Need to get rid of old ideas and establish a new vision with the founding spirit of the Republic of Korea
Interview with energetic politician Kim Moon-soo, who lives as if he’s an 18-year-old high school senior
Editor’s Note: This is a published version of an interview conducted by VON President Kim Mi-young on August 26 of last year with former Gyeonggi-do Governor Kim Moon-soo. It has been edited for publication, and the full interview can be viewed on the VON News YouTube channel. Former Gyeonggi-do Governor Kim Moon-soo has recently started the “Kim Moon-soo TV”
YoutTube channel, and is actively working as a political commentator and politician.
[Kim Mi-young] It now appears that in Korea, former activists are dominating the political parties. The conservatives are the so-called anti-converts of the Jusapa forces, and I think it’s safe to say that the so-called liberals are at the center of the non-directional Jusapa forces. (Jusapa is a term used to describe student activists in the 1980s and 90s who upheld the “Juche” ideology of North Korea.) They are the ones who oppose the Republic of Korea that was founded in 1948 based on the Constitution and the founding spirit of President Rhee Syngman. Insofar as the Jusapa forces are following or affirming the legitimacy of North Korea’s founding dictator Kim Il-sung, the activist perspective falsely labels all conservative opponents as “far-right”.
[Kim Moon-soo] The media has been portraying me as far-right these days. The current Moon Jae-in administration and the media under their influence have basically confessed to be actual pro-North Korean forces. Plus, I think the media’s decision on the legitimacy of Park Geun-hye’s impeachment is the opposite of what I believe. And the conservative media of Chosun Ilbo, JoongAng Ilbo, and Donga Ilbo are no exception to this. I believe that President Park’s impeachment was a candlelight revolt centered on the pro-North Korean Jusapa forces to change the government system. But if you start to question if the impeachment was right or wrong, and if you think it was wrong, they will definitely porttray you as far-right.
[Kim Mi-young] The impeachment seems to raise the issue of affirming or denying the constitutional system of the Republic of Korea established in 1948. The media is basically silent about this. They’re not much different than the pro-North Korean Jusapa forces. If you approach it as “Is it Rhee Syngman or Kim Il-sung?”, they will avoid it with “Are you investigating our ideology? Is this political coloring?” and they will change the subject to “Do you oppose the impeachment? Are you far right? Pro-Park? A Taegukgi rally participant?”
[Kim Moon-soo] There’s no doubt that I am for Rhee Syngman. And if you ask me to choose between the candlelight rallies and Taegukgi rallies, I will definitely choose Taegukgi. (Context: recent demonstrations in Korea used candles or the national flag; candlelight for the liberal forces backing impeachment, and the Taegukgi national flag for conservatives showing support for the impeached Park.)
[Kim Mi-young] Governor, you’re a politician who used to be an activist, right? I understand you entered politics with the People’s Party (a liberal party). With the death of Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon, his Chief of Staff Ko Han-seok has appeared on the political stage. He was involved in the 1990s Central Regional Party of the Workers’ Party of (North) Korea, and the People’s Party was also involved with this party. There were news reports that Lee Sun-sil, notorious North Korean spy who led the Central Regional Party, was involved in establishing the People’s Party.
[Kim Moon-soo] At that time, the People’s Party included some people who were, and some who were not, connected with North Korea. In my case, I wasn’t connected and Kim Nak-joong, who passed away recently, and was found to have been linked to North Korea. The People’s Party was a very complicated organization. There were those who wanted to overthrow the Korean government by violent revolution, but there were also people like Chang Ki-pyo who were surprisingly not pro-North Korea or Marxist-Leninist. It was a unique leftist party.
I was a Marxist-Leninist. I accepted the ideologies of Marx, Lenin and Mao Zedong, but did not accept Kim Il-sung’s. I just could not accept the terrible worship of a leader. There was also Lee Jae-oh, who was imprisoned in the 1970s for involvement in the South Korean National Liberation Front, as well as Lee Hak-yong, who created and worked with a gang of robbers. Chang Ki-pyo was completely different.
[Kim, Mi-young] Many activists, including you, joined together to form the People’s Party when they first entered politics, but you later moved to the then-conservative party, the Grand National Party. What motivated that political change?
[Kim Moon-soo] It wasn’t me alone, but there was a group that I belong to then, Professor An Byeong-jik’s group. There was this person, Kim Jung-kang, who has passed away now. And there were people from Seoul National University’s School of Commerce who had been involved in the Revolutionary Party. These people took the position that we could not be the same as the Revolutionary Party and that being connected to North Korea would result in complete defeat. North Korea just uses the underground party organization in the South, provides funds, and then continues to give unreasonable orders, and this can be seen in the case of Lee Seok-ki of the now dissolved Unified Progressive Party. You can see North Korea issuing endless orders under the current regime.
If you fall in love with North Korea’s Juche ideology, you will not hesitate to do anything that is difficult to understand. Income-driven growth doesn’t make sense, and so does the random increase in the number of medical schools. There was the barefoot doctor campaign in China. Communism produces a lot of doctors, as in Cuba. The training and qualifications of such doctors and judges are insufficient, which means the standards of society are falling.
