William P.
San Francisco Bay Area 26 minutes agoBrilliant article. Yet, I disagree that "...South Korean government, which speaks only of a solution of dialogue and peace in this situation of sharp confrontation,...". After all, the South Korean government has placed itself at the mercy of the US defense. In addition, it participates in military exercises right at the DMZ to the annoyance of the North.
How are these actions consistent with "speaks only of a solution of dialogue and peace..."? While its words speak of peace, South Korean actions (or, at least, those of its government) speak of military power. Its alliance with the US instead bespeaks of policy that fears N Korea more than the US.
Michael
is a trusted commenter North Carolina 37 minutes agoA beautiful and moving piece. The tragedy is that, throughout world history, it is strictly those with uncontrolled ego who determine the course of world events, and despite mankind's ingenuity and capacity for human compassion, they will ultimately doom the planet. War, all war, despite all pretense to the contrary, has always come down to the tragic and ultimately fatal human flaws of ego and greed. Current times are no exception, except in the fact that now mankind has the technological capability to completely destroy the planet. We should all shudder, because none will survive.
Bruce Rozenblit
is a trusted commenter Kansas City, MO 56 minutes agoThink about Iraq. Think about Saddam Hussein. He was brutal, but sane. He understood the limits of his power. He did not have any weapons of mass destruction. His army was weak. His people did not want war. We had war with Saddam Hussein and look what happened. The entire region fell apart. The casualties and refugees number in the tens of millions. Destruction is everywhere.
Now think about Kim Jong Un. He is even more brutal than Hussien. He does have WMD. He is insane. He does not understand the limits of his power. His nation has one of the largest armies in the world. They are highly trained and most important, highly motivated. His entire population worships him and will follow him into battle. There are many thousands of heavy artillery pieces set to rain down mass death on an instant notice.
Now form an image of George Bush in your mind. OK. Now think about Donald Trump. Consider every aspect of his personality. Consider how his mind works.
Add it all up. If all of the ingredients of the Bush/Hussein led to horrible loss of life and property, how can all of the ingredients of the Kim Jong Un/Trump conflict lead to anything less? It will be much quicker because the WMD will kill more people much, much faster. I guess some would consider that progress.
Tansu Otunbayeva
Palo Alto, California 1 hour ago"We only wanted to change society through the quiet and peaceful tool of candlelight". I cried when I read that.
***********************************************************************Greenie
Vermont 1 hour agoWhat a beautiful article. You clearly can see the humanity that resides in all, even "the other". But sad to say it appears that far too many government leaders are playing a different game. Add to it the desires of the military on all sides to try out their "toys" and it's a prescription for carnage.
I too believe that most North Koreans desire a life no different than you in the south do.They want the same things for their families. It seems though as if the hopes and desires of ordinary people don't count for much.
I pray that a peaceful end to this comes as did the fall of the Berlin wall and the reunification of Germany. War is so rarely the answer. It surely is not here.
Yoo Kwang-On
Chicago 12 hours agoYes, Mr. Han, "( All Koreans) understand that any solution that is not peace is meaningless" but Trump does not.
**********************************************************************Abdullah Sinirlioglu
Germany 12 hours ago„We understand that any solution that is not peace is meaningless and that 'victory' is just an empty slogan, absurd and impossible.“
This is a concrete truth with regard to every major conflict in our world today - from the Korean Peninsula to the middle east.
Jon_ny
NYC, ny 12 hours agocomplacency is better word to describe the attitude.
I find it most interesting that the US and global financial markets have a degree of complacency never before seen. there is always risk in finance... but not apparently today.
is the South Korean situation and the stock market experiencing the calm before the storm. just as the gulf region had said that hurricanes are no problem and a possible effect of climate change and warmer water means nothing or is made up and fake news.
Mark Rcca
Washington dc 12 hours agoWe should recall our soldiers currently based in South Korea, and let South Korea lead the dialogue with their neghbor. If they need our help, they should state exactly what they need - because what we have been doing for the last decades isn't helping. If they want to buy nuclear weapons, fine. If they want to buy or build missile defense systems, fine too. Finally, if they want to go to war with NK and need additional troops, having exhausted their population limits for conscription, we can provide reserve forces, BUT their troops will engage first; out troops will engage once they begin to exhaust their own forces. If they want only diplomacy, that's fine too. But without our defense umbrella.
dude
Philadelphia 12 hours agoI fear that it is going to be this week. I do hope to be wrong. To those who voted for Trump, you will be responsible; however, unfortunately you will not be held accountable.
