“Clinging to vested rights is fake patriotism,” Moon says

Jun 07, 2019, 03:00 am

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President Moon Jae-in delivers a Memorial Day speech at Seoul National Cemetery on June 6./ Source: Yonhap

By AsiaToday reporter Lee Seok-jong

"As long as we avoid extremes and define patriotism within the realm of common knowledge, no matter how we view ourselves - conservative or liberal - we can move closer to an integrated society," President Moon Jae-in said on Thursday.

In his Memorial Day address at Seoul National Cemetery, Moon said, "The days are gone when society can be characterized as dichotomy between conservatives and liberals."

"We once endured a time when ideology ruled - when people and thoughts were divided by a contest between conservatives and liberals. However, a harmonious history combining conservatives and liberals permeates today's Republic of Korea. The efforts of conservatives and liberals are fused within the independence, democracy and economic development that we enjoy now," Moon said.

"When it comes to patriotism, there is no difference between conservatives and liberals. Patriotism is a mindset that regards the destiny of a national community as one's own, not clinging to vested rights or private gain. Those clinging to vested rights - whether they are conservatives or liberals - are not real ones," the president said.

"I respect all acts of patriotism regardless of whether they are from conservative or liberal quarters. That is why is required to provide patriots and veterans with genuine support in our time."

Moon repeatedly emphasized that South Korea should not create conflicts blinded by ideological confrontations between the left and the right while mentioning independent activist Kim Won-bong and the Provisional Government's formation of a united front between the left and right.

"For five years up to 1945, when Japan surrendered to the Allied Forces, the Provisional Republic of Korea Government formed a united front between the left and right in Chongqing, China, and founded the Liberation Army," he said. "The Korean Youth Battlefield Mission Corps, the anarchist forces, and the Korean Volunteer Army, led by Kim Won-bong whose penname was Yaksan, were incorporated into the Liberation Army, which helped to finally unite the nation's independence movement forces."

"The unified Liberation Army members' indomitable determination to resist as well as the military capabilities fostered in cooperation with the Allied Forces served as the root of the founding of the Republic of Korea's Armed Forces following liberation and later became the groundwork for the ROK-U.S. alliance," Moon said.

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