포린폴리시 인터넷판에 올라온 ‘한국은 독재정권으로 회귀하고 있는가?’라는 제목의 기사. | 포린폴리시 웹사이트

포린폴리시 “한국, 독재시대로 회귀하는가”     경향신문 워싱턴 손제민 특파원

포린폴리시 인터넷판에 올라온 ‘한국은 독재정권으로 회귀하고 있는가?’라는 제목의 기사. | 포린폴리시 웹사이트

“박근혜 정권이 언론과 집회 결사의 자유를 탄압하면서 박정희 정권을 닮아가고 있다.”

미국의 외교전문지 포린폴리시는 지난 14일(현지시간) 인터넷판에 게재한 ‘한국은 독재정권으로 회귀하고 있는가?’라는 기사에서 박 대통령이 집권한 지난 3년 반 동안 정치적 자유의 후퇴가 두드러진다며 이 같이 보도했다. 격월간 잡지인 이 매체는 지난해 11월 민중총궐기를 주도한 한상균 민주노총 위원장이 최근 징역 5년을 선고 받은 것을 대표적인 사례로 들면서 “한국에서 평화적인 결사의 자유가 축소됐다”는 국제앰네스티의 지적을 인용했다. 1992년 김영삼 대통령이 군사독재를 끝내기 전까지 한국에서 집회를 탄압하는 일은 흔했는데 박근혜 정권 몇년 간 다시 그 시절로 후퇴했다는 것이다. 이 매체는 박 대통령의 독재적 성향이 독재자 박정희 전 대통령의 딸이라는 점과 관련됐다고 보는 견해가 있다면서 박정희 집권 18년은 경제성장과 함께 임의적 구금, 광범위한 고문, 처형, 계엄령 등 심각한 탄압으로 점철됐다고 했다.

포린폴리시는 박 대통령이 집권 후 아버지의 강력한 통치를 그리워하는 보수 진영을 실망시키지 않기 위해 북한에 대해 강경한 태도를 보여주려 하고 있다고 분석했다. 북한이 유엔 안보리 결의를 어기며 핵·미사일 개발을 계속하고 있지만 대부분의 한국인들은 북한의 위협이 제한적이며 마음 속으로는 그리 심각하게 느끼지 않고 있다. 하지만 이런 현실도 박 대통령이 “전국의 모든 베개와 침대 밑에서 공산주의자들을 찾아내려는 묘한 능력을 개발하는 것”을 막지는 못한다는 것이다.

그러면서 한국에서는 약간의 진보적 성향만 있어도 ‘종북’으로 공격하는 일이 흔해졌으며, 박 정권 하에서는 아예 열기(fever pitch) 수준이 됐다고 진단했다. 대표적인 사례로 1958년 이후 처음으로 통합진보당에 대해 정당 해산 조치를 취한 것, 역사교과서 국정화로 “어린이들에게 ‘올바른 역사관과 가치’로 주입하겠다”고 하는 점 등을 들었다.

박 정권 하에서 언론의 자유도 퇴보했다고 지적했다. 2014년 세월호 참사 때 박 대통령의 행적을 의문시한 일본 산케이신문 서울지국장과 박 대통령의 동생 박지만씨의 살인사건 관련 의혹을 제기한 김어준, 주진우 기자의 보도 등을 형법상 명예훼손죄로 기소한 것을 대표적 사례로 들었다. 한겨레신문이 박 대통령의 세월호 희생자 분향소 ‘조문 사진 연출’을 보도한 일, 조선일보가 고위직 임명자들에 대해 보도한 것, 세계일보가 박 대통령의 측근 정윤회씨 의혹 보도를 한 것 등 대통령과 관계된 보도들은 여지 없이 고소·고발의 대상이 됐다고 소개했다. 그 결과 국경없는기자회가 발표하는 세계 언론자유 지수에서 한국의 순위는 이 발표가 시작된 2002년 이후 가장 낮은 180개국 중 70위로 떨어졌고, 언론들은 자체 검열을 하거나 두려움 속에서 취재·보도 활동을 하게 됐다고 지적했다.

