No paradise on earth

By Tong Kim

Last week in Seoul, a mother and her two grown daughters took their lives in a small rented room, giving up their hard struggle to eke out a bare living. They left a note to their landlady, “Ma’am, we are sorry.” With that note, they also left an envelop that contained about $700 for rent and utilities for their next monthly payment.

South Korea is already doing very well economically compared to most of the other countries of the world, ranking the 12th -16th largest economy by GDP with $20,000 per capita. South Korea also has a welfare program that helps the disadvantaged people but needs to expand to develop a healthier social safety net against widening economic and social polarization, a price for the way wealth is distributed in a market economy.

The tragedy of the three self-reliant women, who did not even ask for government assistance, shocked the nation, as it was only a few days after President Park’s announcement of an ambitious three-year economic reform plan. The plan is intended to normalize “abnormal” practices in all areas of society with a series of innovative initiatives starting with renovating the publicly funded corporations that are hugely in debt.

The three-year reform plan would create 1.5 million new jobs for women by 2017 as a part of goal to achieve 70 percent employment, a 4 percent growth rate and $40,000 per capita income. It is good to see the government lay out a detailed plan to achieve these goals. However, the government’s conceptual reliance on the “creative economy” that has so far produced very little remains a source of skepticism.

Another source of doubt is the talk of unification as a potential “jack pot” for the economy. First, President Park’s North Korea policy does not expect unification to happen by 2017. Her repeat of a “jackpot” in the economic reform plan seems to reflect her appreciation of positive public response to the term that she had first used weeks earlier.

In this connection, President Park said that she would create a unification preparation committee directly under her supervision. Reportedly, this new unification committee would be composed of experts representing the government and civil organizations, to study and recommend ideas from building an internal consensus to carrying out inter-Korean integration.

How this new committee will work with the existing structure of unification affairs ― such as the National Security Office at the Blue House, the Ministry of Unification, the National Advisory Board of Peaceful Unification, and the government-run Unification Research Institute ― remains to be seen.

The Park government has received a high approval rating over 50 to 60 percent on its first year of performance, and its rating for foreign policy and North Korea were even higher. The best concrete result for Park’s North Korea policy was the realization of family reunions last month. Perhaps, a more important result was the absence of military clashes on the peninsula. Threats have not been reduced, but the peace, negative and precarious, has still been kept.

Now something that should not be thought of lightly is the fact that these two accomplishments could not have been possible without the positive roles of the North.

Preparing for a contingency is warranted, but nobody should be talking about a unilateral approach to unification by force.

The media is flooded with bad news about North Korea _ its provocation, threats, nuclear weapons, missiles, illicit activities, political suppression, economic difficulties, people’s hardship, diplomatic isolation, and regime instability. Perhaps, Pyongyang may be in its worst crisis for survival looking from outside. Many in Seoul and Washington are still intrigued by a collapse theory, for which one is yet to find supporting evidence.

Recently North Korea has been hit hard for its alarming abuses of human rights compared to “Nazi acts” in the publication of the U.N. Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights in the DPRK and the annual human rights report by the U.S. State Department. Secretary of State John Kerry said North Korea is an “evil and cruel” state after he read the reports.

The human rights situation in North Korea has been an issue for decades, yet no effective measures have been developed to improve the situation. The North Koreans, as well as the Chinese, claim the ways they treat their people are their internal affairs. The North sees pressure on human rights as another scheme to undermine the roots of its viability.

Last week North Korean leader Kim Jong-un held a massive indoctrination class for thousands of his propaganda workers to enlist people’s support for his monolithic leadership inherited from his father and grandfather. This event was seen two different ways in Seoul: as a sign of weakening leadership or a sign of further power consolidation.

Kim Jong-un also reportedly said, “Put up two to three folds of “mosquito nets” to prevent penetration of evil elements of capitalism,” ― including outside information, “decadent” lifestyles, and individual greed that all weaken loyalty to the state. Some DPRK representatives have said in the past, “We don’t want to follow the Chinese model because it would bring us such typical vices of capitalism as organized crimes, corruption, drugs and prostitution.”

Whatever views one might have of North Korea, how much one might dislike its system, and how unreal it may sound, the existence of the North Korean regime is real and one cannot envision a peaceful future by ignoring it. There is no paradise on earth. People are struggling to have a better life everywhere in the world.

As a minimum, life without war is the best blessing for humans and human rights, considering the numbers of people killed in the recent wars ― 3 million in the Korean War, and 2.5 to 3 million in Vietnam. What’s your take?

The author is a visiting scholar at the Ilmin Institute of International Relations at Korea University, a visiting professor at the University of North Korean Studies and an ICAS fellow in the U.S.