Democratic Party Representative Kim Joon-hwan (left) and People Power Party Representative Park Choong-kwon. [Photo=Yonhap News]

I was already aware that the standard of South Korean politicians was roughly on the level of an amoeba, but this incident has made that reality glaringly obvious.

According to news reports, Democratic Party Representative Kim Joon-hwan, who even served as a deputy director of the National Intelligence Service (NIS), reportedly threatened People Power Party Representative Park Choong-kwon, a North Korean defector, saying, "You people used to hail Kim Il-sung. Watch your step!"

If the gap in mental maturity between a man who served 25 years in the intelligence agency—reaching the rank of deputy director—and an ordinary North Korean defector is as vast as heaven and earth, isn't that a total disgrace to South Korean politics?

There is a reason why the Kim Il-sung family in North Korea openly hurls vulgar insults like "idiot" and "boiled cow's head" at South Korean presidents while taking everything they can get from the South. It is because they know perfectly well that South Korea's political sphere is rotten to the core.

There is a reason why individuals like Kim Joon-hwan, who don't dare make a peep or kowtow to North Korea, openly threaten defenseless North Korean defectors.

Simply put, it is because they know full well that the North Korean defectors are the people Kim Jong-un, whom they serve so faithfully, hates the most. Consequently, these people hate and despise defectors on behalf of Kim Jong-un. The evidence is that during the Moon Jae-in administration, numerous North Korean defectors were captured and handed over to Kim Jong-un to meet their deaths.

The remarks made by Kim Joon-hwan this time were not directed solely at Representative Park Choong-kwon. It was a public threat to all North Korean defectors to stay quiet as mice and not oppose the North Korean dictator.

To be blunt, we North Korean defectors do not deny that we hailed Kim Il-sung while in North Korea. I, too, was someone who hailed Kim Il-sung for 50 years in the North. However, we left because we hated the Kim Il-sung family, who treated 23 million people like animals and starved them to death.

Yet, upon arriving in South Korea, I was shocked to find that there are millions of people here who hail Kim Il-sung and remain loyal to the North even more fervently than I did during those 50 years.

People in North Korea hail Kim Il-sung because they have no choice but to do so to survive, as failure to do so results in execution.

North Korea is a country where if you do not hail Kim Il-sung, they won't even give you food, and they will drag you away to be thrown into a prison camp.

But upon coming to South Korea, I found that among the South Korean people, traitors who betray the leaders who granted them ultimate freedom and prosperity—and who instead remain loyal to Kim Il-sung, who slaughtered millions of innocent soldiers and citizens—have seized control of the foundations of the country.

The reality is that a man who served as a deputy director of the NIS—the very agency that should be capturing and removing these traitors—during the Moon Jae-in administration is now in politics and, instead of doing his job, is threatening North Korean defectors.

Today's Republic of Korea is the country with the most spies on earth and the nation with the most traitors in the world. It has devolved into a shameful country where patriots are mistreated while spies and traitors are honored.

I never dreamed in my wildest imagination that the Republic of Korea, which I risked my life to reach to escape the Kim Il-sung family's dictatorship, would turn out to be a country like this.

◆ Senior Advisor Kim Tae-san

Senior Advisor to the Korea-US-Japan Daily, former representative of a North Korean trade company in the Czech Republic. In South Korea, he serves as the Vice President of the Institute for North Korean Society and provides deep insights and experience regarding inter-Korean relations and North Korean issues.