[Editorial] Put Gang's Writings to Academic Debate

The Seoul Police Agency has called in Dongguk University professor Gang Jeong Gu for questioning about his thoughts and writings regarding how the Korean War should be characterized. Back in August, Gang contributed an opinion piece to an internet news outlet in which he said the war was an "attempted war of reunification by the North Korean leadership," just like the leaders of the three states in the later Three Kingdoms period had all competed against each other to unify the peninsula. The police and the prosecution is charging him with violating Article 7 of the National Security Law (NSL), which prohibits "praising or encouraging" an "anti-state organization," namely North Korea.

The charge might feel all the more serious because Gang had been arrested in 2001 after visiting Man'gyeongdae in Pyongyang and writing "Let us carry on the Man'gyeongdae spirit and achieve unification" in the guestbook. It looks like they are trying to judge Gang for his opinion piece in the same way as was done with the "guestbook affair."

However, personal impressions of Man'gyeongdae and an article about the Korean War are entirely different in character. What Gang thinks about the "Man'gyeongdae spirit" was an expression of his personal views, whereas his article was the product of academic research as a scholar. Scholarly work should be taken issue with in a scholarly fashion, and you don't even need to mention "freedom of scholarship" as defined by the constitution to see that. This is not something you should measure using the law. The NSL has long been used to suppress freedom of scholarship and thought and that is all the more reason why it should not be the standard. Once you start wielding the NSL around even scholars of engineering aren't free from charges they've engaged in activities "advantageous to the enemy," since their work becomes "advantageous to the enemy" the moment it gets utilized in North Korea. Objective research into modern Korean history is impossible because if you state the facts as facts you could get yourself in trouble for "praising and encouraging" the enemy.

The true nature of the Korean War, the deeds and misdeeds of General MacArthur, and other controversial subjects should be put to scholarly debate and not be placed on the legal cutting board. The debate can examine what the facts are and questions of interpretation, and it would allow the law to rid itself of the dishonor of suppressing and controlling academic research. Nothing is as unfortunate as to have scholarly research judged by the law.

The Hankyoreh, 3 September 2005.

[Translations by Seoul Selection (PMS)]