Subject: EEE会議（韓国はいま北朝鮮をどう見ているのか？）
Date: Sun, 11 May 2003 15:23:21 +0900
From: "kkaneko" <kkaneko@eagle.ocn.ne.jp>

各位殿

北朝鮮核問題が深刻化する中で、今ひとつはっきりしないのは、最近の、特に盧武鉉
政権発足後の韓国の対北政策と、南北朝鮮関係の動向です。盧政権は金大中政権以上
に北に対して融和的といわれています。他方で韓国内の反米感情は最近かなり激しく
なっているようで、米国も嫌気がさし、在韓米軍の撤退を本気に考え始めているとい
う観測もあります。それに連動して、日韓関係もどうも余りしっくり行っていないよ
うに見えます。その結果、日米韓関係、とりわけ日韓関係に「隙間風」が吹き始めて
おり（北の脅威に対する感覚が日韓で決定的に違う）、まさにその日韓間に北は楔を
打ち込もうとしているのだ、日本人はもっとそのことを警戒すべきではないかと、先
月ワシントンで懇談したペンタゴンの高官たちは繰り返し指摘していました。

米国人に言われるまでもなく、我々は、北朝鮮問題を考える上で、もっと韓国人の立
場に注意する必要があると思います。次にご紹介するのは、本日のNew York Timesに
掲載された韓国系米国人（作家）の文章で、最近の韓国の青少年（５０年前の朝鮮戦
争のことを殆ど知らない）の北朝鮮観がよく現れていると思います。ご参考まで。
金子熊夫

*************************************************
Korea's New Wave
By SUKI KIM


was born and raised in South Korea until immigrating to the United States
in the 1980's when I was 13. Last year, I visited both Koreas and witnessed
anti-American protests in Pyongyang and Seoul. Fifty years after the
armistice ended the Korean War on July 27, 1953, significant factions on
both sides of the 38th Parallel hate America.

Although North Koreans seem stuck in their 1950's rage with the United
States, South Koreans have moved on to resentment. While Seoul boasts the
world's largest Starbucks and young South Koreans have gone to desperate
measures ・including face lifts and tongue alterations ・to look and sound
Western, their anger with the United States is palpable.

Korea has a long history of subjugation, by China, Mongolia and Japan. After
the liberation from Japan in 1945, the "big brother" role was taken over by
the United States. But now, having the third-largest economy in Asia, South
Koreans ・especially young ones ・no longer want to be the "little brother."
They don't trust Americans and they don't want American troops on their
land. They think the two Koreas could unite if America would go away and
mind its own business ・a factor President Bush needs to address when he
meets with South Korea's new president, Roh Moo Hyun, who won the votes of a
vast majority of young South Koreans.

When I attended elementary school in South Korea, Kim Il Sung, then North
Korea's Great Leader, was depicted in illustrations as a porky, red-faced
man with devil-like horns. At lunchtime, teachers told us to finish our rice
because of the poor, starving North Korean children who suffered under their
ruthless leader. In the school lobby hung a poster with the last words of a
child hero, Lee Sung Bok, who was said to have perished at the hands of
North Korean soldiers for crying out, "I hate Communists!"

Today, things have changed. School textbooks now credit Kim Il Sung with the
defeat of the Japanese occupiers. His son, Kim Jong Il, North Korea's
current leader, is honored with the title "chairman." This increasingly
positive perception of North Korea reflects cultural and historical ties.
More than 10 million families were separated by the war, and for Confucians,
there is no greater sin than abandoning one's family. Even though a
half-century has passed since the war, the desire to be reunified is at the
core of Korean culture.

Young South Koreans have no recollection of the war. What they remember are
the American-supported military-backed dictators who ruled through the late
80's and exploited the North Korean threat to silence anyone who disagreed
with them. As a result, the younger generation distrusts the government.
Young Koreans believe that the Korean War was never truly a civil war, but
rather a proxy conflict for the cold war enemies, and they blame the United
States for standing in the way of re-unification.

Their picture of one happy Korea fails to consider Kim Jong Il's propensity
for nuclear weapons and his monoculture of the Great Leader. Now North
Korea, where some two million people have died from starvation, is seen as
the poor sibling, whom the rest of the world has abandoned because of
America's hostile policy. This sympathy has little to do with Kim Jong Il's
regime and more to do with a desire to be independent of the United States.

President Roh's wavering stance toward America since the election is not
giving them confidence, and President Bush's "axis of evil" rhetoric is
aggravating the wound. We will see if next week's meeting does much to
reconcile this younger generation. The problem is that young South Koreans
have been taught not to listen. The disillusionment stems largely from the
legacy of the Korean War and America's role in perpetuating it.

Suki Kim is author of "The Interpreter,'' a novel.