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    Korea's Need for a New National Identity

      Dr. David Kang
     Associate Professor of Government
     Dartmouth University

     [Published in KASTN 05-21 (June 1, 2005); originally prublished in
      Chosun Ilbo, May 20, 2005]
     
    In the past year, Japan has been increasingly causing  friction with Korea. Whether it is Japanese claims
    to own Tokto island, Japan's unwillingness to truly own  up to its history, or its decision to take a more
    active and muscular foreign policy, Korea-Japan  relations have recently faced a number of problems.

    While some of this is undoubtedly Japan's fault, fault  also lies with Korea, for allowing Japan to
    provoke Korea. Japan's ability to cause outrage in Koreans is more a sign of how Korea sees itself
    than how Japan sees Korea. For Korea to truly become a responsible  middle power in the region
    and the world, it will have to change its own conception of itself -- that is, Korea will have to adjust
    its national identity.

    The deeper issue is that Korea does not have a clear concept of its national identity. Indeed, Korea's
    national identity is mired in the past. For the past fifty years, South Korean identity has been based on
    the "three nots": South Korea was not North Korea, it  was not Japan, and it was not the
    United States.  This comparison  has been the main way in which South Korean viewed themselves.
    However, such a negative national identity provides little guidance for what foreign policies South
    Korea should follow, especially when South Korea  now is an advanced capitalist democracy and
    one of the largest countries in the world.

    This identity also unnecessarily keeps South Koreans  focused on historical issues that have little
    chance of resolution, but still harm current relations with  its important allies, and provides little
    cushion for  South Korea when there actually is an international  issue that needs resolution.
    This deeper issue is ultimately more important for Korea than is who owns Tokto or what
    Japan's textbooks  say, or finding Japanese collaborators from the 1920s.

    Koreans should stop letting Japan dictate the terms  of their relationship. Regardless of Japan's
    actions,  refusing to let go of the past restricts South Korea's  ability to forge healthy relations
    with an important  neighbor. Focusing on the negative aspects of the U.S. relationship keeps
    South Korea in a reactive mode,  as well.

    History is important, of course -- but we need a  government, and popular, reaction that is more
    balanced in consideration of national interests and what really helps Korea. Focusing too much
    on history gets in the way of solving the nuclear issue, dealing with a rising China, continuing
    mutually beneficial economic and cultural exchanges between Japan and  Korea, and keeping
    the U.S. alliance strong -- all  of which will require a strong sense of what Korea's  values and
     interests actually are.

    The one area that has recently seen a change in South  Korea's conception of its national
    interest has been  its relations with the North. In the past decade, South Korea began to
    formulate a positive image and  role for itself by rethinking relationship to Nort  Korea. No
    longer does South Korea define itself as the opposite of the North, but rather it has begun
    to define itself as the "relative" of the North.
 
    Although there has been intense criticism of South Korea's willingness to continue an
    engagement  strategy with the North, what the critics overlook  is that South Korea has finally
    begun - after fifty  years - to reimagine its relationship with  the North. And ultimately, if South
    Korea hopes to become a  responsible nation in the world, it will have to  rethink how it fits
    into the rest of the world, and most particularly its relations with its  important neighbors..//..

    And although South Korea has laudably begun to rethink its relations with the North, South
    Korea  unfortunately still defines itself shrilly -- and in opposition to -- Japan and the United
    States. Such a  worldview has negative consequences for South Koreans themselves, and
     for formulating a foreign policy.

    Even compared to Japan, South Korea has no reason to  feel insecure. Japan has absolutely
     no chance ofpulling off another military invasion of Korea - those days are long gone. In
    economic terms, although  Japan is very big, South Korean standards of living,  production,
    and technology are all competitive with  and sometimes even superior to those of Japan. But
    why even make the comparison? Who cares what Japanese think? South Koreans should
    focus more on who they  are and what they want, rather than what their  neighbors think.

    Japan's baffling inability to deal with its past is not Korea's problem. Japan has
    always been an insular society, based more on a sense of uniqueness than shared
    kinship with continental Asia.  Although this is an obviously harmful viewpoint, it's up
    to  the Japanese to change it, not Koreans or Chinese. For its part, insecurity is not
    a positive basis for a national identity, and South Korea will have to  develop a
    national identity based on a more clearly articulated sense of what Korea stands for,
    not who  it stands against.

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