***************************************************************************Pepperman
Philadelphia 12 hours agoHaving served in Korea, I have some understanding of their potiential destruction. The writer is incorrect in calling hostile action a proxy war. That may have been true prior to 1991. Once Mr. Kim aimed his nuclear weapons toward the US, and boasted about destroying entire American cities, the stakes have changed. Sadly it appears the Mr. Kim has the upper to get what he wants.
Jake Wagner
Los Angeles 12 hours agoTowards the end of the nineteenth century, central Europe was ruled by three Great Kaisers, Wilhelm of Germany, Franz Josef of Austria, and Nicholas ii of Russia. The Great Kaisers would socialize with one another, their families intermarried. They would argue about lesser states much like ordinary folk talk about winning checkers.
Then there was an unfortunate 1914 assassination in Sarajevo. The Kaisers argued that in case of war it was only the little people who would die. They practiced diplomacy and demonstrated incompetence. All three were gone by the end of the war.
Nicholas II wanted to show his generals how leadership was done. But he was so inept that the people turned against him. He and his family were executed at Yekaterinburg.
Nobody knows what will happen to Donald Trump if Kim Jong Un drops a nuclear bomb say on Guam. But my guess his future life in this eventuality will not be pleasant. He may curse the gods for not giving him a lesser fate.
The shame will be unbearable.
Let's up he listens to the advisors who try to help him.
Bayou Houma
Houma, Louisiana 14 hours agoWhile some leaders want to make their country great again by making war on the Korean Peninsula great again, perhaps it is time for the Koreans to make Korea great as one country by making peace great again through negotiations to unify the politically divided Korean people. For a nuclear war would only make atrocities committed by both sides great again, in the sense of a major disaster for human survival on earth. And we know that both sides would commit such atrocities if they even fought another conventional war, but only Koreans would suffer in that war. And now South Koreans are beginning to understand that they were never our allies, but only our buffers to our old communist and WW II rivals.
“The Korean War,” Han Kang writes, “was a proxy war enacted on the Korean Peninsula by neighboring great powers. ...Only recently has it come to light that in this tragic process were several instances of the American Army, officially our allies, massacring South Korean citizens.” One need not wonder why it took so long after the cease-fire over a half-century ago to come to light. Concealing such an atrocity only served the interests of the United States and its Korean lackeys against the interest of a peaceful resolution of the divided governments. One hopes that North Koreans see that in South Koreans like Han Kang there is more that unites them than divides them.
Jay
Florida 14 hours agoTrump has never seen war. He has never worn the uniform of any military service of the United States. No member of Trump's family has ever experienced war or military service. Trump has also always been able to bully and coerce anyone he pleased with tough talk and an army of lawyers. But an army of lawyers doesn't die on the battlefield. Now Trump is commander in chief. He commands the most capable and powerful military in the history of the world. The American military is more powerful than the next ten added together.
Trump is frustrated, angry and unable to deal rationally with North Korea or any other nation. He doesn't and can't grasp why bullying on the international level with other nations doesn't work. He doesn't understand national pride. He doesn't understand that bullying compels other nations not to want to negotiate but to retaliate. Colin Powell former Secretary of State once said "The United States of America does not threaten and does not bluff." He was speaking as the U.S. was mobilizing forces to push Saddam Hussein out of Kuwait.
So far no American forces have been mobilized. But, once that happens someone needs to explain to Donald Trump that bluffing is at an end. If Donald would shut his mouth maybe cooler heads can prevail and we can avoid mobilizing the ultimate threat to North Korea. Let's not allow Trump to push North Korea to fear that invasion is imminent. The leaders of America need to speak out and so do the American people.
Sam Chittum
90065 14 hours agoPlease continue to speak for the people of South Korea. I am dismayed and angered whenever read the comments of those who focus only on the continental United States in relation to the threat posed by the North Korea nuclear build-up. It is wrong, morally and politically, to applaud the warlike posture of our president in response to NK missile launches. Americans (except for those living in South Korea and Guam) would not be the first or primary victims if this pointless mutual aggression between Mr. Trump and Kim Jong-un gets out of control. The president is callously gambling with the lives of non-Americans, which makes his provocations and brinkmanship all the more despicable. It is the innocent people living on the Korean peninsula who will die if war erupts--their homes, trees and wildlife decimated by artillery fire or worse. Diplomacy is not cheap or pointless. It is the only sane way forward, as you explain: "We understand that any solution that is not peace is meaningless and that 'victory' is just an empty slogan, absurd and impossible."
Q
New York 17 hours agoThank you. Out of all the coverage of the tensions on the Korean penninsula over the last few months, this is far and away the most unforgettable and important piece I've seen published anywhere. Someone get a copy of this into the hands of everyone in the American government so they don't forget what's at stake.
