The Marmot’s Hole

A lot of bloggers in the Insular Korean Kluster have been down on the Grand National Party lately for what we see as the GNP’s acting like dumb, idiotic authoritarians during the recent Kang Jeong-Koo controversy ( I’d have some more choice descriptions of the GNP for you if Oranckey had not forgotten to pay his blogging bill.).

But I am always happy to report when they do something right. A case in point is the GNP’s plan to ask for the Roh government to vote on the upcoming U.N. resolution on human rights in North Korea:

The Grand National Party said yesterday that it would submit to the National Assembly a resolution urging the administration to take a stand on a North Korean human rights resolution that a United Nations body will take up soon.

The conservative opposition group, unhappy with the administration’s policy of abstaining on past resolutions in the UN Human Rights Commission that condemned human rights abuses in the North, wants that changed early this month. The European Union plans to introduce early this month a resolution on the same subject, but this time to the UN General Assembly. Seoul has abstained in the rights commission ballots for fear of adding an irritant to its relations with Pyongyang.

I would like to think that this is part of long-term term political strategy that I have been hoping the GNP would follow (see ‘dumb’ link above):

The Kang controversy could have even been a launching point for a whole series of flanking moves against Roh on his overly accommodating policies towards the North. They could have called for routing food aid through the World Food Program and insisting on full monitoring of aid distribution; making human rights in North Korea a top issue (especially closing the labor camps for political prisoners); and insisting on greater reciprocity from the North in all their dealings. It is a debate that is long overdue.

I think that not only would such a strategy be morally right, it would also be politically profitable in the long term as Korean voters grow weary of Roh’s unrequited love for Pyongyang. To be successful, they would need to debate those issues forcefully and consistently. If they could convince the public that they were sincere, they might even be able to get a few lawmakers from Our Open Party on board.

But, alas, I fear that this proposal is just being pushed as a way to stick it to Roh for a quick political score. If so, it is too bad because they will be hurting a good cause with such cheap conduct for only a marginal political gain.