Posted on 07/03/2003 11:18:05 AM PDT by NativeNewYorker
SEOUL, South Korea - To the Pentagon, North Korea and its
developing nuclear weapons program represent an unacceptable threat.
Not so to South Korean Kim Tai-joon, who lives within range of at
least 10,000 North Korean artillery emplacements ready to rain
destruction down on his home city of Seoul.
''I think it's an exaggerated bluff,'' the 28-year-old said.
''North Korea is the world's most isolated nation. It is not the
threat the United States has made it out to be. They've demonized the
north.''
This is not an uncommon attitude among South Koreans Kim's age, who
know the Korean War only as a handed-down story or an abstract history
lesson.
Multiple surveys show many young South Koreans now view the United
States more negatively than North Korea, a situation inconceivable a
decade ago.
These generations raised after the Korean War ended in 1953 now
make up 80 percent of the population in the south. They have grown
resentful of American influence, which they claim has become a major
impediment to the reunification of the Korean peninsula.
Differences between South Korea and the United States threaten to
weaken ties between the two Cold War allies and vastly complicate the
North Korean nuclear situation, at least from the Bush
administration's point of view.
Forces and events
The changes in attitude among South Koreans have been shaped by a
mix of geopolitical forces and emotionally charged local events.
Bush's hawkish view of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il's regime and
its drive for nuclear weapons has caused deep divisions between the
pro-unification factions and the older Korean conservatives who
remember the invading forces from the north.
Equally important has been the behavior of U.S. forces in South
Korea.
After a U.S. Army vehicle crushed and killed two young South Korean
schoolgirls in June 2002 and U.S. authorities acquitted the soldiers
involved, anti-American sentiment erupted.
This was especially evident among younger Koreans, who took to the
streets in violent demonstrations.
''Even among the very young middle school students you had a very
dangerous reaction,'' said 30-year-old Kwang Lee.
Kim's regime took advantage of the unrest to wage a propaganda
campaign against the United States and older conservative South
Koreans in hopes of splitting South Korea and weakening the resolve
against him.
It worked to the extent that South Korean-American relations became
a central theme in the presidential elections late last year,
prompting eventual winner Roh Moo-hyun to adopt a strident
anti-American campaign to win support among younger voters.
President Roh has since tried to mend fences with Washington, but
that ignited a series of sometimes violent student demonstrations late
last spring near the U.S. Embassy.
''There are pockets of the young generation that look favorably at
North Korea and Kim Jong Il because they see him as a rebel who does
as he pleases, and they don't like what they hear coming from
Washington about him,'' said Park Chan-bong, South Korea's deputy
assistant minister for unification.
Dreams of reunification
For those who want reunification, the reality is not terribly
encouraging.
South Korea's Unification Ministry is working toward a peaceful
resolution of the international standoff over North Korea's nuclear
aspirations, the normalization of relations between the north and
south and the development of a ''future-oriented'' U.S.-Korea
relationship.
But so far, there has been virtually no movement on any of those
fronts.
The United States, South Korea, China, Russia and North Korea can't
even agree on a format for nuclear talks, let alone a process for
scaling down the tension.
And even if Kim can be persuaded to give up his nuclear plans and
open the north, daunting obstacles to unification remain.
North Korea still runs on its Cold War-era ''military first''
economy, where vast amounts of the scarce natural resources are
siphoned off to support Kim's million-man army and regime. About 30
percent or more of the nation's output goes straight to the army,
according to military intelligence estimates.
What the crippled economy can't supply, Kim's regime has sought to
make from drug running, counterfeit currency and weapons. In April,
Australian authorities seized $48 million in heroin from a North
Korean freighter. Earlier, a ship bound for Yemen was found to be
loaded with North Korean-made scud missiles.
In Washington, this raises the question: Would Kim sell nuclear
technology to keep his cash-strapped regime afloat?
This apparently concerns the Bush administration more than it does
many young Koreans.
They have lived with a developing nuclear threat from the north for
a decade, and many are convinced that the United States has
exaggerated it to push forward an aggressive foreign policy in a
region now looking to take a larger role in handling its own affairs.
''We want an equal relationship with the United States,'' said
28-year-old John Junf. ''Not a top-down master situation like we have
now.''
Some set-up, eh?
Meantime young North Koreans literally starve to death by the millions under Kim Jung Il and pray for a U.S. intervention and a U.S. presence. I'd dearly love to give those ignoramuses in the South their wish and pull out.
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