Opinion - The Korea Times

Exploding dreams

By Donald Kirk One of the most quoted cliches among North Korean experts is that Kim Jong-un is really smart, that he knows what he's doing, all so shrewdly calculated for maximum impact. Just who qualifies as a North Korean expert and who doesn't is another matter. In a sense we're all experts. We all have opinions about North Korea, and much of what we say, write and think is unprovable, so who's to know who knows anything? Which brings up the question: How shrewd and diabolically smart was it for the North Koreans to blow up a sparkling, newly-remodeled building in the Gaeseong Industrial Complex? We get why they did it. The South Koreans had renovated the building so it would be great as a place for North and South Koreans to get together, sip coffee, or maybe soju, and talk over their issues and problems like old friends. So blowing up the building was a great way for the North to tell the South Koreans to …. well, at this stage the only words would be unprintable, but you get the idea. How better to show off your rage, your frustration, your superiority, to denounce and

Jun 18, 2020By Donald Kirk

Donald Kirk

Korean-style protests

By Donald KirkHarvard professor Cornel West caught the divisions in American life when he warned of both the hopes and concerns of Americans after the funeral for George Floyd in Houston. “We got hope in the form of motion,” the renowned African-American philosopher told CNN's Anderson Cooper, “but we've gotta get ready for the backlash.”The idealism and dreams of reform mingle with the fear of violence and killing in the long aftermath of Floyd's death by a policeman in the Midwestern city of Minneapolis. The idealism that suffuses the mood of thousands marching through American streets runs into a wall of revulsion over images of looting and burning as well as overt racism.When it comes to protests on the streets, the United States has a lot to learn from South Korea. An abiding memory of the Candlelight Revolution of 2016 that forced out the conservative Park Geun-hye as president was that it was almost entirely peaceful. Unruly mobs did not seize the moment, as in American cities.The ongoing American “revolution” may be broader, more diffused g

Jun 11, 2020By Donald Kirk

Donald Kirk

Truths about Gwangju

By Donald Kirk Details about what happened at Gwangju during those terrible days from May 18 through May 27, 1980, remain elusive four decades later. One of the greatest mysteries is who ordered helicopters to fire on demonstrators. Investigators will have trouble extracting confessions from aging army veterans or finding witnesses beyond those who have long since described what they saw, but hidden documents may be revealing.Chun Doo-hwan, the general who seized power in the months after the assassination of President Park Chung-hee nearly seven months earlier, has consistently denied helicopters fired on civilians, but the evidence is overwhelming. Those who saw them firing have already given eyewitness reports. The pockmarks of bullets slanting in downward trajectories are on display in the renovated Jeonil Building across May 18 plaza from the former provincial government offices that were occupied by student protesters before the final onslaught on May 27.Chun is not going to alter his denials while on trial for libeling a priest who described the firing from the helicopters. Th

May 28, 2020By Donald Kirk

Donald Kirk

Gwangju's place in history

By Donald KirkGWANGJU ― The memories never fade. The stories of the 10 days of defiance, of suffering and bloodshed, live on in a city that still seethes with resentment 40 years after the uprising that began with a student demonstration on May 18, 1980.A generation or two has grown up since, but the tales are enshrined in two major museums here, one at the old provincial government building that the students and others had taken over as their headquarters, the other at the May 18 Memorial Park where the remains of more than 200 of those killed in the massacre are enshrined. Other museums and displays around the city mark the places where the soldiers attacked, where people were killed, where protesters acted out their grievances for accumulated wrongs by military leaders responsible for dictatorial rule. Together they tell the story of the massacre, day by day, hour by hour, in words, photographs, artifacts and other imagery.The tragic saga is sure to endure in the minds of those who visit many years later, but the story is not over. Now President Moon Jae-in has ordered an investig

May 21, 2020By Donald Kirk

Donald Kirk

Battling virus

By Donald KirkFighting the coronavirus is like advancing through a minefield in which explosions can kill and wound if not defeat the entire offensive. South Korean health experts would acknowledge the hazards after the bug spread through crowds in bars and clubs in Seoul's Itaewon district just as new cases had fallen to a few a day.South Korea, however, is far from the most complicated battlefield in the struggle. The biggest, most problematic are two countries that are not only totally different but also hostile toward one another. The issues may seem different, but the results are similar. Needless suffering exists with no resolution in sight.The first of these two countries is the United States. It's hard to imagine so many brilliant minds looking for cures to the pandemic in laboratories and hospitals across the U.S. And yet Americans are not only divided but often at dangerous odds with one another as to how to defeat the plague.The central problem lies within the White House. President Donald Trump is desperate to be able to claim that he conquered the enemy and now everyone

