The Korean War through the perspective of Romania

Abstract

6.25전쟁은 우리에게 너무나도 큰 고통과 절망을 가져다 준 최대의 민족적 비극이자 한반도에서 이루어진 최초의 (전쟁이라는 폭력적 수단에 의한 적화)통일 시도였다는 것은 자명한 사실이다. 역사인식 (혹은 역사의식)의 흐름과 변화에 따라 6.25전쟁과 관련된 역사적, 정치적 기억에 대한 논의도 역시 사회, 정치적 세력들의 이해관계에 따라 각기 다른 모습으로 변천되고 발전되어 왔다. 하나의 사회현상을 어떤 시각을 통해 보느냐에 따라 우리의 인식이 달라질 수 있고 그 인식에 대한 원인과 진단, 나아가 그 문제에 대한 접근방법과 해결방안까지도 다르게 나타날 수 있는 것이 사실이다. 이제까지 지녀왔던 자본주의적 잣대가 아닌 사회주의적 시각, 즉 당시 북한과 동일한 이념의 틀 안에서 공존했던 루마니아의 렌즈를 통해 6.25전쟁을 새롭게 조망한다면, 이것은 6.25전쟁을 보다 다양한 각도로 이해하기 위한 하나의 가치 있는 시도라 여길 수 있을 것이다. 이를 위해, 당시 루마니아 당국의 입장을 대변했던 대표적 문헌이자 권위적 표현 보도매체였던 당 기관지 ‘스끈떼이아(Scânteia)’를 선택, 3년간의 전쟁에서 드러난 일부 루마니아 당국의 입장을 정리, 분석하였다. 6.25전쟁에 대한 루마니아 당국의 입장을 형상화하듯 전황의 흐름에 따라 쓰끈떼이아의 논조양상은 각기 다른 모습을 보여주었다. 스끈떼이아를 통한 내재적 접근을 통해 6.25전쟁에 대한 루마니아 당국의 인식과 사상적 목표를 이해하고자 한다. 6.25전쟁에 대한 새 로운 모색은 우리가 지향하는 남북화해와 민족문제의 극복을 위한 가장 기본적인 전제 조건이라고 할 수 있겠다.Even though the serious concern of the international community, North Korea did nuclear test twice in 2016. As a result of it, there is a lot of demand that South Korea strongly stand against the threat of North Korea’s nuclear missiles, so the Korean Peninsula is going back to the era of Cold War now. Most of the world experts about North Korea claim that North Korea be collapsed inward in the near future, but considering conditions around Korea it is not likely that the collapse of North Korea will be done easily. For all that, since the beginning of human history a chain of division and reunification has been repeated. The division of the glorious Roman Empire, the unification process of European countries and fragmentation of the former Soviet Union can be good examples of the cyclical view of history. Considering this historical view, there is no doubt that unification of South and North will be realized in the future. In addition, the deepening national power gap between South and North and clearly visible numerous problems of North Korean regime have raised the possibility of unification. Therefore we need to have a moment to rethink about the Korean War that was the biggest tragedy of the Korean people and the first attempt at unification. If we get access to this war with a different perspective, namely, observing the Korean War through immanent approach (critical immanent approach) rather than external approach, we can get considerable research value. In other words approaching from a communist point of view, that is, approaching with the perspective of the communist states, the Korean War can be evaluated in a different way that ever before. In this paper, the fact that one of the ex-communist countries, Romania had a different opinion and evaluation on this war is clearly revealed in the organ of their communist party, Scânteia. Generally political parties or leaders of communist countries present political directions and intentions in their organs with indirect form of description. The communist organs are not just newspapers that primarily deliver information. Their primary purpose is to stimulate and alter the stream of consciousness of the masses as a propaganda tool. In fact, the communist organs are regarded as the most preferred communicational instrument for persuasion by communists. Because of a feature of esoteric communication Scânteia also has to be read and analyzed with attention. This paper describes how the Romanian communist authority recognized the Korean War. In Scânteia they interpreted and described the background, course and conclusion of this war from the perspective of their own esoteric communication. In the early of war, Scânteia solely owed the cause of the Korean War to the American imperialist and maintained propagandistic tone against America. Later, however, unfavorable aspect of the war from Incheon Landing Operation looked, its tone was subtly changed; the tone of anti America disappeared gradually and increasingly emphasized the horror and brutality of war. Just before China’s entry of war, a lot of articles and editorial supporting China started to appear frequently and at the time of armistice Scânteia adhered to anti-war peaceful stance. Therefore, the stance of Scânteia is varied greatly according to the flow of the situations of war. In conclusion it should be said that if we do not eliminate a superficial approach to communist organs such as Scânteia, we will lose a good opportunity to understand mysterious and esoteric communication from the Communist Bloc.