If I were the President (2010년 12월 4일)

I can’t neglect the citrons and leave them wither away, although my heart is on my conscripted nephew and the inter-Korean relations ever since the North Korean attack of Yeonpyeong Island on Nov. 23. My nephew was summoned to his military base from a long-awaited vacation at home in Seoul shortly after the incident. While I wash citrons and remove water from their faces, my head is busy thinking political ifs.

If I were the President, I would call North Korean leader Kim Jong-il and offer to see him at the earliest possible date. I would tell him I could go to Pyongyang, Mt. Geumgang, the truce village of Panmunjom or anywhere he chose. If he asked for food and/or fertilizer as a precondition for the meeting, I would say ``yes” and work out a timetable for shipping immediately.

I would bring CDs and LPs containing olden-day Korean songs, particularly ``The Tearful Tuman River,” which Kim’s father and all other independence fighters used to sing in the 1930s while fighting against the Japanese colonialists. I would also bring a parcel of gifts for Kim’s heir, Jong-un: a copy of the late patriot Kim Ku’s autobiography, a packet of buckwheat tea good for diabetes and a book of Hermann Hesse, among others.

If I sat with the senior Kim in private, I would tell him about the pain he had caused to his fellow Koreans by the artillery attack, about how terrified those over 70 were, having experienced the Korean War (1950-1953) in their youth. I would tell him that I wouldn’t want to see such things happen again. I would remind him of the human and property losses during and after the three-year fratricidal war and tell him that we couldn’t afford to lose more lives.

I would remind him of our ages and the not too many remaining days. Six and a half decades had passed since the division of the Korean peninsula and now was the right time to think seriously of reunifying the two halves, I would say. History remembers people not for their titles but for their deeds and no other achievement could beat national reunification, I would tell him.

I would ask him what I can and should do to let the families divided in South and North Korea meet whenever they liked. I would try my best to kindle the rational side of his psyche so that he could conclude that the two Koreas didn’t have to be enemies now. I would ask him who would benefit if our two sides engage in armed conflicts. Smart as he is, he would know that it wouldn’t be us.

I would propose setting up sisterhood relations between villages and towns of both Koreas and inter-Korean exchange of people, i.e., students of each level school and residents of sister villages. I would propose hosting blind dates for unmarried men and women, and widows and widowers of both sides.

I would suggest inter-Korean trade of commodities and raw materials. I would propose stationing soldiers from both sides on Dokdo in the East Sea and all the islands around the peninsula, including the five islets off the West Coast ― Baengnyeong Island, Daecheong Island, Socheong Island, Yeonpyeong Island and Woo Island.

I would promise to repeal the National Security Law which marked the 62nd anniversary of its enactment on Wednesday. I would admit that it has sometimes been abused to restrict the freedom of the press and persecute the left-leaning forces in the south.

If our conversation happened to touch the recent WikiLeaks reports in which Chinese officials described North Korea as ``a spoiled child,” I would remind him that such unpleasant remarks were not new in the world of diplomacy, especially when it came to officials of the so-called superpowers talking about smaller nations. I would tell him that was exactly why our two sides shouldn’t fight but co-exist and prosper through mutual support until we became one again.

It is remarkable that we humans can do practical things while our hearts are away on other matters. I have washed the citrons and rubbed their watery surface. All I need to do is slice them and mix them with sugar. Although I don’t have a sweet tooth, I should go out and buy quite some amount of sugar because ``Spare the sugar, spoil the citron tea.” Sugar and time, that makes wonderful citron tea. And citron tea doesn’t seem to be the only thing that needs sugar and time to be good.

 

 

먼 곳의 친구가 보내준 유자가 시들고 있는데도 유자차를 담을 수 없었습니다. 연평도 포격으로 목숨을 잃은 사람들, 집을 잃은 사람들, 사라지지 않는 공포... 오랜만의 휴가 중에 다시 백령도의 부대로 호출되어 간 조카... 마음이 잡히지 않았습니다. 그러나 귀한 선물이 못쓰게 되도록 방치할 순 없었습니다. 유자차를 담기로 했습니다. 손으론 유자를 씻고 물기를 제거하면서도 마음은 여전히 연평도 사건과 남북관계에 머물렀습니다. '내가 만일 대통령이라면' 이렇게 할 텐데, 저렇게 할 텐데 하는 상상을 하기 시작했습니다. 

 

제가 대통령이라면 우선 북한의 김정일 국방위원장에게 전화를 걸어 만나자고 하겠습니다. 평양이든 금강산이든 판문점이든, 어디든 김 위원장이 원하는 곳에서 만나겠습니다. 쌀이나 비료를 주어야 만나주겠다고 하면 주겠습니다. 만나러 갈 때는 '눈물 젖은 두만강'과 다른 옛 노래들, 그의 아버지와 다른 항일투사들이 일본 식민지배와 싸울 때 즐겨 듣던 노래들이 담긴 CD와 LP를 가지고 가겠습니다. 그의 후계자 김정은에게 줄 선물도 가져 가겠습니다. 김구 선생의 <백범일지>, 당뇨병 치료에 좋다는 메밀차, 헤르만 헷세의 책 한 권...

 

김정일 위원장에게 남북한이 싸우면 누구에게 이득이 되겠느냐고 물어보겠습니다. 똑똑한 사람이니 남북한에 이익이 되지 않으리라는 건 알 겁니다. 여러가지 제안을 하겠습니다. 남북한의 이산 가족들이 언제나 만나고 싶을 때 만나게 하자고, 남북한의 마을과 도시를 묶는 자매결연을 하고, 각급 학교 학생들과 시민들을 교류하자고, 남한의 생필품과 북한의 원자재를 무역하고, 독도와 서해 5도, 한반도 주변 섬들에 남북한 군인들을 공동 배치하자고...

 

마음이 다른 곳에 가 있어도 제 할 일을 하는 손 덕에 유자를 다 씻었습니다. 차를 담으려면 설탕이 필요합니다. 맛 좋은 유자차를 만들려면 설탕을 듬뿍 넣어야 합니다. 넉넉하게 설탕을 넣고 시간을 주어야 맛 좋은 유자차가 됩니다. 맛 좋은 유자차에만 설탕과 시간이 필요한 게 아닙니다. 좋은 관계에도 설탕과 시간이 필요합니다.