By THE FLYING YANGBAN
Marmot???s Hole Guest Blogger
In January of 1950 Kim Il-sung requested permission from Soviet Premier Joe Stalin to attack South Korea. Uncle Joe gave his blessing providing that Kim also recieved the approval of Mao Zedong, which Kim got during a secret visit to Beijing on May 13. Six weeks later North Korean tanks rolled across the 38th parallel.
Kim’s rise to power also required Soviet help. In January of 1946 Soviet authorities arrested the first leader of North Korea, Cho Man-sik (who advocated quick Korean independence and unification) and replaced him with a more compliant Kim . Kim refused to allow Koreans north of the 38th parallel to participate in nationwide elections in the summer of 1948 and instead concentrated on an unsuccessful partisan campaign to overthrow the Seoul government. Kim also undercut efforts by communist leader Pak Hon-yong to create a unified Korean government.
In short, Kim Il-sung placed his quest for power ahead of Korean unification and started a war which sealed the nation’s division with the blood of millions of Koreans.
Most of this information is well known, so why am I mentioning it again here?
I just want to remind you what kind of man some politicians are talking about honoring:
Sphere: Related ContentThe Uri Party welcomed the North Korean visit (to Seoul??s National Cemetery) and guardedly brought up the issue of the Kim Il-sung tomb, saying future South Korean visitors could pay their respects at the Kumsusan Memorial Palace. The first opportunity would come when a South Korean delegation attend inter-Korean ministerial-level talks at Mt. Baekdu on Sept. 13. Uri Party standing committee member Chang Young-dal said, “We don’t necessarily have to mourn Kim Il-sung, but it’s natural to pay respects at a symbolic place in North Korea.?? But the party??s spokesman Chun Byung-hun said, “It’s not yet the time to discuss the ??? question, and it’s an issue that needs to be carefully judged….”
The Democratic Labor Party said the North Korean visit was a ???turning point?? in relations and Seoul should look into sending a delegation to mourn the passing of Kim Il-sung. The Millennium Democratic Party agreed it was a turning point but said the question of paying respect to Kim Il-sung was a separate issue.
26 Comments
Mourn for this man? Hell, we all should be celebrating the mass murderer’s death. The South Korean government and the media sounds and looks more and more like the North Koreans. No wonder why the South Korean youth hold the views that they hold. It all begins from the top, then filters down to the bottom!
I’m not sure my scorn would really have gotten raised too much if there were not another shoe to drop.
Uri party all the way to President Roh has also been pushing hard to make rewriting Korean history a state function. One of the first things they started saying on getting power is how “the light of truth” has to be thrown on the colonial collaborators and the terrbile crimes of past regimes.
That is what makes me really upset about these people.
Not only do they want to erase from memory and recognition what is currently the extremely horrible reality of North Korea, much worse than SK under Park Chung Hee, and erase recognition of the true nature of North Korea under the Kim family, while burying the negative on North Korea, they also want to go find the worst in South Korean history.
I usually don’t feel this way, but when stopping to think about it to type this out —- you almost get the sense Kim Jong Il is calling the shots.
When it comes to viewing history and current realilities, what would we realistically expect operatives put in place by Kim Jong Il to say and do?
Would they really be a whole lot different from these guys we see today???
I would use a visit to Kumsusan Memorial Palace to verify for future generations that there is a stake through KIS’s heart — and have one ready to bury in that bastard’s chest.
In the best of all possible worlds, President Bush would descend from the clouds into the ROK on Air Force One, landing totally by surprise.
He would make a lightning-fast visit by motorcade to the Gen MacArthur statue, and then immediately depart again, back to the airport and lifting off into the clouds.
His visit would be timed to coincide exactly with that of the projected visit by ROK politicians to the Kim Il Sung shrine. Just a little demonstration by the Americans of how “not kowtowing” is actually done.
Sigh. I know it will never happen but it’s fun to think about, especially as it would help to end the bad aftertaste that still lingers from the Madeleine Albright visit to North Korea.
Did the previous ROK president visit the shrine when he went to North Korea in 2000? If so then I guess a second visit is no big deal.
For goodness sake, just sign a peace treaty ROK so we can leave. Then you can pay as much obeisance to the statues of your fellow Korean “politician” as you can stomach.
What is the deal?
