IT'S TIME TO CREATE 'THE FATHER OF MODERN NORTH KOREA'

On this 66^th anniversary of North Korea’s ignominious invasion of South Korea, June 25^th 1950, I’m suggesting a political solution for the intractable conflict between North Korea and the rest of the world. My solution taps into an aspect of pan-Asian culture that is little known and less understood in the Western World.

For shear volatility, nothing, even Radical Islamic Terrorism, can compare with a lunatic leader, Kim Jong-un, flaunting his missiles and nuclear weapons in the face of the civilized world. Something new and different needs to be tried before an error in his technology or judgement triggers another war on that peninsula.

I’ve never heard or read anything about a negotiation approach being employed in dealing with Kim that, to me, seems simple and guaranteed to be successful in at least reducing tensions in the short run, and perhaps changing the entire course of history in that part of the world. It starts with Air Force One landing in Pyongyang bringing a new US President on an official visit to the world’s most unfathomable leader. The President will be bringing along an outline for a paradigm shift in North Korean history that requires presentation by the World’s most powerful leader in order to force Kim to take it seriously. Once the doors to Kim’s conference room are closed, the President stands up and says:

“Mr. Chairman, we are here to offer you an opportunity to cement your place in history.  We wish to make you the Father of Modern North Korea. The operative word is ‘Modern’, and here’s what we propose……….”

Those who study the history of International Communism and the nations and leaders who’ve succumbed to that palsied ideology can agree on one commonality, and that is the wish of each leader to be venerated, often to god-like levels. Note the massive portrait of Mao Zedong that looms over crowds at Tiananmen Square in Beijing with (best guess) dimensions of 50’ by 30’ and a weight of 1.5 tons. Go back to early 20^th Century Russia and one will see giant portraits of Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, Lenin and Stalin paraded through Red Square on May Day. Though Marx and Engels would have been appalled at such displays, Lenin and Stalin reveled in such egotistical ostentation. The portraits are paraded in Pyongyang as well, but add to that the mausoleum for Kim IL-sung and his son Kim Jong-il which was built while their people starved.

Time takes a toll on the reputations of such leaders, e.g. Stalin’s body was removed from its place of honor in the Kremlin Wall, Lenin’s Tomb no longer has an honor guard, and their name-sake cities have long-since been renamed. Leaders of other Soviet-era Warsaw Pact regimes demanded demigod status and have similarly been dumped in history’s trash bin. The President’s strategy with Kim Jung-un is to plant the seed that the Pyongyang mausoleum will one day be Kim’s alone and, most importantly, that his place in North Korean history will not be fleeting.

The 1945 Yalta Conference of the soon-to-be-victorious Allies divided the Korean Peninsula at the 38^th Parallel, presenting the Soviets control of the North as a reward for belatedly going to war with Japan. A puppet dictator, Kim IL-sung, was soon installed. The South was under American protection, and we all know the tragedy that soon followed in 1950 through 1953. Kim IL-sung remained dictator until his death in 1994, when his son Kim Jong-il took over. By then, it had to be obvious to the new dictator that the two Korean societies were progressing at diametrically opposite rates. He had to be aware of the prosperity and economic power that was flowering below the Parallel. Yet he dug in his heels and set the stage for the North’s societal atrophy. He and his cronies lived comfortable lives, and for the millions in his charge he cared not at all.

The point is, the negotiation strategy I envision would not have worked with either of the first two Kims. I suspect neither was a deep thinker; indeed, both may have been functional illiterates. They each in turn ate, drank, conspired and murdered until their bodies and brains wore out and they died. Too harsh? We can only look at the results of their governance and guess where their energies were focused.

