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.
Clinton threatening war? I never knew he had the cojones. This sounds like a Barry Levinson(Wag the Dog) production.
Well, I guess Roh should do some research or actually read the Mutual Defense Treaty before he opens his mouth. Nevermind, that would get in the way of forwarding his agenda to push the US out and reunite the peninsula under a NK government.
Another possibility is that Roh simply doesn’t expect anyone to take treaty obligations seriously. That would explain why Kim Jong Il’s mendacity doesn’t trouble him. It could be a case of what the experts call “projection.”
I believe that President Roh Moo-Hyun, along with the majority of the Uri Party, are just ‘in way over their collective heads’ on this. It’s apparent that they simply haven’t thought this thing through.
The implications of the diatribes expressed during the knee-jerk anti-American feeding frenzy of December 2002, which swept them into power, are finally being realized.
Even understanding as I do what the consequences of two successive ‘progressive’ administrations would be, I’m still astonished that Seoul has allowed the situation to finally come to this.