[imText1]Another argument has been proposed, that Roh administration is taken as hostage by the Kim Jong Il’s “Minjok (people of one blood, brethren) Cooperation” tactic, which is to set South Korea as a shield from American attacks in order to maintain the dictatorship.
Professor Lee Ju Chun of Wonkwang University who recently published his book, “Republic of Korea Taken as a Hostage by Kim Jong Il,” made his voice heard through his column entitled, “Tearing Off the Wicked North Korean Minjok Cooperation Tactic,” which was published in the monthly magazine of Democracy Network Against North Korean Gulag, Justice.
In his column, Prof. Lee argued, “We can see the situation is certainly ripening by looking at our high level government officials not able to boldly express on the issues of North Korean human rights or abduction issues even after it provided enormous amount of aid and “Pyongyang rush” driven by insanity after the South-North summit meeting held in June, 2000.”
Helpless Hostage with the Minjok Cooperation
Prof. Lee heavily criticized that “South Korea will remain as a helpless hostage as long as media reports on picture taking with Kim Jong Il as an honorable event and covers front pages of all the major newspapers with such news as the biggest news for our country and the social mood that generously accepts such a madness persists.”
“What North Korea means by “Minjok Cooperation” is different from pure literal interpretation by South Korea. It actually means, “driving out foreign forces,” which means kicking the American troops out of the Korean peninsula and “praise to military-first politics,” argued Prof. Lee. “The North Korean propaganda of Minjok Cooperation that has been pretty effective all along in South Korea, not only cements the Suryeong dictatorship of Kim Jong Il, but also overshadows the future of our Minjok with dark clouds.”
“It was the conventional strategy for communist countries to use Minjok Cooperation at peace and Minjok unification at war time.” As the examples, Prof. Lee explained Chinese communization civil war and Vietnamese War and its communization process.
“Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il who studied successful cases of Minjok-unification strategy in China and Vietnam, decided Minjok Cooperation strategy would be much effective with South Korea than a military threat, and are targeting South Korean youths, workers, and even intellectuals.”
Kim Jong Il’s “Minjok Cooperation”, Nothing More than a Trick for the Regime Maintenance
Prof. Lee also added, “(For maintenance of the regime) Kim Jong Il is adequately taking advantage of strong sense of nationalism (Minjok-ism) and North-friendly force in South Korea, and argues while we resist against the Americans and the Japanese and solve our Minjok’s problem independently.”
“While arguing we must solve our Minjok’s problem without the foreign interventions, how could we explain North Korea’s behavior of not considering South Korea even as a negotiating partner when it comes to the nuclear problem, but stubbornly pursuing bilateral talk with the US?” With a sharp question, Prof. Lee did not hesitate to point out that Kim Jong Il’s “Minjok Cooperation” is nothing more than a tactic for its regime maintenance.
Prof. Lee expressed his concern, by saying, “The second goal of Kim Jong Il’s Minjok Cooperation strategy is to establish a pro-North Korea left wing administration in South Korea that would always obey the words of North Korea and that would always generously provide aid.”
