South Korean politics continues to stray off course. The most crucial task for South Korea today is to determine how it should cope with the threats of North Korea and China. In terms of its national strategy, South Korea’s priority should be to work in close collaboration with the US and Japan to establish a solid partnership, both economically and militarily.
　　　And yet, South Korea has abruptly raised the issues of the disputed Takeshima Islets (Dokdo in Korean) and the so-called “comfort women,” drawing itself into a whirlpool of anti-Japanism of its own volition. During a Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI) exercise participated in by the US, Australia, South Korea, and Japan as part of a multilateral WMD (Weapons of Mass Destruction) interdiction exercise held off South Korea’s southern coast September 26-27, Seoul refused a Japanese Maritime Self Defense Force (JMSDF) fleet entry into the port of Busan. To exclude a nation during a multi-national exercise is conduct extremely unbecoming to the host nation. Would it be possible to assume that the South Korean anti-Japanese sentiment has so impaired their rational judgment that the South Korean leaders have suddenly become unable to grapple squarely with such a fundamental issue as its national strategy?
　　　Candidly speaking, the South Korean situation as I see it today constitutes a major factor contributing to the anxiety of the entire Asia-Pacific region. President Lee Myung-bak has gone all out to denounce Japan as a means of political self preservation, with his own elder brother having been arrested on bribery charges and a former secretary getting a conviction in the last three months of his presidency. Both President Lee and South Korea’s national armed forces, ultimately entrusted with the safety and security of the nation, appear to be in the precarious state of brain freeze, unable to view the nation’s present and future clearly.
　　　Now, can any one of the three presidential candidates awaiting the December 19 election be expected to improve the strained relationship between Seoul and Tokyo? Let us see what Moon Jae-in, Ahn Cheol-soo, or Park Geun-hye can do as the new president to salvage bilateral relations.
　　　Moon is a former human rights lawyer who was chosen as the presidential candidate of the opposition party, Democratic United – a political entity strongly influenced by Pyongyang. Once the chief of staff for the late President Noh Moo-hyun, Moon became a member of the national assembly only last April. Put simply, the values of this freshman politician who has little experience in national politics boil down to worship of the late President Noh and total denial of South Korea today.
　　　The following episode explains what manner of politician Mr. Moon is. In announcing his candidacy, he paid a visit to the Seoul National Cemetery, where the remains of Presidents Syngman Rhee, Park Chung-hee, and Kim Dae-jung rest in eternal peace. But Moon paid respect only to Kim’s grave. He reportedly shunned Park’s and Rhee’s graves because he believes they had neglected to pass judgment on the Korean nationals who cooperated with the Japanese armed forces during the Japanese occupation of South Korea, and, were too dependent on the Americans, failing to properly live up to the Korean national spirit.

“Desert the National Assembly and Hit the Streets”

