[Editorial] An Unproductive Summit

When U.S. President George W. Bush reaffirmed security promises about South Korea and his principles on transfer of wartime operational control at the Korea-U.S. summit, the ruling Uri party went ecstatic. Uri Party chairman Kim Geun-tae said, “The conservative force’s security instigation has turned out to be a word game,” and a spokesman Woo Sang-ho said in a commentary, ‘The maneuvers of the conservative force that is capitalizing the security issues to their advantage in an election should be stopped.” What they are saying cannot even be considered to have come out from a ruling party. That is an unbelievable distortion and the height of irresponsibility. It seems like the true nature of the conservative left, which had been disguised as independency, has been revealed.

What Mr. Bush said about the U.S. being responsible for the Korean peninsula’s security just came out of courtesy, conscious of the Korea-U.S. relationship, which is currently not very comfortable. When Bush said that the issue of wartime operational control should not be a political one, it is more of a warning to the current administration about labeling those who were concerned about the exclusive exercise of the wartime operational control as the conservative force which is still stuck to the cold war.

Nonetheless, the Uri Party gave a clap to that, thinking of it as a warning to those who are against the redemption of control. How can they be called a ruling party when they accuse those who are concerned about a security vacuum that the redemption of the operational control would result in, as instigators of the conservative force and when they falsely say that even Mr. Bush has issued a warning to that.

Even a while ago, Chairman Kim said that the conservative force’s greed is revealing itself and that the project for the conservative power to come into office is put in force. What on earth do the concerns about the security have to do with the conservatism? This is disrespect for the people and is uncovering the true nature of the incapable left which is just good at political attacks and politicization. We assume that we can no longer let them take charge of state administration.

The general opinion is that this Korea-U.S. summit was fruitless. The agreement on the “comprehensive approach” to North Korean issues is deemed a makeshift for two leaders to avoid downright discords. Nonetheless, the ruling party is just praising themselves, saying that the summit was meaningful. I wonder if they are even aware that many people take a skeptical view of the comprehensive approach, translating it as meaning, “You take your own path, and so I will.”