A Refresher Course in Democracy

This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

The New York Sun

SEOUL — The songs of the democratic movement echo through Seoul this month as Korean celebrate the 20th anniversary of the “democracy constitution” under which they’ve elected the last four presidents to five-year terms.

The idealism of the movement was clear in a two-day conference of foreign correspondents who had covered much of that dramatic period. Correspondents, including this one, recalled clandestine interviews with dissidents, harassment by government operatives, and the sense of the triumph of good over evil after years of military-dominated rule.

Interspersed between the remarks of the correspondents, though, were those of professors of South Korean universities promoting the government’s “peace regime” for bringing about reconciliation with the North and unification of the Korean peninsula.

One of the professors of Sungkonhoe University asked the correspondents if they agreed that America was responsible for the standoff on the Korean peninsula. None responded. When he turned and asked one directly what he thought of the question, the correspondent demurred, saying an answer would take the next two days. Repeatedly, the professors called for withdrawal of American forces while also castigating Japan from the days of Japanese colonial rule to the present.

The emphasis on a “peace regime” was to be expected considering that the conference was hosted by the government-subsidized Korea Democracy Foundation and paid for by government agencies. The government, by inviting correspondents who had been in Korea in those critical days a generation ago, hoped to turn the occasion into a forum for publicizing its policies.

Having achieved their goal of a democratic constitution and free and open elections, the leaders of the Korean democracy movement now want to use it to get rid of American forces and bases in what they see as an overdue step toward North-South Korean reconciliation. The movement’s agenda blames America not just for holding back the process but for usurping Korea’s sovereignty and raising the danger of another Korean War — or even a war for the region.

The conference was just as noteworthy for what was left out as for what was said. There was no mention of the Korean War. The fact that one of the professors insisted on the proposition that American forces were to blame for South Korea’s troubles raised the underlying question of whether America should have come to South Korea’s rescue after the North Korean invasion 57 years ago this month. And if he did not believe American troops should have fought for the South, then would he have preferred to see all Korea under rule from Pyongyang, backed up by China?

Another uncomfortable topic was that of North Korea’s nukes. The assumption of the “peace regime” is that North Korea, after the Americans have left, will not only shut down its whole nuclear program but also do away with its nuclear arsenal as called for in the six-nation statement reached in Beijing on February 13. Not once did the professors at the conference blame North Korea for possessing nuclear weapons. Nor, for that matter, did they mention North Korea’s horrendous record on human rights.

The professors at the conference also seemed to have largely forgotten the six-nation talks while obsessing over the need for North and South Korea to come to terms on their own, with no interference, especially by American forces.

The Korea Democracy Foundation was oblivious to the conservative movement in South Korea and to forecasts of a conservative victory in December’s presidential election for a successor to Roh Tae Woo, barred by the democracy constitution from seeking a second five-year term.

At a lavish ceremony that we attended on the anniversary of the constitution, Mr. Roh castigated “those who criticize the democratic force as incompetent.” Indeed, he said, “they even label the government as pro-North Korea.” His attack focused on “the conservative media” — meaning Korea’s three highest-selling newspapers — for having “emerged as a political power” and continuing “to champion conservative values.”

The view was that these conservatives represented the same forces that demonstrators had struggled to overthrow in 1987. “The job is clear,” Mr. Roh said. “The task is to realize democracy in the true sense.”

The meaning of “democracy” was lost, however, in Mr. Roh’s attack on conservative forces waiting to take over after 10 years of left-of-center rule that began with the razor-thin victory of Kim Dae Jung at the height of the economic crisis a decade ago.

Leftist advocates of Korean democracy claim the movement as their own, but they seem to have lost their way in a cloud of propaganda that fits conveniently with rhetoric from the North. They need to search for new understanding of what democracy means in terms of tolerance of differing views — even conservative ones.

While going through a refresher course in democracy, they would do well to stop blaming America, the country that helped rescue South Korea from the worst threat to democracy in 1950.

Mr. Kirk is a freelance correspondent based in Seoul.


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