Opinion - The Korea Times

Testing the alliance

By Donald KirkWould Kim Jong-un mind giving Moon Jae-in a break? More than any other South Korean leader in years, Moon would like nothing better than to be the one to bring about North-South reconciliation. Wouldn’t it be great, Moon’s newly appointed former activists must be saying, if Kim Jong-un invited Moon to Pyongyang instead of awaiting “the right conditions.” It would be so easy for Kim to outfox the Americans, who clearly think Moon will settle down, mute his pronouncements about talks with the North and cooperate as did his predecessors.But no, right away, Kim Jong-un opted to turn Moon’s dreams into nightmares, directly challenging him by launching an intercontinental ballistic missile with a range of 4,500 kilometers. Nor was this one just another mid-to-short-range shot. It soared an incredible 2,111 kilometers above earth, indicating it could easily have reached U.S. bases anywhere in Japan or, for that matter, the U.S. territory of Guam, home of the strategic Andersen Air Force base from which U.S. B1B bombers fly now and then over South

May 18, 2017By Donald Kirk

Donald Kirk

Korea's minority president

By Donald KirkThe drama of South Korean history opens a tumultuous new act with the election of a liberal labor lawyer who has promised both to bring about detente with North Korea and satisfy the demands of restive masses fed up with rightist abuses.Whether Moon Jae-in will be able to live up to his campaign pledges is about as problematic as Donald Trump keeping his word to “make America great again.” Like Trump, Moon is likely to find taking charge of the government and getting people to follow his bidding is more difficult than talking about it.What takes priority, reconciliation with North Korea or economic hardship at home ― and how does President Moon work through the maze of bureaucratic and legislative obstacles, not to mention the shrill protests of those who opposed him? Yes, he won far more votes than either of the other two major candidates, the conservative Hong Joon-pyo and the centrist Ahn Cheol-soo. Throw in the votes for all the also-rans, however, and you get a clear majority of the electorate preferring someone other than Moon.No doubt the issue that t

May 11, 2017By Donald Kirk

Donald Kirk

Japan against its enemies

By Donald KirkTOKYO ― The shadows of war lengthen over Japanese society in thrall to Article 9 of a “peace constitution" foisted under the “occupation” led by the victorious World War II Pacific commander, General Douglas MacArthur.Much as the “rightist” Prime Minister Shinzo Abe might want to do away with it, Article 9 still bans Japan’s euphemistically named “self-defense forces” from waging war. Or, to be precise, under Article 9 “the Japanese people forever renounce war as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat or use of force as a means of settling international disputes.” Abe would like dearly to revise or rescind Article 9, but he just cannot get away with it despite shrill anti-Japanese invective from North Korea and concerns about the rising power of China as seen in challenges to the Senkaku Islands, known to the Chinese as Diaoyutai. Japanese coast guard vessels, not naval or “Maritime Self-Defense Force” ships, rigorously fend off intruding Chinese “fishing boats" besieging the unin

May 4, 2017By Donald Kirk

Donald Kirk

Searching for peace

By Donald KirkOh yes, the overwhelming consensus among the commentariat is that we need to engage in “dialogue.” Everyone from Joel Wit, impresario of the oft-quoted “38 North,” to Robert Gallucci, architect of the (failed) 1994 Geneva framework agreement to Nicholas Kristof, New York Times columnist and former Tokyo bureau chief, believe the Americans and North Koreans have to talk to one another.An interviewer for a radio station in Boston, winding up one of those Q&A’s to which journalists are subjected, asked, What would you do to resolve the North Korean “problem?” I answered, “I have no solution, no idea, no clue.” While that response might seem like an abject display of ignorance or non-concern, I have yet to read any column or analysis by anyone else who’s got the answer either.As the aircraft carrier Carl Vinson finally churns up the waters not too far from the Korean peninsula, their views are shared by important Koreans, notably Moon Jae-in, liberal front-runner for president. Any number of progressives and li

Apr 27, 2017By Donald Kirk

Donald Kirk

Trade-off for the trade gap

By Donald KirkAll the talk over what to do with North Korea overlooks one problem to which people are not paying that much attention. That’s the yawning gap in trade between the U.S. and all its leading trade partners. It’s a lot easier to grasp the significance of a North Korean nuclear warhead attached to a long-range missile than to care whether China’s exports to the U.S. last year exceeded its imports from the U.S. by a cool $347 billion. The imbalance with China is by far the most distended of any trade gap in the history of commerce between nations, and it’s a bargaining ploy in the Great Game over getting North Korea to give up its nuclear program. President Donald Trump, when he met President Xi Jinping in Mar-a-Lago, wasn’t nearly so insistent about cracking down on China for unfair, inequitable trading practices as he was during his campaign. In those days, Trump spoke darkly of imposing protective tariffs on China ― a punitive measure that could upset the global trading system if China slapped tariffs on goods from the U.S. The argument again

