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Kim Ja-dong, president of the nonprofit Commemorative Foundation for Korea'sProvision Government (CFKPG) |
By Chung Min-uck
A veteran journalist is initiating a movement to redefine the meaning of "conservatives" here.
"Korean conservatives aren't conservatives in the literal sense of the meaning," said Kim Ja-dong, 86, president of the nonprofit Commemorative Foundation for Korea's Provisional Government (CFKPG).
"Conservatives should at least have a sense of nationalism. But they don't. Conservatives here merely pursue their selfish interests," Kim said in a recent interview with The Korea Times.
He was speaking from the standpoint of being a living witness to Korea's modern history.
The former journalist said he understands that leaders of relatively weak nations have to be submissive toward stronger countries from time to time to better serve their people.
But in Korea, according to Kim, this isn't the case.
"Those who were pro-Japanese during the Japan's colonial rule of Korea (1910-45) cunningly replaced their masters from Japan to the United States following Japan's defeat in World War II," said Kim. "This move was not for the benefit of our country and the general people, but for their own self-interests."
Pro-Japanese Koreans, by joining hands with the U.S., established an independent and separate government on the south side of the Korean Peninsula in 1948 which played a critical role in triggering the Korean War (1950-53) and leading to the continuing division of the peninsula, he claimed.
"All Koreans should have upheld national unity as the utmost value following the 1945 independence," he said. "More frustratingly, anti-Japanese fighters were neglected in the process of establishing the government."
Kim, who was born to the family of an independence activist who worked for the Provisional Government of Korea in Shanghai, said that legacy of conservatives in Korea is still continuing.
"No one can forget the memory of the Korean War, and the conservatives here have used anti-communism as a means of wooing voters in elections," he said.
"History must be readjusted," Kim said. "It is not right that those who were involved in pro-Japanese activities, until today, hold power and accumulate wealth, but on the other hand, those who fought for our country live less-privileged lives."
The CFKPG was launched in 2004 to fix such history. But he said he is regretful that people don't have much interest in the move.
"The foundation is strapped for cash," he said. "I now don't even have expectations for people to make donations to the foundation.
"But yet, I will still try hard to push forward with the ongoing projects to let the spirits of anti-Japanese fighters live on from generation to generation," he added.
Korean independence fighters set up a provisional government in China's southeastern city of Shanghai back in 1919, which is recognized as legitimate under the current Constitution of Korea.
Commenting on inter-Korean policy, the former anti-Japanese activist said improving the living standard of the people in North Korea is the priority for South Korea to achieve unification.
"Cutting relations and putting pressure on the North would not do any good for South Korea in terms of future unification," he said. "Investing in the North is profitable for both Koreas, and I don't see why we should refrain from doing so."
