Asia Times: PYONGYANG WATCH<BR> Looking for the right medicine


	March 22, 2002	atimes.com

The Koreas

PYONGYANG WATCH
Looking for the right medicine
By Aidan Foster-Carter

German-born medical doctor Norbert Vollertsen was expelled in 2000 from North Korea, where he had been working for the non-governmental organization Cap Anamur - German Emergency Doctors. Since then, he has devoted his time to exposing human-rights abuses in the nation, and in assisting North Koreans to flee the country.

Dear Dr Norbert Vollertsen:
This open-letter business is a lark, isn't it? Humble souls like thee and me get to hector our elders and betters - whether or not they're listening - for all the world to hear.

Recently I used the format in these columns to address your and my dearest leader, Kim Jong-il. As I'm unlikely ever to be invited to take tea in Pyongyang - even less so, now - there were a few home truths that I reckoned needed airing. On that, you and I see eye to eye.

We haven't met, but being on your mailing list I've followed with interest and admiration your vigorous campaign to alert the world to the horrors of Kim's kingdom; ever since North Korea kicked you out a year or so ago for - what else? - speaking your mind.

Now you've found a new target: Jimmy Carter, no less. In a "memo" to the ex-US president, published in Dow Jones' Opinion journal, you lambaste him for criticizing the current White House occupant for uttering three little words that set the cat among the pigeons. Axis of evil: that's the one. You quote Mr Carter - no relation, by the way - as calling George Bush's remarks "overly simplistic and counterproductive". (He said more, as it happens; but that'll do.)

At this, you leap on to your moral high horse - something you're never slow to do - and lay about you left and right. Well, mainly left. Not only do you chide Jimmy Carter, quoting back at him his inscription at the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington: "Never again will the world stand silent ... we must harness the outrage ... to stamp out oppression wherever it exists." But you also tell lots of others - "refined" European diplomats, "liberal" American newspapers and "politically correct" human-rights activists" - that "they should be ashamed of themselves" for criticizing Bush. And the clincher, "... 'engagement' and 'Sunshine' are not only synonyms for appeasement, they are synonyms for cowardice".

Strong words, doctor. "Sunshine" as cowardice, you say? That is the grossest of libels upon a man braver than you or I will ever be. Kim Dae-jung has been called many things in his 50-year fight for democracy. But I doubt if even the Korean Central Intelligence Agency (KCIA), which twice tried to kill him, ever thought he lacked courage. Whether his "Sunshine" policy has worked or not, that we can discuss. But cowardice? No way. You should apologize.

But then name-calling evidently appeals to you. Hence your enthusiasm for Bush, who you say "bravely called North Korea evil". Bravely? What's brave about stating the obvious? Was Bush defying some big taboo? Rampant self-indulgence, I'd say: for the home crowd, and to hell with the wider consequences.

You're a doctor, Mr Vollertsen - and a good one, by all accounts. You're also plainly good-hearted. But heart alone doesn't make a doctor. That took years of hard work, to learn the skills to turn goodwill into the ability to cure. Now then. Suppose a patient has AIDS, in a society where this is ostracized. You're treating him: trying various drugs, with due deference for his position. What would you think if someone burst in and shouted out: "He's got AIDS"? Fearing the worst, your patient bolts. All your treatment and confidence-building go down the drain. Yet this loudmouth thinks he's Mr Truth, and better than you.

Like medicine, diplomacy, too, takes skill and patience. By your own admission, you knew nothing about Korea until you went there in 1999. Did your 18 months there qualify you as a diplomat? Have you read up on the history? Like the two young American colonels, one hot Washington night in 1945, who drew a "temporary" line on a map of an obscure peninsula? Many Koreans feel that the US has a lot to answer for.

What US presidents say or do is pretty sensitive stuff in Korea, North and South. Read Don Oberdorfer's The Two Koreas - just updated - and bone up on the 1994 nuclear crisis. You want confrontation with North Korea? It's been tried - and nearly led to a second Korean war. And guess who tried it? None other than Bill Clinton. Having looked into the abyss, he opted to talk instead. "I have a totally different take" was his reaction to Bush. With a missile deal almost in the bag, he thought he'd handed Bush a winner.

But before Clinton opted for jaw-jaw, Korea came within a whisker of war-war. The turning point was when a respected US elder statesman, on his own initiative, dared to put his reputation on the line, step into the lion's den, and calm things down. His name was Jimmy Carter. By going to Pyongyang to talk face to face with Kim Il-sung, he brought the temperature down and the peninsula back from the brink.

You knew all that, I trust. If you didn't - and even if you did - then may I suggest that in future you think twice before glibly condemning people who've wrestled with these dilemmas far longer than you have. Heart is not enough, in this business: you have to use your head as well. Of course, Jimmy Carter knows North Korea is evil. But the key word here is "counterproductive". Does it help for the president of the United States to shoot his mouth off - even while claiming he's ready for unconditional talks with Mr Evil? Subtle diagnosis, doctor? Tactful bedside manner? Liable to get results? Just think it through.

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