A Retired General's Painstaking Thought
We all might be shocked and ashamed if a tourist from a country we didn't know much about was attacked by a terrorist. Nevertheless, what a pity and horrible incident this was!!
The United States Ambassador to Korea, Mr. Mark Lippert was slashed in the face by an assailant at a breakfast forum sponsored by a civic organization in the capital early on in March 5, 2015.
The ambassador was invited to a breakfast meeting as a guest speaker. It was not simply an attack on the ambassador himself but a covertly schemed assault on both the Republic of Korea and the United States.
I personally don't understand when and how our country Korea's social and political situation has changed like this. With a deep feeling of regret, I wish the ambassador a quick recovery and would like to sincerely bow to the entire people of the United States.
As we all know, South Korea is the very country that has uniquely accomplished remarkable and economical success in such a short period of time since the Korean War ended in 1953.
For such achievement, every Korean has brought maximum effort to contribute to the national development completely suppressing individual desires, which has finally led to today's prosperity that we all are thankfully enjoying now. In this context, I strongly urge our countrymen to stand tall with pride by marching forward, waving our national flag and maintaining ever tightened alliance with the United States.
Witnessing the horrible terror committed in broad daylight to the U.S. Ambassador, I would like to reveal the following historical facts to alert our countrymen to the revealed facts.
1. When the Jeju April 3rd Revolt broke out in Korea, the Dong-A Daily newspaper in Korea quoted "Be rest assured, General Kim Il-sung has already advanced on the city of Mokpo". It was a complete demagoguery, offering a reward of 10,000 won for a police officer and 20,000 won for a police detective. At that time a bag of rice (80kg) costed just 300 won.
2. A de facto hidden story directly connected with the above instigation is land reform carried out by the former USSR taken place on March 6, 1946 in preoccupied North Korea. Knowing the information on free land reform, mobs in the south believed that it could be possible for them to purge pro-Japanese land owners and oppose the May 10th election for free land distribution by attacking police officers in the South.
3. However, what we were able to confirm later was that the land and the real estate distributed to the people at no cost were changed to collective farms. Accordingly it was obvious that innocent people in the north had to confront with severe fate to live as slaves applauding the hereditary succession of three generations.
4. On the other hand, the US Army Military Government yielded all liberty to the people in the South. Consequently Dr. Seung-man Rhee was able to conduct land reform on compensation through the National Assembly right after the national foundation on August 15, 1948, which became a basic ground of today's private property system in the South.
For this reason, the ROK deserves to be the legitimate government on the Korean peninsula not the North Korean regime that started as a Soviet Union's colonial puppet from the beginning. So their fragrant demagoguery on the free land distribution that North Korean regime had long cried out for should be denied forever.
5. In connection with North Korean espionage in operation in the South, we have found an eye-opening fact. The communist regime that kept insisting even South Korea had invaded them on June 25, 1950 (Korean War) has officially admitted their espionage operations in the South in a special coverage of their house organ, Rodong Shinmun.
Making no single issue on the sudden recognition, the ROK government agreed to hold summit talks with North Korea even twice. What is strange is that the special report dated May 26,1997 which raised heroic accomplishments led by so called hero No.1 Sung Shi-baek, was released immediately after the Supreme Court's ruling (April 17, 1997) on the May 18 Gwangju Revolt. What does the silence stand for?
6. A hidden fact that makes it possible to imagine the scale of the espionage operation conducted by so called hero No.1 is that right after currency reform carried out by Soviet Union Military Government December 1, 1947 in the North, enormous amount of abolished currency brought to the South. Being disguised as a trader between South and North, Sung Shi-baek was able to transport the scrapped bank notes into the South while performing secret mission as Kim Il-sung's special agent.
7. Irresponsible indifference and silence over North Korea's espionage operation have resulted in various mysterious events for the last 17 years in the South. It is surely believed that the recent assailment case of the US Ambassador committed by Kim Ki-jong has been caused by such public indifference.
Such political ambiguity was a prime cause of my resignation from the 4.3 Committee. As a retired army major general and a resigned member of the 4.3 committee, I would like to keenly know what does the 17-year-long indifference means to our society. I would appreciate it if our countrymen would pay particular attention to the fact that North Korea has openly accepted their espionage operations in the South.
Han kwang-duk
Major General(Retired)