　　　Moon and all other members of Democratic United are of the opinion that North Korea, stubbornly adhering to the Chuch’e ideology, has lived up to the traditional Korean national spirit, claiming that Pyongyang has rigidly refused to turn to Japan and the US for assistance and instead steadfastly followed its own path towards self-reliance and independence different from that of China or the Soviet Union. Therefore, they credit President Kim with having made the right efforts to form a closer relationship with the North, but discredit Presidents Rhee and Park for having implemented confrontational policies towards the North.
　　　Such an idea has now gone to such an extreme among various quarters of South Korea that many today believe that it was “a big mistake to have built the Republic of Korea by utilizing former pro-Japanese elements who had benefited from Japanese militarism, and that the republic was “a tarnished nation at birth.” It was Presidents Kim and Noh who built the foundation of this thinking advocating a total denial of postwar South Korea, with Moon acting as their faithful disciple. If Moon should be elected president next month, the Korean Peninsula will be a threat to Japan on a scale far bigger than ever anticipated.
　　　Let us now turn to Ahn, a wealthy software entrepreneur-turned-politician who once was a practicing doctor, and is an independent candidate. Despite his lack of political experience and political power base, Ahn is the hero of the younger generation of Koreans, and was ahead of all of the opinion polls conducted in mid-September. The key phrase featured in his campaign is “a change of politics” – different from “a change of administration” – which means a change in political leadership, according to Hong Hyung, editorial writer for the Korean language, pro-Seoul Unification Daily, who also serves as a visiting professor at Tokyo’s Obirin University:
　　　“What Ahn’s slogan means is South Korean politicians must now stop deliberating among themselves in the national assembly and talk it over with the people on the street. In other words, party politics should take a back seat and let direct democracy and the spirit of the times prevail in South Korea. Thus excluding political parties and political organizations, Ahn and his supporters are now in the process of creating an unprecedented political force by means of SNS and cellular phones.” (SNS is an abbreviation for social networking services, another way of referring to “social media.”)
　　　There has been no small number of incidents in South Korea in which politics was helplessly thrown off balance by mass movements accelerated by new and increasingly popular media such as SNS. Four years ago, when President Lee Myung-bak decided to ease restrictions on US beef imports to South Korea, those opposed to the government policy circulated false rumors implying that people who choose to eat beef imported from the US would immediately contract BSE (Bovine Spongiform encephalopathy, or “mad cow disease”). Unfortunately, the mass media in South Korea ignored information based on scientific data, continuing to brazenly provide readers and viewers with false information.
　　　Members of the opposition camp further conducted large-scale candle-light demonstrations for days straight, several hundred thousand of them illegally occupying central Seoul. A state of anarchy lasted for two months, the demonstrations almost instantly transformed from anti-US beef to anti-Park, anti-US campaigns. I was in Seoul in person covering the demonstrations, and remember feeling a grave sense of danger while observing a huge crowd in a delirium who appeared not properly equipped with knowledge with which to discuss BSE coolly and logically.
　　　But Ahn, resorting to a new means of communication, continues to demand that “a change of politics” be implemented. In the final analysis, however, it cannot be denied that even Ahn’s politics – like Moon’s – embrace the possibility of boiling down to a total denial of the present South Korean regime and its past accomplishments.
　　　What about Park, then? A beloved daughter of the late former President Park Chung-hee, Park Geun-hye represents the imcumbent Saenuri Party and is a national celebrity. Although expected to solidly represent the conservative camp, Park suddenly started straying off course, modifying her messages to curry favor with more voters after Ahn quite easily pulled ahead of her in nation-wide polls.
　　　In sharp contrast to the other candidates who are critical of South Korea’s past, Park should have simply spoken to the people about her determination to defend and bring South Korea back on its feet again, basing the raison d’etre of her candidacy on her strong love and pride of her motherland. Instead, Ms Park chose exactly the opposite; of all things, she apologized to the people for his father’s politics.

When Personal Gains Are Given Top Priority in South Korean Politics

　　　Even today, President Park (1917-79) garners high support among the people. There is no denying Park wrested power violently in 1961 in a military coup, but it was also he who defended South Korea from the malicious forces of North Korea’s Kim Il-sung. It was Park who built the foundation for his nation’s miraculous economic growth; it was Park who provided the basic economic structure which catapulted South Korea to the world’s 16th largest economic power during his presidency (1963-79). It was for this purpose that Park made up his mind to sign the Japan-Republic of Korea Basic Relations Treaty in 1965 as a prelude to normalization of diplomatic relations between Seoul and Tokyo.
　　　In remarks made at the signing of the treaty, Park said Japan was “an irreconcilable enemy…if one thinks only of the past”; however, he was “firmly convinced that, if necessary, one must be brave enough to take his sworn enemy by the hand for a brighter today and tomorrow for his motherland.”
　　　Japan and South Korea thus signed the historic treaty 47 years ago on the understanding that all matters pertaining to their unfortunate past had completely been resolved. Comments Professor Tsutomu Nishioka of Tokyo Christian University, who concurrently serves as a member of the planning committee of the Japan Institute for National Fundamentals (JINF), a Tokyo-based privately financed think tank which I head:
　　　“In 1965, Japan decided to extend a US$300 million grant and a US$200 million loan to help South Korea’s economic growth. President Park efficiently allocated the funds to construction of highways, dams, steel mills, and the like, contributing to an annual average economic growth rate of 20% over a ten-year period (1966 to 1975), while also improving the current balance by an annual average of 8%.”
　　　Both Japan and South Korea agreed at the time that all open issues between the two nations had been resolved. This would have included Takeshima as well as any contention concerning the “comfort women.”
　　　President Park, who went ahead with the signing of the treaty with Japan by fully understanding the harsh reality of international politics, undoubtedly has won the greatest respect of the South Korean people over the years. How sad it is that his own daughter now fails to acknowledge his true value. What is worse, her denial of her father’s achievements clearly derives from her desire to prevent a further decline of her approval ratings by evading criticism from voters who are leaning towards North Korea. Undoubtedly, personal gains are given priority in South Korean politics today, as the country’s future concerns and national interests are completely overlooked; as, in fact, the very existence of this nation called South Korea is being challenged by so many of its own politicians. Perhaps, indeed, South Korea’s real national crisis is not about its rejection of Japan, but rather its rejection of its own identity.

(Translated from “Renaissance Japan” column no. 528 in the September 27, 2012 issue of The Weekly Shincho)