▶뉴욕타임스, “박근혜와 아베, 역사교과서 수정 시도” 사설로 비판

▶뉴욕타임스 “한국 정부, 비판자 입 막으려 명예훼손죄 남발”

포린폴리시는 집권 새누리당 대변인이 지난해 11월 민중총궐기에 대해 친북 요원들이 주도한 “불순한” 집회라고 공격한 일, 박 대통령이 시위대를 이슬람국가(IS) 테러범에 비유하며 복면시위 금지를 지시한 사례들을 소개했다. 그러면서 “박 대통령이 아버지 때처럼 고문·처형하거나 민주적으로 선출된 정부를 쿠데타로 전복하지는 않았지만 자유에 대한 탄압은 분명히 귀환했다”고 했다.

이 매체는 이렇게 글을 맺었다. “이 모든 것이 반공주의의 이름으로 행해지지만 오늘날 한국의 가장 큰 걱정거리는 북한이 아니라 불평등과 일자리 부족, 삶의 질 같은 것들이다. 이 문제들을 해결하는데 실패한 박근혜에게는 그 책임을 돌려야 할 누군가가 필요하다. 그에게는 진보진영과 공산주의자들만 있으면 족하다.”

Is South Korea Regressing Into a Dictatorship?

The latest blow to free speech and assembly in South Korea came on July 4, when the leader of the country’s influential Korean Confederation of Trade Unions was found guilty of orchestrating an illegal demonstration. A Seoul court sentenced Han Sang-gyun to five years in prison and a $436 fine for organizing a massive Nov. 14 anti-government protest in downtown Seoul, as well as other demonstrations dating back to 2012. Amnesty International characterized the case as part of the “shrinking right to freedom of peaceful assembly in South Korea.”

Indeed, lively, and often violent, street protest has been a national sport in South Korea since the country’s founding in 1948. And until the early 1990s, when the election of opposition leader Kim Young-sam ended more than 40 years of authoritarian rule, the repression of protests was common as well. But over the last few years, the country has regressed. Since taking office on Feb. 25, 2013, South Korean President Park Geun-hye and her Saenuri Party have sued journalists, jailed labor leaders and opposition politicians, censored the press, and dissolved political parties. Aiding her has been a network of right-wing organizations, as well as the country’s intelligence agency ? the National Intelligence Service (NIS) ? which sent out millions of illegal tweets in favor of Park during the 2012 election.

The conventional view is that this propensity for dictatorial powers comes from Park’s upbringing: She is the daughter of Park Chung-hee, the South Korean general who launched a coup in 1961, set himself up as head of a military junta, and was then elected president in 1963.

Thus began an 18-year reign, characterized by massive economic growth coupled with severe repression ? including arbitrary arrest, widespread torture, executions, and martial law. Park’s rule ended only when his own intelligence chief assassinated him in 1979. Today, Park the elder’s legacy is deeply divisive. Many older Koreans see him as a savior who created prosperity and strengthened the country against what was then a more advanced North Korea. Others, especially younger Koreans, simply view him as a tyrant.

The current president, born in 1952, grew up in this environment. At 22, she rose to national prominence after a North Korean agent assassinated her mother, Yuk Young-soo, with a bullet meant for the president. Park’s dreams of being a university professor were dashed, as she assumed the duties of first lady. After her father’s murder, Park withdrew from public life for almost two decades. She returned to government in 1998 and was elected to the country’s legislature, the National Assembly. In 2007, she unsuccessfully ran for her party’s presidential candidacy. But in 2012, Park won both the nomination and the presidency, beating Moon Jae-in of the liberal Minjoo Party. Voters then described the intensely private Park as “good-hearted, calm, and trustworthy” ? someone who can “save our country.”

Park is the first female president of South Korea, no small feat in a country with many of the lowest indices in the developed world for women’s equality. Indeed, many conservative male voters elected her ? despite her gender ? because of her association with her father.

Since taking power, Park has not disappointed the conservatives who miss her father’s muscular rule.Since taking power, Park has not disappointed the conservatives who miss her father’s muscular rule. Park argues she has to be tough to deal with the thugs in Pyongyang’s ruling Workers’ Party of Korea, who have repeatedly made disgusting and sexist attacks against her, threatened to destroy South Korea (and the United States), tested nuclear weapons and medium- and long-range missiles in violation of U.N. sanctions, and generally lived up to their reputation as very, very bad neighbors.

But the North Korean menace is widely felt to be contained and isn’t high on the minds of most South Koreans. However, that hasn’t stopped Park from developing an uncanny ability to find communists under every pillow and mattress in the country. It’s a common slur in South Korea to accuse anyone mildly progressive of being jongbuk ? a pro-Pyongyang apparatchik ? but it has reached a fever pitch under Park.

