Nuclear warheads alone cannot maintain a political system

Nuclear warheads alone cannot maintain a political system. August. 19, 2016 07:16. by 한기흥기자 eligius@donga.com.

Thae Yong-ho, a high-ranking diplomat and minister at the North Korean, defected to South Korea with his wife and children instead of returning to Pyongyang. This is the first time that a North Korean diplomat as high-ranked as Mr. Thae has defected the North since Jang Seung Gil, a former North Korean ambassador to Egypt, who sought asylum in the U.S. in 1997. There are polarizing arguments about the rumor that Mr. Thae and his wife come from the so-called Mt. Baekdu Stem, a lineage of partisan fighters against Japan, but it is undoubtedly clear that they belong in a much-privileged class in the North, given that Thae stayed in London together with his families, which is a rare case for North Korean diplomats.

According to South Korean Ministry of Unification, for his reasons for defection Thae cited his growing disgust with the Kim Jong Un regime, admiration for South Korea’s free, democratic system, and the future of his family. Some analyses hold that Thae’s decision to leave the North has to do with the disappearance of a North Korean official overseeing the Workers’ Party’s funds in Europe, who is believed to have embezzled about 360 million U.S. dollars. All North Korean diplomatic missions are scrambling to catch him, who is most closely privy to the process of financial circulation in Europe designed to build slush funds and get luxury items for North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. Against this backdrop, it is possible that Thae had a grave fear about going back to Pyongyang.

In her speech to mark the Liberation Day of Korea, President Park Geun-hye sent a message for North Korean officials, promising them that Korean reunification will present a new opportunity to enjoy equal treatment without any type of discrimination or unfairness and to unleash one’s potential to the fullest while pursuing happiness. It is a new approach towards North Korea designed appeal to the elite groups who still have conscience and a sense of humanity among those who have upheld the North’s anti-humanitarian and totalitarian regime, while conciliating them to join the effort for unification or at least not to put their lives on the line to keep afloat the brittle regime.

Of course, Thae’s defection would not immediately prompt the collapse of Kim Jong Un’s empire, but should the level of frustration reach the critical point, not only high-ranking officials in North Korea but North Korean workers stationed in foreign countries may choose to defect the North as evidenced in the case of the mass defection of North Korean waitresses who worked at a state-run restaurant in China. History tells us that no amount of sophistication of nuclear missiles or suppression can contain public anger once it explodes. It is worth noting that the Soviet Union did not fall apart for the absence of a nuclear weapon.

On Wednesday, the North confirmed that it restarted plutonium production at its Yongbyon nuclear reactor facility, whose operation was resumed in 2013. It further claimed to have produced highly enriched uranium for nuclear weapons, heralding a fifth nuclear test. Under the circumstances, opposing the deployment of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system in South Korea is nothing short of giving up our national defense altogether. The government must stay exceptionally vigilant against the widening political chasms and ever-growing nuclear threat from the North and strength its defense posture accordingly.