Dear Mr. President Bush:

The North Korean regime is a variation of the dictatorial communistic governmental system which is unprecedented in human history and which is entirely wrong. The regime consists of a group of most inhumane gangsters that has committed, as a matter of routine, terrorism, torture and murder against its people over the 50 years since its establishment.  It can therefore be said that the regime of Kim Jong-il is a living museum of communistic dictatorship.  The totalitarian governmental system of North Korea has deprived its people of the inherent human rights to be enjoyed by all the people of modern democratic nations.  The father-son, Kim Il-sung and Kim Jung-il, have been deified.  All religions including Christianity, Confucianism, Buddhism and Islamism have been oppressed.  All rules of civilized societies have been discarded.  All persons who do not believe in the absolute dictatorship have been eradicated.  It is an absolute dictatorial regime full of ideological madness.  It is North Korea where all gods are deemed dead.

North Korea is thus a military gangster regime that does not have any moral and political legitimacy.  The regime is in essence a totalitarian military group that tries to survive by resorting to a desperate diplomacy threatening the world by means of massive destructive weapons while a countless number of its people are subjected to sacrifice through hunger, malnutrition and disease.  Such ruling structure is apparently the first of its kind not only in Korean history but also in human history, is the most wicked dictatorial regime, and amounts to a graveyard of inherent human rights.

The main factors for the tension between the South and North and for the eternal threat to peace lie in the North’s destructive military power and massive murderous weapons as well as its fundamentally anti-civilization ideology and system, its political oppression and its eradication of human rights.  It is the holy duty of the Korean intelligentsia and the peace lovers around the world to critically assess the crimes committed by that inhumane regime and to think about measures to counteract against it.  We therefore submit the following petition to Dear President Bush who works for peace and justice around the world. 

Dear Mr. President, we firmly believe that the highest priority agenda of the U.S. policy toward North Korea should be the restraint of massive nuclear weapons, the dissolution of Kim Jong-il’s one-man and totalitarian regime, democratization, and improvement of human rights. 

[The major issues to be examined include: first, whether the danger of war has been diminished as a result of the “Sunshine Policy” as well as the Pyongyang meeting and the June 15 communique and the subsequent developments in the South-North relationship; second, whether all these developments have contributed to making any progress toward the attainment of freedom and self-determination both in the South and the North and toward the improvement of general human rights; and third, what are the effect on the continuation of the North’s absolute dictatorship and what are the aftereffect on the politics in the South that have been brought about by the Pyongyang meeting.]

Dictatorial regime is an eternal enemy to peace.  There are many historical precedents showing that the adoption of a unilateral policy of goodwill and appeasement did by no means bring about positive results.  President Bush may recall that the Munich Agreement concluded in 1938 between Dictator Hitler and English Prime Minister Chamberlain and others did not only fail to bring about peace but resulted in enormously tragic developments.  President Kim Dae-jung, upon returning in excitement from his meeting with Kim Jong-il, said that the danger of war had disappeared forever from the Korean peninsular.  However, numerous Korean intelligentsia could not help but be worried about his statement recalling that Prime Minister Chamberlain made the same remarks when he returned to London after the conclusion of the Munich Agreement.

Between South Korea and North Korea there exist never-ceasing tensions and seeds of discord and conflict mainly because North Korea’s anti-civilization and oppressive regime and ideology can at any time lead to the outbreak of a war.  Besides, the particular characteristics of the military and communistic guerilla state make it difficult to establish a normal relationship.  Accordingly, any policy lacking a strictly mutual give-and-take based on economic criteria would be only a unilateral appeasement policy, which would counteract not only against the security of South Korea but also against the freedom and human rights of all people around the world.

The problem of human rights is interrelated to the fundamental characteristics of the North Korean regime.  The support of the international community to help North Korea can have the effect of preventing the tragic events occurring in the North only if it is tied up with substantive progress in the improvement of human rights. 

When the South-North relationship is viewed under the present juncture, its core issue of a fundamental nature may be defined as being related to how to deal with problems arising from either the breakdown or the continuation of the exclusiveregime of North Korea. The problem of the South-North relationship amounts to the problem of the North Korean regime, and this problem should not be transformed into the problem of supporting the North to enable it to continue its oppressive policies under the guise of appeasement and intercommunication.  With this core problem of the North Korean regime in mind, we wish to submit some observations that may be taken into account by the U.S. administration in implementing its policy toward North Korea.

