(The following article is from the June 16-30, 2009, issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St., Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.)

By Sean Burton, South Korea

Due to a number of events in the last week of May, the Korean peninsula is an interesting place to be these days.

     The first was the suicide of Roh Moo Hyun, president of South Korea from 2003-2008. Roh jumped from a cliff behind his estate near the city of Busan on May 23. A public funeral was held on May 29, parts of which I saw on television. It was an emotional event, which some foreigners found rather surprising since support for Roh and his party had declined significantly by 2007. Polls at the time suggested that Roh had only 10% support from the population.

     Why was there so much grief over his passing? Whatever one thought of his presidency, Roh was a man who could be admired. Roh came from a poor farming family and never attended university. He passed the bar exam in 1975 after years of studying law on his own. He made himself known for defending the victims of South Korea's military dictatorship and actively opposed the government of General Chun Doo Hwan. When he ran for president, Roh incorporated anti-U.S. sentiment into the campaign, promising not to bow to the USA. Such credentials were obviously more endearing than those of current president Lee Myung Bak, whose claim to fame is his business savvy.

     It was also a source of grief that Roh committed suicide in the midst of a corruption scandal involving some members of his family. Roh's elder brother has already been sent to prison for influence peddling, and Roh and his wife and son were recently being investigated on suspicion of taking approximately $6 million in bribes from a business friend. It is not hard to imagine that this weighed heavily on Roh, a man who campaigned against South Korea's traditional corruption. When his suicide became known, recognition of his life accomplishments seemed to combine with pity over his latest circumstances, as well as hatred for Lee Myung Bak.

     On the day of Roh's funeral, the news reported many people accusing President Lee of influencing the corruption investigation and increasing pressure on Roh as an act of political revenge. Roh and Lee were bitter rivals, and Roh's office had even filed a libel suit against Lee and the Grand National Party in 2007. As result, Lee was not welcomed warmly at the funeral ceremony in Seoul. Many people booed, and members of the opposition shouted out at him. Others defied the police and staged small anti-government protests in which seventy people were arrested. The opposition Democratic Party has since called on Lee to apologize for Roh's death and dismiss the justice minister and prosecutor-general.

     Roh was also known for continuing former president Kim Dae Jung's "Sunshine Policy" of reconciliation and cooperation with North Korea. Both Kim Dae Jung and Roh Moo Hyun visited Pyongyang and met with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il. Because of the ideological differences, such a policy was not going to facilitate reunification any time soon. Rather, it created a more cordial relationship, and that was better than nothing. But Lee Myung Bak has abandoned that policy. His pro-U.S. attitude and neoliberal economic policies have earned him the ire of North Korea.

     It is symbolic that within days of Roh's death, the North tested a nuclear bomb and unilaterally withdrew from the 1953 armistice agreement. It has also been testing missiles of various types, and conducting military exercises. The catalyst for these moves was the South's decision to join the US-led Proliferation Security Initiative, a plan which would permit the South Korean navy to seize North Korean vessels suspected of shipping weaponry. The North has stated that it will respond with military force if such an event occurs. The UN Command in Korea insists that the armistice is still in force and binding on all sides. Clearly someone is working on flawed logic.

     However, rather than admitting that North Korea may have legitimate grievances regarding the Proliferation Security Initiative, or any other South Korean/US policy, the media prefers to make up fantasies based on hearsay. It is now widely being claimed that everything North Korea is doing is related solely to Kim Jong Il and his eventual successor. The story goes that Kim Jong Il's youngest son, 26-year-old Kim Jong Un, has been officially selected to become the next leader. Allegedly, Kim Jong Il needs to carry out these provocative acts in order to make his family look strong and determined in the eyes of the North Korean military elite, the ones who are really in power.

     That is a cute little story, but as with almost everything written about North Korea in the South, there is little evidence to support it. Is it true? At best we can say "maybe". Kim Jong Il succeeded his father, so there is a precedent for hereditary succession. But the story is too neat and tidy, and the details are contradicted by other stories about North Korea. Kim may be all-powerful in one article, but in the next he is really just fighting to maintain the military's favour. There have even been some claims that the regime would not tolerate another hereditary succession. The same media that calls North Korea the most mysterious and closed country in the world seems to act like it knows everything.

     North Korea is set to test more missiles in June. The South Korean military and US forces in Korea are on alert. For the first time since I arrived in Korea, I feel worried. I hope nothing comes of it. Many people here think the North would never attack because they would ultimately be annihilated. That might be true, but such sentiments are full of bravado. And besides, why assume the North would attack first?