Yes, that’s Prof. Song Du-yul with late North Korean leader Kim Il-sung, taken in 1991. And yes, Song admitted to joining the Korean Worker’s Party in 1973 - which puts him in rather good company with Martin Heidegger as philosophers who have made REALLY shitty political decisions. Look, I’m not going to bust the guy’s chops too badly on this - although I must say that as a “pro-democracy activist,” I find it a bit strange that he joined a clearly Stalinist party and I’m sure he would have refused reentry into South Korea (even for a visit) if that meant having to sign membership papers to Park Chung-hee’s Democratic Republican Party. But hey, these philosophy guys can be a strange sort (no offense, Adam of Brainysmurf), and besides, the guy’s a German citizen, so I’m not quite sure what the fuck the NIS (which is led by a man I far from trust, too) is doing questioning him. If The Man doesn’t want Song in Korea, they should just let his visa run out and put his ass on the next plane to Germany. Or better yet, just ignore the guy.
BTW, for the Korean literate, there’s a piece discussing some of Song’s ideas in today’s OhMyNews. For those who can’t read Korean, let me digest the piece first (philosophy is pretty heady stuff in any language) and I’ll comment (fisk?) on it later.
One Comment
the nis is questioning him because no matter what nationality he currently holds he is still considered a korean national by them and 75 million other koreans. nationality is determined by your dna, not passports.