[Kim Mi-young] Governor, you said you were a serious Marxist-Leninist. How did you move on from that?
[Kim Moon-soo] Within the activist group, there was an atmosphere in which the Revolutionary Party, the People’s Revolutionary Party, and Park Hyun-chae supporters were not tolerated, and the independent group that refused to connect with North Korea was destroyed along with the arrest of the South Korean National Liberation Front. We were taken to the Namyeong-dong anti-interrogation center where we were tortured and imprisoned. But when I was in prison, I saw the collapse of the Soviet Union. When the Soviet Union collapsed and the iron curtain of communism opened, I saw the horrifying reality. Contrary to the ideology, the reality is that it’s the most miserable dictatorship, suppression of human rights, and results in poverty and inequality, so I went looking for another way. I thought about studying abroad in Sweden to find a solution, but it’s so geopolitically different from our country. While I was finding my way, I came to meet school seniors like Kim Deok-ryong and Kim Jung-nam and entered into politics.
Tilting liberals and misdirected conservatives
[Kim Mi-young] Why did Sim Sang-jung, who was in the same organization, not go along with you? JTBC once asked Assemblywoman Sim who Kim Moon-soo was to her. Her answer was that you were from “a forgotten season” of her life.
[Kim Moon-soo] Assemblywoman Sim Sang-jung was not from the National Liberation (NL) Jusapa forces, but the People’s Party or People’s Democracy (PD) forces. I think that by joining the Justice Party she thereby began working with the Jusapa forces and I don’t think she’ll ever escape from them. Being in politics is not just about having ideas, it’s about which tiger you’re riding on or which horse you’re riding, and she is riding on the Jusapa. She did not join them at first, but later when the Jusapa entered production sites like the Ulsan plant, the entire political party organization was taken over. That was how the Jusapa entered the Democratic Party and there’s going to be a terrible downfall. Sim will never shake the stigma of supporting a bizarre system such as the proportional representation election law. I believe she has turned into an ill-fated politician.
[Kim Mi-young] Is former Assemblyman Cha Myung-jin your only comrade?
[Kim Moon-soo]] We have similar ideals, and he’s the only one who’s still with me even though he’s at a disadvantage. When I became governor, Assemblyman Cha was representing the Bucheon district. For politicians, it’s also very important who will succeed them in their districts.
[Kim Mi-young] I’ve listened to Professor An Byeong-jik’s last lecture before retirement. I believe he commented to the effect that the economy did not retreat even during the Japanese colonial period, only retreated about one percent during the war, and the Korean economy had never retreated until the IMF crisis. I remember being shocked by what a former left-wing economic historian was saying about colonial modernization.]
[Kim Moon-soo] Academically, Professor Lee Young-hoon has succeeded him. As for Professor An, we need to look at him from a factual perspective. We shouldn’t look at history as myth. Professor An has said that his views changed when he was a visiting professor at the University of Tokyo, Japan. He realized that certain ideas were all fake and lies after having discussions with Marxists at the University of Tokyo and meeting with people from the Federation of Korean Trade Unions and agents from North Korea. He completely broke away from them when he didn’t hear any objective facts, just “Marx said this,” or “Kim Il-sung said that.”
[Kim Mi-young] The problem is that Professor An attracted a lot of so-called wavering Jusapa, but they were not actually converted. They can’t be actual converts because they don’t accept Rhee Syngman’s founding spirit and the legitimacy of the Republic of Korea. Now they’re creating a situation where they’re painting liberal democrats as “far right”.
[Kim Moon-soo] I don’t know the details. The tragedy of the Korean conservative faction is that it’s a history full of deceit and betrayal. It’s the same with the media, including even the conservative newspapers.
[Kim Mi-young] I believe that you began the New Light group with Professor An due to the united front tactics of the Jusapa. In terms of the pro-North, pro-China, pro-communist lines, the Jusapa have become united again since the impeachment of President Park, whether they were converts or not. How do you view the Chinese Communist Party?
[Kim Moon-soo] The Communist Party is the Communist Party. For example, YouTube can be viewed everywhere now, but North Korea and the CCP are blocking it. It can be seen in Hong Kong. They say it’s a non-communist system, but they ended up stepping on Hong Kong’s liberal democracy. Wasn’t it the CCP that trampled Hong Kong with force and showed us that liberal democracy and communism are incompatible?
The expected failure of the current liberal administration
[Kim Mi-young] We believe that China had interfered in the April 15th general election. What is your view on election irregularities?
