[USFK Forums] Editorial: Listen up, dear leader

[C. Y. Lee]

[Uploaded by C. Y. Lee, Monday, October 24, 2005] The Korea Herald's editorial is uploaded as follows:

[EDITORIAL] Listen up, dear leader

The Korea Herald, Saturday, October 22, 2005

A South Korean woman's emotion-charged open letter appealing to North Korean leader Kim Jong-il to return her father abducted 18 years ago has focused fresh attention to his fate and that of more than 400 other South Koreans believed to be in the North against their will.

Choi Woo-young, 35, bought advertisement space in a newspaper to publish her letter on Wednesday, exactly a week before the 60th birthday of her father, who was taken to North Korea aboard the Dongjin fishing boat in the West Sea in 1987.

Choi, who now heads the Families of the Abducted and Detained in North Korea, said she was writing the letter because she believes resolution of the issue of South Korean abductees in the North is possible only when Kim makes up his mind.

"I understand you are such a pious man that you still carry out large-scale commemoration projects for your father, the late President Kim Il-sung. Therefore, I believe that from the same position as a child, you would be able to understand how I feel about my father," Choi said.

She said she was writing the letter since she could not expect any more help from "this society" to get back her beloved father, whose health, she said, is in critical condition.

We share Choi's frustration with the Seoul government's failure to persuade the North Korean leadership to send back Choi's father and 485 other civilians taken to the North since the end of the Korean War in 1953. The South's repatriation of communist spies, one in 1993 and 63 in 2000, has not been reciprocated by the North. Earlier this month, in yet another humanitarian move, the South sent to the North the body of a former spy who died of illness.

It has been said too often, too much here, but we feel obliged once again to urge the Roh government to give priority to dealing with North Korea on this issue. It is quite disturbing to hear that the government is considering sending 28 more spies back to the North. Any such decision should be tied to getting back South Korean civilians and the estimated 538 prisoners of war held in the North.

Since North Korea's hardliners fear the negative effects on their country's system and reputation of a decision to send back South Korean abductees, it might not be easy to resolve the issue, however sincerely and vigorously the Seoul government tries to push on the issue.

In this sense, we join Choi in urging Kim, the North's supreme leader, to untie the knots. Before it becomes too late, Kim should pay heed to the plight of the abductees and their families in the South and make a "grand decision," which aides to the "dear leader" often call whenever they reach an important agreement with the South.

That would help Kim, still ridiculed by many as an unpredictable, eccentric leader of the world's most isolated country ruled by one man, to improve his and his country's image. Being a leader attentive to humanitarian issues would certainly help ease the antagonism of his critics and detractors in the South and the international community.

Choi aptly said in her letter: if Kim does his best on the abductees issue, it would help South Koreans trust North Korea and believe the North is making sincere efforts for reunification. She added that real unity starts not with any gigantic thing, but with a return of a man like her father.

2005.10.22