In December 2014, the Ministry of Justice caused the disbanding of the Unified Progressive Party (UPP), a minor left-wing party with five seats in the National Assembly, for being pro-Pyongyang. It was the first time since 1958 that the government had forced a political party to disband. The UPP insisted it was simply in favor of closer ties between the two Koreas. But the Justice Ministry accused two key members of planning a rebellion to support North Korea in the event of a war ? and a court sentenced one of them to 12 years in jail. The prominent Saenuri politician Choi Kyung-hwan said the party was only one of many “poisonous mushrooms” that “must be rooted out.”

Park also sees communists lurking in academia, especially among historians who write middle and high school history textbooks.Park also sees communists lurking in academia, especially among historians who write middle and high school history textbooks. Conservatives claim the texts unduly criticize South Korea’s past dictators, including Park’s father, as torturers and pro-Japanese collaborators. That they were both these things is irrelevant; children need to be indoctrinated with “correct historical views and values,” Park says ? presumably, her own.

The government plans to replace the eight state-approved texts currently available with a single state-written text, which the Ministry of Education will force all schools to use. The final draft of the textbook is not available yet, but one assumes it will be much like the textbook drafted by conservative scholars in 2013, which was approved by the government but which virtually no schools use because of its clear bias.

Meanwhile, Park has sought to discourage or eliminate critical coverage of her and her government by battering press freedom. In 2014, the government indicted Tatsuya Kato, the Seoul bureau chief for the popular Japanese newspaper Sankei Shimbun. They claimed his story questioning the president’s activities on the day of the April 2014 Sewol ferry disaster ? in which more than 300 passengers, mostly high school students, died, allegedly because of mismanagement from both the ferry company and the central government ? amounted to criminal defamation. (He was later acquitted.) Kim Ou-joon and Choo Chin-woo, two independent reporters, were tried for criminal defamation for insinuating that the president’s brother, Park Ji-man, was involved in a cover-up of his cousin’s murder in 2011. They were acquitted in January 2015, after their second trial.

The list goes on: The government sued the left-wing newspaper Hankyoreh over a report that the president staged a photograph at the ferry disaster. They have also sued the Chosun Ilbo, South Korea’s largest paper, over a story regarding high-level appointments. And they are suing the Unification Church-owned Segye Ilbo tabloid for a story critical of Park’s former chief of staff.

As a result, Reporters Without Borders (RSF), the Paris-based free press watchdog, ranked the country 70 out of 180 in its most recent World Press Freedom Index, down 10 places from 2015, and the lowest for South Korea since RSF began tabulating the index in 2002. “The government has displayed a growing inability to tolerate criticism and its meddling in the already polarized media threatens their independence,” the group wrote. All this has led to a climate of fear and self-censorship in newsrooms across the country, as journalists worry they will have to call their lawyers next.

Rowdy public protest is as Korean as kimchi, but over the past three years, Park’s government has severely abrogated that right, too. Nov. 14, 2015, saw the biggest anti-government protests in a decade, where, despite the rain, an estimated 80,000 people took to the streets of Seoul. The government declared the demonstration illegal, however, and police dispersed it with tear gas and water cannons, spraying dye so protesters could be identified and rounded up later. (It was for his help planning and participating in this demonstration that Han was arrested.)

Saenuri Party spokesman Kim Yong-woo identified the protesters as pro-North Korean agents (surprise, surprise) and said the demonstrations were “impure.” Park, meanwhile, told a cabinet meeting that protesters who wear masks should be banned. Why? Because Islamic State terrorists also wear masks. Park seems unconcerned, however, about conservative protesters, who have disrupted left-wing rallies and have even gone so far as to eat pizza in front of the hunger-striking families of children who died on the Sewol ferry. (In fairness, conservative protests have been much smaller.)

It’s become a cliche on the left to compare Park’s ruling style to her father’s. Yes, the comparison is overstated ? Park the younger has not tortured or hanged anyone or overthrown a democratically elected government in a coup. But while the torture and killing has not returned, the clampdown on freedom has.

It’s done in the name of anti-communism, but North Korea isn’t the biggest concern of South Koreans today; it’s inequality, job opportunities, and realizing a decent standard of living. Park has failed to address these concerns and, as a result, needs someone to blame. Liberals and communists will do just fine.