To Our Readers
Now the ball is in the court of the prosecution after the 38 days of controversy that jolted the entire nation. The Democratic United Party, in strong opposition to the prosecution investigation, is demanding that independent special prosecutors be appointed. The entire political community is immersed in the Northern Limit Line (NLL) debates and discussions for the livelihood of the public have been set aside.
The ruling and the opposition parties have consistently argued with each other surrounding whether the late former president Roh Moo-hyun really made a remark with the intention of giving up on the NLL in the 2007 summit meeting between the two Koreas.
In retrospect, the 38 days of strife is in vain. Actions are still at large to bring to the open whether the late former president really said so, and the minutes have disappeared. Even if the prosecutor’s office finds out who is responsible for the disappearance, the controversy is likely to go on for a long while.
During the long and tedious course, the ruling and opposition parties have fueled their antagonism and conflicts. They have been busy bombarding rough words to each other, totally neglecting the major pending issues concerning the lives of the general public. The thing is such fights become chicken games in most cases where both parties end up on the losing side.
The survey results since the disclosure of the minutes betray the expectations of the ruling New Frontier Party. Approximately 55% of the surveyed people have answered that the former president’s remark has no intention of giving up on the border on the sea. Under the circumstances, the ruling party, which witnessed former president Roh at least seemingly agreeing to Kim Jong-il’s demand for the nullification of the border, is getting more and more nervous.
Also, a recent survey has shown that 47% of South Koreans are thinking that the fact finding revolving around the NLL should come to a halt now. It implies that the people are now sick of the consuming political strife, calling upon the political circle to pay more attention to the stabilization of their livelihood. Actually, how many people would have read the minutes up to the last page and dwelled upon the meaning?
Such situations, that is, the people at large blindly following misleading politicians with wrongful ambitions, have repeated themselves lots of time in South Korea. Now facts about the NLL have come out in the open but the political community of the country is failing to deal with it with a broad view. Concerns are on the rise over whether it will be able to tackle the significant future challenges the Korean peninsula will face.
From now on, it is the prosecution that has to account for the explanation about the scrapping of the minutes. The political parties have to recall the fact that their top priority lies in stopping the wearisome disputes and going back to the matters directly related to the everyday lives of the people.