[Kim Moon-soo] I thought it was being manipulated during the election. They spent more than a trillion won on four million homes with children under the age of seven. This should not happen during an election campaign. If you spend at least 100,000 won in the wrong place, you will get caught and suffer for it in the National Assembly elections and it will be a good reason to invalidate your nomination. But if there is a huge cash flow from the government right before the election, of course it will go in favor to the ruling party. This is a massively corrupt act. In the case of the election interference of the Druking organization and Ulsan’s Song Cheol-ho, the Blue House interfered in the general elections. But the Supreme Court did not react. Moon Jae-in’s Jusapa did not view it as an election irregularity, but saw the elections as a means to cover-up their own deep-rooted evils and complete the candlelight revolution. I believe that this will continue.
[Kim Mi-young] From the perspective of a liberal in the past or as an activist for labor and the environment, what seems to be the problem with the current administration?
[Kim Moon-soo] A case in point is the issue of nuclear power plants. The environment will not improve just by our ideas. The environment must be supported by science and it will improve as a result of with long-term, incremental calculations. And for it to be improved with economic support, we need to get rid of nuclear power plants and use solar energy? This is crazy talk. The idea that a vicious revolution in methodology can improve the environment is all a lie. It may be boring, but the environment can gradually improve through cooperation and as science progresses. Of course, there may be new innovations that will be developed during that time. Labor’s biggest problem is its idea of liberation. Laborers thought it would be better if businesses and capitalists were removed and turn companies into state-owned businesses, but it was a failure. Through cooperation with businesses, workers know that it will improve their welfare, rights, and many other conditions, if they become a company-oriented, corporate-friendly union.
[Kim Mi-young] You said you were from a conservative background and family; how did you get into the labor movement?
[Kim Moon-soo] I began working for the labor movement while walking around places like the Cheonggyecheon Peace Market and the New Peace Market. The conditions there were really poor. When I went to the public restroom at Cheonggyecheon, there were young female workers who had just graduated from elementary school crying. It was just miserable, but it has now become different. And I always wonder if this is a dream or reality. The dream was to eat as much as we could, but that dream has come true every day and now we live in a world where we need to be on a diet. I’ve achieved more than 200 percent of my dreams. The Republic of Korea is a great country and its success was achieved by great leaders, such as Presidents Rhee Syngman and Park Chung-hee. In the face of great difficulties, the people came together to accomplish these achievements.
[Kim Mi-young] You met your wife while working in the labor movement?
[Kim Moon-soo] Yes, my wife was the union leader of Sejin Electronics. At that time, I was the youth representative of the metal workers’ union in Yeongdeungpo, and my wife was the women’s representative. My wife was a true laborer who graduated from Suncheon Girls’ High School and went straight to work at a factory. She has not gone to university. We rented an education center from a church located at the intersection of Bongcheon-dong and got married on a budget less than 100,000 won.
[Kim Mi-young] Assemblyman Hong Jun-pyo assessed that you have a pure soul.
[Kim Moon-soo] My friends are all growing older and have retired, but I believe I’m still 18 years old. I live with the same dreams and mind as an 18-year-old. I’m studying harder than for the college entrance exam on how our country should move forward in the future, as well as how to defeat Moon Jae-in’s Jusapa regime. I believe that Korea will become a greater nation. I am convinced that a brilliant and great free unification is waiting for us to compensate for all we have suffered. I believe that the tables will turn on Moon and his people who took advantage of the coronavirus. Their downfall and their end will be devastating.
The fall of activism is inevitable
[Kim Mi-young] You competed with Mayor Park Won-soon; how did you feel when he had passed?
[Kim Moon-soo] I was very shocked. Park Won-soon was a discreet communist. That is the essence of the pro-North Korean sect. Activists have no control over internal mistakes, just look at Moon Jae-in. There’s now a special investigative system, but as early as his inauguration, he took down the mirror of self-reflection. He should be looking into the mirror daily.
[Kim Mi-young] Do you think that activism is going downhill?
[Kim Moon-soo] It’s not just going downhill, it’s rapidly falling. First of all, they’re doing all sorts of bad things like sending executives from the world’s top-notch Samsung Group to prison and mobilizing the National Pension Service to deny voting rights.
[Kim Mi-young] A picture taken at the Samsung Electronics Industrial Complex in Godeok, Pyeongtaek shows that Kim Moon-soo, a labor activist in his early years, has become a completely different person. Did you help facilitate the development of the Samsung Electronics Industrial Complex when you were in office?
[Kim Moon-soo] Yes, there’s a lot of behind-the-scenes stories to tell all day. It’s a picture of when I worked hard for six years as governor and finally got to break ground at the complex. Currently, Korea’s largest factory is not Pohang Iron & Steel but Samsung Electronics’ Godeok, Pyeongtaek Complex at 1.2 million pyeong. We invested more than 110 trillion won. It’s a huge complex larger than Samsung Electronics’ Suwon, Yongin, and Hwaseong factories combined.
[Kim Mi-young] You seem like a person who’s capable of solving any problems that lie ahead. What do you think should happen in North Korea in the future?
[Kim Moon-soo] I was the first to bring up the North Korean Human Rights Act. Every year, the UN passes a resolution on human rights in North Korea. While the rest of the world expresses great compassion towards North Korea, it seems that this world is ignored by Moon Jae-in and his Jusapa gang.
