The Excesses of an Extremist South Korean Teachers’ Union Force the Government Into Action

The Chosun Ilbo reports today on an issue that I expect we’ll be hearing much more about–an upcoming strike by the Korean Teachers’ Union, a/k/a the Korean Teachers’ and Educational Workers’ Union, which is affiliated with one of the two major labor groups in Korea, the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions. One glance at the KTU’s Web site shows that education is clearly the last thing on its mind. It’s reasonable to ask whether these people are really qualified to prepare Korea for success in a global, export-oriented economy economy which they clearly hold in contempt.

(Per the Marmot, the other major teachers’ union, the Korean Federation of Teachers’ Associations, has far more members and leans right; however, the KFTA, which supports a different proposal, is also protesting the new government plan. On the other hand, the Chosun Ilbo reports that the KTU’s budget dwarfs those of all other unions and labor umbrella groups in Korea, combined. Where did all this money come from? Might an audit be appropriate?).

In the wake of the KTU’s Pusan local preparing this little propaganda flick for classroom use, depicting President Bush and other foreign leaders as foreign imperialist exploiters, and using some language that was highly inappropriate for a classroom, the government had either the newfound will or fresh pressure to act. The KTU is flagrantly unrepentant:

KTU says it will use the satirical APEC teaching aids but delete segments containing abusive language from an accompanying video that lampoons President Roh Moo-hyun and U.S. President George W. Bush. “The government says APEC promotes globalization and boosts the Korean economy, it is also true that ordinary people around the world are strongly opposed to globalization and to George W. Bush,” the union said.

The KTU’s proto-Marxism and anti-Americanism already have too long a history in KTU-sponsored educational materials taught in South Korean schools, despite those materials’ tenous relevance to legitimate educational objectives. For example, the KTU recently indoctrinated South Korean kids to oppose the Iraq War.

According to Digital Chosun reporter Ahn Seok-bae, Chunkyojo has declared this to be a week of “anti-war” classes. The union is honoring the life of Kim Sun-il, one of the latest “news killings” to come out of Iraq.

But the teachers have been put on notice for their anti-war curriculum. By June 28, the first day of proposed “anti-war” classes, the MOE had already reviewed the teaching materials posted at the Chunkyojo website and pledged to send out directives that would, in the words of journalist Ahn Seok-bae, “make sure that the class is not used to instill distorted points of view in students.

Those materials were so virulently anti-American that they even managed to shock Roh Moo-Hyun.

Clearly, some better system of evaluation and accountability is needed when–and I’m not going out on a limb here–the North Koreans are trying to infiltrate, indoctrinate, and gain influence over South Korean unions.

Take a gander, for example, at this paper on the KTU’s “Peace Model of Reuinification Education, and take stock of the KTU’s associations* with obvious North Korean stooge and provocateur So Kyong Won, who in 2003 teamed up with some student radicals to provoke a fight with three American soldiers on the Seoul Subway, kidnap one of them, Private John Murphy, transport him to an anti-American rally on a South Korean campus, and force him to make a videotaped “confession.” So and the former chairman of the KTU traveled to Pyongyang together for a “solidarity” trip in 2003.

At the time, Roh’s government did next to nothing about this or other contemporanous acts of violence against American service members, which may explain why violence has continued to gain acceptance as a means of political expression in South Korea (but I digress).

I’m all for societies encouraging free, open, and vibrant debate, but there are two real problems with the KTU trying to make a free speech issue out of this: first, it’s not the job of public school teachers to teach fringe views (the KTU marches to the drum of the far-far-left Democratic Labor Party, which is now down to just 9 seats in a 299-seat National Assembly); and second, kids aren’t equipped to question and debate what their teachers teach them–indeed, questioning a teacher would be anathema in Korea’s deeply Confucian society. And of course, with the KTU in charge of the curriculum, you will assuredly never see kids exposed to the other side of the debate, which is at least a reasonable expectation in adult society.

This plan, as watered-down as it is, is long overdue. This isn’t about silencing or jailing people–it’s about getting schools back into the business of teaching math, grammar, and yes, history, based on empirical science and objective fact.

This is one of those rare occasions when I think Roh deserves some praise. This could not have happened without his government’s approval, particularly that of his Education Minister. Furthermore, it will not come without some considerable cost to him politically, and although most of the more radical teachers were probably already DLP voters, this will aggravate intra-left tensions that have grown in the wake of the last bi-elections. In the wake of those elections, of course, Roh clearly understands that he needs to move toward the center. The true test will be whether he has the determination to stick with real reforms, or whether they will be watered down until they lose all meaning.

* The North Korean Korean Central News Agency spells the name of the former head of the KTU, “Yun Yong Gyu,” but he spells it “Yoon Young Kyu” in South Korea. North and South use different romanization systems.

Photos: Above: A KTU rally, from the KTU Web site; Center: U.S. Army Private John Murphy in the custody of violent anti-American protestors (thanks to usinkorea).