Korea’s insensitivity to situation as grave as ‘Sputnik crisis’

Korea’s insensitivity to situation as grave as ‘Sputnik crisis’. October. 04, 2016 07:11. by 한기흥기자 eligius@donga.com.

The R-7 rocket blasted off into the air amid massive banging sound at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in the former Soviet Union on Oct. 4, 1957. Five minutes later, the rocket placed on the orbit an aluminum structure with four antennas attached on the body measuring 58 centimeters in diameter and weighing 83.6 kilograms. It was the Sputnik, the world’s first satellite. The U.S. was shocked all the more because a long-range missile demonstrated the Soviet Union’s capacity to strike the mainland U.S. with a nuclear warhead, rather than the satellite itself. Then U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower revealed he was shocked by using the term "Sputnik crisis."

At the time, the U.S. was significantly downplaying the Soviet Union. Even when Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev, head of the Soviet Communist Party, confidently announced that the Soviet Union had an intercontinental ballistic missiles loaded with hydrogen bombs, the U.S. believed that he was bragging. As Washington’s confidence that it surpassed the Soviet Union in military might was proven to be groundless, it established the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and injected an astronomical amount of budgets in science and technology. To focus on basic science, Washington significantly changed its education policy as well. When Neil Armstrong, the captain of the Apollo 11, landed on the moon on July 21, 1969 for the first time in the history of humanity, the U.S. finally overtook the Soviet Union in the race for space development.

In his state of union address on Jan. 25, 2011, U.S. President Barack Obama said, “This is our generation's Sputnik moment.” Pointing out China’s rise, he announced a plan to make massive investment in research and education. Obama singled out as exemplary models education and Internet infrastructure in South Korea. Five years later since then, North Korea is now threatening that it will strike the mainland U.S. with its nuclear weapons.

The crisis South Korea is facing after North Korea launched nuclear tests and fired missiles in succession this year is graver that the Sputnik crisis. It is fair to call the situation is a national crisis, but the ruling and opposition parties have locked horns over the parliamentary motion to dismiss Agriculture, Food, and Rural Affairs Minister Kim Jae-soo. Worse still, some extremist labor unions are on strike. It is confusing to see South Korea’s chronic insensitivity to a crisis or its boldness even in a crisis. History has repeatedly taught us that once a nation compromises national security, it will lose everything.