The Pyongyang meeting of June last year was an event of propaganda that was skillfully orchestrated and controlled in accordance with Kim Jong-il’s scenario to the total exclusion of international press members from free countries.  It was thus possible for Kim Dae-jung and Kim Jong-il to produce the manipulated scenes of propaganda and incitement wherein they, emphasizing the same racial origin, acted with an appearance of appeasement as if the attainment  of peace was secured.  As a result, they covered up more important issues such as the problem of resolving the military confrontation that is prerequisite for the restraint of war or the problem of protecting basic human rights which is a core problem for the North, and to our surprise the North Korean logic about unification happened to be included in the joint communiqué. 

There was a consistent and thorough recognition of the perception that the dissolution of the antagonistic relationship and appeasement between the South and the North can be attained only by blindly adhering to the North Korean logic and by giving support to the North unconditionally.  While the normal reconciliation between the people of the South and the people of the North should start from the respect of human rights, the reconciliation implied in the meeting of Kim Dae-jung and Kim Jong-il can be characterized as signifying the moral and political respect and accommodation of the North Korean dictatorial regime. 

The unification of the South and the North can by no means be decided by Kim Dae-jung and Kim Jong-il alone.  The unification is a problem for all the constituent members of the Korean ethnic group.  Accordingly, it should be resolved by a free referendum, which is a general method of self-determination, after all the members of the Korean race have regained their individual rights of freedom and self-determination.  The nuclear weapons, missiles and chemical warfare weapons as well as traditional offensive military manpower of North Korea have been a serious threat not only to South Korea and its allied countries but also to East Asian countries and other free countries around the world.  North Korea is known as a rogue state that tries to extract aid and support by means of such threat.  Besides, even internally North Korea has been carrying out merciless terrorism and fear-politics against its people.

In pursuing his Sunshine Policy President Kim Dae-jung has committed the fundamental error of attempting to form a united regime between the communistic North and the democratic South by fabricating a false perception about the substance and true character of the North Korean regime, by upgrading morally its dictatorial government, and by covering up the totalitarian one-party regime as if it were a legitimate democratic government. 

The South Korean government has been contributing to the further expansion of the North Korean military power through unconditional aid and support for the North.  We need to secure a mechanism to safeguard against the development and expansion of missiles by the North.  Similarly, because of the North Korean military forces lined up for offensive purposes along the demilitarized zone, South Korea is constantly exposed to invasion by the North with a very short  warning time and we should be worried about this situation.  However, it seems that President Kim Dae-jung is not concerned about this.

The South Korean government apparently considers that it would be possible to negotiate with the North Korean regime such matters as reduction of the tension, reconciliation, and termination of the cold war.  However, unless a structural change in the North Korean regime precedes, the ideological confrontation between the two sides will continue to exist and, even within South Korea, there has emerged a new confusion and an ideological confrontation among the South Korean people.  The policy of President Kim Dae-jung to terminate the cold war is an unrealistic policy based on the assumption that the military and ideological confrontation and difference could be resolved by agreement with Kim Jong-il.  However, the cold war could not be terminated as long as the communistic regime of Kim Jong-il exists fundamentally. 

Taking advantage of the “reconciliation atmosphere” and under the pretext that the unification problem should be tackled autonomously by the South and the North, the North Korean regime seems to have been skillfully pushing through, by maneuvering the anti-American block in South Korea, the move for the withdrawal of the U.S. military forces stationed in South Korea which have played the role of preventing the provocation of war by the North. 

The only way of restraining the possibility of war to be started by North Korea is to change the North Korean regime from the totalitarian and commanding system to a democratic system.  Trust and cooperation through mutual intercommunication should be for the purpose of restoring the South-North relationship to a normal one.  However, if support is provided to North Korea to enable it to continue as a totalitarian military regime, there could be no development of a normal relationship not only between South Korea and North Korea but also between the U.S.A. and North Korea.  Normal relationship can exist only between normal states.

Since the North Korean regime is a government ruled single-handedly by Kim Jong-il, it is always possible for them to start war with a mere order from Kim Jong-il.  Therefore, as long as North Korea is not democratized, the relationship of provisional peace between the South and the North and the relationship of tension and conflict may at any time turn into a relationship of antagonistic military confrontation.  It is a fact that only when the democratization of North Korea precedes, we can then actually have our trust in the inclination of North Korea for peace.

