We May Have Forgotten; North Korea Hasn't
By Thomas P. Kim
Thomas P. Kim is a professor of politics and international relations at Scripps College, Claremont, Calif.
July 23, 2003
The Bush administration is debating the possibility of a "surgical strike" on North Korea. This notion is fundamentally shortsighted. To resolve the current military crisis over North Korea, policy-makers need to grasp the legacy of the Korean War to North Koreans. American interests will only be served by a peace treaty that formally ends that war.
To understand the current military stand-off between the United States and North Korea, one has to return to the only time Americans and North Koreans truly came into contact with each other. This Sunday marks the 50th anniversary of the armistice that suspended armed hostilities after three years of bloody war. An armistice is an agreement to cease open conflict. It is not a peace treaty.
In the American imagination the 1950-53 Korean War has been over for five decades, overshadowed by World War II and eclipsed in national trauma by the Vietnam War. No powerful collective memory of Korea binds Americans together as does the "good war" of World War II, or splits the nation's soul as does Vietnam.
Most Americans will be surprised to learn that the Korean War never ended, and that fresh U.S. troops are sent to South Korea every year. They conduct full-scale combat drills, stare down North Korean soldiers at the Demilitarized Zone that divides North and South, and war-game for every possible scenario including the use of American nuclear weapons. In the absence of daily fighting, few recognize that the 37,000 American troops in South Korea are not peacekeepers, since there is no peace to be kept.
On the other hand, North Koreans know full well that the war, known to them as the Fatherland Liberation War, never ended. Not only do they learn it in their schools, they know it in their bones. While the Korean War is a distant memory for the vast majority of Americans, it continues to influence every aspect of life in North Korea today, and binds North Koreans together like nothing else.
What North Koreans today know is that American bombs leveled everything in the North, and that every single North Korean lost family members and friends. The impression of U.S. military might during the war has always been their single dominant and undiluted image of the United States.
Western scholars agree that the North invaded the South, but North Koreans believe that the United States instigated war. Americans who understand Pearl Harbor's enduring power to stir the American psyche can imagine how alive is the national memory of war's violence when an entire nation goes up in flames. The Korean War is a living memory that drives the attitude of the average North Korean.
This is why those arguing for a "surgical strike" on North Korea's leader, Kim Jong-il, need a history lesson. For better or worse, Americans historically come together as a nation in a time of war and rally around their leader. For better or worse, North Koreans do the same, only their war has been going on for over 53 years.
During the hot phase of the war, U.S. bombs did not distinguish between those who supported the North Korean government and those who did not, but by the time bombs were done dropping only the former were left. Kim may be the current political beneficiary of the legacy of the war, but suggesting that he has brainwashed his people against the United States denies the lived history of more than 22 million people in the North. Although he may appear hopelessly illegitimate to American voters, like it or not, Kim represents more than anyone else the collective will of the North Korean people.
A narrowly targeted attack on the North Korean leader will be seen as an attack on the North Korean people, and inevitably lead to popular support for military retaliation against the United States. Any policy-maker who believes that the average North Korean will welcome U.S. occupation of North Korea is blind to the historical record. North Korea will make Iraq look tame by comparison.
Leading Democrats have scored political points with their criticism of the Bush administration's handling of North Korea, but they ignore that the United States was just as close to war in 1994 under the Clinton administration. Although the actors and administrations have changed, the same historical conditions applied then as now.
In the final calculus, only a peace treaty that changes the status quo will guarantee the prevention of nuclear proliferation and secure the conditions for trade. Britain, Italy, China and Australia are among the many nations, along with the European Union, that have established diplomatic relations with North Korea. Washington should pursue diplomacy as well - 50 years of war is long enough.
Copyright © 2003, Newsday, Inc.
By Thomas P. Kim
Thomas P. Kim is a professor of politics and international relations at Scripps College, Claremont, Calif.
July 23, 2003
The Bush administration is debating the possibility of a "surgical strike" on North Korea. This notion is fundamentally shortsighted. To resolve the current military crisis over North Korea, policy-makers need to grasp the legacy of the Korean War to North Koreans. American interests will only be served by a peace treaty that formally ends that war.
To understand the current military stand-off between the United States and North Korea, one has to return to the only time Americans and North Koreans truly came into contact with each other. This Sunday marks the 50th anniversary of the armistice that suspended armed hostilities after three years of bloody war. An armistice is an agreement to cease open conflict. It is not a peace treaty.
In the American imagination the 1950-53 Korean War has been over for five decades, overshadowed by World War II and eclipsed in national trauma by the Vietnam War. No powerful collective memory of Korea binds Americans together as does the "good war" of World War II, or splits the nation's soul as does Vietnam.
Most Americans will be surprised to learn that the Korean War never ended, and that fresh U.S. troops are sent to South Korea every year. They conduct full-scale combat drills, stare down North Korean soldiers at the Demilitarized Zone that divides North and South, and war-game for every possible scenario including the use of American nuclear weapons. In the absence of daily fighting, few recognize that the 37,000 American troops in South Korea are not peacekeepers, since there is no peace to be kept.
On the other hand, North Koreans know full well that the war, known to them as the Fatherland Liberation War, never ended. Not only do they learn it in their schools, they know it in their bones. While the Korean War is a distant memory for the vast majority of Americans, it continues to influence every aspect of life in North Korea today, and binds North Koreans together like nothing else.
What North Koreans today know is that American bombs leveled everything in the North, and that every single North Korean lost family members and friends. The impression of U.S. military might during the war has always been their single dominant and undiluted image of the United States.
Western scholars agree that the North invaded the South, but North Koreans believe that the United States instigated war. Americans who understand Pearl Harbor's enduring power to stir the American psyche can imagine how alive is the national memory of war's violence when an entire nation goes up in flames. The Korean War is a living memory that drives the attitude of the average North Korean.
This is why those arguing for a "surgical strike" on North Korea's leader, Kim Jong-il, need a history lesson. For better or worse, Americans historically come together as a nation in a time of war and rally around their leader. For better or worse, North Koreans do the same, only their war has been going on for over 53 years.
During the hot phase of the war, U.S. bombs did not distinguish between those who supported the North Korean government and those who did not, but by the time bombs were done dropping only the former were left. Kim may be the current political beneficiary of the legacy of the war, but suggesting that he has brainwashed his people against the United States denies the lived history of more than 22 million people in the North. Although he may appear hopelessly illegitimate to American voters, like it or not, Kim represents more than anyone else the collective will of the North Korean people.
A narrowly targeted attack on the North Korean leader will be seen as an attack on the North Korean people, and inevitably lead to popular support for military retaliation against the United States. Any policy-maker who believes that the average North Korean will welcome U.S. occupation of North Korea is blind to the historical record. North Korea will make Iraq look tame by comparison.
Leading Democrats have scored political points with their criticism of the Bush administration's handling of North Korea, but they ignore that the United States was just as close to war in 1994 under the Clinton administration. Although the actors and administrations have changed, the same historical conditions applied then as now.
In the final calculus, only a peace treaty that changes the status quo will guarantee the prevention of nuclear proliferation and secure the conditions for trade. Britain, Italy, China and Australia are among the many nations, along with the European Union, that have established diplomatic relations with North Korea. Washington should pursue diplomacy as well - 50 years of war is long enough.
Copyright © 2003, Newsday, Inc.