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Quotations
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| There is a saying that Gusihwamoon(口是禍門, as the source of disaster is a person’s mouth/utterance) and Soogooyeobyeong(守口如甁, contain the mouth/words into a bottle) may be the best wisdom in human relations. Therefore, I have endeavored to be silent. Recently, I, such a man, spelled out a lot of talks. Why have I become to be eloquent? It was because I needed it desperately.
Behold! Today the country is on the brink of ruin, and the people are on the brink of death. Therefore I look back to retrospect Japan?Korea Treaty of 1910. How can I, as a patriot, remain silent at this time, and how can I suppress my outbursts of indignation because of fears that the ignorant ruffians could inflict harms on me? All my life I have been persecuted and humiliated by Japs and their henchmen. I have been cruelly sentenced, and my life was almost taken from me many times. I still have a bullet of an enemy fired by a Korean in my heart. What could I be more hesitant to do, but to shout at the top of my lungs to hold on to a country that is about to fall. Because I am Korean, I know how to love Korea better than anyone else. For the same reason, I know how to love Northern Korea better than anyone else because I am a Northern Korean. After I entered the country, I met many of my relatives in the South, and though I was glad to see them, there was an indescribable sorrow in my heart because we were not able to meet in the land of our hometown, but in a state of wandering in a land away from home. In the end, we Northern Koreans have become double exiles. We saw the defeat of the enemy, but could not restore our country, and we fled to the south of the country. We have not only lost our country, but also the ones who have lost their hometown. In this way, we have not only a double woe and pain, but also a double duty. Just as those who have not experienced exile do not know the pain of it, those who have not experienced loss of hometown will not know the pain of it. We Koreans are generally familiar with the woes of exile, but only we Northern Koreans are familiar with the woes of loss of hometown. Therefore, our compatriots in the South are less concerned with the future of the North, except for the true patriots. The corrupted politicians, profiteers, and pro-Japanese thugs while calling for independence and reunification with their mouths, are inwardly interested in their own personal desire, and have a despicable mind capable of selling out their own country for their own success. Even an animal may sacrifice itself to save its offspring if it becomes dangerous. But when the so-called patriots see 10 million Northern Korean compatriots in crisis, they casually open their mouths and say, "We can't save Northern Korea, so let's at least save the South, and as soon as we can afford it, then let us save Northern Korea!" This is equivalent to the general consensus that Northern Koreans who are exposed to the crisis deserve to die. I have seen in China before, when the people of Manchuria came to the Chinese mainland in exile, the frivolous and ignorant sneered at them as vagabonds who lost their own country. If our country goes further as it is, there will be faced with such a phenomenon. The independence of the nation can only be completed by the unification of the country, and therefore I continue to struggle fiercely against the partitionists even as I am condemned, and another reason for my struggle against them is that since I am a Northern Korean, I can’t give up the northern part of Korea with my own hands. Let us resolve to liberate our homeland, where our parents and wives are, with own hands, and not wait for others to get it back for us! This is not to hinder the independence of the country and to divide the people by the regions, but is in accordance with the spirit of reason. What is the way for us to return to our hometowns with peace? It is only by fighting for the unity and independence of our country. The partitionists scoff at this, saying that the principle is right, but it is merely an ideological moralism. If the principle is right, then the righteousness based on that principle is not necessarily conceptual. Instead, it is scientific, and scientific righteousness always wins. There is always a principle in the progress of affairs, whether great or small, and those who ignore this principle will not only fail in their undertakings, but may even become utilitarians, apostates, or traitors in some cases. An independence movement based on principled righteousness is inevitably successful because it is uniformly demanded by 30 million people and uniformly favored by just men throughout the world. However, the same people who refused to be consulted by the U.S.