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South
Korea Confronts Islamist Terror
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South
Korea's first ISIS member, a teenager believed to have been killed last
year.
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For over sixty years, North Korea was South Korea's singular security
threat. Today, however, the threat posed by Islamist terrorism demands
increasing attention.
Domestic Islamic terrorism was once unheard of in South Korea, which
has a tiny Muslim minority of about 150,000.
Although the majority of Islamic leaders in South Korea tend
to be fundamentalist, violent extremism within the Muslim community
has been uncommon. South Korean civilians working abroad occasionally
fell victim to jihadists, notably in a 2009
suicide bombing in Yemen and the Ansar Beit al-Maqdis Sinai Peninsula
2014 attack, but they had little to worry about at home. South
Korea's concerns with Islamic terrorism primarily centered around North
Korea's relations with Middle
Eastern organizations.
In the last few years, however, South Korea has come to be viewed as a
hostile country by ISIS and likeminded jihadists. This is likely because
it hosts the largest deployment of American troops abroad, has partnered
with the United States in Iraq and
Afghanistan and sends large numbers of Christian
missionaries around the world.
South Korea has come to be viewed
as a hostile country by ISIS and likeminded jihadists.
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ISIS listed South Korea in its September 2015 edition
of Dabiq as an enemy for being part of the anti-ISIS global
coalition. Six months later in March 2016, twenty government and civilian
South Koreans were targeted
through YouTube. No
reasons were provided as to why these specific workers were targeted
beyond the fact that ISIS considers South Korea a hostile country. Some
on the list have no apparent relationships with the U.S. military, such
as a Korean
woman who translates Korean texts into English for a medical charity.
In June 2016 South Korea's Nation Intelligence Service (NIS) announced
that the Islamic State was trying to incite attacks against United States
Air Force installations throughout the country, prompting the government
to provide extra
security. These installations are among the 77 NATO member
installations in ISIS's worldwide hit list. Additionally, the pro-ISIS
hacker group United
Cyber Caliphate called Muslims to "fight the Crusaders" and
to "get revenge for Muslims." It then posted the
name, email, and home addresses of a Korean welfare employee, who has
since been under police protection. Most of this is public
information, disseminated to instill
fear and boost perceptions of ISIS's worldwide reach.
So far, no Islamist attacks have actually occurred on South Korean
soil, but multiple foiled plots have garnered media attention. From 2010
to January of 2016, South Korea deported
51 foreigners who had ties to militant groups. In 2015, South Korea
arrested five Lebanese bomb smugglers who sympathized with ISIS and an
al-Nusra Front-aligned Indonesian
man who violated the Immigration Control Law with forged documents.
The country apprehended three other suspects connected to the Indonesian
man who were willing to "die
fighting against the U.S. and Russia." By the end of January
2016, seven
foreign workers had joined ISIS after leaving the country. The incidents
prove that South Korea has to vigilantly screen foreigners to prevent
Islamic crimes from coming into fruition.
ISIS
lists South Korea among 62 countries in a U.S.-led "crusader
coalition."
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Though most radicalized Muslims in South Korea are foreigners, at
least three South Korean citizens have attempted to join ISIS. In January
2015, a 17-year-old middle school dropout with animosity
towards feminists became the country's first native citizen to join
ISIS. Two other disgruntled South Korean nationals attempted
to join the organization but had their passports confiscated. In order to
combat youth radicalization, the government is implementing an anti-ISIS
curriculum for public education.
While geared primarily toward the North Korean threat, South Korea's recently-passed
anti-terrorism legislation will bolster its ability to uncover and thwart
terror plots. This bill,
first proposed in the wake of 9/11, expands the powers of the NIS to
wiretap terror suspects, establishes a counterterror center under the
prime minister's office, and facilitates the deployment
of military units to combat domestic terror operations.
Critics of the legislation are wary of the NIS gaining such power. While
the organization was called the Korean Central Intelligence Agency
(KCIA), it kidnapped,
tortured, and killed political opponents. Though liberal reforms have
turned South Korea away from authoritarianism, the NIS was credibly
accused of interfering
in a presidential election as recently as 2013.
In spite of its increasing influence, the threat to South Korea posed
by radical Islamism is not going to surpass that of North Korea anytime
soon, but it is likely to grow more challenging in the years ahead. While
Seoul cannot eradicate
jihadi terrorism, it can manage the threat by boosting its
counter-radicalization efforts and enhance its ability to detect,
prevent, and react to terrorist attacks.
Paul Sung is a research intern at
the Middle East Forum and a student at Grove City College.
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