Peace on the Peninsula

In the Reconciliation and Unity column of the Catholic Times, the writer gives us her thoughts on Coup d'état and Slander.

Listening to the news of the coup in Myanmar, she sees how dangerous the military is without civilian control. Aung San Suu Kyi, a national adviser, was detained and the military declared martial law. Their decisions lack democratic legitimacy, it is nothing more than violent coercion. In fact, the military has illegally captured the state, and the reason why this situation arises is that the military has weapons that can kill people.

An ideal condition of a democratic system is when the military is not able to exercise arbitrary control because of state legislation, justice, and the administrative control of the military by the government.
 
If the government doesn't have sufficient control over the political influence of the military it can stage a coup at any time. At times the military comes to the forefront of politics or in alliance with certain forces to support the government. In Thailand, which advocates constitutional monarchy, royal power is close to the military, and it is often in the background of coups.

Importantly, the absence of control over the military increases the political instability of a country. When the military pursues its own interests, rather than protecting the nation and its people from external threats, internal problems arise.

In this regard, there are more than a few times that South Korea has said "Good Heavens" in our view of the North Korean military. It is easy for the North Korean military to stage a coup and bring down the regime. This is often found on North Korea-related news comments from the South. Beyond the playful expression of the opinion, there were also suggestions that the government should foster opposition forces that oppose the current regime in North Korea. This opinion has no concern for stability in the North Korean region, the phrase "Those who use gossip are fools" (Proverbs 10,18) comes to mind.

North Korea, which is in contact with South Korea, is an authoritarian regime dominated by the military and by its leader, Kim Jong-un. Even if the nuclear development level is greater than we think, it can be interpreted as a relatively better situation for the present to achieve a stable inter-Korean relationship and peace on the Korean Peninsula than a North Korea, where military control is weakened and warlords are raging. This is because, at least now, the targets to negotiate the North nuclear issue are limited to leaders. A situation difficult to predict who controls the nuclear weapons and the subject of nuclear negotiations changing from time to time would not be a way of bringing peace to the Korean Peninsula.