[Editorial] Double anniversary

After six decades, “8.15” ― the double anniversary of the 1945 liberation from Japanese colonial rule at the end of World War II and the 1948 inauguration of the Republic of Korea’s first government ― is fading as a national day celebrating Korea’s independence. Busy Koreans need to do some soul-searching, even if only for one day, on how these events opened the tragedy of national division that continues today.

Heavy rains pounded the Korean Peninsula for a month, wreaking havoc to both sides of the Demilitarized Zone, but even relief goods cannot cross the border. Ideological war still goes on as Han Sang-dae, the new prosecutor-general who took office last week, chose “pro-North Korean leftist forces” as one of the most serious enemies the prosecution should fight against under his leadership.

A high state of military tension has gripped the seas off the western coast since the deadly attacks last year from the North ― the sinking of the Cheonan in March and the shelling of Yeonpyeongdo in November. Just Wednesday, there was a brief exchange of artillery fire between South and North Korea near Yeonpyeongdo (the North denies its part of the firing).

The Korean Peninsula is competing with Palestine as the longest-running flash point on the globe after the conflicts in Indochina, the Balkans and Africa have gradually settled in the past decades. Koreans feel sorry for failing to resolve their problems by themselves. South Koreans’ significant contribution to the advancement of world economy through manufacturing and trading of top-line products is overshadowed by the nuclear and missile worries caused by the North. Economic gap is growing wider and reunification is getting ever remoter.

The colonization by Japan came in the early 20th century because the Joseon kingdom was unable to either deter foreign powers’ encroachment or make them compete with each other to its advantage. Splits developed in the independence movement among Kim Ku’s government in exile in Shanghai and Syngman Rhee’s overseas diplomatic activities based in the United States. Kim Il-sung and his communist colleagues joined armed struggles in northeastern China and were later recruited by the Soviets.

Disunity among nationalist leaders in liberated Korea led to the U.S. military government’s support of Syngman Rhee, who became the first president of the republic after a U.N.-supervised election. In the North, Kim Il-sung started war less than two years after he set up government in Pyongyang with a scheme to unify the peninsula. The war ended without a winner and anti-Americanism became entrenched in the state ideology and popular culture in North Korea because U.S. intervention had foiled Kim’s dreams.

That anti-Americanism persists today in the North through constant indoctrination, whereas normalization of relations with the United States has become Pyongyang’s primary diplomatic goal since the collapse of the Cold War structure. Kim Il-sung and his son Jong-il pushed nuclear development programs to secure their state’s survival in the unfavorable international environment.

Pyongyang scored a success in making nuclear arms in two decades while keeping the surrounding powers from taking any preemptive action. Meanwhile, its economy has become a shambles due to misallocation of resources, and China now virtually holds the North’s only economic lifeline, while South Korea’s conservative government remains reluctant to provide it with economic aid.

On this double anniversary, historians must find the vicissitudes on the Korean Peninsula since the mid-1940s carried more dynamic changes than in any other part of the world politically, economically and militarily. Democracy burgeoned in South Korea while dynastic inheritance of power has taken place in the North with extreme abuse of human rights to suppress resistance. In the South, domestic politics that progressed along the Western pattern of a contest between liberals and conservatives have been complicated by the growth of pro-North Korean elements on the far left.

During the early years of the division, “leftists” generally implied pro-communist, pro-North Korean activists. The development of society in the South with many different ideological hues since democratization has cleansed the negative connotations of “leftist” to make it almost identical with “liberal.” Still we hear public statements that link leftists with pro-North Korean activists, oftentimes by conservative figures who want to arouse public antagonism toward the left in general.

The new prosecutor general’s declaration of war against “pro-North Korean leftists” could be targeting the extremists who defy the legal anti-North Korean regime represented by the Constitution and the National Security Law. But such a pronouncement could imply condemnation of the left-wing in general, causing resentment from the political opposition.

Aug. 15th is a legal holiday, but an increasing number of the young population are not aware of its historical meaning, and would therefore find it hard to attach its significance to their lives. Sixty-six years have passed since liberation and 63 years since the forming of the independent government, but Koreans are still suffering all kinds of troubles from the division of the country and separation of its people.

Yet, the anniversary should also serve as the reminder for Koreans of the nation’s dauntless perseverance in the face of adversity. Southerners have toiled through the war and recurring political upheavals to make their country an economic powerhouse among the democracies of the world. The Northerners struggled hard, too, but their failure to reject the Kim family’s nepotism has allowed the communist state to become an international mendicant toting a few useless nuclear bombs.