Dongguk University Suspends Controversial Academic Poison Hoax Targets Leftist Academic, Justice Minister Academic Questioned Over Pro-Pyongyang Remarks Historian Steps Up Attack on U.S. Gadfly Academic Convicted Over N.Korea Remarks

In a lecture in Incheon last year, Kang said, "Had the United States not intervened, the Korean War would have ended in a month with the death toll in both South and North less than 10,000. But 3.99 million more people died additionally because of the American intervention. The U.S. is the main culprit in the war and Douglas MacArthur its advance guard." Kang’s regret that a North Korea-led communist unification failed is evident in every line of his remarks. At the time, he was already being tried for groveling in the visitor’s book at Kim Il-sung’s birthplace of Mansudae, “Let’s achieve unification by succeeding to the spirit” of the great leader’s hometown.

Members of this administration have defended Kang's remarks as falling under academic freedom and freedom of expression. But the court ruled such gems of Kangian insight as calling MacArthur a warmonger and his description of North Korean maritime intrusions in 2002 as “proper crossings” are not academic discourse but incendiary pro-North Korean propaganda. The court, however, decided to suspend the sentence since Korean society is healthy enough to bear discussing ideologies in the market of ideas, and that the verdict itself is likely to be punishment enough given its impact on Kang’s professional standing.

The question is whether our universities are capable of filtering out anti-American gadflies like Kang who taint the name of learning with their slander of the Republic of Korea and its history. Their failure so far has meant that pseudo-scholars like Prof. Kang and his ilk have had a free hand to confuse the country, mislead their students and stir up civic groups outside the campus.