You’ve got to hand it to People’s Commissar for Sociology ™ Kang Jeong-koo — he never disappoints. This time, during a lecture on the division of Korea at Korea University sponsored and attended by the Democratic Labor Party student association of Korea University, the Dongguk University professor likened the Taliban to the Korean Provisional Government of Shanghai, saying, “If the Taliban are terrorists, doesn’t that make the Korean Provisional Government in Shanghai a terrorist group?” [JoongAng Ilbo, Korean]
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3 Comments
Kang Jeong-gu does have a point. The Korean Provisional Government WAS a terrorist group engaging in separatist activities. One man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter. He misses one fundamental difference however. Taliban are Islamic extremists, and the Korean Provisional Government was an organization based on the principles of democracy and liberalism that eventually led to the current state of South Korea.
The Korean Provisional Government was not a terrorist group in and of itself, but it certainly harbored a few terrorists, including Kim Ku - which perhaps is a distinction not worth making in practical terms.
Two very important differences. 1) The KPG wasn’t a religiously motivated or inspired organization and 2) They didn’t make the mistake of getting mixed up with a group as notorious as Al-Qaeda.