In 2001, 9.11 terror was a turning point in altering the concept of terrorism. It showed the significance of the period and incident during which conventional terrorism and new terrorism was intersecting.
This paper will define the background and co...
In 2001, 9.11 terror was a turning point in altering the concept of terrorism. It showed the significance of the period and incident during which conventional terrorism and new terrorism was intersecting.
This paper will define the background and concept of the new terrorism which emerged after 9.11 and examine our nation's reality of its vulnerability to terrors under the unstable institutional structure of the global society. Actually, in the reality of not just the Cheonan Incident(March, 2010) and Yeonpyeong-do provocations(November, 2010), but also international ship-hijacking, maritime burglary, and terror aimed at citizens abroad and tourists, it has become a fact that Korea is no longer a safety zone from terrors. As a terror-target state from a terror-safety state, anticipating and acknowledging terrors prior to their occurrence while establishing a management system are the fundamentals for rising as an advanced country and protecting the people.
I have defined terror as 'an indiscriminate act of violence to fulfil political, religious, national, ideological objective or doctrine', or 'an inhuman criminal act committed in order to impose direct damage to the safety of a nation or individual'. Also, I present the subtle difference between 'terror' and 'terrorism', and use them to compare conventional terrorism and new terrorism. Through this I explain modern terrorism which is becoming more and more intelligent and modernized.
International state have created several prevention measures towards the constantly changing terrorism at the current state. The main countries are USA, UK, and Germany. First, US established the 'USA Patriot Act 2001' after the 9.11 and the formed Department of Homeland Security(DHS) to prevent terror comprehensively. UK, as it has been confronting Ireland for along period, revised the Law on Terror prevention since 9.11 and followed this with new bills. Germany, in which terrors initiated by far-left organizations(as was the case of 1972 terror in Munich) and also the first country in Europe to institute legal measures to punish terrorists, has already supplemented the regulations of terror-related laws in its criminal law since 1970 and established 'the Law on International Terror'.
In Korea's case, right after September 11, 2001, the minister council presided by the prime minister pressured to the establishment of 'the Law on Terror Prevention' to deal with domestic/international terrors effectively. However, the bill was automatically discarded as the 16th, 17th National Assembly session became expired. On the contrary, advanced nations newly legislated and improved laws relevant to terror, created and developed control towers subordinate to intelligence and security/espionage organizations to integrate the counter-terror functions of various departments, and introduced a terror warning system for prompt reaction toward terrors.
Relating to this, I conducted a one-on-one survey to investigate people's awareness of terrorism.
Using the synthesized results I present the solution to terrors. First, preventing measures must be prepared prior to the occurrence of terrors, and as a part of this basic guidance and manuals should be structured. Also, considering the expertise required for terror assignments and the unique security situation of the Peninsular, terrors should be perceived as a military issue. Due to this, the entire terror-response system should be single-lined based on the military force which serve and protect the citizens with fidelity since the system itself currently lacks of a unified organization and close cooperation.
Finally, civilian education on terror, measures of preventing/blocking terrorist group activities, international cooperation, and strict punish- ment of arrested terrorists should be supplemented. Once this is achieved, we can strongly guarantee the safety from terrorist risks among nations.