KENOSHA, December 05 (AJP) - North Korea’s contribution of combat troops to aid Russia in Ukraine has drawn global attention and headlines, but is only one component of ongoing ominous moves. At the start of this year, Pyongyang fired artillery barrages near a maritime buffer zone.
On the west coast, Pyongyang wants to move the maritime border south. Roads and railroads linking North and South have been shut down. The North is jamming GPS signals in the South.
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol has declared martial law, but Parliament’s unanimously rejected this. Yoon has backed down.
Context becomes especially important.
In January 2022, the regime conducted four ballistic tests. Other tests have followed.
North Korea has possessed at least rudimentary nuclear weapons since 2006. Pyongyang threatens to use them against South Korea, Japan and even the United States.
In September 2021, Pyongyang announced successful launch of a cruise missile, an insidious weapon, flying low and difficult to detect with radar. An early version, the V-1 rocket of Nazi Germany, killed many people, overwhelmingly civilians, in Britain during World War II.
President Donald Trump gave priority to trying to improve relations There were several meetings with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un but they failed.
Meanwhile, South Korea continues on a positive course of exceptional economic growth and development, combined with now firmly established representative democracy.
As recently as the early 1960s, South Korea was one of the poorest economies in the world. Still a peasant society, the entire Korean peninsula was devastated by the Korean War of 1950-53. Yet today, the Republic of Korea ranks among the strongest economies in the world, holding leadership roles in the automobile, advanced electronics, shipbuilding and other industries.
Rapid industrialization and economic modernization have been complemented by striking transition from dictatorship to democracy. President and General Park Chung-hee stifled incipient democracy and imposed extremely harsh military authoritarianism for nearly two decades.
Park was assassinated in 1979 by the head of the KCIA, the national intelligence agency. In Korean memory, he remains a respected symbol of strength and effectiveness for many.
General Park was succeeded by two more generals, Chun Doo Hwan and Roe Tae Woo, but growing pressure for true democratic representation proved insurmountable.
Capping the democratic transition was the election of Kim Dae-jung as president in 1998. He completed his five-year term without interruption, and in 2000 received the Nobel Peace Prize.
A public symbol of opposition to Park dictatorship, he was imprisoned for several years. On another occasion, KCIA agents kidnapped him. Only the intervention of senior U.S. CIA official Don Gregg saved his life.
South Korea’s remarkable domestic accomplishments have unfolded while the country becomes increasingly influential in global arenas. In 2012, the Obama administration shrewdly nominated President Jim Yong Kim of Dartmouth College, who was born in Seoul Korea, as President of the World Bank.
The vision of the United Nations combines favoring very powerful nations and inclusive global representation. Kim and former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon personify South Korea’s significant role as a bridge between developed and developing nations.
In July, President Biden met at Camp David with the leaders of Japan and South Korea to expand trilateral cooperation.
Market economies and representative governments now characterize a steadily increasing share of the world’s developing nations. In short, South Korea is positioned to lead developing nations toward prosperity.
Scare stories about actions of the North overshadow the good news regarding the South. This is most unfortunate.
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This article was contributed by Arthur I. Cyr, author of "After the Cold War -- American Foreign Policy, Europe and Asia" (NYU Press and Palgrave/Macmillan). He has taught at the Universities of Chicago and Illinois, Northwestern University, and Carthage College (Clausen Distinguished Professor).
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Park Sae-jin
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