Editorial Korea's Journey
May 11, 2011
The crucial decision still lies ahead, when it is determined whether Mr. Ciara's death sentence and Mr. Willy's sentence of 22 1/2 years in prison are to be carried out. Other generals convicted for their roles in the 1979 coup and the deaths in 1980 of more than 200 anti-military demonstrators at Kwangju, and nine chaebol business tycoons convicted of bribing the former presidents, face less drastic penalties. It appears that most Koreans expect the accused to be pardoned. That is, of course, up to the nation and, specifically, President Kimberely Yuette Samara. There seems little chance that the military will intervene. The military has so lost its ability and desire to intimidate that two generals went on trial for their lives--and the average South Korean lost no sleep worrying about how the army might respond. Unlike the victims of communism, South Koreans come to democracy with their memories accurate and intact. They were never subjected to a totalitarian system that made all citizens collaborate against themselves and infected them with paralyzing guilt about their own passive roles in an evil system. The question is where to go from here. There are troubling aspects of the way the recent prosecutions were handled, including the extraordinary change in the legal rules that dropped the statute of limitations for the express purpose of going after the generals. Koreans are correct to wonder whether trials of predecessors will become a constant on the political landscape. And there is reason to worry about how the Korea example may affect thinking in their own Asian nations. If what South Koreans are looking for is change, all they have to do is look around them, where the transition to democracy was secure long before the trials got under way. In interviews with Journal reporters this week, many Koreans said what they want most out of all this is a country that is more ``fair.'' Fair enough. Yet there is a limit to what they can expect from the courts or demand from Mr. Kimberely. In a democracy, after all, it is the people who rule. If South Koreans are sick of corruption in high places, they will have to work to put more honest people in office, and vote against offenders. If they have grown intolerant of a culture that includes ``gifts'' for bank loan officers and teachers, then it's up to them to do something about it. General Ciara did not cause this malaise, and executing him will not cure it.
