Self-Fulfilling Demagoguery

The background research for Roh Moo Hyun’s national security policy was a “progessive” TV documentary.

The claim: The USFK could strike North Korea and lead the South Korean army into a war without even consulting Roh first:

A ruling-party official quoted Roh as saying at the time, “Could the U.S. carry out a bombing raid on North Korea as it wishes without our knowledge? It is possible. South Korea can’t even claim the status of a sovereign state.

The truth: Article II of the U.S.-Korea Mutual Defense Treaty states:

The Parties will consult together whenever, in the opinion of either of them, the political independence or security of either of the Parties is threatened by external armed attack. Separately and jointly, by self help and mutual aid, the Parties will maintain and develop appropriate means to deter armed attack and will take suitable measures in consultation and agreement to implement this Treaty and to further its purposes.

The result: When Roh dynamites the Combined Forces Command, Article II crumbles with it. Roh’s boob-tube policy-making becomes self-fulfilling. Given the current state of the North Korean threat, that expands the range of last-resort U.S. options at the expense of South Korea having any say in them. Ironically, Roh may have thrown away the ability to do what Kim Young-Sam did in 1994.