[학생기자 칼럼]Heejeong Jang (McLean HS, 12th)

Is South Korea a “developed” nation?

Last September, Volkswagen’s emissions scandal broke out, in which Volkswagen admitted that its vehicles are equipped with “defeat device” in diesel engines that was used to cheat on emissions tests. Since then, Volkswagen has been offering compensations, such as gift coupons, vouchers, and buyback options to the U.S. and Canadian customers for their dieselgate-affected cars. However, the company did not provide any compensation for Korean customers.

In addition, Volkswagen recently agreed to pay $14.7 billion to settle the claims in the U.S. But again, Volkswagen has no plans to compensate Korean customers who were also victims of the fraud. What’s worse, despite all the discriminating measures, sales in Korea have made a sharp upturn as Volkswagen carried out a huge discount promotion when sales dropped 2.2 percent globally and 24.7 percent in the U.S. markets. Volkswagen’s Tiguan 2.0 TDI Blue Motion has also become the best-selling imported car in Korea, with cumulative sales of 8,269 units, beating the Audi A6 35 TDI.

This is a very unique and remarkable situation: Korean customers are ruled out in Volkswagen’s compensation, but sales are increasing. This reveals the Korean customers’ obsession with monetary benefits and lack of environmental and ethical concerns. The problem with emissions is not something that they are interested in because it does not directly affect them, and the worsening of the environment and the resulting suffering of the other countries does not matter to them as long as they themselves are taken care of. This mindset of the Korean buyers shows that we still lack moral development as a country. We should be ashamed and exercise more civic responsibility.