Over at Infidelworld, Joseph forces us to use our brains for a moment. You should read his last post in full, but I’ll reprint his conclusion below:
All the more reason that Seoul must tackle its domestic economic problems head on, instead of using North Korea as a convenient safety valve. Dreams of unification soothe many South Koreans, and have justified expenditures by bankrupt corporations, which desperately need to restructure. South Korean infrastructure is aging rapidly, along with the population, and the education sector, both private and public, is creaking. South Koreans might blindly shout nationalistic tunes, but they are voting with their feet and checkbooks. The sheer numbers of those wanting to emigrate, defaulting on credit cards, committing suicide, dying on the roads, and women who refuse to have children reveal a sophisticated, modern, Asian society searching for affluence and expression, when the older generation tainted with corruption preaches sacrifice.
North Korea is a wake-up call for South Koreans. Younger South Koreans might want to protect their northern cousins, but they want to conquer a different world than Mt. Paektu’s fabled heights. As much as they want North Koreans to share the wealth, all is laudable. Seoul needs to finish developing economically and politically before their northern cousins rejoin the family. The lawyers in Washington need to reassure young South Koreans, that the big, nasty world has a place for them. A legally-binding congressional resolution, limited to one year, and optionable for another, is a viable first move, which will also leave open an option to take the North Korean issue to the UN Security Council. Washington needs to ignore the old Korea, the fractious and vexatious northern branch, and encourage the optimistic southern one. A formal treaty acknowledging South Korea’s diplomatic neutrality, and an end to its proxy status, would be a start. Negotiations are no longer needed: action is required.
But, really, Seoul deserves to outgrow its adolescence.
I’m not sure if a formal treaty “acknowledging South Korea’s diplomatic neutrality” is appropriate - South Korea, after all, is an independent country with an independent foreign policy - it should be free to enter into alliances and security arrangements that its leadership feels promote the national interest. But the rest of what Infidel has to say is hard to argue with. Rather than distracting itself with issues related to a “unification” over which Seoul ultimately has little control, South Koreans needs to be taking a hard look at the situation below the 38th - as much as South Korea has managed to achieve the last 50 years, there is still quite a long way to go in making the country all that it can be.
