[Editorial] People Who Are Still Scared of North Korea

There are persistent accusations that permitting a massive delegation to go to North Korea's "Arirang" performance is shaking the state's foundation. It's the same old people and arguments, too. It all got started when the government allowed around 5,000 people to watch an event that is used as propaganda for the North Korean system. Maybe they think that those who have watched the mass games have come to admire North Korean-style socialism.

Card sections and other elements of mass games were rampant under South Korean dictatorship as well. But even the dictatorship had to give up on them because of the negative side effects and since they went against civil rights. That was only 20 to 30 years ago. How could someone think that a person could be moved by such an event and come to sympathize with the North's government? Viewing the Arirang event was probably time in which people reaffirmed the democratic and pluralist nature of Southern society and came to agonize over what the Korean nation has to do in the future.

Some critics are concerned that the government didn't do the proper background checks on South Koreans traveling to Pyongyang or that people have been brining back North Korean song booklets and cite that as an example of "shaking the state's foundations." That would be something to worry about if South Korea lacked political stability. Currently there is rice, flour, corn, powdered milk, and oil going to the North, while defectors are continuously arriving in the South. Unless you're worried about criminals taking flight, there's no reason to be scared about people traveling to the North. West Germany didn't put restrictions on people, goods, and radio waves going to the East prior to unification.

The government was wrong if it broke any rules. That doesn't mean that we should block the expansion of intra-Korean exchange, according to the standards of the Cold War era, and do so at the demand of certain old-establishment newspapers. If the rules are out of touch with reality then the rules can be changed. We hope to see the procedures and qualifications for visiting the North changed swiftly to be consistent with changed realities. The principle should be that there is more frequent and freer passage.

The Hankyoreh, 13 October 2005.

[Translations by Seoul Selection (PMS)]