Last five years in South Korea under a conservative government led by Lee Myung-bak was marked by series of disasters, economically, socially, politically and especially on the south north relationship in the peninsula. Nearly none of his election campaign promises have been accomplished to any degree of satisfaction at the end of his term this year! Just about the only achievement of his party, if one can call it at that, would be the succession of his conservative regime by another conservative one led by the president-elect Park Geun-hye.

To the progressive, liberal segment of the country, who had been witnessing, with deep sadness, the regression of the country in almost every political, economical, social areas, and most of all, the re-unification issues, and was hoping and anticipating ardently the rebirth of a liberal regime in the country succeeding the ideologies represented by the late Kim, Dae-jung and Roh, Moo-hyun, the outcome of the December 19, presidential election this year, from which emerged, albeit as a narrow victor, another conservative politician, furthermore a direct lineage of Park, Chung-hee, Park, Geun-hye, was a shocker and a source of a profound disappointment.

It is of course of no use to lament on the strategic failure of the liberal politicians in the conduct of process of candidate selection as well as the conduct of campaign strategy. However it should be said that none of the self-claimed liberal leaders appeared to be able to present themselves to the people of Korea as a true altruistic patriot whose only dedication was to the people of Korea, country of Korea and unification of Korean peninsula. A special note should be made at this point on the disappointing behavior of the particular candidate who clung to the candidacy to the last minute, thus failing to provide a focused, unified liberal presidential candidate early on, while his lack of political experience as well as the lack of party affiliation made him clearly a hopeless candidate to beat Park Geun-hye. He should be remembered as such in his future political career, if ever such an opportunity rises again for him.

Now is the time for liberal progressive Koreans whether in South Korea, North Korea or overseas to critically evaluate the situation and ponder deeply on the realistic and effective action-plan(s) to follow in the next five years for the people of Korea both South and North, country of Korea both South and North, and peace and re-unification of the Korean peninsula.

It is important to remember that the December 19 election was a very close one; Park Geun-hae won the Blue House with only 52% support. In other words, 48% of the electors were on the side of Moon Jae-in, thus near half of South Koreans voted for the liberal progressives, this in spite of the vicious and unethical name callings by the desperate right’s campaign tactics. It is essential to keep in mind, and further solidify this political power in the next five years by maintaining the political initiatives, even at the street level, and also by providing a pivotal leadership personified by a charismatic and symbolic personage which could be Moon Jae-in. Liberals can no longer afford to be led by a scattered leadership shared by those, whose only ambition is the “Blue House”

It is also important for the liberals to remember, that regardless of what their feelings are, in the next five years, the Saenuri, the conservatives, led by Park will be in charge but there are many critical issues domestic as well as international that are so vital to the survival of the peninsula, upon which liberal’s input is essential. History is abounding with examples when conservatives are in power, with urgings of liberals pointing to a rational solution, they could take momentous decisions unbridled by the politics. In other words, the time is now for the liberals to become a strong, cohesive and unified entity and work with Park Geun-hye, and her conservatives that won the election, on many national international and peninsula issues, i.e., we the progressives could oppose, protest but negotiate, compromise and finally cooperate.

South-North Interaction: 6-15 Agreement is now more than a decade old and 10-04 Agreement, six years in the past and both were established and promulgated under liberal leaders who are now all deceased. The situations in Korean Peninsula, as well as international dynamics around it have gone through tremendous changes since then.

Kim Jong-un and Park Geun-hye must meet and develop a new relationship based on new philosophy, ideology and political realities of both North and South under the current circumstances. The liberals should not continue to sing old songs. The summit meetings should be held on a regular basis yearly or semiannually. In the meantime, there should also be a permanent body of a Council under both leaders composed of ten members from each Koreas, meeting weekly to discuss various and all unification related issues, on-going basis, and it could be called “Supreme Council on Peninsula Re-unification” The members of the Council will be appointed by the two leaders, Park and Kim for their known expertise in the areas of; economy, science and technology, government, military, education and culture, international relations and history, but excluding politicians with geographic and electoral party obligations. The Summit meetings as well as the Council meetings should be held alternately between Seoul and Pyongyang or any other new neutral location near North and South, which can be called “Koreana”, the unification city.

