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The president has done it again. On a TV program broadcast Thursday night, he slammed the ¡°arrogant attitude¡± of people who worry that the handover of wartime operational control of Korean troops from the U.S. will endanger the country¡¯s security. Their feeling that supporters of past dictatorship alone are patriots ¡°is not helpful for the future of the nation.¡± He demanded, ¡°Do you think that democracy activists are unwilling to or incapable of protecting the nation?¡±
Those who oppose our sole exercise of operational control, then, are supporters of dictatorship, and those favor it are champions of democracy. Even over a vital question of national security, he divided the nation into "us" and "them." This administration's first foreign minister, first defense minister, first ambassador to the U.S. and first presidential defense and security adviser all expressed concerns about the chief executive's obsession with ¡°independence¡± for which he railroaded through the operational control issue. Does this mean he formed his entire first diplomatic and security lineup from a band of dictator-worshippers?
¡°South Korea takes back operational control because it is the right thing to do,¡± the president said. The growing danger of war is one thing, he said, and operational control is another. Under the Korea U.S. Combined Forces Command the two allies jointly exercise operational control, and its deterrent effect is among the best in the world. No war must ever break out in our land. That is why we should not take over sole operational control until a lasting peace has been declared and assured. But the president says the risk of war has nothing to do with operational control.
On Korea-U.S. relations, the president said if the U.S. president and responsible ministers officially say there are no problems, then there are no problems. Korea-U.S. relations must be managed in a more grown-up manner. Everyone knows that relations must be beyond repair before they reach a stage where even the U.S. president and responsible ministers say there are problems in relations. The ambassador for international affairs and security, Moon Jung-in, who is said to advise the chief executive on foreign policy, said, "Our relations with the U.S. are serious." The New York Times quoted a U.S. official¡¯s barbed comment that the gap in perceptions between Korea and the U.S. is as wide as the East. It is simply juvenile to believe everything is fine because the U.S. president then makes some polite noise about how nice things are.
Koreans heard the president say that our sole exercise of operational control means the retrieval of our national sovereignty, and many were enthusiastic. But they changed their minds when they listened to the concerns of former defense ministers, armed forces veterans, intellectuals, former foreign ministers and vice ministers, former police chiefs, Protestant ministers and other prominent figures. Roh Moo-hyun alone, perhaps because he has shut his ears for good, is still banging on about independence.
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