As a child in South Korea, I participated in speech contests
commemorating the death of an eight-year-old boy, who was said to
have shouted “I don’t like communists” before he
was killed by a group of North Korean armed guerrillas in 1968.
We were constantly told that North Korean infiltrators lurked in
every nook and corner. Posters on public buildings, schools, street
walls and stores urging the presumably hidden spies to give
themselves up were ubiquitous. The daily lives of millions of South
Koreans ““ including my family ““ were controlled by
state-dictated anti-communism: from the local paramilitary
organizations to the monthly defense drills to the citizens’
reserve army. Even shamans were organized into an
“Anti-Communist Spirit Worshippers Union.”
The Korean War caused millions of deaths, but also corroded the
souls of the living. Both societies became hostage to military
tension, real and imagined, but always imminent. This tension
contributed to the formation and legitimization of undemocratic
political systems in both North and South (the South has moved
toward democracy only in the last decade). In the South, the
constant vigilance against the North warped the Koreans’
psyches so much that anyone accused of being a communist could be
terrorized, tortured and imprisoned.
The student, labor and other democratization movements brought
about the gradual thaw of anti-communism and a new confidence that
Korea’s future could follow a path of peaceful
co-existence.
These movements required great sacrifice. Based on my own
research, nearly forty people working for peace and democracy were
killed in the 1980s alone. The historic summit meeting of Kim
Dae-Jung and Kim Jong-Il in June 2000 can be understood as a
culmination of such a sacrifice. Even the collective
“football fever” around South Korea’s performance
in the 2002 World Cup cannot be understood simply in terms of
soccer enjoying sudden popularity. Millions of people wore
“Red Devil” T-shirts and displayed red banners. For the
first time in decades, the color red came to symbolize hope and
confidence instead of communism.
I read in a South Korean journal about one person who proclaimed
that 2002 was the most memorable year of his life, when he could
indulge in his pride as a Korean overcoming more than 50 years of
foreign domination. Along with his exhilaration and joy was the
sense of recovering a lost humanity that had been buried under
slogans of anti-communism and national security.
George W. Bush’s open hostility toward North Korea and his
unwillingness to engage in bilateral negotiations reflects a
mentality that sees the world in black and white, enemy or friend,
evil and good. Although this simplistic dichotomy may still appeal
to a small segment of the population, the majority of South Koreans
will no longer submit to the logic that has caused them so much
grief and pain, collectively and individually.
South Koreans are keenly aware that the United States has shaped
Korea’s history and the daily lives of its citizens since
1945. The United States has been involved in every major event of
Korea’s contemporary history ““ from the division of the
country, the creation of the separate government in the South, and
the Korean War to the South’s positioning during the Cold War
era. The United States also has 37,000 troops in South Korea. A
U.S. general not only presides over the United States-South Korean
Combined Forces Command, but also exercises operational control
over South Korean forces in the event of military
confrontation.
South Koreans are also painfully aware that the North’s
prolonged isolation and its economic difficulties may cause fits of
paranoia and a siege mentality among its leadership, which quite
possibly might lead to a war.
Meanwhile, its people suffer from a deteriorating infrastructure
and severe shortages of food, health care and energy. Because they
want to ease the misery and suffering of fellow Koreans, and also
reduce the possibility of military confrontation, South Koreans
support the “sunshine policy” of peacefully engaging
North Korea. The recent election of President Roh Moo Hyun ““
who pledged to continue the sunshine policy ““ indicates that
the majority of South Koreans view dialogue as the only viable
option.
Knowing how it feels to always be treated by the United States
as less than equal, many in the South also see the North’s
recent posture as a high-flying braggadocio to the weak, and
therefore believe that the United States’ first step should
be to grant the North a modicum of respect by agreeing to negotiate
directly.
Lee is a professor in the UCLA Department of East Asian
Languages and Cultures.