dailies-editorials (2)

(EDITORIAL from Korea Times on Dec. 11)

Cold War puppets

Seoul should create more room for diplomatic maneuvering

The top national security officials of South Korea, the U.S. and Japan met in Seoul over the weekend to discuss new trilateral initiatives regarding North Korea.

Their agreements, with a rather lengthy name, aim to respond to the North's threats in cyberspace, including cryptocurrency abuses.

The idea is to prevent hacking crimes, one of the main funding sources for North Korea and its nuclear and missile development program. According to a U.N. report, North Korea stole virtual assets valued at $1.7 billion through cybertheft last year.

It appears to be a timely move by the three nations.

North Korea's Kim Jong-un might be feeling cornered – and proud. The world's largest, third-largest, and 13th-largest economies are racking their brains regarding how to counter a dirt-poor country. The three nations' economic power is about 550 times larger than that of the North. Pyongyang has an oversized military, including some atomic bombs. However, does it deserve all this attention?

Despite its alleged deposits of some valuable minerals, North Korea's value is mainly strategic. The same can be said of its southern counterpart, blessed with fewer resources and more people. That also explains why historians and political scientists describe the Korean Peninsula as possessing an unfortunate geopolitical fate. Still, some Korean leaders have tried to overcome that fate while others have not.

It appears that the current leaders in both Koreas belong to the latter group.

At least for now, North Korea seems to have given up on getting out of its economic and diplomatic predicament by mending fences with the U.S. Kim Jong-un's hopes were shattered in Hanoi, Vietnam, on Feb. 25, 2019, when Donald Trump sent him back to Pyongyang empty-handed. Since then, the North has gotten closer to China amid its intensifying hegemonic battle with the U.S. Russia's war with Ukraine has also sped up Kim's return to his old patrons in what he views as a neo-Cold War.

President Yoon Suk Yeol, who appeared to start from the center-right but moved to the far right in a year-and-a-half, took relations between the two Koreas to their lowest level in decades. He defied the inter-Korean detente, that was implemented by his center-left predecessor as a "fake peace" that was at the mercy of Pyongyang. One hardly knows whether it was the expression of excessive confidence or a total lack of it.

Equally hard to fathom is Yoon's ultimate goal. Is it reunification even by risking war, perennial division amid tension, or peaceful coexistence?

The best scenario, of course, is the peaceful reunification of this divided peninsula. All presidents also said they pursued it. If that is not possible for now, peaceful coexistence should be the next best thing. What most conservative leaders have aimed for, however, is to press Pyongyang until it surrenders or collapses. None more so than the incumbent president.

Of course, Pyongyang will likely do neither. Even if the North implodes, it will bring about uncontrollable situations, if not a massive disaster, in Seoul. That, not blind nationalism, was the reason for the approaches of liberal leaders represented by the now-forgotten "Sunshine Policy."

South Korea is rapidly losing its diplomatic gains, made over the past few decades. It has maintained well-balanced relations with China and Russia since 1988. Now, however, Beijing regards Seoul as little more than a subordinate to Washington, as South Korea has no independent initiatives. Moscow also says the ball is in Seoul's court to restore ties.

Alliance with the U.S. should remain South Korea's diplomatic priority. However, Seoul must maintain its diplomatic philosophy, or at least a principle, especially in inter-Korean affairs. Kim Dae-jung was the best South Korean leader in that regard, as he could pursue inter-Korean rapprochement with the endorsement of Washington. The following two liberal presidents were less fortunate, frustrated by U.S. hawks.

According to media reports, North Korea sent 1,000 freight containers of weapons to Russia. South Korea has given more artillery shells than all of the West Europe combined to Ukraine, possibly via America. Each might have earned the praise of their partners -- and contempt from their adversaries or neutrals.

Until when should the two Koreas remain proxies of the Cold War?

(END)

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