特朗普應與韓國密切合作

For someone who spends so much time talking about the threat from North Korea perhaps Donald Trump should try working more closely with the country directly in the line of fire of the dictator in Pyongyang. During his 11-day tour of Asia, the US president is spending more time in every other country he visits than he is in South Korea, a staunch American ally and ground zero in any future confrontation with Kim Jong Un.

在那些花大量時間討論朝鮮威脅的人士看來，唐納德?特朗普(Donald Trump)或許應該嘗試與直接面對平壤那位獨裁者“火線狙擊”的國家更密切地合作。但在爲期11天的亞洲之行期間，特朗普在韓國停留的時間將比他到訪的其他所有國家都短，而事實上，韓國是美國的堅定盟友，且在未來與金正恩(Kim Jong Un)的任何對抗中都將首當其衝。

The recently elected government in Seoul has rolled out the red carpet and attempted to charm Mr Trump, despite his insulting remarks about President Moon Jae-in, whom he called an appeaser of North Korea in a tweet.

雖然特朗普對韓國總統文在寅(Moon Jae-in)發表了侮辱性的言論，在Twitter上稱文在寅爲對朝綏靖主義者，但新近選出的韓國政府還是鋪開了紅毯熱烈歡迎特朗普。

Before this visit, Mr Trump also threatened to tear up a free-trade agreement with Korea and suggested South Korea should pay more for the defence umbrella provided by the US.

特朗普在此行之前還威脅要撕毀與韓國的自由貿易協定，並暗示韓國應該爲美國提供的防衛傘支出更多。

This kind of zero-sum transactional thinking displays complete ignorance of how US power works. Mr Trump brings the tactics of a grubby New York real estate deal to the realm of high diplomacy. In the process he does enormous damage to the reputation of western liberal democracy around the world.

這種零和交易思維方式暴露了特朗普對美國權力如何發揮作用一無所知。特朗普把骯髒紐約地產交易的策略用到高等級外交領域。在這個過程中，他在全世界對西方自由民主制度的聲譽造成了巨大破壞。

South Korea, on the other hand, is a shining example of liberal democracy at a time when authoritarianism is on the rise everywhere, especially across Asia.

另一方面，在威權主義遍地崛起（尤其是在亞洲各地）之際，韓國是自由民主制度的一個光輝榜樣。

Instead of courting junior aspiring despots like Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte, Mr Trump should laud the achievements of a nation that has transformed itself from military dictatorship into a thriving and robust democracy in just three decades.

特朗普不應迎合菲律賓總統羅德里戈?杜特爾特(Rodrigo Duterte)之類野心勃勃的新晉獨裁者，而應大讚一個僅用30年時間便從軍事獨裁轉型爲繁榮穩健民主制度的國家取得的成就。

Over a slightly longer period, South Korea also changed from a semi-feudal society, devastated by war and decades of Japanese occupation, into a technological powerhouse, home to some of the world’s most profitable companies.

從稍微長一點的時間跨度上看，韓國還從一個被戰爭和日本幾十年佔領毀掉的半封建社會轉變成了一個技術強國，成爲多家全球最賺錢企業的誕生地。

We have a convenient way to understand the scale of South Korea’s accomplishments and why it is such a beacon of hope for liberal capitalist democracy. As recently as the early 1970s, North Korea was actually richer than its more populous neighbour to the south, twice as rich as China and three times richer than India. Today, South Korea’s gross domestic product is nearly 40 times larger than North Korea’s.

有一個很便利的方式來理解韓國取得的偉大成就，以及爲什麼它稱得上自由資本主義民主的希望燈塔。上世紀70年代初，朝鮮實際上比人口更多的韓國更富裕，比中國富一倍，比印度富兩倍。但如今，韓國的國內生產總值(GDP)幾乎是朝鮮的40倍。

With the same language and culture and the same starting point, it would be hard to design a more perfect controlled experiment to compare the effects on society of capitalist democracy versus communist totalitarianism. When the Korean peninsula was divided in the early 1950s following the Korean war, most of the country’s natural resources and heavy industry were located north of the dividing line at the 38th parallel. For most of the next decade, North Korea’s industrial production grew twice as fast as that in the south. South Korea caught up in the 1970s but its real outperformance has come since the end of military rule and the introduction of democracy in the 1980s.