Apr 20, 2017By Donald Kirk

Donald Kirk

To strike or not to strike

By Donald KirkWatching the display of U.S. strength on the beach in a wargame called Pacific Reach, one realizes how easy it would be to decimate the North Koreans. The purpose of this particular exercise is logistics ― to show the speed and agility with which these forces can unload hundreds of thousands of tons of supplies anywhere on shore ― perfect for an attack on the North. The South Koreans are in it too ― infinitely stronger than when the North Koreans rolled over them in the summer of 1950.POHANG – An array of heavy-duty, sophisticated gear spread over the beaches here shows the incredible military might of the U.S. and South Korea. Far offshore, way beyond the horizon, the aircraft carrier Carl Vinson leads a “strike force” of warships.None of this drama, however, appears to have had any impact on Kim Jong-un as he intensifies his own scare campaign against the U.S. and South Korea. If the U.S. wants to consider a preemptive strike against his nuclear and missile facilities, his propaganda machine lets it be known, he’ll hit the U.S. first with a nuc

Apr 13, 2017By Donald Kirk

Donald Kirk

THAAD's return on cost

By Donald Kirk From the outset, the idea of implanting a Star Wars weapon capable of zapping an enemy missile 150 kilometers above the earth’s surface had to be controversial. The real problem from the South Korean viewpoint initially was, what for ― what we really need are short and mid-range missiles for not only countering whatever North Korea is throwing at us but also delivering body blows to targets on North Korea soil. South Koreans hemmed and hawed with visiting American potentates, from cabinet-level personages to military officers to corporate types and engineers, and even a physicist or two, all laden with charts, graphics, power-point and information sheets showing why South Korea needed THAAD for Terminal High Altitude Area Defense. (Parenthetical note: At first the “T” in THAAD stood for “Theater,” but someone in Washington decided that “theater” might raise paranoid eyebrows elsewhere, that is, in China and Russia. They had that right. Good thinking, guys, though apparently “terminal” hasn’t made anyone h

Apr 6, 2017By Donald Kirk

Donald Kirk

Sad legacy of presidential corruption

By Donald KirkThe prospect of Park Geun-hye going to jail in the most sweeping political scandal in modern Korean history inspires invidious comparisons. Who, actually, was the most corrupt president since promulgation of the “democracy constitution” in 1987 at the height of demonstrations as massive as those we have witnessed in central Seoul since October?None in this cast of characters managed to escape charges that blackened their names after their years of power and glory in the Blue House. In assessing their legacies, amazingly Park seems by no means the guiltiest. In fact despite the 13 charges against her, she may someday be revered as a tragic figure besieged by enemies after a career suffering alone since the assassinations first of her mother and then of her father, the long-ruling Park Chung-hee.Many will insist that Park Chung-hee was far worse than his daughter. He seized power in a coup on May 16, 1961, against a democratic government that had risen after the student revolution of April 1960 that brought down Syngman  Rhee, the Republic of Korea&r

Mar 30, 2017By Donald Kirk

Donald Kirk

Waving all those flags

By Donald KirkThe sight of the American Stars and Stripes among the Taegukgi held high by loyalists to Park Geun-hye is a reminder of the historical depth of ties among mostly aging Koreans to the country that rescued the South from annihilation by North Korea and China in the Korean War.Some Americans, seeing their country’s flag held high by Koreans, respond with bemusement. Many of them, scholars, teachers, researchers, would not dream of flying an American flag at home. To them, the notion of waving the national flag and singing patriotic songs is antithetical to their liberal creed – identification, horrors, with all those ignoramuses who voted for Donald Trump for president.Difficult though it may be for American intellectuals to believe anyone could appreciate the American role here quite as emotionally as do pro-Park protesters, the flag-waving does serve as evidence of the residual power of the U.S.-Korean alliance. Presumably many Americans who witnessed the outpouring of pro-Park demonstrations in central Seoul had not imagined such a display of pro-American se

Mar 23, 2017By Donald Kirk

Donald Kirk

Alliance under assault

By Donald KirkU.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, dispensing pledges like a jolly Santa Claus pulling Christmas presents from his sled, arrives today (Friday) in Seoul from Tokyo and flies tomorrow to Beijing. After vowing undying U.S. support to Korea and Japan, he’ll assure China that THAAD presents no threat and beg the Chinese to get their North Korean friends to abandon their nuclear program.Tillerson may mean well, but his mission arouses skepticism for reasons that have nothing to do with his undoubted sincerity. Fact is, Tillerson does not have much influence over President Donald Trump’s foreign policy. That power has devolved to a tight circle in the White House, including son-in-law Jared Kushner. That’s too bad considering Koreans vote in less than two months for a new president after a campaign revolving around the South’s alliance with the U.S. from the dark days of the Korean War.Just what Tillerson can accomplish in Seoul is all the more doubtful given the impending power shift. It’s highly unlikely any of those whom he’s seeing,

Mar 16, 2017By Donald Kirk

Donald Kirk

Read more

Testing the alliance

Korea's minority president

Japan against its enemies

Searching for peace

Trade-off for the trade gap

To strike or not to strike

THAAD's return on cost

Sad legacy of presidential corruption

Waving all those flags

Alliance under assault

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