Korean Job Discussion Forums

[keithinkorea]

This guy really is a retard.

[Cthulhu]

He's a moron.

Further to this, who is he exactly and where does he work? He looks vaguely familiar.

[keithinkorea]

[Alias]

This link works:


http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/nation/200507/kt2005072819072711960.htm

I also believe the correct term is "useful idiot".

[manlyboy]

The power of myth? Could this guy be espousing views he knows to be untrue in order to help unite the masses against an imaginary threat? You know, kind of like what neo-cons do?

[Captain Corea]

Kang is trying to put forth the argument that if the Korean war didn't happen, all would have been well. Basically he goes with the logic that if a nation is left to its own devices, it will naturally develop for the better.

The problem in that though is that the peninsula has not been "left alone" for quite some time. If the US (and that bugger MacArthur) had let the North walk its way through the south, would that have been "natural"?

The North was very early on dictated to by its Soviet big brother. Very few initial actions were carried out without Soviet consent. This really doesn't jive with Kang's theory of self determinative rights making the Korean war just.

If all things were equal AND the Soviets and Americans were both out of the picture (while we're at it, let's take out the Chinese and japanese too), then I would still have to ask... where would the peninsula be today? Would it be like that wonderful world of China or more like Vietnam?

Very few Koreans (south) would trade countries with either.

[Gwangjuboy]

He certainly is a retard of the highest order. I can hardly believe that he is a professor because of his astonishing lack of knowledge with regards to the Korean war. Maybe he hasn't yet had a chance to inspect soviet files that were unsealed after the collapse of communism at the turn of the 90's which prove Stalin gave approval for Kim Il Sung's war plans. He also forgets that the US had withdrawn all of its troops from Korea once the Japanese surrender was secured. But above all else, it is this man's position as a university professor that really shocks me. A man with these extremist (trechorous actually) views should be stripped of his position. Instead, the authorities let him continue working in a position of influence where young naive students who have already studied a highly dubious version of history from elementary school onwards are subject to views completely agreeable with North Korea's propaganda ministry. Bizarre.

[Ya-ta Boy]

Here's what a columnist at the conservative Chosun Ilbo has to say about Professor Kang and his ilk:

We Boost North Korea's Confidence at Our Peril <i>by Kim Dae-joong</i>


The North Korean regime seems to have gained in self-confidence regarding its relations with South Korea. A recent squabble over taking down a statue of General Douglas MacArthur, a hero of the Korean War to some, and a remark by Prof. Kang Jeong-koo of Dongguk University that the Korean War was fought for "unification�� send a signal the National Liberation forces, hibernating since their suppression by South Korea's anti-Communist forces, are emerging above ground. Amid a climate where leftist or pro-North Korean forces in the Roh Moo-hyun administration have boosted aid to the North and increased the frequency of inter-Korean events while promoting the posthumous award of a medal to a leader of the former Korea Communist Party, the NL forces are at last showing their faces above the parapet to ride anti-American sentiment and a mood of inter-Korean cooperation.

A North Korea expert says the NL, pro-Pyongyang forces that infiltrated campuses and academic circles, have concentrated on education and propaganda since the 1980s democratization movement following a time in hiding under the military regimes. Now, he says, they are reasserting themselves on the back of Seoul��s "sunshine policy" and a new mood of nationalism. Recently, too, a retired general involved in a drive for a veterans body to counter the Korean Veterans Association proudly revealed that his father was a member of the South Worker��s Party of Korea, while a protester at a rally against the MacArthur statute reportedly shouted, "Yes, I'm Red. What are you going to do about it?"


Prof. Kang��s remarks are symbolic of that whole climate. The pro-North Korean forces now have nothing to fear if they come straight out. "The next step will be terror against conservative and rightist forces that goes well beyond bullying," a conservative academic predicts.

North Korea��s new-found confidence is being fueled by moves in the United States, which is fed up with the anti-American sentiment in the South, to deal with Pyongyang directly. The U.S. mainstream was shocked when it heard that Koreans, whom they believe they helped in the hour of need, cite America as the greatest threat to Korea's security.

They did not experience the Korean War, and do not want another war even if it is to thwart a nuclear threat. The anti-Bush camp there say it would be more helpful for the resolution of the nuclear dispute and improvement of human rights in the Stalinist country to engage North Korea directly. That atmosphere is being put to the test in the current round of six-party nuclear talks in Beijing, the Washington Post says. An expert on inter-Korean relations said Pyongyang��s goal at the six-party talks is to have the DPRK fully recognized by the U.S. and other countries.

The U.S. has often been disappointed and dismayed by demands from Seoul that America "restrain" itself on North Korea whenever occasions presented themselves, and by Seoul��s attempt to take the credit for the resumption of the six-country talks. Once South Korea's leftist forces position themselves at the top of the country's political establishment, the Seoul-Washington relationship will slacken further and U.S. influence in Northeast Asia will dwindle. Again, that may motivate the U.S. that trying to resolve the nuclear standoff and the human rights issue through a direct negotiation with the North is more effective than going via a recalcitrant South.

If the Kim Jong-il regime goes on the political offensive against Seoul and Washington by cashing in on these favorable developments, it could put all of South Korea, and its traditional and conservatives forces in particular, in a corner. Their position, it must be said, is not helped by revelations of a clandestine bugging operation by the security agencies and resulting tapes revealing the collusion between big business, the media and politicians.
But it is a fantasy that it would contribute to security on the Korean Peninsula and peaceful coexistence if North Korea took advantage of this mood, as the pro-Pyongyang forces would have us believe. We need only to listen to North Korean defector Kim Tae-san, who said the only way for North Korea to survive its structural food and power shortages ��is eventually to get a hold over all of South Korea -- that is Kim Jong-il��s innermost aspiration." That these developments are taking place even as North Korea��s dismal human rights record and its desperate economic plight and food shortages are exposed to the glare of world attention is one the great historic ironies.

[dbee]

I agree with him on one point, a larger nation in general shouldn't step in to 'save' another nation from itself. Don't get involved in other civil wars. I think the stronger side will almost certainly win out eventually, simply because it's more determined and better prepared.

The weaker side will eventually side with the stronger against their erstwhile 'protectors' and start to blame all of their problems on them.

If the koreans wanted communism more than they wanted democracy (which in my estimation they did), then they should have been let to make their own mistakes.

But again, it was a strategic decision made by america, not just for the good of Koreans, but also to stem the worldwide tide of communism and to put a long-term thorn in the side of china. Americans are now reaping the whirlwind of this decision.

[Gwangjuboy]

[dbee]

[Gwangjuboy]

[matthewwoodford]

[keithinkorea]

[Gwangjuboy]