'Axis of Evil' speech draws fire from Koreans
By Deirdre Griswold
New York
President George W. Bush seems intent on learning history
the hard way.
When he compared Iran, Iraq and North Korea to Germany,
Japan and Italy in his now-infamous "Axis of Evil" speech, he
evidently overlooked the fact that the Korean people had
suffered Japanese colonial occupation for 35 years.
There are still Koreans alive who remember that terrible
period. The Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the same
North Korea abused by Bush, was founded by the leaders of the
guerrilla army that fought and helped defeat the Japanese
invaders. The regime set up in the south by U.S. troops after
World War II, on the other hand, was led by Koreans who had
collaborated with imperial Japan.
Therefore, Bush's speech was not only the height of insult
and insolence, it also showed abysmal ignorance by this world
superpower, which will invent any crude pretext to rattle its
sabers and extend its own military occupation of Korea.
Bush followed up his speech with a visit to South Korea that
touched off outrage among Koreans everywhere--in the north, the
south and the diaspora.
A group of 30 students from Hanchongryon, the Federation of
Korean University Students, on Feb. 18 occupied offices of the
U.S. Chamber of Commerce in Seoul, South Korea, to protest the
visit. Before being dragged out by police, they broke windows
on the 45th floor of the towering office building and hung out
a large banner reading "No war, no Bush!"
Even members of the ruling party in South Korea were
incensed at Bush's belligerent tone toward the north. President
Kim Dae-jung, the first president of South Korea to visit the
north, has pursued a "sunshine" policy of expanding contacts
with the DPRK after 50 years of total separation. The Korean
people passionately want the reunification of their country.
Those in the south increasingly blame the presence of 38,000
U.S. troops for the division, and demonstrations against U.S.
bases have grown in frequency and magnitude.
Now the turmoil in the streets has reached the legislature.
The Korea Times of Feb. 19 reported that "A ruling party
lawmaker [Song Seok-chan] yesterday called U.S. President
George W. Bush the 'incarnation of evil' in the National
Assembly interpellation session yesterday, one day ahead of
Bush's visit to Seoul, sending a shockwave through the
country."
Koreans in U.S. speak out
U.S. citizens of Korean origin have also registered deep
disgust with Bush's speech. In the days before his visit to
Seoul, Workers World spoke with Koreans in New York about the
reaction of the community here.
Yoomi Jeong of the Congress for Korean Reunification
explained that her group had initiated a campaign, joined by
four other organizations, to send messages to the White House
calling on the U.S. government to honor the communique issued
jointly with South Korea in October 2000. That document had
stated support for Kim Dae-jung's direct contact with North
Korea and promised the U.S. would take the necessary steps to
lift sanctions on the north and normalize relations.
Jeong cited a poll taken by the ruling New Millennium Party
in early February that showed 70 percent of South Koreans
believe the U.S. should resolve its problems with the DPRK
through dialogue, not military action. "Considering the
population of South Korea has been pro-Western for 50 years,
this is significant," she said.
Jeong says it's wrong for the U.S. government to accuse the
DPRK of supporting terrorism. "We feel we became a scapegoat
for the domestic problems of the U.S.--like Enron and
unemployment."
She also pointed out that this effort to build hostility
toward the north comes as the U.S. "has been trying to sell
outdated fighter jets to the South Korean government at a price
of $4 billion. Even the South Korean military doesn't want to
buy these old F-15s, and has received several cheaper bids from
other countries. The latest plane is now the F-22. Last year
the U.S. sent a delegation of congresspeople to Seoul to
pressure them to buy."
Jeong said over 700 civic organizations in South Korea had
formed an ad hoc committee to block the Bush visit. "They held
a major rally in front of the U.S. Embassy," she said, "and are
planning multiple city protests. Even members of the National
Assembly have said that anyone who undermines peace is not our
ally--a very strong statement for South Korea."
Did Bush make a mistake with his belligerent talk? "Some
people say Bush is helping us build our anti-imperialist
mobilization," said Jeong with a laugh.
'My mom called to say
it was abominable'
Hye-Jung Park is a member of Nodutdol for Korean Community
Development and the Korean-American National Coordinating
Council. She says Koreans see danger in Bush's speech. "My mom
called me from South Korea to say it was abominable. It has
moved things back to zero in the north-south dialogue."
The U.S. had agreed to help the DPRK get a light-water
reactor if it abandoned construction of a different kind of
nuclear power plant that Washington objected to. Park said,
"The U.S. promised it would help North Korea get an LWR by
2003, but nothing has been done." Energy is a big problem in
the north, which has severe winters.
Another member of Nodutdol, John Choe, said the Korean
community is reaching out to others who have suffered from U.S.
policy.
"We had a community forum recently with two goals. One was
to showcase the fact that many members of the Korean community
in New York have been opposed to the use of military forces in
Afghan. The second was to build solidarity with people in the
Middle East, including Palestine, making comparisons with the
way the U.S. has acted with its allies in Korea and Palestine,
dividing and occupying these two countries.
"We also spoke of the significance of the diaspora in both
our struggles. The Korean community is here today because of
what the U.S. and its allies did in Korea 50 years ago. We
shouldn't feel we're just victims. This is an opportunity to
critique U.S. policy around the world.
"Bush saying 'Axis of Evil' is not just something recent.
It's been U.S. strategy to demonize and delegitimize popular
struggles around the world. On the face of it, it's absurd. Who
is Bush to be the moral arbiter of human behavior?
"If you look at how he has defined North Korea specifically
as evil, exporting weapons of mass destruction--the U.S. is the
largest exporter of weapons in the world! It makes billions of
dollars in hard currency through sales of weapons to poor
countries. It forces its allies, like South Korea, to buy
fighter jets it no longer needs. To use that as a pretext is
ridiculous.
"I'm glad that Koreans in the south have been organizing and
protesting Bush's visit," Choe concluded. "It's important to
make clear that that kind of language is dangerous to their
personal safety and also to the long-term prospect on the
Korean peninsula."
Reprinted from the Feb. 28, 2002, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011
Email: ww@workers.org
Subscribe wwnews-subscribe@workersworld.net
Support independent news http://www.workers.org/orders/donate.php)
HOME
:: U.S. NEWS ::
WORLD NEWS ::
EDITORIALS ::
SUBSCRIBE ::
DONATE
Email
this article
Printable
page