[Editorial] State of Emergency

With the execution of the nuclear testing by North Korea yesterday, there arose a nuclear storm in the sky of the Korean peninsula. Thoughtless attempts by the Kim Jong Il group, indifferent to the fate of the nation, drove us into the worst emergency ever since the Korean War. We’re faced with a serious situation where nobody can predict who the risks will evolve in the Korean peninsula.

Denuclearization of the Korean peninsula has lost power now and this land has turned into a nuclear zone. North Korea has gone nuclear with the testing it carried out through its past steps of highly explosive tests and missile launching tests. It is known that North Korea had manufactured five to ten nuclear weapons with the 20-50 kg of weapon grade plutonium extracted so far. What remains is to reduce the size of the weapon and to attach it to the missile. It is likely that North Korea will use it as a means to threaten the whole world.

The nuclear testing by North Korea proves that the pro-NK Sunshine Policy of the government that busied itself covering up for North Korea has failed completely. It is now revealed to the light of the day how the policy chosen out of ignorance about what the North really is and of the fascination of being one nation was unrealistic.

The 6.15 Joint Declaration that promised a peaceful coexistence of South and North Koreas and the six-party talks aimed at encouraging North Korea to give up on nuclear weapons all ended up in vapor. The government set the goal of its security policies as the systemization of the peace in the Korean peninsula this February, but that goal now has no place to be other than the trash bin. We are faced with the danger of being kept as hostages, having been deceived over and over again.

The government held a meeting of the National Security Council presided by President Roh and came up with seven policies in respond to the testing, which are only too insufficient considering the seriousness of the situation. Containing points made at the level of principles such as “unforgiving the possession of nuclear weapons by North Korea” and “close cooperation with the international society,” they fail to reveal how firmly the government is determined to make changes in the future and whether it is willing to amend policies on the North, and also the specific plan of actions. We find ourselves doubt whether the government is not minding the moods of North Korea.

The decision of the government to “support what is discussed immediately by the United Nations Security Council” does not tell clearly whether it plans to support the decisions made by the UN or the discussions carried out. Neither does the government make clear whether the “discussion” regards the peaceful solution of the North Korean nuclear matters or the sanctions. It should have made clear that it is willing to actively participate in the sanctions by the UN.

The UN Security Council, as it has already announced, will adopt strong resolutions against North Korea. The U.S. and Japan seem poised to make economic and military sanctions such as inspections and capture of ships in and out of North Korea and restrictions on trade. Japan built up a team on North Korean nuclear matters in the prime minister`s chamber yesterday and began operating it immediately.

It is without doubt that South Korea will have to take part in putting sanctions against the North when they are realized by the international society. Otherwise South Korean society can be isolated too being counted as the same kind as North Korea. It is essential that we, lacking the capability to protect our own security against the North without the help of the U.S., overcome this danger through close cooperation with the U.S. and by solidifying the Korea-U.S. alliance.

What the government is to do in the first place is to explain to the people of the nation clearly the risks raised by the nuclear testing by the North putting the security matter on the top priority to its affairs. It should analyze in detail what influence this incident will have not only on the South-North relationship and the future of the nation, but also on the power structure in the Korean peninsula, and clarify to the people in a persuasive way the measures that can be taken in each actual situation.

It should reconsider seriously its easy judgment that the matters concerning the nuclear and missile development by the North could be settled through communication and negotiation and revise the policies against North Korea from point zero fundamentally. The Sunshine Policy pursued by the Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun governments for the last eight years and seven months had its role in making the future of the nation be shadowed with the dark nuclear clouds. They tried to transform North Korea by giving endlessly but the North was firm and unaltered, and only the alert of the nation against the North and the recognition of security fell into frigidity.

Devising strong military measures that can keep the lives and the security of the nation has become an urgent matter, since the conventional weapons built up for the past decades with the taxes paid by the Koreans have lost the power to restrain the North now that the North has come to possess nuclear weapons. The promotion for the recovery of the right to direct in a war situation and for the break up of the ROK-U.S. Combined Forces Command should be stopped immediately. They cannot keep on crying for independence when the nation is at such a stake.

In particular, thorough preparations should be made against the possible situations where the North takes any military action by holding South Korea as hostage in order to counteract against the sanctions by the international society. It is also likely that North Korea makes rash attempts in order to test the reaction of South Korea.

It is inevitable that the economic cooperation with North Korea, such as the Gaesong Industrial Complex and the Mt. Geumgang tour, is stopped too. The Roh government has aided more than 3 trillion own to the North since its establishment, but what returned to us is no more than the nuclear and missile threats. The government insists that there is no proof that our aid was misused for military purposes, but whoever can say that for sure?

There also has to be a full-scale upgrade of the international affairs security team that is responsible for the hardship now. The National Intelligence Service reported at the national assembly yesterday, right before the nuclear testing was revealed, that the North did not have any symptoms of such testing. In July, when the North launched the missiles, the government agency had said, “We cannot be sure whether it’s a missile or a satellite.” The people cannot be expected to go to their beds in peace when the national security is in the hands of such officials.

President Roh should be ready to admit that there were problems in his recognition and comments regarding North Korea. He has even made comments covering North Korea, saying, “The argument by the North that the nuclear weapons the missiles are means to protect themselves against outside threats is persuasive to a certain degree.” Concerning the possibility of the nuclear testing, he said, “Talking based on assumptions without firm evidences can make the people nervous and give bad influence to the South-North relations.”

The Koreans should also wake from the vague dreams of national independence and the insensibility to security matters and face the cold and strict reality. The unreal and fantastic logic that the unification can make the nuclear weapons our possession, the logic proposed by some pro-NK left wing groups, should be expelled completely. The South-South conflicts aroused by the matter of the North Korean nuclear weapons should be avoided. That, exactly, is what North Korea aims at.

“The Rose of Sharon Has Bloomed” is at any rate a fictional story, and in reality having a nuclear weapon on the Korean peninsula is a dangerous play that can bring in the extinction of the whole nation. We cannot erase the possibility of repeating the nightmare 100 years ago of letting the world powers intervene in the domestic affairs and having to rely on the external powers to direct our own ways to go.

The only way to change North Korea fundamentally and make it give up on the nuclear weapon is that the government and the nationals, the Republic of Korea and the international society gathers force to make the North fully realize that it made a wrong decision and that the nuclear weapons will not only destroy North Korea but also bring disaster to the whole nation.

For this purpose the fact that the people stay awake is as important as that the government fully reconsiders and revises its policies on North Korea. Being responsible for the future of the Korean nation is the obligation and duty of all Koreans before it is the lot for the limited government. Very much so in order not to be failed ancestors who are reprimanded by the descendants and are questioned what efforts we make to prevent the nationwide disaster.”