By Pio d'Emilia
KIM MYONG HI is a well-known Korean writer and journalist. He has lived for many years in Japan, first as a student and later as spokesperson of Kim Dae Jung's Korean Democratic Movement and as correspondent of the daily Joong Ang Ilbo. Kim Myong Hi was formerly an activist in the Kengakuren, the Japanese revolutionary student organisation, and his 19-year-old son Hang is one of the leaders of the Korean student federation Hanchongryon. When this interview was carried out, Hang and his comrades had already spent nine days under siege from police in the State University of Seoul (Yonsei).
Question: How are things?
It looks as if the only possible outcome is a direct clash. Negotiations have broken down. Saving face is now more important for the government than respect for the basic rights of citizens and for human life. Our people are exhausted, disappointed and outraged.
Question: Is your son still inside? The latest news talks about exhausted students abandoning the building that they had seized.
Where they were besieged, you mean. We're talking about a right and proper siege. The police have the university totally surrounded. Nothing is allowed in, not even medicines. The telephones and electricity have been cut off. They don't want any communication between the students and the outside world. Inside, without air-conditioning, the heat is suffocating. My wife, who has been bringing food to our son these days, has been beaten. They want a clash, they want bloodshed.
Question: But's it's not the first time that Yonsei students have clashed with police: it's almost a yearly ritual. In spring and autumn the tension explodes: even after the so-called democratisation, after former political prisoner Kim Young Sam's accession to power as the first elected president, the situation hasn't changed. What do the students want? The government reaction is extremely violent in the face of demands that, seen from Europe, seem mild.
Dear friend, the world has to keep tension high. And by "world" I mean the United States, the sole remaining superpower.
It's true that the demands of our sons and daughters seem pretty small when compared with the aims and slogans of our generation. We wanted to change the world: they'd be happy with reunification of the country, removal of US troops, and repeal of the incredible National Security Law, which allows anyone in possession of the telephone number or address of someone in the North to be charged with subversion.
This time everything started with the August 15 celebrations, the anniversary of the liberation from Japanese rule. In other years, the most that has happened has been clashes with the police in front of the Japanese embassy in Seoul. However, this year the Student Federation wanted to meet a North Korean student delegation at Panmunjom, underlining the irrevocable, if slow, character of reunification.
But the government has been unyielding. The president himself, who in a few short years in power has squandered all the dignity he accumulated in 20 years of opposition to the military regime, imposed the hard line. So, while our tycoons meet North Korean bureaucrats in great secret in Taiwan, our students can't even take a photo of themselves with their North Korean counterparts. What harm would it have done?
Question: What has been the role of the United States?
An active one. The Korean peninsula, like Cuba, is one of the last bastions justifying the US military budget. However, at the cost of being in turn labelled a "subversive", I can state without doubt that no Korean, I underline Korean, whether from the North or the South, really believes in the possibility of a new armed conflict.
The North is searching desperately, in the midst of massive famine, for a painless and gradual way to evolve towards a market economy, while the South needs labour and new infrastructure for its own development, while maintaining the competitiveness of its own industry. Our interests coincide. I'm convinced that two delegations elected democratically on both sides would solve the reunification problem in a few days.
Question: So, as far as US troops are concerned, you agree with your son — the sooner they go, the better for all Korea?
Exactly. It's a question of principle. I understand that Clinton can't make a decision of this kind a couple of months before the US elections. However, if he is elected, it would be enough as a first sign for him to announce a progressive reduction in forces. Without the US presence, the reunification process would be much quicker.
[This and other articles from the Italian daily Il Manifesto. Translated, slightly abridged, for Â鶹´«Ã½ Weekly by Dick Nichols.]