Kim Duped Them in Seoul, and Now Democracy Is Suffering

For supporters of democracy in South Korea, the last years of the 20th century were a time of hope. In December 1997, the people of South Korea had great expectations when Kim Dae Jung was elected president. He was not only a civilian but also a member of the opposition party. And he was well-known as a lifelong human rights activist.

Kim’s opposition to South Korea’s military rule had even brought him close to death. While in Japan in 1973, he was kidnapped by Korean intelligence agents who took him out to sea to be killed, his body dumped overboard. The future president was saved only by the last-minute intervention of a senior-level U.S. government official who learned of the plot.

Based on Kim’s background and firsthand experiences, one would have expected him to continue the push for true democracy in South Korea. Unfortunately, that does not appear to be the case.

Now into the fourth year of a constitutionally mandated single five-year term, Kim is taking a beating in the polls. The economy, in bad repair when he started his presidency, remains there today. His “sunshine policy,” by which he has sought to reduce tensions with North Korea, has little substance to show for its efforts, outside of a Nobel Peace Prize for Kim.

The failure of his presidency has provided much negative material for a number of domestic newspapers. In an effort to silence his media critics, he has done something that would make North Korea’s strongman, Kim Jong Il, proud of him. Kim Dae Jung initiated a tax evasion probe of 23 media companies, most of which have been very critical of him. The bank accounts of editors and reporters unfriendly to him were examined by tax authorities. The intimidation has been effective. Most news publications have toned down their criticism.

Among the stories these actions have succeeded in quashing is one about Kim’s helicopter. Despite the age of his presidential helicopter, the country’s dire economic situation made the acquisition of a new one a luxury Seoul could ill afford. The presidential helicopter mysteriously began to experience problems, resulting in its grounding and the issuance of an order for a new one. Only recently was it learned what caused the groundings. Allegedly, Kim’s bodyguard, a man with a criminal record, was involved in pressuring pilots into faking problems with the aircraft. He did so to justify a new helicopter, one manufactured by a company with ties to an associate.

Despite the lack of success of his sunshine policy, Kim is striving to salvage some sort of legacy for himself by pushing for a breakthrough with North Korea. It is feared Kim wants this breakthrough, in the form of a peace declaration, at any cost. A classified document of the ruling party, now made public, indicates Kim sees such a breakthrough as providing a fuse for constitutional change, one to allow him to run again or, at a minimum, to enable his party to otherwise retain power. Kim claims the document is fraudulent.

Kim’s efforts to salvage a legacy are not limited to silencing his press critics. He also is trying to silence North Korean defector Hwang Jang Yop, who now lives in the South. Some U.S. congressmen with serious reservations about the sunshine policy have sought to have Hwang testify before Congress about his insights on the North. Kim has not allowed Hwang to do so. His critics believe Kim fears Hwang may embarrass him by trying to seek asylum in the U.S. or by offering information suggesting that certain high-level members of Kim’s party had secretly cooperated with Pyongyang. If true, this would explain why the sunshine policy has been such a one-way street, where Seoul has given up so much and Pyongyang so little.

There is an adage that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Many of Kim’s supporters felt he was immune to such an influence. If these allegations are true, those supporters have been duped. The onetime human rights activist will have set back the evolution of democracy in his country more so than any predecessor ever did.