[Kim Myong-sik] How can Park solve the Korea conundrum?

Occasionally, I pass by the private mansion of President Park Geun-hye in Samseong-dong, southern Seoul, after attending an early morning service at the Hyundai Presbyterian Church about 300 meters away. A police car that was parked there for some time after her inauguration is no longer there and a lone patrolman stands guard to ward off any possible trespassers from entering the house now empty of its master.

The president will probably return to this red brick single-story house in 

February 2018. (It may be a little too early to be concerned but I sincerely hope that she does not repeat the mistake of her predecessor, who unsuccessfully planned to build a manor in the southern outskirts of Seoul by using an unorthodox method of purchasing the land for it.) To ensure that her return to private life is peaceful and glorious, her remaining three and a half years in office should be, to say the least, different from the preceding year and a half.

Thoughtful men and women of this country lose sleep these days pondering the complex international relations in Northeast Asia. In their dreams, players named Xi, Abe, Obama and Jong-un grapple with each other in a narrow playground, while an elegant lady holding a sign reading “Peace on the Korean Peninsula” looks on helplessly and appealingly.

Since Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to Seoul last week, media commentators and pundits have gone all out to analyze the situation and propose solutions, which are inevitably vague. Many question whether the present administration can be trusted to steer the Republic of Korea out of the choppy waters of international politics. The gender factor is added in the overall negative assessment of the capabilities of a government led by a female president.

Korean voters, 51.6 percent of them, supported Park Geun-hye more in nostalgia for the days of her father’s reign than for her tested competence and leadership. Gen. Park Chung-hee’s 18-year rule ending in 1979 was a time when everything was growing, expanding and in order, with the groans of suppressed political protests kept in the background. For his daughter, the politics of symbolism melted quickly in the face of harsh realities, and the Sewol ferry tragedy alarmed both those who govern and those who are governed.

The disaster exposed flaws and defects in the whole system, from the top administrative echelon down to the bridge of the coastal cruise liner which did not sink in stormy waters but just lost balance while navigating a channel known for its swift currents. The maritime disaster control and rescue system failed to work, with hundreds of passengers kept inside their cabins for hours while the vessel submerged and the whole nation watched on TV.

President Park apologized to the nation and vowed to “repair the state.” Her nominees for prime minister, however, were rejected by public opinion. They withdrew “voluntarily,” but the people, incited by the muckraking media, are collectively expressing no-confidence in whoever is being recommended to them by an appointing authority they do not trust.

Prime Minister Chung Hong-won and Maritime Affairs Minister Lee Joo-young have been retained. Initially rapped severely as representing administrative incompetence, they both are winning sympathetic support from the public, which has recognized sincerity in their unselfish attempts to console the families of the victims and arrange remedial measures. Here, we see the importance of change in how people act rather than replacement of actors as the primary means of controlling public opinion.

Park should change herself, show a version of Park Geun-hye different from that of the daughter of a former president still revered by many, from an aloof leader who relies more on written texts and teleprompters than down-to-earth conversations with either political comrades or foes and the grassroots supporters she meets on occasional visits to markets, from a lonely woman whose life after office hours is hardly known to the people.

If this is innately impossible for her, the Korean electorate should admit it made a mistake. But she can try and the people around her should also try to change themselves. The president’s self-reform process should start with the creation of an effective and efficiently operating Personnel Office in the Blue House, as she promised, now that her reliance on a limited circle of acquaintances and recommendations from close confidants has proved faulty.

Steering the economy of course is the crucial part of her presidential duties. She now has to boldly detach her administration from the slogans left over from the 2012 campaign, such as “creative economy” and “economic democracy.” We have an economic system which somehow runs alright even though several heads of top conglomerates have been incapacitated due to illness or legal proceedings. The role of the government should be to concentrate on cleansing the public sector of the chain of corruption and the tradition of securing executive positions for retired bureaucrats.

Now, her heaviest task is pursuing the national interest amidst the dazzling developments in Northeast Asia, where the Hobbesian game of all against all is being played with the history of past wars, security tensions of the present and ever-close economic ties in the background. Amicable shaking of hands between the heads of states today may be followed by harsh recrimination over territorial issues tomorrow. Shinzo Abe’s eccentricity by now has drawn Seoul and Beijing closer but Washington is watching warily.

A political scientist produced a multiple choice question about South Korea’s future with the following four options: Seoul 1) tries to satisfy the interests of all powers concerned; 2) makes them all dissatisfied with us a little but has them try to keep us on their side; 3) takes side with one single superpower; and 4) moves about aimlessly depending on the change of situation. Then he chose the obvious No. 2.

Under the current environment, flexibility should be the name of the game, particularly in the relations with North Korea. Pyongyang is doing its part, almost insanely, threatening another nuclear test, firing mid-range rockets into the sea and then proposing a letup of hostile activities. It is nothing but a show of desperation but the South needs to handle its initiatives with prudence and flexibility. Six years after the Mount Geumgangsan shooting and four years after the sinking of the Cheonan, the time has come for a change in inter-Korean relations.

President Park needs to know what she should do and how to do it.

By Kim Myong-sik

Kim Myong-sik is a former editorial writer for The Korea Herald. ― Ed.