Political Commentator

 Jung Chung-rae’s Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) is steadily descending into madness. The party is no longer the moderate reformist force we once knew; it resembles a secondary unit of the North Korean Workers' Party. Looking at their recent behavior during Liberation Day, they have truly lost their minds. A man named Kim Byung-kee, who holds the title of DPK Floor Leader, labeled the commemorative address by Kim Hyung-suk, Chairman of the Independence Hall of Korea, as “an act of treachery that denies the independence movement” and demanded his dismissal from the government.

Then, the ignorant party supreme council member Jung Chung-rae went even further. He came up with the preposterous claim that denying the nation was “founded in 1919” constitutes “historical treason.” Both of these claims are nonsense. It once again highlights that the leftists in this country are fools who defy the common sense of world history. The Democratic Party has truly reached the end of the line. Yet, when you listen to their words, they are laughable.

They specifically took issue with the passage in Chairman Kim Hyung-suk’s address stating that “Liberation was a gift obtained through the victory of the Allies in World War II.” What exactly is the problem with this? It is basic historical common sense that, 80 years ago, our independence was not the result of our own armed struggle. Even elementary school students know this, yet the Democratic Party dares to try and rewrite it.

It is one of two things: either the DPK lawmakers are a group of idiots who haven't even finished elementary school, or there is a hidden political agenda at play. Even more stupid are the third-rate newspapers like the Chosun, JoongAng, and Dong-A Ilbo. They claim this DPK behavior is a conspiracy to brand figures appointed during the Yoon Suk-yeol administration as “pro-Japanese” to drive them out, but they are only seeing the surface and missing the broader picture.

Today, I will explain the massive structural conspiracy behind why they are acting so hysterical. At the root of their behavior lies a fierce, dogmatic nationalism—the belief that the Korean people are supreme. Without understanding this, one can never grasp the big picture of the DPK’s historical insurrection. Nationalism? Yes, it is that very "Our Nation Among Ourselves" nationalism—the seductive, plausible-sounding ideology where the South and North unite as one Korean race.

That is why they don't hesitate to engage in historical distortion, painting the Republic of Korea as a great victorious nation that crushed Imperial Japan with its own strength during WWII. For instance, the "red" human Moon Jae-in took it much too far. Do you remember? In his 2018 commemorative address, he brazenly uttered the nonsense that "Liberation was by no means given from the outside. It was a liberation achieved by the people pooling their strength."

It is maddening. Is this mental victory, or is it just insanity? That is exactly the "self-liberation" theory that the leftists love—the claim that we were liberated entirely by our own efforts. Of course, actual history was completely different. Was our liberation not entirely a byproduct of the Allied victory?

To speak more truth today, the Battle of Bongo-dong and the Battle of Cheongsan-ri, which are often cited as the subjects of movies, all took place immediately after the March 1st Movement of 1919. If you look at the details, it is embarrassing to boast about them. They claim we annihilated hundreds of Japanese troops in those battles, but that is false. The Japanese record shows only one death in the Battle of Bongo-dong and only 11 deaths in the Battle of Cheongsan-ri.

Those are the Japanese records. I apologize, but I believe the honest—if hateful—records of Japan are the correct ones. Furthermore, from the mid-1930s, when the Manchukuo governing system stabilized, until liberation, there was essentially no “independence army” left in Manchuria. That is the truth. Therefore, the leftist claims that Lieutenant Paik Sun-yup or Second Lieutenant Park Chung-hee suppressed the independence army in Manchuria in the 1940s are baseless.

Let me ask: how do you suppress an independence army that doesn't exist? They were merely officers in the Manchukuo army who suppressed communist guerrillas and the "bandits" who plundered the people, maintaining public order in the region. And here, we must clearly settle the bothersome issue of Kim Il-sung’s assessment. We must acknowledge that a small armed force organized by Kim Il-sung did exist. Naturally, they belonged to the Northeast Anti-Japanese United Army, a Manchurian guerrilla organization of the Chinese Communist Party.

That is why the North Korean regime has deified the incident on June 4, 1937, where they raided the Pochonbo police substation across the Yalu River, as the “Battle of Pochonbo.” But it is nothing more than a “giant lie” mixed with 1% truth and 99% exaggeration. Kim Il-sung has long been scamming people by acting as if he carried out the entire anti-Japanese independence movement by himself.

What a joke. He was merely a Chinese Communist Party member who fled to the Soviet Union and ended up as a captain in the 88th Brigade. It is ironic that such a person later preached about Juche (self-reliance); it is nothing but an expression of his deep-seated inferiority complex and sycophancy. What is malicious is that the activist generation of the 1980s in this country began to prop up these massive lies and fabrications from North Korea, leading to today’s chaos.

The Republic of Korea didn't even pretend to engage in such struggles, while the North did—at least to some extent—and thus the insane logic developed that the North holds the legitimacy after liberation. Do you understand? That is the psychology of the Juche ideology faction. In that sense, Moon Jae-in was truly wicked. When he stated in his 2018 address that “Liberation was achieved by the people pooling their strength,” he had another dream hidden in his heart.

That is, he implied that Kim Il-sung was a stylish nationalist, that the “pro-Japanese” forces of the Republic of Korea—who didn't even do that much—lack legitimacy in nation-building, and that this country was fundamentally wrong to be born. Do you understand? The current hysteria of the Democratic Party is merely the second act of that narrative. Given the situation, Lee Jae-myung and the Democratic Party, I hope you stop this now. And Jung Chung-rae, I hope you quit while you’re ahead.

In fact, there is a common trait among the likes of Kim Il-sung, Moon Jae-in, Lee Jae-myung, and Jung Chung-rae. Those who can be classified as the pan-left are masters of historical inflation. They are stronger in rhetoric and incitement than in substance and reality, and they are trying to drag this great country, the Republic of Korea, into the gutter by obsessing over the fiction of the independence movement rather than the 21st-century present.

It is common sense that the Republic of Korea can only survive once they are gone. I repeat, exaggerating the independence movement is merely the isolated worldview of elementary school students or leftists—a world similar to that of the Wijung-choksa (defend orthodoxy and reject heterodoxy) faction. By the way, is there anyone courageous enough in the People Power Party to stand up and shout, “That is not the case for you all!”?

Cho Woo-seok, Political Commentator