同樣的語言和文化、同樣的起點，很難設計出一個更完美的對照實驗來對實行資本主義民主和實行共產極權主義的社會結果進行對比。上世紀50年代初，當朝鮮半島因朝鮮戰爭而分裂時，半島上的大多數自然資源和重工業都位於北緯38度附近的軍事分界線以北。在隨後10年的大部分時間，朝鮮的工業生產增速達到了韓國的兩倍。韓國在上世紀70年代趕了上來，但自80年代軍事統治結束並引入民主制度之後，韓國真正的優勝實力纔開始顯現。

That is not to say the country is perfect. Suicide rates, youth unemployment and household debt are all worryingly high for such a rich nation. Half of the country’s elderly live in a state of relative poverty. But these are trifling concerns compared with the horrors of Mr Kim’s Stalinist monarchy to the north.

這並不是說韓國完美無缺。對於這樣一個富裕國家，自殺率、青年失業率以及家庭債務都高得令人擔憂。該國半數老年人生活在相對貧困狀態。但與金正恩的斯大林式獨裁恐怖統治相比，這些擔憂顯得微不足道。

Perhaps the biggest challenge lurking in South Korea’s future will be how to integrate the peninsula when the regime in Pyongyang eventually collapses. Incomes in West Germany were only two or three times higher than those in the east when the Berlin Wall came down but the country still struggles with the legacy of reunification. A nearly 40-fold income gap between North and South Korea, combined with 70 years of brainwashing in the north, will make assimilation immeasurably harder.

或許，韓國未來潛藏的最大挑戰是在平壤政權最終崩潰時如何實現朝鮮半島的一體化。柏林牆倒塌之時，西德的收入只是東德的兩到三倍，而整個德國仍在應對統一遺留下的問題。朝鮮與韓國之間接近40倍的收入差距——加之朝鮮70年來對民衆的不斷洗腦——將使實現南北同化難上加難。

Critics of South Korea point to the impeachment of former President Park Geun-hye and her ongoing corruption trial, or the jailing of Samsung scion Lee Jae-yong as signs of chaos and rot. But these events are more appropriately viewed as symbols of the country’s resilience.

批評韓國的人士將前總統朴槿惠(Park Geun-hye)遭彈劾及正在對其進行的腐敗審判，或者三星(Samsung)接班人李在鎔(Lee Jae-yong)入獄，視爲混亂和腐敗的表現。但這些事件更應該被視爲韓國民主制度韌性的象徵。

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Very few countries in Asia or indeed much of the rest of the world have strong institutions in place to remove corrupt leaders or subject wealthy oligarchs to an independent, transparent and fair legal process.

很少有亞洲（或者世界其他大部分地區的）國家擁有強有力的制度來拿下腐敗的領導人，或者讓富豪寡頭接受獨立、透明和公正的司法審判。

Korea has always seen itself as a “shrimp caught between the whales” of China, Japan, Russia and more recently the US. In the absence of ironclad support from the US there are already signs that Seoul could move closer to rising authoritarian China.

韓國一直把自身視爲“夾在鯨魚之間的蝦米”，這些“鯨魚”包括中國、日本、俄羅斯以及近期的美國。在缺乏來自美國的堅定支持的情況下，已有跡象表明，首爾方面可能會進一步向崛起的威權主義中國靠攏。

Unfortunately, far from supporting the embodiment of American values in South Korea, Mr Trump appears intent on undermining the institutions of democracy at home instead.

遺憾的是，特朗普非但沒有對美國價值觀在韓國落地生根表示支持，似乎還打算破壞本國國內的民主制度。