President Ronald Reagan visited Bitburg cemetery (site of Nazi SS graves) in former West Germany in 1985.
Don??t get me wrong, I admire Regan and believe he and Thatcher together tag-teamed the red menace into collapse. It is just that in politics many a time people shake hands with the devil or do things that are quite repulsive to obtain a greater good.
I don??t really think ??honoring?? Kim Il Sung is the right thing for any S. Korean to do, but I make this post just to stir things up a bit.
“In short, Kim Il-sung placed his quest for power ahead of Korean ________”.
Substitute the name of nearly any Korean politician or group for KJL and fill in the blank as you will.
Korea is a zero sum game in which the only relevant skill is an aptitude for intrigue in the service of one’s immediate self interest, narrowly construed.
South Koreans to honor Kim Il-sung?
South Koreas ruling Uri Party mulls kinda sorta paying respects at the grave of North Korean dictator Kim Il-Sung. Following a trip by a delegation from North Korea to South Koreas national cemetary,
The Uri Party welcomed the North Ko…
That KJL should have been KIS/KJI.
I have to agree with Sperwer-I cannot think of any Korean politician that has done anything but put their own interests far in front of those of the nation. Whether or not they visit the place is of less importance than how they treat the situation. If they pretend that KIS was just a misguided individual rather than the monster he was, they are selling out. I think they can visit and then mention how the peninsula seems to be headed more in the direction of reconnciliation than it has ever been and perhaps lament the fact that KIS’s led invasion of the South has played a detrimental role in the unification of the Korean people. What of Park Chunng Hee though? There are PLENTY of people in South Korea that think the man should be made a saint when in reality he was more bad news for the country-his only saving grace was that despite his policies, the country experienced sustained economic growth-is he really worth holding up as an example of a good leader? I would argue no.
Good one, iwshim, I wondered yesterday if someone would bring that up.
(Below subject to fact check, I’m going from memory, I think I read about it in Newsweek or Time back then, no internet then. But one could check the appropriate issue to verify — btw I think it was 1986, not 1985).
The idea for a cemetary visit started out of historical ignorance by Reagan’s political advisors, who were looking for events to promote German-American solidarity during a upcoming Reagan visit to the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG). Some of them evidently figured there must be a cemetary in Germany where US and German soldiers from WWII were buried together, so they passed that “raw” idea onto the German prime minister’s political advisors (Helmut Kohl was PM) and asked them to come up with an appropriate cemetary for a memorial visit.
This idea was one of the most profoundly historically ignorant ones ever. A typical case of American short-term historical memory. No Allied power during and immediately following WWII would have allowed its dead soldiers to be interred in the same cemetary with German WWII dead.
(The idea might have worked if there had been a cemetary where some American soldiers from the postwar NATO era were interred with German Bundewehr soldiers (FRG Army). Say from a training accident. But “in-country” interment of an American soldier killed in the FRG would be extremely rare; normally the body is sent to a hometown, or a US national cemetary (such as Arlington) for burial).
The political advisors were undoubtedly thinking of the WWII American graveyards in France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Italy, UK, etc. All of these were of course “Allied” countries from WWII. (When Italy surrendered in 1943 it switched sides).
The Germans came up with what they thought was just merely a Wehrmacht (regular WWII German Army) cemetary; they thought this would be politically acceptable. They knew that an SS cemetary would be unacceptable. And they locked in the schedule and the Americans accepted.
However, then it turned out that there were 7 or 8 graves in one row at Bitburg that were Waffen SS soldiers, mixed in with the regular Army. I think some reporter actually went there when the visit schedule was announced and found these SS graves. Then of course he published the story, which was a surprise to all the politicos.
There was pressure to cancel from US veterans organizations. However the Germans had the itinerary set and announced, and Kohl didn’t want to embarrass himself by making a change in front of his whole country under pressure from the Americans (sound familiar anyone?)
Reagan called ex-President Nixon for his private advice — Nixon told him to go ahead, as it would be better to take the heat for a while than upset the Germans who would have been deeply offended at that point.
The political environment at the time was still heated following the US Pershing/cruise missile deployment by the US in Europe in response to the Soviet SS-20s. IE the famous “nuclear freeze” controvery, another parallel with the current Korean situation.
So — they did the visit. I think they set a record for speed, Reagan laid a wreath jointly with Kohl and then got out in a hurry. The memory still rankles with me, but like I said, the vast majority of Americans have a pretty short-term memory, it’s only wonks like me who still remember it.