May 14, 2020By Donald Kirk

Donald Kirk

Misreporting North Korea

By Donald KirkNorth Korean leader Kim Jong-un has dodged a bullet, meaning the onslaught of speculation about whether he was dead or alive, ill or just avoiding the coronavirus.It's amazing how quickly and easily many of us were taken in by the initial report on the Daily NK, based on a single source in North Korea, that Kim had undergone a cardiovascular procedure and was now laid up in his villa.Actually, there's good reason to take Daily NK reports seriously. It's staffed by defectors from North Korea, and they're in touch with contacts inside the North via mobile phones on networks linked with China and maybe South Korea.The problem is not that these contacts are worthless but rather that making up sensational false news is worth so much to them. It's great to hear from people inside North Korea. Their stories, however, are not going to stand up knowing the story tellers are rewarded rather handsomely for their work.Some of these stories are so good, it's hard to resist repeating. The fact is, however, there's absolutely no way to check them out. Or, to put it bluntly, they have

May 7, 2020By Donald Kirk

Donald Kirk

How's Kim doing?

By Donald KirkThe vanishing act of Kim Jong-un provokes one inevitable question. With all the billions that the U.S. puts into gathering intelligence by all those “agencies,” why can't any of them come back with the definitive answer on the state of his health?Just think about the multi-tentacle American intelligence apparatus sticking the noses of thousands of really bright, well-paid people into the lives of everyone on earth. There's the Central Intelligence Agency, the National Security Agency, the Defense Intelligence Agency ― those are just the three best known of all the entities in and around Washington that are charged with finding out everything about everyone.We may be absolutely sure they're scrambling right now to discover Kim's whereabouts, his condition, what's ailing him so badly as to have laid him low, out of sight, for nearly three weeks now. “Oh, don't worry,” some people keep saying, “He'll show up any day ordering another missile test.” “Oh” say others, “he's obviously on life support; he'll never walk or tal

Apr 30, 2020By Donald Kirk

Donald Kirk

Lessons in battling COVID-19

By Donald KirkYou have to admire the efficiency with which Korea is managing its campaign to stop the coronavirus from spreading.Confined to house arrest ― I mean quarantine ― at my place in Seoul, I get calls twice a day from a nice woman named “Ms. Park” at the local district office, on top of daily reminders on my phone to self-diagnose through an app they installed at Incheon airport after I arrived here from Washington.All this attention may seem unnecessary considering that the virus test they gave at the airport came back negative the next day. That was all I needed for release from the youth center southwest of Cheonan where I'd spent the night sleeping on a “yo” on the floor, but I wasn't through yet. Then came the bus ride to my district medical center, the only destination to which I could buy a ticket, and a warning from people at the center that I had to stay home for two weeks or risk a horrendous fine, not to mention expulsion from the country. They had a van at the center waiting to take me to my exact address. The driver, like everyone else, w

Apr 23, 2020By Donald Kirk

Donald Kirk

Last flight from Washington

By Donald KirkThe phrase has a certain drama, overtones of life-or-death struggle: “The last plane out of” a city under attack, under siege, on the brink of surrender. In my case, it was “the last plane out of Washington,” or, to be precise, the last non-stop flight from Washington Dulles International Airport to Incheon International Airport. For many years Korean Air has operated the only non-stop from the U.S. capital to South Korea, and now it was ending.I had reserved the flight well before KAL announced suspension of the thrice-weekly service, and I expected to find myself on a nearly empty plane. No way. The flight was nearly full of passengers of all ages, young people whose schools had stopped classes, middle-aged professionals whose jobs no longer existed, elderly men and women who'd been living in the U.S. for years but were anxious to reconnect with family back home in Korea.The flight was fine, but the atmosphere a little different. Unlike on the streets of Washington, everyone on board was wearing a mask, and most people had on gloves. By the tim

Apr 16, 2020By Donald Kirk

Donald Kirk

Washington's springtime nightmare

By Donald KirkWASHINGTON D.C. ― The scene is deceptively tranquil: People cruising down near-empty streets on bicycles, young parents playing with their kids, joggers puffing along on sidewalks.It's just as it should be on a Sunday except that it's a weekday when the main streets would ordinarily be crowded, the kids would be in school, and most normal people would be at work in busy offices having commuted on crowded metro subways and buses or in their own vehicles, cursing as they moved in and out of traffic jams.The headlines scream of an impending “Pearl Harbor” crisis, of between 100,000 and 200,000 dying, of hospitals and emergency rooms already filled and doctors having to make life-or-death decisions as to whose life is worth trying to save with a precious ventilator and who might as well be left to die. The visual contrast between the scenes around you and the realities of crowded hospitals and not enough ventilators and face masks, much less other more sophisticated equipment, is really beyond imagination.In fact, you would never have imagined what's happening a

Apr 9, 2020By Donald Kirk

Donald Kirk

Read more

Exploding dreams

Korean-style protests

Truths about Gwangju

Gwangju's place in history

Battling virus

Misreporting North Korea

How's Kim doing?

Lessons in battling COVID-19

Last flight from Washington

Washington's springtime nightmare

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