Peace in the Peninsula: Armed conflict in Korean peninsula is absolutely unconscionable and un-imaginable. U.S. today is not like in 1950. It cannot and will not sustain any military support to South Korea. The liberals should urge President Park, Geun-hye to take up the first issue between the two Koreas as an establishment of Non-Aggression Pact between South and North, followed by a mutual and gradual 10% annual defense budget cut. This discussion should also include the idea of establishing a joint control and ownership of nuclear weapon system between the two Koreas. A facility which might be called “Korean Peninsula Nuclear Energy Base” could be set up near the area between the two Koreas, perhaps near so called Iron Triangle Area. A nuclear Korea is essential. After all, Korea is a country surrounded by three greatest nuclear powers and also under Mr. Abe, Shinzo, the arch-conservative new prime minister of Japan, it will be a matter of time when Japan will abolish the Article Nine of their peace constitution and will become a nuclear power. Any Koreans would know immediately how nuclear Japan would look at its neighbor, denuclearized Korea.

Park Geun-hye will be in Blue House for five years, but a young, Kim Jong-un could be in power for well over 30 years! After achieving the peace in peninsula, with non-aggression pact and reduction in the over-sized defense budgets and become a joint, de facto nuclear power; they should begin the process of declaring the united Korea being the permanently neutralized entity, but its permanent neutrality guaranteed by no foreign powers but by itself; with small but high-tech army, blue water navy, highly advanced global air force, cutting-edge missile and rocket force and finally the nuclear power. Even a casual glance of our history tells that Korea cannot trust any of its neighbors for her national independence. The permanent neutrality of a unified Korea was proposed by Kim Il-sung many times during his life time.

Economic Unification: In the past 30 years, Northeast Asia has gone through a remarkable economic conceptual metamorphosis. It is no longer possible to have any one country including U.S., to claim military-political-economic hegemony in the area. The China-Korea-Japan axis has emerged as a geographic, economic complex with a formidable weight now and future. The current dispute between Japan and Korea and also between Japan and China over a few small rocky islands, or some sore feelings among them over Japan’s past harsh colonial rule are not a big issue in the context of long term international relation.

However with divided Korea in the middle, it has become increasingly clear that the two Koreas must strive quickly to become a single economic entity for the continued peaceful and stable development of the Northeast Asia. In this context, the new U.S. “Asia Pivot Policy” to contain China by strengthening her alliance with Japan and South Korea and driving North Korea further into China camp is extremely dangerous for not only Korean peninsula, since it could become again a ground for contest between the two foreign powers, but also runs entirely against the fabric of Northeast Asia economic co-prosperity concept.

The economic unification of Koreas could precede political unification. As a matter of fact, it will diminish the current economic disparity existing between the two Koreas into a level more conducive to the political unification. President Park Geun-hye and the first secretary Kim Jong-un, with the works of the Supreme Council, afore mentioned should initiate cooperative sharing of natural resource, human resource, technological resource and capital resource as well as infrastructure re-building in North Korea. The effort is essential in achieving an increase of the combined GDP of Koreas and making another quantum jump to become fully advanced one country. There is a hope to see “Miracle of Han” replaced by “Miracle of Han and Daedong”

The cooperative economic effort could also be modeled initially anyway, after a Park Chung-hee style, export-driven, concerted capital initiated; incentive motivated, that is, with a full participation by existing major South Korean conglomerates,-“Chaebols” that currently number about 30 and represent over 85% of total export of the country, which amounts to half of the South Korea’s ; 1 trillion total economy. It is obvious that no economic unification is possible without their full support. And their support is predicated on profit incentives rather than altruism and patriotism. “Economic Democracy” -fair income distribution is important but will only come after the attainment of the Economy-Income.

Lastly, yes, for whatever reason(s), conservatives won the South Korean presidential election but it serves well for them to remember that there is a limit to stupidity; continued provocation at the risk of armed conflict on the peninsula, reliance on the foreign powers for its defense posture, refusal to communicate with its northern brethren, ignoring the need to address widening economic inequality, sacrificing democratic principles hard-won by the nation’s youth in the street; to name a few, will not be tolerated by the people of Korea.