FP-South Korea Is an Ally, Not a Puppet
South Korea Is an Ally, Not a Puppet
Washington's image of Seoul is stuck in the 1970s. It's time to move on.
BY S. NATHAN PARK | JANUARY 17, 2019, 12:37 PM
...In the Economist Intelligence Units 2018 Democracy Index, the health of South Koreas democracy outranked that of the United States and France.
But ultimately, the claim from some corners in the United States that Moon is an aspiring authoritarian stems from the U.S. foreign-policy establishments outdated framework of viewing South Korean domestic politics. For far too many U.S. analysts, the image of South Korea is stuck in the 1970s during the height of the Cold War. In this rendition, South Korea has no meaningful democracy, only an alternation between an anti-communist dictator who must be protected as our bastard and a left-wing authoritarian who is ready to sell out the country to the communists in the North. Moons moves toward peace with North Koreawidely popular at homeare cast as selling out to Pyongyang. Moons popularity, which dropped from his initial massive high, has recovered to back over the 50 percent mark since the beginning of the year, and his fans cite his North Korea policy as the biggest reason for their support.
The U.S. foreign-policy framework is not only false but also insulting to the South Koreans who won democracy for themselves in 1987 and fought to keep it in 2017...
This opinion has a nice summary of the right wing abuses of power that led to the candlelight revolution which brought the Moon administration to power.
more:
https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/01/17/south-korea-is-an-ally-not-a-puppet/