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Choi Sung-jin

Choi Sung-jin is a contributing writer to The Korea Times and an adjunct professor at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies.

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Choi Sung-jin

A Second Cold War

By Choi Sung-jinAs expected, most policies of U.S. President Joe Biden are “ABT (anything but Trump),” with one significant exception: the hardball tactics against China. Not only has Biden refused to withdraw the retaliatory tariffs slapped by his predecessor on Chinese imports, but he is doubling down on Washington's offensive against Beijing in economic and technological areas. However, China is no longer what it was, simply swallowing America's admonition, like it or not. As shown by the tough war of words between the two countries' top diplomats in Anchorage three weeks ago. Alas, China is willing to push back on any issue, including even political institutions or value systems.Political gurus warn against hastily defining the U.S.-Chinese rivalry as the “Second Cold War,” by comparing it to the First Cold War between the U.S. and the former USSR. They point out that the ongoing competition is not between two hostile blocs, but between countries, and that their fight is not about military buildup, but about setting global standards.Whatever one names it,

Apr 8, 2021By Choi Sung-jin
A Second Cold War
Choi Sung-jin

Impartial divorce counselor

By Choi Sung-jin On Monday morning, I watched the nationally televised ceremony celebrating the 102nd anniversary of the March 1 Independence Movement. Maybe it was partly because of COVID-19 and unseasonably heavy rainfall and because no interesting movies or dramas remained for me on Netflix. Anyway, I watched the ceremony almost from start to end, for the first time in my life. I was also a little curious what President Moon Jae-in would say to Japan in his address to mend the worst bilateral relations in decades. As expected, President Moon emphasized the need not to get bogged down by the unfortunate past but to look forward while reiterating Seoul's readiness to resume dialogue with Tokyo anytime. Equally expectedly, he fell short of making concrete proposals or diplomatic concessions to do this.It was understandable, given the Japanese government's unrelenting pressure on Korea to back off over the comfort woman and forced labor issues. For Moon to go any further would appear to be waving the white flag diplomatically.Incomprehensible were responses from right-wing media outle

Mar 4, 2021By Choi Sung-jin
Choi Sung-jin

Memories of 'ppira'

By Choi Sung-jinWhen I was a little boy, I lived in Huam-dong, a hillside neighborhood of Mount Nam, Seoul. It was back in the mid-1960s when kids had little to play with, and we often went to the mountain. Yes, Mount Nam was a mountain for third graders. Mount Nam then was far better than now. It had no wire lath walls, and its valleys had water enough for some women to do the laundry. Now and then, we could pick some “ppira” there. I still don't know why people called those flyers ppira, but I guess it was the mispronunciation of the English word, “handbill.” We had no idea where they came from but were sure who made them ― North Korean spies or their sympathizers in the South. The fliers were full of praise for North Korea or raw accusations against the then South Korean President Park Chung-hee and his government. Some crudely doctored photos made us giggle as they described the former leader as a womanizer. We brought them to the police station, and once in a while officers gave us notebooks or pencils. It was just for fun or the occasional reward, but ev

Dec 29, 2020By Choi Sung-jin
Memories of 'ppira'
Choi Sung-jin

How to attain prosecutorial reform

By Choi Sung-jinAmong countries liberated after World War II, South Korea is seen as almost the only nation that has gone on to attain both democracy and industrialization. As with all “compressed growth,” however, Korea's rapid democratization had its dark sides. Nothing shows this better than the unhappy endings of South Korean presidents in modern history.First President Syngman Rhee went to live in exile in Hawaii. Park Chung-hee was shot dead by his intelligence chief. Chun Doo-hwan and Roh Tae-woo were pardoned while in prison for treason. Roh Moo-hyun committed suicide. Lee Myung-bak and Park Geun-hye are now locked up in jail. Kim Young-sam and Kim Dae-jung lived in relative peace as ex-presidents. However, both had to apologize to the nation during their service because of corruption scandals involving their children. Kim Young-sam's post-retirement life could not be very comfortable either, stigmatized as an incompetent leader who threw the nation into its worst financial crisis.Broadly speaking, dictatorial rulers or generals-turned-presidents were ousted by po

Dec 15, 2020By Choi Sung-jin
Choi Sung-jin

Diplomatic mission impossible

By Choi Sung-jinU.S. President-elect Joe Biden, unlike the current occupant of the White House, is seen as a reasonable and predictable person. Biden has reaffirmed this through his recent selections for key cabinet posts. For example, Biden's nominee for state secretary, Antony Blinken, and his pick for national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, were as experts had expected.Diplomats and foreign affairs specialists here also have paid the greatest attention to the two posts, especially the state secretary portfolio. They tried to read Biden's mind in tapping the two long-time aides to lead his foreign policy-national security team. Initial analyses by these talking heads do not appear to be very hopeful, as far as the situation on the Korean Peninsula is concerned. Particularly so for North Korea and the South's Moon Jae-in administration seeking inter-Korean detente. Based on Blinken's hawkish track record on the North, pessimistic analysts say the “good old days under Trump” are over and will not come again.Optimists see the same person from the opposite direction.Citin

