The elections for Parliament were held on April 13th (Korean Standard Time) and for the first time in 16 years, there are more members in Parliament from the opposing party of the President. In this case, the progressive Minjoo party has taken over the majority of the seats in Parliament while Saenuri, the conservative party that President Park is also a part of, lost its majority. President Park has two years left in office and analysts say she may turn her attention to foreign policy, namely North Korea, to leave some kind of legacy. And the analysts are not looking at this move favorably.
I am not at all familiar with South Korean politics and I learned the above information from an article on New York Times. There are so many different subjects that the article discusses and I am not knowledgeable enough to speak on most of them. There is one that I want to give my two cents on though: blindly seeking out and punishing sympathizers of North Korea.
I recently read about the Korean War in depth for the first time in my life. Under the authority of the first president of the Republic of Korea, Syngman Rhee, thousands of civilians and prisoners died for allegedly being spies for the North. The extremely unfortunate thing here is that too many of the innocent died among those who were truly guilty.
This "purging" of the Communist spies continued on in Korean history. Former President Park Chung-hee, father of current President Park Geun-hye, is said to have authorized "witch hunts" for Communist sympathizers during his term. I only found this out from reading the New York Times article. The article doesn't go into deep detail about this yet I can imagine that much innocent blood must have been shed.
President Park Geun-hye, along with the Saenuri party, are harsher towards Pyeongyang while the Minjoo party leans toward more of a reconciliation with the North. If it is at all possible - I think both are right in their beliefs about how to deal with the North. To elaborate on my inexpert opinion, some in the North should be punished while the South should work for reconciliation and reunion with the North as a whole. I don't believe that all North Koreans should be punished. In fact, many civilians found guilty by the North Korean regime are themselves victims of the country. I think the civilians who aren't in trouble by the North Korean government are also victims. The article specifically states that the Saenuri party wants to punish "Pyeongyang" as opposed to "North Korea", which I infer as meaning punishing the oppressive dictator in command and those responsible for the horrific inhuman crimes rather than everyone in the North. To add to that, I think those who have committed inhuman crimes out of ignorance should be spared from punishment - although I'm sure there will have to be exceptions.
I too don't look to kindly on South Korea leaning towards going on yet another craze about purging out any Red influence. I don't want that to happen in even the slightest bit. I shed tears as I read about the truly innocent people who were executed under the accusation of supporting the Communist North during the Korean War. Of course, South Korea should continue to be wary and keen about fishing out any spies in its domain. However I think the times have changed and we shouldn't repeat history by shedding innocent blood. Don't ask me to choose between the conservative way or the progressive way of dealing with the North. But I firmly stand on the belief that South Korea should carry out careful interrogations and other procedures to seek out any spies rather than go on an out-of-control witch hunt for North Korean spies. I applaud South Korean intelligence for doing so successfully already. And I think the witch hunt may be unlikely in modern times. We should still be mindful.
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