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What are you doing about North Korea?

“What should be done about North Korea?" "How can we help North Koreans?" Those questions are often asked, but rarely answered to the satisfaction of questioners. In the last five years of speaking at and attending North Korea focused events, I have yet to see audience members, reporters or experts respond, “At last! This is the answer about what to do about North Korea!”

2016-04-18 15:37

Back in 2007 when I launched a radio talk show, I predicted that I wouldn’t get major media coverage until there was a problem. After I got fired from the show in a dispute with management, I was proven correct. I got a long article published in the Washington Post, several national media invitations, mentioned in a book about conspiracy theories, and later became a regular commentator on a National Public Radio show.

2016-03-21 16:19

Bear hugs in Texas

My previous column was about celebrating every day I am alive. Later that day, my grandaunt passed away in Texas and the grandmother of a North Korean refugee friend passed away in North Korea. I last saw my grandaunt two years ago when I flew from Seoul to Texas to attend my paternal grandmother's funeral. The people who were already adults when I was born, probably changed my diapers when I was baby, and celebrated my achievements during my formative years are passing from the scene.

2016-03-17 16:29

'I don't have to'

Korean friends and conversation partners are shocked when I tell them I never feel stress. When some challenge me, I just say I'm a hedonist in search of pleasure. When doubters probe deeper, I confess: “I never feel stress because I know I am going to die one day.”

2016-02-23 16:44

Stereotypes and funny culture

One thing I love about Korea that I hope globalization won’t destroy: eating manners. You can slurp your food without feeling like a barbarian. The most common response I have heard from Koreans I have eaten with: “You are more Korean than Koreans!”

2016-01-26 17:08

Trump's secret sauce

Back in 2007 when I was co-host of the Casey Lartigue Show on satellite radio station XM 169 The Power, my phone lines were burning up as I tried to explain how talk show host Rush Limbaugh uses the anger of his critics to boost his ratings. The controversy then was Limbaugh's “Barack the Magic Negro” song, a parody of presidential candidate Barack Obama, based on the words of an LA Times commentary. My inspiration was a 1995 column by Thomas Hazlett of Reason Magazine asking: “What propelled Limbaugh?” Hazlett's short answer: “Ratings.”

2016-01-12 17:05

Chopstick champion of the world!

“You use chopsticks well” is something expats or visitors in Korea who don’t repeatedly poke themselves in the eye can expect to hear during meals with Koreans. While I accept it as a compliment, I learned in the late 1990s from a fellow American that some long-term expats view that comment as an attempt to single them out as unwelcome foreigners incapable of assimilating.

2015-12-29 16:43

The North Korean refugee who says she was “tricked” into escaping to South Korea should be returned to North Korea ASAP. Kim Ryen-hi's misadventure began four years ago when she left North Korea seeking medical treatment. In China, she signed on with a broker who allegedly told Kim that she could briefly visit South Korea to make money. In Thailand, she submitted a handwritten statement stating her desire to defect (a requirement for North Korean refugees to be allowed to enter the South). In South Korea, she signed a document disavowing communism and agreed to become a law-abiding citizen o...

2015-12-15 15:59

Evicted from a free speech zone

During my mini-speaking tour to the United States last month, I had a speech at a law school moved off campus because 20 Chinese judges also visiting said they would feel "uncomfortable" with me speaking about North Korean refugees.

2015-12-01 17:11

Why can't NK NGOs get along?

Many people familiar with activism and research in the North Korea field know about the suspicion, rumors, gossip, accusations, back-stabbing, and ideological rifts. And that's among friends. I’m not naive, I still have scars from more than a decade as a school choice activist, radio host, and think tank scholar in Washington, D.C. I learned the hard way: The closer you are, the more likely you are to battle over minor differences.

2015-11-17 17:08

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