Poll after poll shows that the 51 million residents of South Korea
overwhelmingly want an end to the 68-year Korean War—which the United
States is still officially involved in. A recent survey found that 88.4 percent of South Koreans support the April 27 joint peace declaration by North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and his South Korean counterpart, Moon Jae-in. And 81 percent of South Koreans expressed optimism about the Trump-Kim summit.Despite widespread concerns that U.S. President Donald Trump would
torpedo an historic opportunity for peace—including through his repeated
threats to annihilate the entire Korean Peninsula with nuclear
weapons—this worst-case scenario has not yet come to pass. When North
Korean leader Kim Jong-un met with Trump in Singapore on June 12 and
etched out a four-point agreement, the reaction in South Korea was
largely a sigh of relief. “Koreans see the Singapore summit not just as
another sensational episode in the story of Donald Trump but as a step
away from a sixty-eight-year-old unfinished war,” writes E. Tammy Kim for The New Yorker.Yet, there is a yawning gap between the optimistic mood in South
Korea and the response among liberal media circles in the United States,
where many are reacting with a mix of sanctimony and scorn. On June 12,
Kevin Drum published a piece in Mother Jones in which he accused Trump of “abandoning” South Korea and agreeing to a weak deal. Vox echoed this line with rebukes of a “shockingly weak” agreement that includes “huge concessions to Kim for little in return.” MSNBC’s Hallie Jackson accused Trump of complicity in the public relations makeover of a dictator. And popular host Rachel Maddow released an episode on
June 12 arguing that Trump’s pledge to halt war games in South Korea is
a “giveaway to N. Korea” that “suits Putin’s goals”—disregarding that
robust social movements in South Korea have protested the U.S. military
presence for decades.These refrains were repeated by Democratic leaders, including Reps.
Nancy Pelosi and Adam Schiff, who released a joint declaration ahead of
the summit criticizing Trump from the right by accusing him of not being a tough enough negotiator. In this climate, the “liberal” line is virtually indistinguishable from the hand-wringing of
officials from pro-war “think tanks” like the Center for Strategic and
International Studies, which receives major funding from weapons
manufacturers.However, there were important exceptions. Sen. Bernie Sanders
released a statement on June 12 praising the Singapore summit as “a
positive step in de-escalating tensions between our countries,
addressing the threat of North Korea’s nuclear weapons and moving toward
a more peaceful future.”For commentary on the U.S. political climate, In These Times spoke
with Christine Ahn, a South Korea-born, Hawaii-based peace activist has
been organizing to end the Korean war under the administrations of
Trump, Barack Obama and George W. Bush (This is one of a series of interviews).Ahn says she is frustrated and discouraged that many U.S.
establishment liberals are deeply disconnected from the decades-long
peace struggle led by South Koreans. Any peace deal must necessarily
involve the United States, and unless U.S. progressives want to condemn
the Korean people to another two to six years of military escalation,
Trump will have to be involved in that process. Given Trump’s proven
willingness to turn on a dime and engage in dangerous brinkmanship with
North Korea, she argues, it is especially reckless for self-professed
liberals to pressure the president to be more confrontational. “It is
very dangerous to pressure Trump to be hardline,” says Ahn. “We have to
put all of our efforts into ensuring this goes well and is not
undermined.”
Liberals Are Criticizing the Korea Summit From the Right. Here’s Why They Have it All Wrong.
Max Armenta's Archive 