Cheonan Incident and the Local Election NKVIsion ( 2010. 06 )
(summary)
by Han Ki Hong, President of NKnet and the Daily NK

Sinking of the ROKS Cheonan proved failure of ten-year long pacifist policy since the inter-Korean summit in 2000. This also includes Lee Myung Bak administration’s so called ‘Denuclearization/Opening 3000’ policy. North Korea did not change its approach to South Korea regardless of the South’s goodwill.

Of course, we have argued that pacifist policy cannot bring favorable change from North Korea. This is because the nature of Kim Jong Il regime is repressive based on fear and lie.

The condition of engagement is that North Korean regime can reform itself and cause soft-landing, so that South Korea will not suffer much from the North. If there has not been expected outcome, it is time to seek alternative. Policy cannot be a dogma.

In other words, North Korea committed crime of attacking South Korean warship, conducting nuclear and missile tests despite outside aid. Inside the country, in spite of mass starvation and subsequent expansion of market, they destroyed the market by last year’s currency reevaluation.

While South Korean government’s reaction was appropriate, the result of June 2 local election was disappointed. The election shows both vitality of South Korea’s democracy and also the weakness (lack of social consensus over how to maintain our state) of it. How can one explain that 30% of people cannot trust the result of international investigation of the Cheonan Sinking?

Kim Jong Il might have been relieved after the election outcome. At the election, those who relied on propaganda of ‘war or peace’ won. Even the government accepted some mistakes while handling the incident. However, we cannot find excuse from internal condition. We need to unify the opinion over how to react to North Korea’s terrorist attack. Also, we need a strategy to manage the inter-Korea relations and to change North Korea.