-Soviet Commissions for the purpose of anti-trusteeship, but crawled in because they thought it would not be a government under trusteeship, objected to the legitimate resolutions of the UN General Assembly because it interferes with our independence. When the United Nations Temporary Commission on Korea came to Korea, they exclaimed that they were extremely satisfied with the decision when the General Assembly had indeed made a resolution unfavorable to Korean independence as it seemed like it would be carried out. They are so happy now, but who can guarantee that they will not repeat the disgrace done at the U.S.-Soviet Joint Commission? They had earlier even shouted for the withdrawal of the U.S.-Soviet troops to remove the 38th parallel. In June last year, they complained about the release of leftist political prisoners by the U.S. military government and demanded the immediate release of political prisoners in the North, too, but when others insist on it, they oppose it, calling them the Communists. And yet they claim to be scientific realists. But it is a dangerous suicidal realist. No one can be fooled when they claim to be on the road to independence while promoting the division of the nation, and when they claim to be establishing an independent government while establishing a separate government. They say that even a half-government can improve people’s livelihood within three months. However, an American expert who studied economic affairs said that a unified government could achieve equilibrium in import and export trade within five years, and that if a separate government was established only in the South, it would be overthrown within three months unless there was economic aid from the United States (March O, 1948). They also say that the separate government they establish can become a member of the UN. But the UN Charter does not open this door. They are so excited to have a president and cabinets as if they could be independent right now, but when they realize that there is a Vietnamese Emperor under the French governor-general of Vietnam, there will not be much to get excited about. And because they hope to unite the North even by force, they are looking forward to the outbreak of war, but war will not yet break out. Neither the United States nor the Soviet Union can wage war, and even if the United States were able to open a war, it would have no allies capable of standing as comrades-in-arms. Let’s assume that war could break out, but it will be the youth from Northern Korea who will march northward on the front lines, and our targets will be our parents, relatives, and neighbors. If the Soviet Union wins, Korea will become a part of the Soviet Union, and if the United States wins, Korea may become an American colony or the spoils of war for Japan. What then shall we look forward to the war for? I advocate that ‘North Koreans not kill North Koreans’, and Koreans not kill Koreans. As mankind progresses, not all of the world’s problems will be solved by war. We will also be able to solve them through peace. I witnessed the so-called Second Zhili?Fengtian War in China nearly 30 years ago. It was a war between Wu Peifu and Zhang Zuolin, and Zhang Zuolin's Zhilian soldiers surrendered because Wu Peifu was carrying a banner at the front that said, "Zhilians do not kill Zhilians." Wu Peifu won a great victory. Let us appeal to the patriotism and love of our own people to abolish the 38th parallel that was drawn by foreigners with our own hands. It will be far more possible and effective to complete our independence and promote world peace by national unity than by foreign wars. In times of chaos, our strength is necessary, but when order is gradually established, this is what the law seeks. Then, those who have used strength will be shunned and they could be further abhorred or even slandered. The recent case of Mr. Kim Doohan can be also a lesson. We can say that it is natural for Mr. Kim was legally sanctioned for his crimes, but we can also assume that his crimes were motivated by patriotic motives, and given that he is the son of the great patriot General Kim Chwachin, we cannot say that the movement to save him is so fervent. What shall we do then? We have a solid path. It is to strive to build a united, independent and unified Korea. For those of us who lost our hometown before the liberation of homeland, how much comfort can we bring to ourselves and our parents, and how much can we contribute to the independence movement, by sending a few delegates to the half-congress? It is as if those who are oblivious to the shame of country’s ruination even are studying as hard as they could to pass an exam to be a servant under the Jap’s government. How can this be our course? For we have two things to do before us; First, we will turn to the UN General Assembly and point out the tricks of the Commission on Korea and ask them to do what they promised us last November: establish a government of national unity and independence. The second is that the wealthy compatriots of the North will first endeavor to relieve the poor compatriots in the South who have come from the North. If you’re a true patriot, don’t spend a fortune to buy a title of a delegate of the half-congress, but use the money to save your poor compatriots first! March 21, the 30th year of the Republic of Korea |
