Opinion - The Korea Times

COVID-19 inspires gun sales

By Donald KirkWASHINGTON D.C. ― Here's an oddity about the American response to the coronavirus crisis that foreigners will find difficult to understand.In most of the U.S.A., factories, shops, theaters, restaurants, schools and many others are shut down. Here in the nation's capital, and in the neighboring states of Maryland and Virginia, essential places like pharmacies, grocery stores, and restaurants selling food “to go” ― no sitting ― remain open.So guess what else is deemed “essential?” If you would believe it, gun shops. That's right, no joke. The powerful National Rifle Association and other gun-rights advocates have persuaded President Donald Trump and his people that the ability to purchase a rifle, a pistol and the ammunition needed to blast away enemies and animals alike is absolutely necessary for the good of the country and its citizens.It's not at all clear to me what these people think is so essential about weapons and ammunition in the midst of a global pandemic that is afflicting the United States more than most other countries and is likely

Apr 2, 2020By Donald Kirk

Donald Kirk

US forces at COVID-19 war

By Donald KirkNORFOLK, Virginia ― America's mightiest warships, including the carrier John C. Stennis, line up grey and forbidding here at the world's largest naval base at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay. A few gate-keepers, security people, stand guard on the piers, but otherwise almost no one is visible.It's that way at about 20 U.S. bases in this corner of Virginia, headquarters of the U.S. Atlantic fleet and home of air force, army and marine facilities where ordinarily close to 100,000 U.S. troops are on duty, rotating in and out on missions around the world, training, alert and ready for anything. These days the entire U.S. military is standing down, waiting like everyone else, from students to shopkeepers to factory and office workers, for COVID-19 either to blow away or for scientists and medical people to come up with the magic bullet that will make it curable or at least harmless.You wonder, as you look at all the ships crowding the berths at the naval base, at planes lined up on nearby air force and navy air bases, at marine bases unmanned except for “essential pers

Mar 26, 2020By Donald Kirk

Donald Kirk

Americans facing coronavirus

By Donald KirkWASHINGTON ― The mere idea of the nation's capital more or less shutting down would have been beyond imagination if anybody had talked about it seriously two months ago. Even after the outbreak of coronavirus in China had reached Korea and Europe, very few people believed the extent of the response that all the experts say is needed to keep the bug from spreading.A friend of mine in Japan emailed asking if I was able to get out of the house. He wondered if I could still buy groceries, go out on the street, see people, or drive around the city.The answer to all such questions is sure, no problem, don't believe everything you see in the papers or hear on radio and TV. On one level, life remains pretty much normal here, but then you realize quite soon things are distinctly not normal and may not return to normal for some time.I got one such jolt when I stopped at a Starbucks with every intention of settling into a lounge chair and reading. No way. The chairs were all piled up on one side and the employee behind the counter told me service was strictly “Grab and Go.&r

Mar 19, 2020By Donald Kirk

Donald Kirk

Virus worries Americans too

By Donald KirkWASHINGTON ― In an epic U.S. election year, the coronavirus crisis competes with presidential politics for top billing in the news.It's as though the powers-that-be in the national media can't decide what concerns viewers, listeners and readers more, the course of a disease with the potential to kill millions or a bitter campaign that reveals deep divisions splitting American society. The contest for the Democratic Party nomination for president in next November's election comes down to one basic question: who's capable of ejecting Donald Trump from the White House.Sure, Bernie Sanders might have fine ideas, free education and free medical care, great, but practically speaking he would not have a chance of accomplishing either goal even if by some fluke he got elected. Joe Biden, who served eight years as vice president under Barack Obama, is more moderate, meaning realistic, in my view, and has a much better chance of unseating Trump.The drama of presidential politics, though, has to share the spotlight with fears of the coronavirus. Events that I had planned to attend

Mar 12, 2020By Donald Kirk

Donald Kirk

NK way of combating virus

By Donald KirkWASHINGTON ― What's Kim Jong-un think he's doing popping off missiles when his people are suffering in their usual enforced silence?The official photograph of Kim gloating with delight over the latest missile launch did not exactly cover up the fears of his regime. There, a few feet behind him, was one of his generals wearing a black mask. Kim himself no doubt has one too, but he couldn't be seen showing his concern by wearing it for the state media.The order to shoot a pair of projectiles into the ocean may not have been such a big deal except for one thing: It revealed the weakness of a regime and a leader obsessed with the need to show off his deadly toys in the face of impending disaster. No, Kim is not about to lose his job in an overdue “people's uprising,” but he does have to keep hungry folks in line while thousands have come down with the mysterious bug and millions are scared as hell it could happen to them.We would hope that most North Koreans have face masks like the one the general had on in the photo, but it's a safe bet there are not enough to

