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UD distinguished scholar addresses threat of North Korea
4:04 p.m., Oct. 24, 2006--Every country in the world has a stake in de-escalating the nuclear threat posed by North Korea, Byong Man Ahn, UD distinguished visiting scholar, told those gathered Monday evening, Oct. 23, in Mitchell Hall. Speaking to an audience of more than 300, about two thirds of whom were UD students, Ahn, an acclaimed East Asia expert and visiting professor in UD's Department of Political Science and International Relations, outlined events that have led to the current situation in North Korea and spoke about the specific threat posed by the country's leader, Kim Jong-Il. “Kim Jong-Il inherited power from his father, who died in 1994,” Ahn said, summarizing North Korea's recent history. “He is known as a very brutal man--a lunatic--but at the same time, he is very calculating.” Illustrating the main points of his lecture “The Problem of North Korea in the 'Age of Terrorism'” with slides, Ahn discussed the lasting political repercussions of both World War II and the Korean War, talked about the significance of North Korea's geographic location and chronicled the uneasy bonds that South Korea and China have tried to forge with the communist country in recent years. “North Korea, as you see, is surrounded by giants--great political powers,” Ahn said, pointing to a map. “North and South Korea have been divided since 1945, after World War II, and because of the war, both the North and the South have had hostility.” South Korea is still perceived by the much poorer North as well-off, Ahn explained, and interaction between the two countries is still not smooth, despite recent tourism and industry efforts that have provided North Koreans with jobs and better economic prospects. Despite the recent inroads toward reconciliation, however, Ahn emphasized that “no real questions about real issues have ever been raised,” and that that communication barrier, over time, has created the current situation. Key North Korean issues that have been avoided by many neighboring countries, including China, are human rights violations, illegal trade, U.S. money counterfeiting operations and nuclear weapons manufacturing and proliferation, Ahn said. “In North Korea there is no freedom of speech and very little freedom to move around,” Ahn said, outlining the state of human rights in the country. “As a result of this [constraint on movement] and of bad weather from 1995-98, 2. 5 million people in North Korea starved to death, and those who got caught trying to escape got sent to detention camps or put to death.” When the United States discovered North Korea's counterfeiting operations and effected a unified trade freeze against North Korea, Ahn said that this action aggravated North Korea's desperate situation even more. And when Bush called North Korea part of “an axis of evil” in 2002, it reinforced Kim Jong-Il's reluctance to reach an agreement about freezing all nuclear activities in North Korea. “North Korea may be isolated,” Ahn said, showing the tremor site from the recent nuclear test detonation on a map, “but they have the nuclear bomb. It's estimated that they have stockpiled enough plutonium to produce between four and 14 nuclear bombs now, and, if we wait, they can produce between eight to 18.” Ahn concluded his lecture by talking about the difficulties posed by sanctions, by touching on the possibility of nuclear weapons proliferation and by pointing out North Korea's proximity to China, with whom it shares 880 miles of border. “Borders are very porous,” Ahn said. “And are sanctions enough to cover everything? Proliferation of nuclear weapons is not confined to North Korea.” Ahn followed his lecture with a question-and-answer session and an informal debate at a reception that was held in the atrium of Gore Hall. Since coming to UD as a Fulbright Scholar-in-Residence more than 20 years ago, Ahn has served many times as a scholar in residence and visiting professor. As the former president of Hankuk University in Seoul, Ahn fostered faculty and student exchange programs between South Korea and the United States and gained prominence as one of the foremost educational leaders and scholars in Korea. He played a major role in establishing an academic exchange between Hankuk University and UD and received an honorary doctor of humane letters degree from UD at Winter Commencement 2004. Article by Becca Hutchinson |
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