People Power Party lawmaker posts criticism on Facebook on Wednesday, calling it 'historical fabrication that disguises atrocious war crimes as a just war'

People Power Party lawmaker Na Kyung-won [Yonhap]
People Power Party lawmaker Na Kyung-won [Yonhap]

People Power Party lawmaker Na Kyung-won said Wednesday that the War Memorial of Korea, which falls under the Ministry of National Defense, had been caught trying to teach elementary school students the Chinese concept of "Resist America, Aid Korea" — Beijing's framing of the Korean War.

In a Facebook post Wednesday, Na said the memorial had presented Korean and Chinese perspectives on the June 25 Korean War as equally valid under the guise of "different interpretations." She said the "Resist America, Aid Korea" framing was nothing more than "the shameless distortion of Chinese Communist forces that participated in the illegal invasion of the South — claiming they helped North Korea against American imperialism."

Na called the controversy "historical fabrication that disguises atrocious war crimes — which blocked unification and caused the deaths of one million Koreans — as a just war." She said teaching such a framing to elementary school children whose values are still forming was equivalent to "brainwashing our children into believing that the bullets fired by North Korea and China, which shot their grandfathers, were righteous bullets."

She then turned to President Lee Jae-myung, saying he had previously made remarks "fit only for a spokesperson for Kim Jong-un" by suggesting North Korea feared a southward invasion from the South. Na called it "a dismal act of self-inflicted security sabotage in which the commander in chief of the armed forces lends legitimacy to the enemy's logic and the state leads the ideological disarmament of the Republic of Korea."

Na also criticized what she described as the Lee Jae-myung government's selective view of history. She said the government had pushed for punishment laws that would send people to prison for even the slightest dissent on the May 18 Gwangju Uprising, yet turned into a "generous pluralist who respects diverse historical perspectives" when it came to the Korean War. "The tolerance that expands endlessly before North Korea and the forces of aggression is simply staggering," she said.

She added that the behavior was "befitting a Hong Gildong administration that cannot call its main enemy its main enemy," and said she suspected it was an attempt to revive the old sophistry of quietly reframing the Korean War as a southward provocation rather than an illegal invasion from the North.

Na also demanded that the government "immediately prostrate itself before the people — and especially before the souls of fallen patriots, national merit recipients and their families — and punish those responsible with the full force of the law."

Meanwhile, the Korea War Memorial Association said the program "was not designed to introduce or justify the Chinese position," adding that it was "planned on the premise of the historical fact that the Korean War began with North Korea's illegal southward invasion and on the Republic of Korea's historical understanding." However, it acknowledged that "there were shortcomings in the production, review and verification of promotional materials, and expressions were found that could cause misunderstanding in a way different from the original educational intent." It said the relevant posts had been deleted and the education program suspended.


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