[Kim Seong-kon] Our precious things can be 'Gone With the Wind'

Today, South Korea is enjoying worldwide popularity thanks to the Korean Wave and its reputation as a country of economic success and democratization, all of which it has accomplished in a relatively short span of time. In addition, South Korea is also a global center of cutting-edge technology, represented by Samsung, LG and Hyundai.

For these reasons, the people of South Korea are now well off and living comfortably in “a fully developed, advanced country.” Therefore, few Koreans suspect that their wealth and prosperity may not last for good. In fact, Koreans are so confident of their bright future that they are surprisingly worry-free and even optimistic about their national security, which is, in fact, extremely precarious.

However, things have changed drastically since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the recent summit meeting between Russia and North Korea.

Now, South Korea has become a vulnerable place, as if it were a Ukraine in Asia, whereas North Korea has become an untouchable sanctuary protected by Russia, as well as China. From now on, North Korea will pay no heed to the protests of South Korea or the US and do whatever it wants to do. To make matters worse, if North Korea wrongfully claimed that the South attacked first, the Russian troops would automatically come to the Korean Peninsula to interfere, according to the mutual defense parley between Russia and North Korea.

Some people blame the Yoon Suk Yeol administration for causing such a situation, which they think is an outcome of South Korea leaning toward the US and Japan. They are wrong. Do they really want South Korea to betray its Free World allies and befriend former communist, authoritarian countries instead? If so, South Korea will be isolated from the international community and labeled as a cowardly country that is flattering those persecuting countries. Besides, experts unanimously pointed out that Putin’s visit to North Korea was inevitable because he desperately needed North Korean weapons.

Others insist that South Korea, too, must have nuclear weapons now, in order to maintain a balance between the North and the South. They assume that if Donald Trump became the next US president, he might allow it when and if South Korea meets his demand of paying more for the US military presence on the Korean Peninsula. They are wrong, though. The US will never allow South Korea to possess nuclear weapons.

Even Trump will not be able to alter that unswaying US policy. Our politicians must secure an irrevocable, rock-solid guarantee that the US will definitely protect South Korea under its nuclear umbrella, on condition that we give up building nuclear weapons. Meanwhile, we should be ready to have nukes whenever necessary, just like Japan.

Under the circumstances, we urgently need forward-thinking, dependable politicians. Unfortunately, however, we find our politicians backward-thinking, unreliable and untrustworthy. To make matters worse, our politicians are busy with ruthless factional scuffles, not realizing that their country is now facing unprecedented crises. In fact, it is time they unite in order to deal with the tsunami of unparalleled crises together. Yet, our politicians are preoccupied with domestic skirmishes, driven by rancor, vindictiveness and hate.

Every day, we are hopelessly watching the opposition party manipulate the National Assembly to cripple the Yoon administration and the ruling party it far outnumbers. We are also dismayed at witnessing the ruling party become irreparably divided by internal conflict. Regrettably, we elected those politicians as our leaders. Recently, a Korean intellectual sent me a poster of a wolf pack leader with the following phrase on it: “The difference between humans and animals? Animals would never allow the dumbest ones to lead the pack.”

If our politicians do not wake up, we may lose everything eventually. Margaret Mitchell’s novel, “Gone With the Wind,” has become controversial these days in association with racism. Apart from that, however, the novel's title is illuminating because it vividly portrays the vanishing American South. At that time, few Southerners thought that they would lose the war with the Northern Yankees they despised as traveling peddlers. The Southerners were proud of their wealth and prosperity based on slavery. They were also optimistic and even arrogant before the war with the North broke out.

However, their naive, romantic dreams were shattered before the harsh reality of losing the war. Now, they realized that everything they had once cherished was gone with the wind forever. From now on, the Northern carpetbaggers would take over the South and exploit the once prosperous Southern economy.

We must learn valuable lessons from Margaret Mitchell’s novel about the vanishing American South. Our wealth, nobility and spectacular accomplishments, too, may be gone with the wind when and if the second Korean War breaks out. Of course, we hope that no such disaster will happen and our glory will last forever, but there is no guarantee at all.

Before the fateful day dwells upon us, we should be prepared.

By Kim Seong-kon

Kim Seong-kon is a professor emeritus of English at Seoul National University and a visiting scholar at Dartmouth College. The views expressed here are the writer’s own. -- Ed.