Opinion - The Korea Times

Dealing with Biden

By Donald KirkTogether, North and South Korea confront Joe Biden with what may be the most unnerving foreign policy problems of his presidency. For starters, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un never began to give up his nuclear program after his summit with Donald Trump in Singapore in June 2018. Their brief joint statement pledged commitment to a “nuclear-free Korean Peninsula,” but Kim made clear at this month's congress of his ruling Workers' Party that nuclear power remains essential to his rule.Trump will go on forever claiming to have averted a second Korean War by meeting Kim, but he cut short their second summit in Hanoi in February 2019 after Kim held fast against any real deal on denuclearization. Then, amid renewed hopes, Trump got nowhere with Kim four months later when they met at Panmunjom on the line between the two Koreas while Trump was in South Korea seeing President Moon Jae-in, an impassioned advocate of dialogue.For Biden, the choices are limited. They range between “strategic patience,” the policy pursued when Biden was vice president u

Jan 21, 2021By Donald Kirk

Donald Kirk

Freedom to inspire or incite?

By Donald Kirk For the U.S., the worst is yet to come, and that's not just over the few days before Joe Biden's inauguration next Wednesday, Jan. 20, as the 46th U.S. president. The furor over free speech and freedom to protest, intermingled with the impact of COVID-19 on tens of millions of Americans who don't share the bounty of stock dividends and inflated salaries and bonuses, will make legitimate debate and the threat of violence a fact of American life for a long time. How long is anyone's guess, but the emotions running rampant in Washington and around many of America's 50 states reveal the difficulties of reaching any broad understanding on how far it's legally safe to go in expressing a point of view. Vandals of the far right have pretty well shown they're worse than the inner-city mobs that looted shops and stores in waves of mayhem that followed the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis last May and the many incidents since. Those rioters did not invade the American Capitol and other citadels of state power though they did desecrate treasured monuments in their outrage ov

Jan 14, 2021By Donald Kirk

Donald Kirk

Trump's mad obsession

By Donald KirkLONDON ― In Europe, Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson is sometimes called the English version of Donald Trump. And in the U.S., Trump's bitterest critics liken him to a dictator, maybe an American version of Hitler or Stalin or Mao or even his bosom buddy Kim Jong-un in Pyongyang.Actually, all such comparisons are absurd. For one thing, while Johnson may have miscalculated the devastating effects of the pandemic, he's responded a lot better than Trump, who was in denial for much too long and never got the country united behind a coherent, universal, disciplined program.As for comparing Trump with fearsome dictators, whether mass killers or petty tyrants, that's ridiculous too. Much as Trump might intimidate his foes, make false charges and tell tall tales, he's not strong enough to fulfill his fantasies of clinging to high office. His demands for recounts and recalculations of votes in the presidential election of Nov. 3 have gone nowhere, and his campaign to reverse the results makes him look like a demagogic tycoon accustomed to twisting arms and bullying underli

Jan 7, 2021By Donald Kirk

Donald Kirk

Brits in denial

By Donald KirkLONDON ― Much of Britain is on level four in the battle against COVID-19, but you might not know it from watching people in the week between Christmas and New Year. A quick survey of pedestrians in and around Hammersmith station in west London showed about half not wearing face masks. On buses and subway trains, no one was enforcing rules about masks, and warnings to stay home were easily ignored despite signs in lights advising, “COVID-19 CASES VERY HIGH PLEASE BE CAREFUL.”Garlands of bright lights sparkled as if to remind everyone the pandemic soon would disappear as vaccines stop the disease in its tracks. Certain evidence that the country was experiencing a medical crisis, however, was that restaurants and coffee shops were offering only take-out, the ubiquitous pubs that should be doing a roaring business over the holidays were closed and shoppers were looking for holiday bargains in reduced numbers.News reports of the pandemic and the strange new version of the virus were all over TV and the papers, but many were in denial about a disease that you coul

Dec 31, 2020By Donald Kirk

Donald Kirk

Leaflet wars

By Donald KirkThere never was a Christmas like this one. COVID-19 has frightened countries around the world into cutting down or cutting out gatherings, and in the U.S. Donald Trump ― Mr. Bluff and Bluster himself ― is concocting fiendish schemes to overturn the results of the presidential election before the U.S. Congress meets on Jan. 6 to certify the victory of Joseph Biden. At least we can say we haven't descended to open conflict, to guerrilla warfare, to breakaway states in open battle, all of them united against the United States, one nation hitherto indivisible with liberty and justice for all.But guess what? There's a way to wage war that hurts no one and makes the other side really angry. That's to fire balloons loaded with leaflets and other stuff, like candy and dollar bills and electronic devices for tuning into illicit broadcasts. That's what a band of North Korean defectors has been doing intermittently for years from the South Korean side of the Demilitarized Zone. Now they face up to three years in prison if they try it again. Much of the world, including American co