After the South-North summit meeting the anti-American move in South Korea has intensified.  Even a local TV station, which is under the influence of the South Korean government, has candidly provoked anti-American sentiment.  The absolute majority of the South Korean people are very much concerned about such extremist move toward the anti-American trend.

The alliance between South Korea and the U.S.A. has served as the basis not only for restraining war but also for the development of the South Korean economy to the present stage.  The military expenditure of South Korean has been about 3% of South Korea’s GDP.  If there had been no alliance between South Korea and the U.S.A., over 10% of the GDP would have had to be spent for military purposes, as in the caseoif Israel (11.5%), in order to maintain a military balance.  We therefore do not forget the fact that the South Korea-U.S.A. alliance has served as the corner stone for the progress of the South Korean economy.

At the South-North summit meeting President Kim Dae-jung should have presented as an agenda item the problem of military security, which is a substantive factor for attaining the settlement of peace on the Korean peninsular, and should have included it in the South-North joint communiqué, but for some strange reasons he returned only with an agreement on the unification issue.  Nevertheless, upon his return from Pyongyang, he confused South Korean people by making an incredible statement that there would be no more war on the Korean peninsular. 

Settlement of peace on the Korean peninsular must start from the relocation of the North Korean military forces from the demilitarized zone to a far place in the north.  Problems about nuclear weapons and missiles are a matter of consideration and negotiation not only between the U.S.A. and North Korea but also between South Korea and North Korea.  These problems, therefore, should have been discussed at the summit meeting of Kim Dae-jung and Kim Jong-il.

The North Korean regime has committed numerous crimes.  Examples of such crimes include: the terrorism incident in Aungsan, Myanma involving the killing of 17 South Korean government officials visiting Myanma, including Deputy Prime Minister Suh Suk-jun, and 4 Burmese people; the explosion of Koran Air Flight 858 involving the killing of all 115 passengers; the kidnapping of many South Koreans including well-known actress Choi Un-hee and her husband and also the kidnapping of many Japanese citizens; the murder through starvation of estimated 3 million North Korean people; and terrorism, starvation and punishment involving political prisoners in the North and compulsorily returned North Korean exiles; etc.  All these crimes could not have been committed without orders from Kim Jong-il.  So far, however, Kim Jong-il has not repented about these crimes and has not expressed any apologies or made any promise about the prevention of their recurrence.  Instead, he has been immersed himself only in drawing the support of South Korea and the international community by taking advantage of the unilateral appeasement policy of Kim Dae-jung’s government, which was brought up by surprise, and also by skillfully maneuvering covered-up peace tactics and the double edges of peace and war.

The union or federation of South Korea and North Korea, no matter how appealing the terminology may be, is nothing more than a clever conspiracy tactic that will bring into South Korea the communistic and anti-human rights ideology through the incorporation of the totalitarian system in the structure of a state in the form of a union or federation.  Absolute dictatorship is an eternal enemy to peace and human rights.  The oppressive military system of Kim Jong-il’s regime operating under one-party dictatorship is an ancient state system that does not differentiate between individual and state and between economy and politics.  As long as the exclusive system of the North Korean regime remains, there can exist no artificially united system between the South and the North nor should there be such a system.  Korea was divided at the outset because of the difference in political directions and political ideologies.  If such different ideological and systemic structures underlying the division of Korea were tied up by force within the political structure of a union or federation, this would breed a seed of civil war.  The agreement of Kim Dae-jung and Kim Jong-il in this matter is therefore a big mistake.

As we saw through the unification of Germany and the formation of European Union, the unification of a nation or the formation of a union of nations is in essence a unification or union of political and economic systems.  The pronounced attempt of Kim Dae-jung and Kim Jong-il to move along, jointly and holding hands together, toward unification is not different from an attempt to unify Nazis and Jews.  It is obvious that without the annihilation of Nazis it would be impossible to have reconciliation between Germans and Jews.  The people of South Korea have fallen into a great confusion because of the deceiving act of Kim Jong-il performed under the pretext of unification.

