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At a foreign airport several years ago, an airliner tuned back from the runway and let the passengers get off, saying the plane had developed problems. A few hours passed, and no explanation from the airline. Then loud voices were heard; some passengers were arguing with airline staff at the counter. They were Koreans. One of them said, "If we keep silent, we'll lose. Make some noise." Though for lack of courage I didn't join them, I was just angry as they were.
Other passengers were just looking on, sitting on chairs or lying on the floor with their bags as pillows. Quite a while passed before I noticed that the number of waiting passengers was reduced by half. As the plane was unable to take off, the airline was handing out hotel coupons. Later I noticed that the remaining passengers were mostly Koreans. The airline seemed to have excluded them to the last.
I still can¡¯t forget the scene of the big empty airport lounge, with only the Koreans remaining. I cannot get rid of the sense that this is what Koreans are like on the international stage. The rekindled Dokdo issue and the mad cow disease uproar bring the airport lounge to mind.
The entire nation cheered when, in 1995, our government took firm steps over the Dokdo islets and said we would ¡°correct Japan¡¯s bad manners.¡± In a poll of entrepreneurs in the Asian region by a Hong Kong newspaper at the time, over 60 percent of respondents supported Japan. The reason: they felt Koreans caused the controversy. Though we got excited among ourselves, we in effect publicized that the Dokdo islets are disputed territory. The U.S. Board on Geographic Names revision of its description of Dokdo as ¡°undesignated sovereignty¡± may be the outcome of the accumulation of such publicity. Our successive governments and political parties have pandered to excited public sentiment and in the event played right in to Japan¡¯s hands.
A 2007 International Monetary Fund poll rated Japan's national status at 2.24 times its gross national product, and Korea's 0.29 times the size of its GDP. Japan's GDP is 4.5 times larger than ours, but Japan's national status is thus 35 times larger than Korea's. The BGN's revision of its description of Dokdo in Japan's favor is basically due to this enormous gap in national status.
That Japan's national status is more than twice its GDP means that so many world people favor Japanese style; that Korea's national status is less than a third of its GDP represents so many world people dislike Korean style. David Straub, former director of the Office of Korean Affairs and Japanese Affairs in the U.S. Department of State, asked in a recent contribution how Korean demonstrators' claim 'Dokdo is a Korean territory," painting blood on a picture of the Japanese prime minister, affect the image of Koreans. He inquired what benefits Korea will gain from its own style.
More than half of South Koreans think they will be affected by mad cow disease if they eat U.S. beef. "Our children will die!" mothers cry, and huge demonstrations take place day after day. One foreign businessman called them "ridiculous." His real reaction is probably even more severe.
If we indulge in our style of doing things without regard for the international community, blocking traffic, lying down on the streets, demonstrating, shouting, destroying things, writing petitions in blood, shaving our heads and burning people in effigy in protest, we have to be prepared not to care how the Dokdo islets are described.
At the margin of the world for 2000 years, Korea has managed to come a long way in the 40 years since it joined the international community. But if we remain mired in domestic wrangles with our current way of thinking and mode of behavior, we may not get any further. When we find ourselves alone, left behind in the airport lounge, the ladder to advanced country-status may have already been taken away.
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