Dec 24, 2020By Donald Kirk

Donald Kirk

Trump's last stand

By Donald KirkThe great New York Yankee baseball player, Yogi Berra, played in 14 World Series, hit 358 home runs and made it to 18 all-star teams, but he's just as well remembered for one enduring line, “It ain't over 'til it's over.”Well, by now, it would appear to be over for Donald Trump, but it ain't. Sure, the electoral college, that anachronistic collection of electors from each U.S. state, has confirmed that Joe Biden had won the presidency by more than seven million votes, picking up 306 electoral votes to 232 for Trump, but guess what?Trump is still ranting and raving, calling the whole show a fraud and vowing to keep filing lawsuits until Biden's inauguration on Jan. 20. For that matter, he may not stop then. What's to keep his fanatical diehards from shouting “Stop the Steal” so loudly that Biden will see and hear them from the White House that Trump and Melania and relatives and in-laws are so reluctant to be leaving?If it appears that Trump is not going to stop the nonsense, however, we should not forget there is precedent for him to completely r

Dec 17, 2020By Donald Kirk

Donald Kirk

Human rights for both Koreas

By Donald KirkWe hear so much about human rights that many of us are tired of the term. Sure, North Korea is an egregious human rights violator. True, Americans, ranging from law enforcement people to officials hauling in illegal immigrants and asylum seekers along the Mexican border, violate human rights too. And, yes, a number of American friends and allies have far worse records. Assaults on life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness may vary in degree but are commonplace everywhere in one form or another.Bearing that in mind, we know that South Korea is not seriously raising the issue of human rights with North Korea. The conventional wisdom is, let's not upset the North Koreans when they'll only hate us for talking about it and refuse to deal with us. That's why for the past two years South Korea has not joined other nations in co-sponsoring a U.N. resolution condemning the North for its abysmal human rights record.It's also a pretty safe bet that Stephen Biegun, who parlayed an appointment as U.S. representative on North Korea into the post of deputy secretary of state, has not

Dec 10, 2020By Donald Kirk

Donald Kirk

Tales of gloom and doom

By Donald KirkThe North Korean economy is in such dire straits that none of the experts know quite what to do about it other than beg Kim Jong-un, please, sir, reform the economy and do away with your nuclear program in return for sanctions relief and a lot of aid.If that bargain sounds familiar, it's because we've been hearing it for years. North Korea survives crisis on crisis amid much suffering, predictions of collapse and all the rest. Half the forecast of doom and gloom is correct. There's plenty of gloom, just no doom.We're going to be hearing much more about North Korea's problems as a new team of negotiators and analysts takes over in Washington telling everyone how to come up with an agreement with the North that will really work. This time, unlike all the previous times, the experts again are saying they've got it figured out, and here's the plan and here's what the North Koreans at long last are going to accept.Oh, and this time, unlike in years gone by, the North Koreans are going to do what they say they'll do.I've been hearing the usual talk in webinars and zoom conver

Dec 3, 2020By Donald Kirk

Donald Kirk

Trump remains unpredictable

By Donald KirkThe rise of Joe Biden is ushering in an array of old and new names vying for the president-elect's ear, or the ears of those close to him, or the ears of anyone who knows anyone who might be orbiting a planet that may be remote but not too far away from the sun as to be invisible. Think of all the departments, agencies, commissions and committees with positions to be filled. In the coming weeks, so many experts, analysts and consultants will be coming out of the woodwork with opinions to express, surveys to cite and studies to present that Biden's 78-year-old head will be spinning.Or not. Maybe, after Jan. 20, he'll retreat to the safety of the White House and his Delaware home, leaving his immediate underlings to sort out the confusion while he takes a break. A whole lot will depend on the quality of the men and women he appoints, his confidence in them and their ability to pursue policies with a minimum of top-down supervision. In other words, no need to worry about the new president tweeting arbitrary shifts and twists reflecting often dubious gut instincts.In foreig

Nov 26, 2020By Donald Kirk

Donald Kirk

Undoing Trump's mistakes

By Donald KirkOne can hardly overstate the importance of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) just signed by China and 14 other nations, mostly in Asia, including the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) plus South Korea and Japan (The other two signatories, Australia and New Zealand, are in the same region but, heaven forbid, would never identify as “Asian”).The Chinese have got to be delighted with President Donald Trump's absurd decision, first thing after his inauguration on Jan. 20, 2017, to nix U.S. membership in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). With the RCEP, China has formed a bulwark against U.S. business in the region. India, at odds with China in clashes on its northern frontiers, having cast its lot with the U.S., did not sign on, but that omission only deepens the ominous nature of a pact that will certainly have a bearing on who wins out militarily as well as commercially.Not least among the issues that give China a strong hand in the great game for regional leadership is that China mines and controls a stock

Nov 19, 2020By Donald Kirk

Donald Kirk

Read more

Dealing with Biden

Freedom to inspire or incite?

Trump's mad obsession

Brits in denial

Leaflet wars

Trump's last stand

Human rights for both Koreas

Tales of gloom and doom

Trump remains unpredictable

Undoing Trump's mistakes

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