Political Defiance is Necessary in North
Korea
by
David Maxwell
Senior
Fellow, Foundation for Defense of Democracies
Thank you Suzanne for the kind introduction.
It is truly an honor to be here with these brave Koreans from the north
who have escaped from the Guerrilla Dynasty and Gulag State we know as north
Korea. Anyone who has survived the north
and escaped has my deepest respect and admiration.
As a retired Special Forces soldier, I still believe in our motto – “de
oppresso liber” – to free the oppressed.
And more accurately what Green Berets try to do is to help the oppressed
free themselves. I hope the day will soon come when 25 million Koreans in the
north can throw off the yoke of oppression that is around their necks as a
result of the actions of the mafia-like crime family cult we know as the Kim
family regime.
It is my belief that the only way we will see an end to the nuclear and
missile programs and the crimes against humanity being committed in the north
is through the solution of the “Korea question” which was outlined in paragraph
60 of the 1953 Armistice. The military
commanders called on the political leaders of all concerned parties to come
together within 90 days of the signing to solve the Korea question which is the
unnatural division of the peninsula. We
have been waiting for nearly 66 years for this to happen.
As I study the security situation in Korea there are five fundamental
questions that are on the forefront of my mind and should be considered as we
try to understand the situation and chart a way ahead that will serve, protect,
and advance US and ROK/US alliance interests and the interests of the 25
million Koreans suffering in the north.
The first two are policy questions and the next three are intelligence
questions that we must seek to understand and answer.
1.
What do we want to achieve in Korea?
2.
What is the acceptable durable political arrangement that will protect,
serve, and advance US and ROK/US Alliance interests on the Korean Peninsula and
in Northeast Asia?
3.
Do we believe that Kim Jong-un will ever abandon the seven decades old
strategy of subversion, coercion-extortion (blackmail diplomacy), and use of
force to achieve unification dominated by the Guerrilla Dynasty and Gulag State
in order to ensure the survival of the mafia like crime family cult known as
the Kim family regime?
4.
In support of that strategy do we believe that Kim Jong-un will abandon
the objective to split the ROK/US Alliance and get US forces off the peninsula?
Will KJU give up his divide and conquer strategy - divide the alliance
and conquer the ROK?
I think the answer to both questions 3 and 4 is no. He will never give up his political warfare
strategy that he is executing every day against the ROK, the US, and the
international community.
5.
The most important fifth and final question is: Who does Kim fear more:
The US or the Korean people in the north? I think we all know the answer to
this question due to the very nature of regime and its institutionalized system
of oppression and tyrannical dictatorial rule.
But it is the answer to this question that provides the way forward to
solve the Korea question. While the
solution may come as a result of war or regime collapse the best way is for it
to come from within – from within the 25 million Koreans living in the north.
The answers to these questions should guide us to the strategy to solve
the "Korea question" and lead to the only acceptable durable
political arrangement: A secure,
stable, economically vibrant, non-nuclear Korean peninsula unified under a
liberal constitutional form of government determined by the Korean people. In
short, a United Republic of Korea (UROK).
As we consider the threats from the north, to include its nuclear and
conventional forces and its global illicit activities from counterfeiting, drug
trafficking, and slave labor to cyber attacks, the most important and
overlooked one is the north’s use of subversion to undermine the legitimacy of
the ROK. The regime has committed
tremendous effort to trying to subvert the South and at the same time has
developed the most sophisticated system to prevent internal subversion in the
north. It fears subversive activities
against the regime most of all. And the
most subversive activity comes in the form of information and influence
activities.
What is subversion?
- The undermining of the power and authority of an
established system or institution.
- As in:
"the ruthless subversion
of democracy" versus “the effective subversion of a dictatorship.”
At the very root of the problem
Koreans are in an Ideological War – which really is about the choice of values
the Korean people in the north and South want to live by:
·
Shared ROK/US Values:
o
Freedom and individual liberty, liberal democracy,
free market economy, and human rights
·
Kim family regime (KFR) “values”
o
Juche/Kimilsungism, Socialist Workers
Paradise, Songun, Songbun, Byungjin, and denial of human rights to sustain the
KFR in power
The choice between these values
belongs to all Koreans.
I am a great fan of Gene Sharp and Robert Helvey. Gene Sharp wrote the seminal work “From
Dictatorship to Democracy.” One of the most important concepts is Political
Defiance which was coined by Robert Helvey.
“Political defiance” is used principally to describe action by
populations to regain from dictatorships control over governmental institutions
by relentlessly attacking their
sources of power and deliberately using strategic planning and operations to do
so. This is one of the most important
lines of effort to solving the Korea question.
There are four paths to a United Republic of Korea.
1. The first path is Peaceful – this is
most unlikely but counterintuitively the one the ROK can and must prepare for
with the help of the US and international community. It is the morally right focus and should be
the foundation for all overt policy development and planning and in fact has
been the alliance vision for the past three ROK and two US Presidents. I would argue that everything planned for
peaceful unification – economic integration, political integration, cultural
integration, and even military integration will be necessary in any of the
other three paths. Unification, whether
peaceful or otherwise, must result in a United Republic of Korea with no traces
left of the Kim family regime.
2. The second path is War – It is the
fastest way to unification as it will result in the defeat of the nKPA and
destruction of the Kim family regime infrastructure. But it is too costly in blood and treasure;
therefore, we must work to deter war.
3.
The third path is regime collapse – while this might seem like a good
path it is also fraught with danger, complexity, uncertainty, and most likely
some level of conflict up to and including war.
4. The fourth path is the outlier but may
be the best answer and that is regime removal and replacement with a political
power who will seek peaceful unification to create a United Republic of
Korea. The most important tool in
developing the political defiance that can lead to this outcome is information
and influence activities.
An aggressive information and influence activities campaign must be
sustained over time. In the US we
describe it this way: Information and
Influence Activities comprise “the integration of designated information
related capabilities in order to synchronize themes, messages, and actions with
operations to inform United States and global audiences, influence foreign
audiences, and affect adversary and enemy decision making.
In the context of north Korea we need to influence three broad target
audiences: the regime elite and its
decision making but also more critically to undermine regime legitimacy. Next is the second tier leadership – those
leaders outside the regime who possess power – namely military power such as
the division, corps, and army commanders. We must remove their will to both
attack the South and suppress the Korean people in the north. The third are the Korean people themselves who
must be supported as they develop and execute political defiance against the
regime and who must be prepared for the establishment of a United Republic of
Korea. In short, we must attack the
legitimacy of the regime, remove the will to oppress the Korean people by the
second tier leadership, and prepare the Korean people for political defiance
and unification.
Of course, Clausewitz said “in war everything is simple but even the
simplest thing is hard.” We should keep
in mind this is an ideological war that is fought with information and influence. It is easy for me to say and describe this,
but it is complex, uncertain, and hard in execution. Fortunately, we have experts in this process
who can lead us in the hard work. These
heroes, who have escaped from the oppression in the north, know what it takes
to influence their fellow Koreans. We
should listen to their wisdom but more importantly we must support their
efforts. I pledge to do so and I urge
all of you to do the same.
Thank you.
David Maxwell is a retired U.S, Army Special Forces Colonel and
a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. He also
contributes to FDD’s Center for Military and Political Power. Follow him on
Twitter at @davidmaxwell161. Follow FDD on Twitter @FDD and @FDD_CMPP. FDD
is a Washington-based, nonpartisan research institute focusing on national
security and foreign policy.