But I don’t think the two situations are really comparable, do you? After all there’s no ambiguity ahead of time about who is actually buried in the KIS mausoleum.
Thanks for the interesting history on Reagan’s visit to Bitburg. Reagan himself mentioned that it was a screw-up, though he didn’t put it quite that way.
Let them visit. The ruling party will pay for it at election time. They have offended millions in Korea with dead loved ones.
…As long as the opposition can put up a single, decent candidate. And there must be nothing unelectable about him or her: no bribery scandal, no exemption of sons from military service, etc. The 2007 election may be the last, best chance to steer the country back on course.
If you can read Korean, try this rebuttal to Prof. Kang JeongKu’s ridiculous claim that Gen. MacArthur stopped two Koreas from being united.
http://www.chosun.com/national.....60188.html
The author, a KoreanAmerican writer, makes it clear that Korean War was orchestrated by the Asian axis of evil, China, Russia and North Korea.
This war is still going on. If only Japan can behave, South Koreans will see the clear picture and join on the side of Japan-U.S. ally.
However, Japan is stupid. Shinto shrine worship? Revisionary textbooks? It is begging to make more enemies. Eventually, another round of nuclear bombs will fall on its soil.
I like to tell Koizumi, Wake up and smell the coffee.
I left out Dokto grabbing.
The Japanese are still stuck at 1940s. Their glory years.
Curious,
I agree with you; the 2007 presidential election will be a watershed for South Korea. I’d bet my money on the GNP candidate if they can field a single candidate (which would have been the case in both 1997 and 2002 as well–though on the same token, the opposition would have beaten Roh in 1987 as well if YS DJ didn’t split), but if the GNP screws up again, the U.S. may really “lose” South Korea.
Why did the North Koreans visit a South Korean cemetary dedicated to Korean War dead when the idea was to commemorate Korea’s liberation from Japan?
Well, I guess it is better than nothing, given that General MacArthur’s statue was off limits and a Yasukuni Shrine visit would have been difficult to explain to Korea’s freedom-fighter-indoctrinated youth.
Does anybody else’s IQ feel like it’s dropped 50 points after reading baduk’s posts, or is everyone just too polite to say so?
Ray, Baduk is entertaining and sometimes he tells the truth that some of the more circumspect among us wish we had the intestinal fortitude to say in our name!
By the way, I just noticed that Mr. Jackson (Flying Yangban) guest Blogged this entry. Is Marmot going to MA every good ex-pat Korean Bloggers out there?
Ray, if you got something to say about what I wrote, say it. Don’t hide behind the crowd that you imagine.
True Americans have a name for someone like you.
“By the way, I just noticed that Mr. Jackson (Flying Yangban) guest Blogged this entry. Is Marmot going to MA every good ex-pat Korean Bloggers out there?”
Behold the subtle rise of the Marmot Empire!
Like an old-style press baron. Today, one little blog. Tomorrow, a massive Internet portal in 120 different languages.
Japan, learn from Germany.
Germans f***ed France fifty years ago. But, they made sincere apologies and educated their young people about how wrong they behaved. Now German-France(EU) alliance is strong. It is not only the French. Even the Iraelis invited the Germans for WWII memorial. But,they conspicuously left out the Japanese.
Why?
Because Japan still has not made sincere apologies. Some Japanese politicians still insist that Japan did nothing wrong. Japanese young people know nothing about war crimes their fathers have committed. How can Koreans trust these liars?
Japan, you need to change. Please learn from Germany!
“Ray, if you got something to say about what I wrote, say it. Don??t hide behind the crowd that you imagine.”
I just did
“True Americans have a name for someone like you.”
Couldn’t care less if some ultra-conservative thinks I’m an “untrue” American.
I dont feel like arguing over the whole post-Japan/WWII issue again. It has been done over and over and over. I know where I stand on this…but your posts just hurt my head.
This story from Thursday’s English Chosun:
http://english.chosun.com/w21d.....80020.html
Leaders of various conservative groups were tailed by police during the NK delegation’s visit to SK. Funny, I don’t recall reading that the student groups and trade unions received similar treatment….
Plus ?a change, plus le m??me chose…it’s a reversal (of a “kinder, gentler” variety) of how things were up to 15-20 years ago.