This is a very serious insult not simply to a particular lawmaker but to our republic and our sense of self-respect. Our citizens have frequently suffered humiliation at the hands of North Korean authorities at Mt.Kumgang and the inter-Korean Kaesong Industrial Complex. Well-intentioned South Koreans sustained bitter insults from North Koreans, including group detention, after they took pictures, had political conversations with North Koreans or asked them about their living conditions. In some instances, they even paid penalties. They have been and are being treated like potential criminals.

But our authorities are hushing these matters up; sometimes siding with the North, they blame the tourists or officials concerned. In most instances, they find an excuse, like the case this time. Far from protesting with dignity against the North's improper demands or excessive force and pushing the principle through, they sometimes give the impression of pandering to the whims of North Korean authorities.

I wouldn’t like to tell them not to treat us this way because of the money and goods we’ve poured into the North, because I believe that we didn’t do this for the sake of respectful treatment from the North Korean authorities. Nonetheless, I feel bound to recall that we've given the North support equivalent to nearly W6 trillion (US$1=W944) between the Kim Dae-jung administration and now. I point this out since, having given them so much out of our own pockets for whatever reason and in whatever circumstances, we don’t deserve to be slapped in the face.

All this arises from a basic error in our North Korea policy. Indiscriminate handouts, shuffling for fear of incurring North Korea’s displeasure, and the opportunism of South Korean politicians in the quest for political gifts from the North, have prompted a somewhat high-handed attitude from Kim Jong-il and his henchmen. It was that misguided attitude of ours that made the North Korean forces feel they can ruthlessly lord it over their own people and walk a path of isolation in the world.

Government officials here often mention the sense of self-respect. The foundation of the posture this government takes toward the U.S. and Japan is said to be a sense of pride. Operation control of our troops is a question of pride, they reason. But this sense of self-respect disappears in front of Kim Jong-il. Under previous administrations, North Korea, whenever occasion presented itself, continued a propaganda offensive aimed at threatening our security and destroying our lives and property. But even then, the North dreaded our defense and never looked down on the South. But in the past decade, that has changed. North Korea has changed its way of dealing with the South in the past decade. They've learned it's much more effective to threaten the South with military means like the naval clashes in the West Sea with one hand, and cast a dampener over the South's spirits by shouting and snatching money and goods from it with the other. One natural result was the humiliation of the lawmaker.

Former president Kim Dae-jung, referring to the handover of wartime operational control, said recently, "It's our misfortune that we don't have the initiative in issues concerning the peninsula." He was referring to the U.S. But if the subject is not the U.S., which has no territorial designs on our land, but North Korea, which is watching out for a chance to bestride the entire peninsula, the remarks hit the nail on the head. That we have transferred or lost our initiative to North Korea is our biggest misfortune, and it will eventually result in tremendous pain for North Koreans. A North Korean officer harangued Cha, "Can't you stand up straight?" The words seem to have been addressed directly to the whole of South Korea. They are also the words we would like to address to ourselves.