2002 Newsletter

Watch Ove Wildlife in Korea's DMZ Corridor as Railroad is Connected.

Dr. Chung Mong Joon Member of National Assembly, Republic of Korea

It is my privilege and pleasure to be here for the DMZ Forum.
When I was asked to speak at this forum, I was intrigued with the name. Then I was reminded of the movie JSA, the story of a tragic friendship between North Korean and South Korean soldiers at Panmunjom, the truce village in the middle of the Demilitarized Zone.

I then asked the question: What is DMZ? It is something that has split the Korean Peninsula since the Korean War ended in 1953. It is the most fortified border on Earth, with more than a million soldiers including tens of thousands of American soldiers facing each other. It is a place dotted with land mines, razor wire and tank bunkers. But of course much of it is also a great wildlife sanctuary, which has hardly been touched by humans in almost 50 years.

In the letter that Professor Seung-ho Lee wrote me, I was told that the DMZ Forum promotes tension-reduction in the Korean DMZ through cooperative environmental programs.
What I get out of all these thoughts is a sense of irony-irony surrounding the Korean Peninsula. In the movie JSA, soldiers who are supposed to be enemies develop friendship. And friendship ends in tragedy. The DMZ in Korea was the result of a devastating War. But the fortification of DMZ has given birth to one of Asias great wildlife sanctuaries. Now the DMZ Forum is trying to promote peace with the nature sanctuary.
The story I want tell you today is also full of irony-it is a story of two very proud nations which are trying to bury their old resentments and pull off a great project together, called the 2002 World Cup.

As somebody said, a country can choose its friends and allies, but it cant choose its neighbors. Whether we like it or not, Korea and Japan are destined to be neighbors, and they have to learn to live together as neighbors. According to historians, there were abundant exchanges between the two countries even before the birth of Christ. Japan took shape as a nation around the 6th and 7th centuries A.D., in the process of which the people from the Korean kingdom Paekche are known to have played a key role. What is important to learn from history is that throughout history, we have had a longer period of good relations than that of unhappy relationship.

It was since the Hideyoshi invasion that Korea-Japan relationship deteriorated to the lowest depth. The 35-year period between 1910 and 1945 when Japan ruled over Korea with iron fist was a death knell to any hope of improved relationship between the two countries. But even after the end of Second World War, there have been occasions when the relationship had a chance of improvement and even revival. During the Seoul Olympics of 1988, there was a semblance of Korea boom in Japan. After the election of President Kim Dae Jung, there seemed to be something of a honey-moon in Korea-Japan relations. The 2002 World Cup, which was to be co-hosted by Korea and Japan, was expected to cap the evolving friendship. Looking back, and looking ahead, all it takes is a sincere and honest reflection of behavior and a degree of respect and consideration for neighbors on the part of Japan.

As I looked at the ups and downs of Korea-Japan relations, I noticed an interesting pattern. The relationship between the two countries improved when the fortunes of Korea was on the upswing. Each time Korea and the Korean government seemed to be strong and robust, Japan showed more respect and greater regard for Korea and the Koreans. That was the case at the time of the Seoul Olympics and when Korea seemed to recover from the economic crisis under the administration of President Kim Dae-Jung. The lesson we can draw from this observation is that, in order to receive respect from the Japanese and therefore good relations between Korea and Japan, Korea has to be strong and robust. It is also a good lesson for our football team that in order to stage a successful World Cup, we must have a strong football team that can be respected by the Japanese team.

During our World Cup bidding process, people asked us how we would feel about co-hosting. We accepted the co-host without hesitation and indeed with enthusiasm because we felt that it could lead to a new relationship between Korea and Japan. Through the first major event of the 21st century, it could also lead to new Asia based on cooperation and partnership.
The Asian region with half of the global population has diverse religion, culture and languages. In the past, the conflicting national interests have prevented the Asian leaders from getting together under a common cause. Now football is the common language shared by all Asian nations. I hope that the 2002 World Cup will provide the impetus for our region to move beyond the current status and move toward developing a sense of community in Asia.

Henry Kissinger said recently that while Europe has already entered the 21st century in regional relations, Asia is still living in the 20th century. What he probably meant is that Europe has successfully formed the European Union, which acts as a trans-national regional government while Asian countries are still preoccupied with such things as regional hegemony, balance of power and national rivalries.

For example, take the relationship between China and the United States. Ten years ago, there was a heated debate in America as to whether China was to be contained or engaged. Under the Clinton Administration, it seemed as if the United States was settling for engagement, a policy aimed at inducing China into the mainstream of the world through expansion of dialogue exchanges and cooperation.

At the moment, the geo-political situation in North East Asia is complicated by the developing rivalry between China and Japan. There seems to be no real love lost between these two countries. Japan is nervous about the implications of rapidly growing Chinese economy and potential military threat that it represents. China worries about growing military capabilities and trends of resurging nationalism in Japan. In an age of the Internet, NGOs, WTO, and the First World Cup in Asia, such preoccupation in national rivalries only underscores how much Asia is lagging behind Europe in shedding burdens of geopolitical preoccupations.

The persistence of the 19th and 20th century geopolitics in Asia is especially inimical to the interest of the non-major powers such as Korea, which is trying to achieve simultaneously democracy, economic development and globalization. In an environment of geopolitical rivalries, however, nations tend to opt for unilateralism or bilateralism rather than multilateralism. They also tend to experience the rise of nationalism at the expense of internationalism.

Korea has every reason to hope that the relationship between China and the United States, as well as between China and Japan, will improve so that Asia can finally come out of the pre-globalization geopolitical mode. We want to be a catalyst for peace and prosperity in our neighborhood.

Thank you.

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