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Ending the vicious cycle of political revenge

Published: 25 Dec. 2024, 19:13

Kim Sung-gon
The author is the head of Korean chapter of Movimento Politico per l’Unità (MPPU) — Politics for Unity and a former secretary-general of the National Assembly.

When will the embarrassing history of Korean presidents end? Many people are criticizing President Yoon Suk Yeol for his recent decision to declare martial law and investigative authorities are looking into Yoon and his associates responsible for the crisis. However, we must look at the root causes of the situation and use it as an opportunity to upgrade Korean politics. There are many reasons for this, but I would like to look for the root cause in the human heart, particularly the hostility between the factions.

First, let us review how Yoon became a presidential candidate and won the election. In fact, it was the administration of the Democratic Party (DP), including President Moon Jae-in, that turned a nameless prosecutor into a celebrity. They named Yoon as the prosecutor-general because he had vigorously investigated the corruptions of the Park Geun-hye administration to the point that the conservatives were practically annihilated. While the Moon administration stressed the sense of justice that led to the massive cleanup of the corruption scandal involving Park and her associate Choi Soon-sil, hostility toward conservatives may have also played a role in this anti-corruption campaign.

There is an old saying that when all objects reach their peak, they return to their original position and everything in the world turns upside down when taken to extremes. Conservatives, who had been holding a grudge against liberals, have labeled the Moon administration as pro-North Korea. Then, they recruited Yoon, a former prosecutor-general who was opposing Moon at the time, as a mercenary to run as the People Power Party’s presidential candidate. Yoon’s victory in the last presidential election was largely due to the conservatives’ hostility toward the leftist group, although active support from conservatives also played a role.

Yoon defeated Lee Jae-myung by an extremely narrow margin of 0.73 percentage points. Despite many media calls for bipartisan cooperation, Yoon antagonized the opposition by labeling them as antistate and pro-North Korean forces that threaten liberal democracy. Yoon’s biased leadership ultimately led to the DP’s victory in the April 10 general election, making it an overwhelming majority in the National Assembly. The DP then used their majority to pressure Yoon to impeach top officials and cut budgets.

Then Yoon failed to resolve the situation politically and made an unthinkable move by declaring martial law. In other words, Yoon’s hostility toward the opposition blinded him, clouded his judgment and ultimately brought him down. The old saying that when all objects reach their peak, they return to their original position came true once again.

What we can learn from the latest situation is that excessive animosity between political camps is ruining the country’s politics. This has deep historical roots, including the extreme rivalry between the left and right after liberation and the Korean War. Even now, ideological hostility is at the root of many conflicts in Korean society.

Many people criticize the current presidential system as the cause of Korea’s embarrassing history and argue that the country needs to urgently amend the Constitution to decentralize power. They have a point. However, no matter how good the system is, the psychological problem of hostility toward political enemies cannot be resolved easily. It was hoped that the passage of the National Assembly Advancement Act would eliminate physical violence in the National Assembly and ease political fights. Of course, physical fights have disappeared, but the psychological confrontation between the ruling and opposition parties has actually deepened.

Hostility is one of the universal emotions of all human beings. In the preamble of UNESCO’s Constitution, which was written in response to the devastation of World War II, there is a phrase that says, “That since wars begin in the minds of men, it is in the minds of men that the defenses of peace must be constructed.” This statement applies to Korean politics today. Hostility is often sugarcoated as a sense of justice, but justice that lacks a love for humanity often becomes violent and can lead to further social devastation.

It is my earnest hope that the latest impeachment crisis will change Korean politics from a politics of hostility that kills each other to a politics of love that saves each other. The vicious cycles of hostility inviting more hostility must be broken.

Chiara Lubich, the founder of the Focolare Movement, which emphasizes the universal brother-sisterhood of all human beings, stressed that politics is love. She said a true politician must be able to love the people who do not support him or her and love political parties that have different beliefs from his or her own as a sibling would. Hopefully, the next president of Korea will be a person with a giant heart who can embrace all people and political parties while serving justice.

Translation by the Korea JoongAng Daily staff.