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This year is the 86th anniversary of the March 1 Independence Movement. That it coincides with the 100th anniversary of the Eulsa Treaty, which deprived Korea of its diplomatic rights, and the 60th anniversary of liberation from Japanese colonial rule, makes this year's holiday feel weightier than those of previous years.
Ahead of the holiday, President Roh Moo-hyun visited Independence Hall and said the international environment now was similar to what it was at the end of the Chosun Dynasty, with its belated attempts to open up and modernize. Even if the president didn't say so himself, we live in a world where one side of Seoul is holding all sorts of events to celebrate the Korea-Japan Friendship Year, while on the other side the Japanese ambassador to Korea is claiming that the Dokdo Islets are Japanese territory.
China has meanwhile tried to appropriate the history of the ancient Korean Koguryo Kingdom on what is now Chinese territory while putting pressure on Seoul so that it keeps its mouth shut about the Gando Agreement, through which imperial Japan ceded Korean sovereignty over a part of southern Manchuria to China.
It would appear that the power struggle between China and Japan over the Korean Peninsula that took place 100 years ago has reappeared in a different form. In the 60-year history of the division of the nation into North and South, North Korea's increasing dependence on China puts prospects of a unified, independent Korea even more in doubt.
The problem is not that today's international situation is similar to that of 100 years ago. The problem is that it is doubtful whether our ability to assert ourselves in the face of that international situation, maintain our sovereignty and unify our people has changed since then. Despite continuing signs that the nation's ruin was near in 1905, our leadership was unable to muster a cool understanding of the international situation. Instead, it splintered into continuously fighting factions - progressives versus conservatives, pro-Qing Dynasty versus pro-Japanese, and pro-Russians versus pro-Americans.
If a nation is swept up in the moment, it is condemned to reliving the past. Only if its leaders learn from the failures of the past can it move forward stronger. This morning marks the 86 anniversary of the March 1 Independence Movement. Ask your leaders whether they will unite the skill and wisdom of Korea's citizens to develop the way forward for our nation, or whether through division and dogmatism they will condemn us to reliving the history of the late Chosun Dynasty.
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