Dec 1, 2020By Choi Sung-jin
Choi Sung-jin

Biden and two Koreas

By Choi Sung-jinBarring some unexpected accidents, Joe Biden will move into the White House about two months from now. Most countries are now rolling abacus to calculate their gains and losses from the Biden presidency in the next four years. Amid the rush of congratulatory phone calls and messages, some governments are remaining quiet about the U.S. change of political power. One such conspicuous case is North Korea.Pyongyang and its state media have made no reports at all on election results in America so far. One can only guess why. For starters, North Korea has seldom been swift to deliver news related to the “U.S. imperialists.” Moreover, its leader, Kim Jong-un, might feel uncomfortable about the election of Biden, who recently called him a “thug.” Kim's propaganda machine wasted no time returning the insult with a far cruder term ― a rabid dog. After all, Biden is replacing none other than Donald Trump with whom Kim exchanged dozens of “love letters.” But it's time for Kim to forget Trump and learn how to get on well with Biden.By most appea

Nov 17, 2020By Choi Sung-jin
Choi Sung-jin

Whoever takes White House

By Choi Sung-jinThe much-troubled, controversial U.S. presidential election is finally over now. Would that it was so, but it is not. Ballots have been cast, but final results will come days, or weeks, from now. If the loser ― most likely the incumbent president if the opinion polls were correct ― refuses to concede defeat, the consequent partisan conflicts and national turmoil could last for months. Is this America as we have known it?The latest event was the most significant presidential poll in nearly a century, a historic election as many political scientists agreed. The selection of a U.S. leader has always been the focus of global attention because of the country's unquestionable influence on the rest of the world. The 2020 election was far more so, as the White House's current occupant has no parallels or precedents in many ways ― in bad ways mostly.Donald Trump's America has made it clear that it will no longer play the global police. Nor should it, if the Trump administration's dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic and other global crises, such as climate change, is any indicat

Nov 3, 2020By Choi Sung-jin
Choi Sung-jin

Time for 'Korea first' policy

By Choi Sung-jinThere seems to be nothing in common between Korean Ambassador to the U.S. Lee Soo-hyuck and the world-famous boy band, BTS. For those not closely following international affairs, Korea's mission chief to Washington and the nation's hottest K-pop group both got on the G2's nerves recently. “Just because (South) Korea chose the U.S. 70 years ago does not mean it has to choose the U.S. for the next 70 years, too,” Ambassador Lee said during the National Assembly's online audit of the administration last week. Lee went on to say that “adhering to a decades-old alliance without love is an insult to America.” The U.S. State Department wasted no time rebutting Lee's remark, stressing that it is “extremely proud of the U.S.-South Korea alliance.” Right-wing media outlets and politicians here heaped criticism on Lee over his comments, with some calling for him to be ousted for “hurting the nation's most important alliance.”Two weeks ago, BTS received an award that recognized advancements in Korean-American relations. In reference

Oct 20, 2020By Choi Sung-jin
Time for 'Korea first' policy
Choi Sung-jin

A letter to Kim Jong-un

By Choi Sung-jinI'm not too fond of columns written in letter form. Many such articles are manneristic, one-sided, and shooting from the hip, not least because the writers know their letters will not be sent to or even read by the addressees.I won't be able to avoid this trap but I'm still writing this piece as a letter to Kim Jong-un, the chairman of North Korea's State Affairs Commission, for two reasons. First, Kim seems best positioned to resolve the current inter-Korean impasse. Second, President Moon Jae-in is under attack from so many people on so many sides that I don't need to add one more.Dear Chairman Kim,You must be having a very hard time now because of what Pyongyang watchers here describe as the “triple whammy” ― U.N.―led sanctions, the coronavirus pandemic and flood damages. So much so that even your state propaganda machine recently admitted “severe and unexpected” economic challenges.Yes, the main culprit is COVID-19, although its impact on your country seems to be more economic than epidemiological.Had it not been for the pandemic, the Sino-

Oct 6, 2020By Choi Sung-jin
Choi Sung-jin

Ditching Private Seo

By Choi Sung-jinA single “military-related” issue dominated four days of interpellation during the 21st National Assembly's first regular session last week. Some foreign watchers of Korean affairs might think that North Korea have resumed armed provocations or something. That's not the case. Nor did it involve the Moon Jae-in administration's mid-term arms buildup program involving its wish list of nuclear-powered submarines, light aircraft carriers, or the Korean version of the Iron Dome ― Israel's missile defense shield.The fierce verbal battles between lawmakers and government officials were actually about one soldier and his sick leave.The big issue is that ex-soldier is the son of the incumbent justice minister, Choo Mi-ae.The former serviceman, referred to simply by his surname, Seo, was a member of the Korean Augmentation Troops to the U.S. Army (KATUSA). Among Korean soldiers, the acronym is synonymous with easy and comfortable assignments.According to The Korea Times, Seo had knee surgery in 2015 and joined the army a year later for his mandatory military service

Sep 22, 2020By Choi Sung-jin
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