Kim Jong-un may not yet be beyond reach and repair. He is young, ruthless and, by virtue of his apparent success at consolidating power, of at least average intelligence. One must assume he spends hours on the Web marveling at what goes on in the ‘real’ world while he floats in the cesspool of human despair and decay created by his predecessors. But what can he do? He is a prisoner of his own dictatorship. Weakness will get him overthrown and killed by one of his scheming generals. However, he and those scheming generals all have a few ‘wants’ in common. First is their own personal safety, life itself. Second is their own personal power, the basis of their safety. But there’s something else that each wants, indeed needs, desperately, and that’s to be revered and remembered as great men.

Kim has the unprecedented opportunity to take his place in history in general and Korean history in particular as the ‘Father of Modern North Korea’. In a society that venerates its ancestors, he’d be at the pinnacle of veneration. Imagine how that exalted status would resonate with such a young man who has always lived in his grandfather’s and father’s collective shadows. That will not change unless he finds a way to transcend those mythic figures, at least in the muddled minds of his captive population. So far, he seems fixated on establishing his bona-fides by building a nuclear capability with which to threaten the rest of the world. Even his one ally, China, is disturbed by this activity. To invade South Korea would generate a monumental blood bath that he knows he won’t survive. Not much of a legacy, to be sure.

Now is the time for the American President to approach Kim and offer him, literally, the adoration of millions of people. His enslaved citizens could immediately see substantive improvements in their daily lives. Kim can set the stage, start the process and begin reaping the worldly rewards as a proverbial prophet/savior without having to be martyred beforehand.

A Consortium of established democracies and Mideast Oil oligarchs will be his negotiating partner after the President breaks the ice. In the first official visit, the Consortium will offer a stunning array of financial incentives for both Kim and his cronies. Assuming the negotiations move steadily forward, they’ll be given periodic rewards with more to follow as progress continues.

De-militarization and de-nuclearization are the first and foremost negotiation items. So, first on the agenda would be a methodical draw-down of his huge Army. After setting a size for a standing army at parity with that of South Korea, the rest of his soldiers would go home until they are presented with and allowed to select from a myriad of paths for future labor. A further quid pro quo to build trust would be a withdrawal of US troops from the South.

What would his hundreds of thousands of former-soldiers do without their constant preparations for war? Initially, they’ll be able to build or improve their family homes with basic construction materials provided by the Consortium. Next, they’ll have an entire country to rebuild to include construction and upgrade of roads, bridges, ports, farms, an electrical grid, hospitals and clinics and, very importantly, a cellular and wireless network. A new banking system with the ability to finance consumer debt and home loans would need to come on line as the population begins to enter the workforce. Motorola and Apple will be happy to provide dirt cheap smart phones for these new consumers. Electric cars and scooters sold by Kia and powered up on the new electrical grid will fill the new roads, driven by the former soldiers now joy riding with their wives or girlfriends. Immediate cross-border social and commercial intercourse with the South would be encouraged. Women will be emancipated and educated as a national priority since their energy and enterprise will ensure that the men remain family focused.

Kim would evolve into a consummate politician, traveling around his beleaguered countryside as it begins to emerge from the Middle-ages. He’d cut ribbons for new roads, attend harvest festivals for newly productive farms, flip the switch on new cell systems, and on and on. He’d be welcomed with true warmth and gratitude for the first time in his life. Hopefully he’d be ashamed of his previous visits where his sycophants and ordinary citizens were beaten and threatened into perfunctory shows of love and respect.

Where’s the money come from for all this? Consortium member countries will provide grants, loans and foreign aid in return for exclusive ‘Pay to Play’ trade access to 25 million consumers for decades to come. That’s 25 million people who have never experienced a single quality consumer good from toilet paper to televisions. In other words, the participating Consortium countries would sell into the one remaining economic blank slate left in the world. The UN could be utilized to monitor the trade agreements and make sure non-contributors are kept away from the North Korean marketplace.

I will end this posting now since the topic simply begs for more and more detail and elaboration that is inappropriate in such a forum. I maintain, however, that no representative of any nation has approached Kim Jong-un since he’s gained power and asked him about what his legacy might be and what he would think of the title, ‘Father of Modern North Korea’.

Bill Gritzbaugh

June 25, 2016