Roh Learns Bitter Lesson About the Futility of Appeasing Implacable Foes

… inside his own party.

The president also laid into three aspiring candidates in next year’s presidential election, describing his appointment of the moderate Goh Kun as his first prime minister as “a failure. “I chose Goh in the hope that he would become a bridge bringing me closer to conservatives, but it alienated me and the government from them instead,” Roh said.

His decision to appoint Uri Party hopefuls Kim Geun-tae and Chung Dong-young as health and unification ministers was equally disappointing, he said. Roh compared himself to U.S. president Lincoln, saying his appointment of Kim and Chung to his Cabinet was motivated by “a similar engagement principle. “I did the same as Lincoln. The difference is that I came under fire for doing so. It’s very depressing. I tried to copy Lincoln but it didn’t work. It’s no fun at all.

No word on whether he gets the point as it applies to North Korea, however.  Roh’s speech was also noteworthy in that he said something rational:

Roh said the government seeks the handover to prepare for any emergency in North Korea. “Would we have anything to say to China and North Korea when we can’t even control our own troops in wartime and can’t decide whether to bomb a civilian facility in the North and which facility to target?” he asked. “This is diplomatically very important.”

That’s a valid criticism of Korea’s previous defense policies, and it’s legitimate for any nation to seek the independent pursuit of any of the essential trappings of sovereignty, including defense and diplomacy.  The problem is not one of objective — where Roh is much more right than his critics — but of execution.  Roh has alienated the United States with such inexplicable suddenness and bitterness that his successor will have no choice but  to build  that independent defense on a timetable  that will do to the South Korean economy what French defensive driving did  to Princess Di.  He may even have timed it for the very moment his country will need to absorb 23 million destitute North Koreans.