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It is the morning marking 55 years since the Korean War began, without a declaration of war by North Korea. Amid the rumble of cannon fire, the Korean People¡¯s Army led by its tanks invaded the South, leaving Southerners little time to save themselves. They say that in the 37 months of the Korean War, 4.5 million people were killed or wounded from a population of no more than 30 million Koreans -- that is 1.5 out of 10, or one member of every five-person household.
Nobody can avoid a war, and this is especially so for young men. According to statistics, about 220,000 South Korean soldiers were killed during the war. Factor in student soldiers and teenage soldiers who were given neither uniform nor rank, the number is much greater. Yet that rough statistic does a disservice to those who died. Is not the today in which we live the tomorrow those who died so young dreamed about? We have our present thanks to the futures sacrificed by those who protected the nation on the battlefield; we borrowed their futures.
Can a rough statistic capture the meaning of their death? Each individual who died in the Korean War was unique; none can be contained in a bare figure. They were young people whose hearts beat, who were the son of a mother and father, the husband of a wife, the brother of siblings.
Who can put them to rest and console their souls? That is the responsibility of the nation, the role of leaders, and the job of politicians. In East and West, from antiquity, remembering those who lost their lives defending the nation was the same as ruling the county. While extolling those who were lost, the leaders of the nation gave meaning to their deaths, reassured us that they were not in vain, and thereby united the nation. While consoling the souls of those killed, they planted the meaning of the nation in the hearts of the living.
There is a book titled ¡°Lend Me Your Ears¡±. It starts off with a speech from 400 B.C. by the Athenian statesman Pericles eulogizing the dead of the Peloponnesian War. A few pages later there is a speech by U.S. President Abraham Lincoln at Gettysburg, praising those who fell during the Civil War. They are evidence that only leaders who know how to remember the dead can unite the living.
By listening to the speeches of presidents of this country remembering those who fell during the Korean War, did we ever earnestly feel anew how precious the nation is? Have we ever seen this nation¡¯s president call the names of those who fell during the West Sea naval battle three years ago, consoling their departed souls?
But now? Do we see the president bow his head before the portraits of those eight men brutally killed, not by the enemy but by one of their comrades at a guard post in the DMZ? It is not too late: even now President Roh Moo-hyun can come to their side and console their souls. A great president is one who can give comfort to his own people while standing up to enemy. The other way round he is nothing.
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