South Korea Propaganda Still Strong

I read an article today entitled "South Korean comics warn of North’s threat" in the FT. I lived in S. Korea in 1984/5 while working for the US Air Force. I was flabbergasted by the regular routine of "news" shown on TV that kept the South Korean population in constant fear of the North's impending invasion.

Not having lived there now for 25 years, my guess from this article is after the first democratic elections there in 1987, the overt propaganda by the state died down and from that time South Koreans have been able to concentrate on creating an industrial nation with international companies and first rate technology instead of being beaten down by authoritarian regimes with threats of the boogie man from the north.

So I was quite amused, surprised, disappointed and baffled when I read this article about comics created to "re-educate" the youth in South Korea about the "threat" to the north. The only "threat" from the north in Korea is that the people there will someday rise up and overthrow their dictatorship and over run the south to get out of the hellhole of the north.

It is high time that the South stops propagandizing about the north as a threat. If the north decided to "invade" the south tomorrow, the main fear would be that after an initial surge, the military of the north would immediately turn on their despotic leaders and reverse the incursion back on the north. They would then proceed to hang the leader and his cronies.

The south would have a huge humanitarian mission on its hands unlike anything that has been witnessed in the last 50 years. They would need billions of dollars of international support to manage the influx of refugees and to invest in the north to begin to bring them back from the dark ages.

So why the new comic book now? The only thing about North Korea I am 100% sure of is it's importance to the United States as a "strategic partner". Yes, you read that correctly. North Korea is one of our most important strategic allies in East Asia. Without their despotic leaders, nuclear games, authoritative government and repressed population, we would have no good reason to have 35,000 or so troops plus the major contingent of military "advisors" in the South to hedge ourselves against the real reason those troops are there, China. The ignorant, ethnocentric and paranoid powers in Washington still have 19th century mentalities towards world power and politics and "fears" of China emerging as a power that would somehow undermine US "dominance" in the world.

Truth be told, our ignorant, paranoid and ethnocentric Washington power circles are single-handedly destroying our prominence on the world stage as I write this. History will show that during one of the most important times in modern development, where the world is witnessing the emergence of secondary nations to economic relevance and power, Washington was busy spending trillions of dollars in pointless wars waged against people with no education or industrial capacity whatsoever. We are defeating ourselves before any real challenge has begun and South Korea is continuing to play a part in the internationally destructive role Washington has set up for itself and it's soon to be poverty stricken people.