Koreans have woken up

(Day Eleven of the Korean Ministry of of Information and Communications ban)

Having gotten sick and tired of hearing about Internet "polls" which mean nothing, I was refreshed to come across a real, live scientific poll in today's Korea Herald. Here are the results of that recent survey on dispatching Korean troops to Iraq:

The polling company Research & Research said yesterday that 54.3 percent of 800 adults supported the troop deployment, while 36.7 percent of those questioned wanted the government to scrap the plan.

The result indicated the Korean national's death in Iraq affected the public sentiment, considering that a previous survey conducted in April showed 50.2 percent of respondents opposed sending Korean troops to the Middle East country, while only 41.4 percent was in favor of the plan, an official with the polling agency said.

As I said might happen couple of weeks ago, Kim Seon-il's murder has galvanized those Koreans who supported the dispatch while giving anti-dispatch protesters more of an air of desperation. This matching of passion, along with epiphany that Kim's murder may have caused for younger Koreans, has helped move public opinion on Iraq.

Many Anglophone commenters on Korea, including yours truly, have often bemoaned what we have seen as naivety among young Koreans, brought on by being under US protection for so long that they don't know how dangerous the world really is. That naivety often caused them to behave as if the US was the cause of all of Korea's problems while overlooking Pyongyang's repression of its own people. It is a view that also causes them to see themselves as perpetual victims and to think that all the world would respect them for being so peace-loving and pure.

But I have differed with some of my colleagues who seemed to believe that young Koreans' naivety was a permanent fixture in their collective psyche. Koreans are the same people who survived a brutal war and built a (usually) thriving world-class economy. They are the same people who sent two divisions to fight in Vietnam. Sure, the younger generation has been pampered and shielded from a lot of harsh reality, but they are still their fathers' children.

Kim's death and the dispatch to Iraq may very well be seen in the future as the time when Koreans realized that they have a place it this world beyond being victims; that they have a political and military role in world affairs commensurate with their economic clout.; that the murder of one Korean, not matter how barbaric, can not make them retreat in fear; that they can be an ally and not just a protectorate;

This is heady stuff but we haven't really heard much of it and the "debate" among Koreans seemed to have been between "peace activist" and, well, nothing. Kim's murder has woken the other side up and the latest poll numbers show it.

I am sure that future polls will swing back and forth as events in Iraq unfold, but at least now Koreans may have a real chance to debate their future place in the world order.

Comments

[Kevin Kim]

A,

I hope you\'re right about this, but we have to match this survey-- which is mainly of adults-- with the survey of the youth, 60% of whom view the US as the \"main enemy.\"

I\'m not trying to refute what you\'re saying; I agree that elements of Korean society are finally waking up. But Korean society doesn\'t move in total lockstep, and if 60% of one large demographic says one thing while 54% of another large demographic says another, then, for me at least, any optimism has to be tempered by realism.

[I grant that the two surveys were asking different questions, but both give some indication of a left- or right-leaning tendency.]

The young Netizens-- the ones who have the greatest access to global information-- are, ironically, the ones with the most delusional attitude about whom to fault in all this. And there are a lot of these Netizens.

I\'ll be watching the next few months with interest. Or maybe I should say morbid curiosity.

Kevin

[ari(w)rong]

Great they're ready to take their place in the world. We can get our troops out so the Koreans can take care of themselves.

[Ralph]

You imply that young Koreans are cowards or unrealistic about the "dangerous" world and at the same time claim that they are the children of the tough Koreans who fought against the brutal NK communists. Not exactly a contradiction but not very consistent either. Let me point out Kim Dae Jung, who was brutally treated by the tough SK militarists for two decades, the object of assassination attempts on numerous occasions but in the end a fighter for peace (NPP 2000). Roh Moo-hyun is no slouch either, coming from a poor peasant family, working his way through law school at nights, considered unpatriotic for devoting his practice to defending human rights cases and the object of backroom sabotage in his efforts to continue KDJ's sunshine policies. Cowardice is definitely in the eyes of the beholder in Korean politics. Its easy to be tough when you live in the only superpower.

[The Yangban]

Hello Ralph, welcome to my Jeongja;

I never said or implied that young Koreans were cowards but I'll accept the "unrealistic about the 'dangerous' world" part. I don't see my characterizing of the different generations of Koreans as being inconsistent. The 'generation gap' that is common in many modern societies is especially strong in Korea.

Also, both KDJ (in his 70s) and Roh (50s) are from older generations.

As for me, while I come from the GLOBAL HEGEMON (this is the part where you meekly bow before me), I live in Ansan, Korea. While that puts be out of artillery range, my place is certainly within Nork rocket/missile range.

(PS, before anyone hits me with a DOS attack, the "meekly bow" bit was a joke.)