2 Koreas become official enemies once more
North Korea fired a long-range missile toward the East Sea on Saturday. It was the second launch of a presumed intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) since November.
The North's latest ICBM launch came two days after South Korea's defense ministry published a new white paper, in which it referred to Pyongyang and its military as an "enemy" for the first time in six years.
Different governments, different defense papers. It also seems natural to reinstate the official title of enemy and call the North Korean leader by name only without his official title. North Korea recently called the South an "obvious enemy" and President Yoon Suk Yeol a "fool."
Foreign observers with even the slightest interest in the Korean Peninsula have only to look at South Korea's defense white papers to understand the changing relationship between the two Koreas at key moments in history. The word "enemy" first appeared in 1995 after a North Korean official said Pyongyang could turn Seoul into a "sea of fire." The word has since disappeared under progressive governments in the South and reappeared under conservative ones.
However, few, if any, countries specify an enemy in their official defense papers unless they are in the middle of a war. Instead, most call their adversaries "threats" or "challenges" to obscure their intentions and increase their strategic options. Calling the other side an enemy or even the "main enemy" is rare, although the two Koreas have remained at war "technically" since the Korean War ended in 1953 with an armistice.
In retrospect, the birth of the defense white paper was more political than military. Published in 1967 under then-General-turned-President Park Chung-hee, the document emphasized ― even exaggerated ― the North's far superior military compared with the South's, pressing the need to protect and stabilize South Korean society from North Korea (and dissidents). Military officials reportedly lobbied civilians to stress the quantitative military imbalance between the two Koreas in order to request a bigger budget.
After a lull of two decades, the government then resumed the defense white paper's publication in 1988. It was done in order to refute allegations by Rhee Young-hee, a civilian expert in inter-Korean affairs. Rhee, a progressive ― or pro-North by conservative standards ― scholar and commentator, said South Korea's military prowess was not inferior to the North's and in fact surpassed it, given the comprehensive national strength, due to its rising economic power and help from its ally.
The 2022 defense paper repeated what Rhee called "bean counting" 34 years ago. The document has a table showing that the South's troops stand at 500,000 whilst the North's are at 1.28 million. It also compared the number of tanks, 2,200 vs. 4,300. Unlike in the past, a footnote said, "This table only presented quantitative comparisons. Actual power may differ, considering the equipment's level of deterioration, training of soldiers and allied operational concepts." Nonetheless, articles in most conservative media outlets only focused on the numbers and not the qualities of the respective forces.
More worrying than this physical comparison is the lax discipline of the South's military. And more pathetic than the recent fuss over the North's drone incursions was how military leaders avoided taking responsibility, wrapping up the incident with just a few slaps on the wrist. These officers even lied by hiding the fact that these drones entered the no-fly zone around the presidential office. "Any harsher punishment might end up playing into the hands of North Korea, which aimed to shatter our preparedness," a military spokesperson said.
Critics label the current political leadership as "chicken hawks," composed mainly of people who didn't even fulfill mandatory military service and led by a commander-in-chief who calls for a "preemptive strike" and "revenge of a hundred or thousand times." Combine this with undisciplined and irresponsible military leadership, and one can see reasons for a growing sense of insecurity among citizens.
Also noteworthy was the paper's change of description when talking about Japan, from a neighbor to a close neighbor, although a similar document published by Tokyo remains unchanged regarding its claims of sovereignty over Dokdo. Additionally, Japan's Embassy played its national anthem at a gathering in the heart of Seoul to celebrate their emperor's birthday.
Karl Marx said, "History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce." However, there will be nothing comedic about it if history repeats on the Korean Peninsula.
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