The attempt to terminate the cold war structure prevailing on the Korean peninsular has run into the danger of possibly terminating the structure of South Korea.  There has been a fundamental shake-up of the essential constituent components of South Korea which have accumulated as the foundation of the nation, including respect for the value of freedom and justice, anti-communist ideology, National Security Law, the alliance of South Korea and U.S.A., etc.

The termination of the cold war around the world in early 1990s was due to the collapse of the communistic dictatorship system run by one party.  However, what is occurring on the Korean peninsular is far from the termination of the cold war structure since the totalitarianism and militarism of North Korea, run through one-man dictatorship, are about to exert their influence over South Korea.

North Korea has many long-range artilleries and has been carrying out military drills with them, and we understand that the cost of one ball cartridge used in such a drill is equivalent to the cost of one color television.  Given that North Korea practices long-rage artillery shooting by wasting such large sums, it could not be said that North Korea is devoid of funds.  Even recently North Korea bought forty (40) MIG21s from Kazakhstan.  However, with the meticulous calculation that they can get all food stuff free from abroad by misguiding the international media, North Korea has been effectively using the skillful tactic of spreading the picture of starving people to the outside world while concealing the same internally. 

For the past one year when there has been the inflow of Dollar funds from South Korea, the military forces of North Korea have been further strengthened and they have recently carried out large-scale military operational drills spending a large amount of funds.  It may be said from a military viewpoint that the security of Japan has really be subjected to the increasing threat of North Korea recently, even more so than in the case of the security of South Korea.  If the economy of North Korea improves somewhat, the military forces of the militaristic regime of North Korea would be injected for offensive purposes to a greater extent. 

Kim Jong-il’s policy toward the South is designed to create a social unrest in South Korea by aggravating South Korea’s economy through the tie-up of the South Korean economy and the North Korean economy in one bundle.  From this, he expects to have a class-revolution atmosphere formed in the South causing hopeless confusion and then to help the united pro-North block assume power in the South as an interim stage and finally to attain unification by military forces.  To this end, he would try to get economic assistance from South Korea as much as possible while he would at the same time build up a “great stalwart nation” from the revolution base in the North.         

If Kim Jong-il visits Seoul and receives a great demonstration of welcome organized by the pro-North leftist block under the disguise of the general popular support of South Korean people, then there would be a collapse of the freedom, human rights and democratic value of South Korea which have been sustained with the sacrifice of those UN Forces members and millions of South Korean soldiers who give their precious lives to protect freedom and democracy.  Such welcoming of Kim Jong-il would also have the effect that the communistic and dictatorial ideology could be accepted morally and psychologically.  This would necessarily result in an increasing trend in South Korea toward the acceptance of communism and the communization of South Korea.  We therefore believe that Kim Jong-il’s visit of Seoul is highly undesirable.  The fact that it took a long period of 15 years from the conclusion of the basic agreement between West Germany and East Germany in 1972 before East German Dictator Honniker (check spelling) could visit West Germany reminds us that it was not an easy thing even in Germany for the communist dictator of East Germany to visit West Germany.

The reunion of separate families, which may be said to be the only positive outcome gained by South Korea from the South-North summit meeting, is very much in the nature of an internal and external propaganda performed according to the rules of North Korea.  Even such an humanitarian family event was carried out under strict control in accordance with the totalitarian rules of the North as if imprisoned convicts meet their families.  The separated families, limited only up to 100 persons, were not given even an opportunity to spend a night together.  The South Korean government mostly accepted the rules of the dictatorial North watching carefully the North’s reaction and attitude so as not to hurt the North’s feelings.  We wish you, Mr. President, to know that innumerable South Koreans are worried as to whether our government might follow the rules and methods of the North’s absolutism even with respect of matter of unification.

Various inhumane, military and wasteful activities are going on in the North: for example, hundred thousands of innocent conscientious prisoners are living in prisons even worse than animals facing the danger of imminent death; the food stuff provided by various aid organizations are plundered by Kim Jong-il, his followers and military officers and do not reach the starving people; other aid goods are not used for the intended humanitarian purposes; household-intended goods are continuingly diverted for offensive military purposes; etc.  For all these horrible activities, the South Korean government has not taken any effective action against the North and is deemed to have acquiesced in them because of its silence. The strange atmosphere has been formed in South Korea that if one criticizes such criminal activities of the North, he/she would be branded as an “anti-ethnic,” “anti-democratic” and “anti-unification” element.             

