Dear South Korea:
For a long time, I've been a pretty big fan of yours. I have been a general enthusiast of your food, your popular culture, your history, your modern politics, and (most obviously) your language; I even moved to your capital city and decided to devote the rest of my life to studying you. But I believe that even your biggest supporters and best friends owe you their honesty; why, what kind of best friend would JM be if she didn't tell me when she thought I was screwing up, or wearing a hideous outfit? And that's why I've decided to take off the gloves and tell you how I really feel about what you did today.
A military drill on Yeonpyeong-do, South Korea? Really? A live-fire exercise that you know North Korea was not going to respond kindly to? They only said it about a billion times using their most inflammatory rhetoric, claiming that they were going to deal unpredictable and devastating deadly blows if you went through with it. And even though BBC is reporting now that North Korea will not strike back (OMG DID YOU GUYS REALLY PRAY LIKE I ASKED YOU TO? Because I just heaved an enormous sigh of relief, for reals), I would like to tell you that your actions today indicated to me a degree of irresponsibility that is troubling and disappointing. It was a display of irresponsibility to your people, your military, and your global position as an emerging "superpower." I can't believe I am going to agree with Russia and China, of all nations, but they were right when they urged restraint and diplomacy. And you know, I
Look, I get it. You're in a really tight spot. You had a horrifically weak military response to the initial shelling of Yeonpyeong-do, and all of your citizens made fun of how puny and sad your defense seemed, so you beefed crap up, got a new defense minister, and, in what appears to be an attempt to save face and flex your military muscle, planned all of these big scary military exercises. You don't want to be seen as giving in to an aggressor, or sending North Korea a signal that this kind of behavior is acceptable (which it obviously is not). That's fine, except that the people you are trying to scare do not like these exercises, and moreover, believe that the exercises you held today were taking place in North Korean waters. Therefore, it matters not that you did not aim your missiles at North Korea; no matter where they landed, they still think it was in "territory" controlled by North Korea! And they believe, however wrongly, that this is an attack on their territory (because, as mentioned, THEY THINK IT IS THEIR TERRITORY) and that they should have a right to respond to what they view (again, however wrongly), as military provocation. Which, South Korea, is basically the same thing YOU said in defense of your right to hold the military exercises in the first place.
The United States says these are standard military exercises and has supported your right to defend yourself, despite the North's outrage and consistent threats of bloody retaliation. I hate to say this, SK, but amid all of this, it almost looks as though Russia and China care more about your own citizenry than you and your number 1 ally do (even though we are all well aware that they are only invested in keeping the peace because they don't want to get dragged into a war, not because they are big fans of SNSD or anything and want to make sure that they survive a North Korean military barrage to put on another show). But seriously - how far were you willing to go to prove a point? Would you be willing to risk another shelling of the now-mostly-abandoned Yeonpyeong-do? Maybe a few bombs on another similarly-unpopulated island? A few missiles aimed at your financial district in Seoul? How far, really? Because no matter how far YOU are willing to go, there is really no telling how far North Korea will go, and that, South Korea, should give you more pause than anything. Screw looking like an incapable baby; what, do you really think that nobody knows how powerful your military is? Do you really think that nobody realizes that your military plus America's military would take out all of North Korea in a New York minute if war were to erupt? Is it that necessary to demonstrate it within 7 miles of North Korea's coastline, especially when you really have no foolproof method to predict exactly how North Korea will respond?
I am not a Korean citizen. I do not share in the emotions of this people. 2 of my soldiers were not killed on Yeonpyeong-do; 2 of my fellow citizens were not killed. But 4 of my fellow human beings were killed, and I am saying to you right now, South Korea, that if you want to play with human life like that, putting it at risk all for the sake of showing how big and scary your guns are, then you are no better than North Korea. I am not a politician, nor a military strategist, nor a Korean, nor a professor; I do not know the right answer to the North Korean problem. But mark my words, I know a wrong one when I see it. This was a wrong one. You and your people (or some of them) might have believed in earnest that a military exercise was the strongest way to respond to North Korea, but I think it was a weak one. The strong response is one that respects human life on both sides of the 38th parallel, the one that strives for peace and not war, the one that seeks to deal with this crisis (for it most certainly is one) in a manner that does not threaten the very foundations of global security. You might think that restraint is a sign of weakness, South Korea, but let me say this: restraint does not send a message that you are bowing down to the whim and fancy of Kim Jong Il and Co, but that you bow down to a higher authority and standard, one that places a premium on life and liberty over pride and egotism. The right thing and the hard thing are often one and the same. Swallow your pride, and don't ever, ever do something like this again.
Regards,
Dana
p.s. God bless Bill Richardson.
I completely understand your frustration, and these things take on REAL meaning when you are actually potentially in the line of fire (along with millions of others).
ReplyDeleteFor what it's worth, this is the dance that has been going on since the armistice.
Well written piece with wrong assumptions. Your opinion of North Korea is wrong. History proves that the North has provoked the South even without these drills. You dont have to travel far back in history to get this point. Only recently a south Korean navy ship was sunk by the North (although they deny it) and dozens of people died. The recent shelling killed four people and the provocation continues. Of all this, how many North Koreans died?. You must remember that deterence is in itself a means to peace and you can only do that when your enemy knows your capacity. Now that the North is fully aware of consequences should they make any move, they will play their cards close to th chest.Your analysis is therefore based on short term fear but ignoring the long term benefits of such exercises.
ReplyDeleteTo Anon: Actually, I thought it was pretty obvious that the analysis was based entirely on short-term fear (truthfully, I think that calling it "analysis" overestimates what I was doing, which was venting. But if my venting sounds vaguely intellectual, I guess that is a good thing?). At the time of writing, I was pretty sure I was going to die at any moment, especially because the closest subway station to me is really shallow in comparison with some others and offers no protection whatsoever.
ReplyDeleteI'm quite aware that NK does a lot of crap without provocation; I've talked about the Cheonhan incident before in this blog, although admittedly not in great detail. And as Kelly pointed out in the first comment, there is a long, long history of this sort of stuff going down (although I'm largely and sadly ignorant of details, I must admit). My point here was that the military drills were the equivalent of getting all up in a drunk guy's face at a bar (I won't take credit for that analogy, I read it somewhere but I can't remember where, exactly). It probably won't end well, and if you get away unscathed, your sober self will probably recall that and go, "Yeah, shouldn't have done that."
You raise an interesting point that NK is aware of the consequences now that SK has held drills - do you mean to imply that they weren't before? Because I mean, NK's ordinary denizens might be sucking from the propaganda teet, but I am fairly sure the government knows what goes on outside its borders. It can't NOT have known that SK plus the US plus the Japanese military are badass and have equipment that has been updated since the Soviet Era. It can't have possibly been in the dark that a war with SK would ultimately mean the end of the Kim regime and the reduction of Pyeongyang to a city of rubble and ash.
Well, I'm afraid that response may still be partially motivated by the fact that being here for this madness has scared me to the point where I am simplifying things to grade-school conflict resolution. I tried? But thank you for posting and for furthering discussion on this blog, for there is so little of that (I talk way too much about myself) - and thanks for reminding me that I need to make my way to a bookstore to buy some books on NK. That's been on the to-do list for awhile, and if you're an NK watcher yourself, then I'd appreciate recommendations!
Thanks for reading,
D