Confused in Korea
Writing in the New York Times, Aiden Foster-Carter is sad that South Koreans won't agree with his analysis of what's most likely to annihilate them:
Knowing what to be scared of is, sadly, a skill we all need. But South Koreans seem a bit confused about this, judging from what's making waves in Seoul right now.
According to Foster-Carter, South Koreans are angry about the U.S. military presence when they ought to be angry at North Korea. (They have to choose one.) His analysis? South Koreans are confused.
Leaving aside the question of why the Times would commission a British policy wonk to tell us what an Asian peninsula full of literate people is thinking, this is a pretty disingenuous reading of South Korea's discomfort with U.S. policy. If South Koreans actually think a direct attack from the U.S. is likelier than one from Dear Leader, well, that's a problem. But it's fairly clear that Koreans fear the U.S., in feeding Kim's militant paranoia, makes North Korea more dangerous. The U.S. does this by, say, listing North Korea among three countries it would love to see regime change in, then going ahead and changing the regime in one of those countries.
South Koreans have favored gradual engagement, with an eye toward reunification, for a long time. Maybe the Sunshine Policy is ultimately futile. But when U.S. neocons start talking about the need to "get tough" with North Korea the way we got tough with Iraq, the people most likely to die horrible deaths in the event of nuclear war get a little uncomfortable. I guess they're confused.