of columns written in letter form. Many such articles are manneristic, one-sided, and shooting from the hip, not least because the writers know their letters will not be sent to or even read by the addressees.

I won't be able to avoid this trap but I'm still writing this piece as a letter to Kim Jong-un, the chairman of North Korea's State Affairs Commission, for two reasons. First, Kim seems best positioned to resolve the current inter-Korean impasse. Second, President Moon Jae-in is under attack from so many people on so many sides that I don't need to add one more.

Dear Chairman Kim,

You must be having a very hard time now because of what Pyongyang watchers here describe as the “triple whammy” ― U.N.―led sanctions, the coronavirus pandemic and flood damages. So much so that even your state propaganda machine recently admitted “severe and unexpected” economic challenges.

Yes, the main culprit is COVID-19, although its impact on your country seems to be more economic than epidemiological.

Had it not been for the pandemic, the Sino-Korean border might not have been so tightly closed, giving some breathing space for your economy hit hard by sanctions and floods. Even so, your lifeline ― China ― was focused on taking care of itself as the epicenter of the pandemic.

You said not a single North Korean was affected by the virus, but few believe it. It was regrettable in this regard you turned down the South's offer to provide diagnostic kits and medical supplies.

It seems as if you'd been disaffected toward the Moon administration since the disastrous breakdown of your summit with U.S. President Donald Trump in Hanoi some 20 months ago.

As John Bolton said in his memoir, however, it was due to the obstruction by ultra-rightists in Washington and Tokyo. Even the mustachioed former national security adviser to Trump acknowledged how hard President Moon struggled to pair you off with the U.S. leader in Singapore and again in Panmunjeom. The rest was up to you and your U.S. counterpart.

I might not be writing this letter to you if South Korea remained under the rule of right-wing leaders, such as Lee Myung-bak and Park Geun-hye. There was little, if any, room for inter-Korean cooperation and exchange during their reigns. However, for Moon and his center-left predecessors ― Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun, who dealt with your father ― nothing was more important than peace and prosperity of the Korean Peninsula.

These liberal leaders did all they could ― and will do so ― to help you economically and diplomatically braving friction with foreign partners and conflict with domestic opponents.

You may think a great deal with the U.S. will solve all of your problems. That seems neither likely nor possible. To do so, Trump should get another term, but that is hardly likely, according to most opinion polls. Even if President Trump is re-elected by any chance, you can ill afford to rejoice.

Even the most self-indulgent U.S. leader like Trump, with whom you exchanged a couple of goose-bumping letters, will not ― or cannot ― make an international treaty in defiance of the establishment in Washington, i.e., the U.S. military-industrial complex, as you saw in Hanoi. You and Trump may be preparing for the “October surprise,” but your U.S. counterpart will forget it once the elections are over.

Trump is likely to end up as a single-term president next month. That means you will have to drop the top-down diplomacy and start from the ground up through more business-like talks with the U.S. Democrats. In the worst-case scenario, Joe Biden may take up where Barack Obama left off ― “strategic patience,” or complete ignorance.

Most of all, the newly elected president will be busy cleaning up the mess at home made by his predecessor and returning the U.S. to its former self. Biden will be too busy to worry about denuclearizing your country. If you make another military provocation to attract or distract the new U.S. leader's attention, Washington may consider making pre-emptive attacks, as Bob Woodward wrote in his new book based on interviews with Trump.

All this shows why you should restore friendly ties with the South and its leader. You ought to start by resolving the recent tragic killing of a South Korea official by North Korean soldiers in the West Sea. True, you quickly acknowledged the responsibility and expressed regret. That was unusual for an “errorless” leader like you. However, President Moon and his government have come under fire for showing appreciation for your written notice. A pro-government commentator is being ridiculed for comparing you to “enlightened monarchs” in the 18th century.

It would be best if you went further. I understand your government had declared a zero-tolerance policy to foreign infiltrators to prevent the coronavirus infection. However, shooting a civilian dead cannot be tolerated under any circumstances in any law-abiding country.

You should accept Moon's offer for a joint investigation first. If you hold the killers accountable and come up with measures to prevent its recurrence, you will become a “rational leader” of the 21st century.

There are no countries in the world wishing your country well and even paying for it except your Southern brethren ― progressive ones, I mean. You should help liberals in the South, or at least you should not embarrass them. Your father knew all too well how the conservatives here looked down on your country.

Please turn the ongoing adversity into an opportunity. No allies can be better than compatriots.

Choi Sung-jin (choisj1955@naver.com) is a Korea Times columnist.