[imText1]Nazi Germany, breaking the nonaggression treaty, invaded Soviet Union in June 1941. Adolf Hitler had long been interested in Ukraine’s vast prairie and Central Asia’s huge oil fields, which were regarded inevitable for building German people’s Lebensraum.
In the eastern theater, Japanese militarists, emulating Hitler, made a surprise attack at Pearl Harbor to take over the natural-resources-rich Southeast Asia.
A German word “der Lebensraum” literally can be interpreted as ‘living space,’ which implies no aggressive meaning. Hitler, however, exploited the peaceful word for his belligerent purpose.
North Korea’s founder Kim Il Sung knew well that, without annexing South Korea and its enormous industrial and agricultural might, North Korea’s regime would never sustain long. Since the Korean War to current nuclear crisis, North Korea has been endeavoring to build its own “der Lebensraum” in the Korean Peninsula.
Then what is in Kim Jong Il’s mind right now? There are two.
First, Kim Jong Il took no responsibility for two million deaths during the great famine in the mid-90s. Shocked, the international society, rather than blaming the one who caused and neglected the starvation, concentrating on feeding the rest of the North Koreans. And, although the worst years of starvation, along with whom to blame, is forgotten, another ‘March of Tribulation’ is awaiting North Korea. If mass starvation occurs again, this would lead Kim Jong Il regime’s collapse, because the situation is changed now.
Since there would be no international aid, Kim Jong Il will depend on South Korea. How to do so? By building his version of ‘der Lebensraum’ in the whole Korean Peninsula. North Korea’s young men and women will be forced to die as Kim Jong Il’s ‘guns and bombs.’ Kim Jong Il might be seeking an excuse to engage in a war. Are we prepared for that?
Secondly, Kim Jong Il will complete the ‘revolution in South Korea’ through covering the whole peninsula with his nuclear umbrella. After the nuclear test, South Korean media have been criticizing Roh administration policy failure rather than Kim Jong Il’s evil deed itself.
North Korea’s South Korean revolution strategy’ is based on the so-called ‘three bases of revolution principle.’ One of the three bases, ‘international base’ was nowhere since Soviet Union and its satellite states disappeared by the early 1990s, and China abandoned communist planned economy.
Lenin once said “Power comes out of barrel of a gun, but politics comes out from food.” North Korea’s half- crumbled economy cannot provide rations to the revolutionary warriors. Loyalty to the commander-in-chief who cannot feed his soldiers is doomed to be diminished. In other words, one of the two remaining revolution bases, the domestic one, is also ready to be destroyed.
Surprisingly, the last, and deemed as the hardest to build by the North Korean leaders, base of revolution in South Korea is most successful. Kim Dae Jung administration’s Sunshine Policy and Roh Moo Hyun administration’s ambivalence toward Pyongyang fertilized pro-Kim Jong Il faction in Seoul.
Even though West Germany conducted more economic-cooperation with its eastern counterpart, the government in Bohn never allowed pro-East German elements to be active in West Germany.
Foreign investors in South Korea, who are smart enough to regard the crisis seriously, will shrink the amount of invested assets. South Korean companies will face harsher conditions to borrow money from foreign funds. And it is only a matter of time that South Korea is to be believed as a sponsor of the rogue state.
Most of all, if Japan declares its own nuclear armament, South Korea must either develop nuclear weapon or depend on the United States’ nuclear umbrella. Considering South Korea’s pro-Kim Jong Il faction’s shrewdness and Roh administration’s ambivalent North Korean policy, Seoul would be forced to ask for protection of nuclear umbrella from Pyongyang against American and Japanese nuclear threat. North Korea’s boast saying “South Korea is protected by our ‘military-first policy’ is not simply an exaggeration, anymore.
Partisans’ proverb ‘fight with the enemy’s ammunition and ration’ is materializing in South Korea now. South Korea-aided cash and goods so far supplied Kim Jong Il.
We have observed few examples of peaceful means to fight against dictators’ seeking of “der Lebensraum.”