Mar 5, 2020By Donald Kirk

Donald Kirk

Great wall of secrecy

By Donald Kirk In a time of crisis, near-panic, over a disease to which the best medical minds have yet to find a sure cure, total cooperation is essential. The World Health Organization, scientists around the world, anyone who knows anything is duty-bound to try and help.Which brings us to North Korea.If there's one country from which absolutely no help is forthcoming, it's the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. Sure, we get reminders daily of what the North Koreans are doing to try to contain the coronavirus, COVID-19. We heard weeks ago they had closed the border to China. We know they banned foreign diplomats and NGO people from going shopping. Most recently, they placed all 380 foreign residents under quarantine as if they were some kind of plague from outer space.What the North Koreans haven't done is cooperate with anyone on exactly what's going on in their own country, how many are sick and how many have died. Oh, that's right, they've said more than once that no one has died or is at all ill. That boast has as much credibility as those signs you see looking from China ac

Feb 27, 2020By Donald Kirk

Donald Kirk

'Parasite' - true or false

By Donald KirkThe multi-Oscar-winning “Parasite” does not inspire total adulation among all those who have seen it. One Korean-American whom I met in Washington said she thought it represented a distorted, exaggerated image of class barriers, of differences between rich and poor in the country of her birth.That opinion no doubt has a certain validity. The writer-director Bong Joon-ho has come up with a story so full of twists and turns that it's most unlikely in any real-life scenario. The plot is shocking, full of surprises, brutal yet funny at times. If nothing else, you have to credit Bong with the imagination to keep his audience entertained, enthralled, involved. That's what all films are supposed to do. Not all succeed.Probably the woman objected to the film on quite different grounds. The film portrays a society cruelly divided between haves and have-nots, between an upper class living in a dream world and downtrodden masses struggling day to day. For this woman, the reality in Korea is quite different. The image of the Korean miracle is that of mass success, not o

Feb 20, 2020By Donald Kirk

Donald Kirk

Unsung angel of 'Parasite'

By Donald KirkIn all the outpouring of high praise for the Korean blockbuster "Parasite" after its dazzling success at the Academy Awards ceremony in Hollywood, one noteworthy side of the production was largely ignored: The film had the enthusiastic backing of an heiress to the riches of one of Korea's biggest commercial dynasties.The fact that Lee Mi-kyung, widely known as Miky, vice chairwoman of the CJ Group and in charge of its entertainment division, threw her power and influence behind this project is a remarkable reflection on two aspects of an incredible undertaking. The first is that Miky was born to riches but left unspoiled by the fortune that was hers as the granddaughter of Lee Byung-chul, the Samsung founder, who probably never envisioned any of his sprawling holdings morphing into mass culture on stage and screen.The effervescent Miky, if she was going to invest in popular movies, might have been expected to prefer propaganda epics venerating great moments in Korean history or the lives and loves of Koreans in a dynamic, high-powered society. Violence is often a charac

Feb 13, 2020By Donald Kirk

Donald Kirk

Fighting 'Yellow Peril'

By Donald KirkThe spread of a deadly disease brings out the best and the worst in people. Upside, scientists look for causes and cures for the coronavirus, often coordinating through the World Health Organization, while doctors and nurses work tirelessly to care for the sick in hospitals and clinics. Negatively, unfounded fears, bordering on panic, are widespread and difficult to stop. Nobody wants to say it's not necessary to quarantine travelers from China or shut down factories, schools, theaters and restaurants in case the dreaded disease has any chance of breaking out where never expected.Then there's another much worse response. That's the fear beyond Asia, in the U.S. and Europe, of what the sensational media of more than a century ago called “the yellow peril.” That phrase has fallen into such disuse that it's unknown to those whom I asked about its meaning. They had never heard this thoroughly racist reference to the color of the skin of anyone of Asian origin as perceived by those whose skin is supposedly “white.”A cursory look at the history shows s

Feb 6, 2020By Donald Kirk

Donald Kirk

Third-world-style leadership

By Donald KirkDonald Trump would have been a great leader of a small third-world country. That's the type of job for which he would have been a natural, at least to judge from what we're hearing about removing him from his perch at the helm of a much larger, first-world country.In one of those nations that Trump was born to lead, no one would have questioned his right to withhold aid to a friendly state while demanding a “small favor” from its leader. Surely, as his press secretary did acknowledge, that's how those things work.Without singling out any of those third-world countries by name, let's say they routinely do business that way while their leaders alternate between raking off billions for their overseas accounts or attacking neighboring states or annihilating rivals for a piece of the action. In some countries, the leaders carry off all three of those stunts at once.It would not be realistic to think that Trump had been reading up on how his fellow third-world-type leaders survive sometimes for decades, but he developed his instinct for third-world leadership as a

Jan 30, 2020By Donald Kirk

Donald Kirk

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COVID-19 inspires gun sales

US forces at COVID-19 war

Americans facing coronavirus

Virus worries Americans too

NK way of combating virus

Great wall of secrecy

'Parasite' - true or false

Unsung angel of 'Parasite'

Fighting 'Yellow Peril'

Third-world-style leadership

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