President Kim Dae-jung, upon receiving a Nobel Peace prize, did not spare compliments for Kim Jong-il, but the reality of the South-North situation is that separated families in the South are not permitted to even make a telephone call or to exchange letters.  Such reality of the South-North situation is extremely abnormal, and the South-North relationship will undergo no significant change merely because Dictator Kim Jong-il visits the South. Unless the North Korean regime is converted to a democratic one, it would be not possible to reform and improve such matters as human rights and the freedom of religion and belief in North Korea, and even South Korea will face a breakdown of its security system and a crack in the South Korea-U.S.A. alliance through the increasing adoration and propagation of the criminal activities of the North and through the strengthening of anti-American moves. 

In the aftermath of the summit meeting between Kim Dae-jung and Kim Jong-il,  South Korea has fallen into a deep confusion and its economy has faced a chronic danger because of the North Koran projects such as Mt. Kumgang tourism project as is evidenced by the financial difficulty of Hyundai Engineering and Construction Company.

Unless the totalitarian system of North Korea is changed into a system of modern pluralistic democracy, the North Korean regime will not discard the strategy of communistic unification.  We wish to submit to you, Mr. President, that those who admire the North Korean dictator with a hope of unification with his visit to the South are mostly either a small group of people taking an anti-American and pro-North Korean line under the pretense of racial harmony and consolidation or another small group of people who blindly advocate unification of any type or any form. 

These days the voices of such dishonest minority groups appear in the South Korean media in an amplified manner, and in the past few years the anti-American and pro-North Korean move has also appeared more active and outward in South Korea.  We are very much concerned that such distorted phenomena are being created artificially notwithstanding that they run counter to the sentiments and opinions of the South Korean people as a whole.    

We believe that the improvement of the U.S.A.-North Korea relationship will have significance only when there is progress not only with respect to problems about nuclear weapons and missiles but also problems about such matters as human rights and assurances about security and also when there is substantial progress in the democratization and reform of the North Korean regime.  Especially, unless North Korea changes into a democratic market economy system in a nonreversible manner, it would be necessary for the U.S.A. and South Korea to continue to maintain, as before, strong military forces to counteract the North Korean dictatorial military system.  Otherwise, even if there might have been some progress in the U.S.A.-North Korea relationship, this would not have impact as a fundamental change to help bring about settlement of peace on the Korean peninsular since the nature of the South-North problems on the Korean peninsular is closely interlinked with the characteristics of the North Korean dictatorial system.

(1)  We wish to submit to you, Mr. President, that an absolute majority of the South Korean people believe that your administration will not come to recognize the illegitimate North Korean regime politically and morally through the establishment of a diplomatic relation unless measures are worked out with North Korea for the improvement of human rights and for the mollification of its oppressive military system.  This is because we firmly believe that the U.S.A. will not aid the commitment of anti-humanity crimes by recognizing the anti-humanity, criminal and illegitimate regime of Kim Jong-il.

Even if the U.S.A. negotiates with North Korea in order to resolve issues concerning massive murderous weapons such as nuclear weapons, missiles and chemical warfare weapons, there should by no means be any recognition, morally or politically, of the totalitarian system of North Korea.  This is based on the same rationale as that when police negotiates with kidnappers, they should not hold a party with such kidnappers by degrading their status to the level of criminals.  If North Korea were able to secure the morality and legitimacy of its regime by means of threatening methods, this would make North Korea to move further in this direction and North Korea would be tempted to strengthen its immorality and terrorism.

(2)  We firmly believe that you, Mr. President, will not hold negotiation with Kim Jong-il, ringleader of the terrorist group, by taking an equal status as Kim Jong-il.  We were very disappointed last year when there was the news announcement that then President Clinton might go to Pyongyang, the Mecca of communism, to negotiate with Kim Jong-il.  For, it was so obvious that the North Korean communists would publicize, as a great propaganda piece, that the U.S. President came to pay respect to Kim Jong-il surrendering to the North Korean regime.  How the President of the U.S.A. who is the standard bearer of freedom and human rights can stand along with the ringleader of the terrorist group?  We firmly believe that you will not forget the fact that Pyongyang is the Mecca of communism.

In our view, the U.S. administration should rigidly apply the principles of transparency, reciprocity and verification in dealing with North Korea with respect to problems of missiles, human rights, etc.