Opinion - The Korea Times

State of terrorism

By Donald KirkWASHINGTON ― Here’s a question people here keep asking: Is North Korea a terrorist state? Forget about the missile shots. They’ve all landed in the sea and harmed no one. What about the nuclear tests? They dislocated some rocks deep underground but were otherwise harmless. So what does it take to persuade the U.S. State Department to list North Korea, again, as a “state sponsor of terrorism”?That’s been the topic of heated debate ever since the State Department, on orders of President George W. Bush, dropped North Korea from its list of terrorist nations in 2008. That was at the urging of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who’d been listening to U.S. negotiator, Christopher Hill, talking up the deals he’d made.How could North Korea be considered a “terrorist” state, goes the logic, after agreeing to a complicated schedule for gradually giving up its nukes in return for vast quantities of aid? Of course, North Korea did not begin to abide by any such deal while expanding its nuclear program, including the ability t

Apr 7, 2016By Donald Kirk

Donald Kirk

New York Times vs. Trump

By Donald KirkWASHINGTON ― Talk about local boy making good, and then look at the case of Donald Trump. He’s a New Yorker through and through ― looks, talks and acts like one, arrogant, sneering and sure of himself. So what are the New York papers saying about him? Clearly, he’s a bad boy who’s sadly disgraced himself.Not a day goes by when the preeminent New York Times does not attack the Trumpster, mostly on its editorial page but elsewhere too. And the Daily News, once a hard-hitting, deeply conservative blue-collar tabloid, now turned mushy and liberal, chimes in with blaring page-one headlines excoriating him for whatever stupid stuff he does and says.The New York Times’ attacks on Trump are most interesting and entertaining, the Times columnists all so brilliant. One day it’s Gail Collins telling us “Donald Trump is a nightmare” by way of explaining why the “terrified” Republican “elite” has turned to Ted Cruz, “the most actively disliked Republican politician in America.” The next day, in the same sp

Mar 31, 2016By Donald Kirk

Donald Kirk

Cuba, North Korea and US

By Donald KirkWASHINGTON – The hype surrounding President Obama’s visit to Cuba quickly gave way to fear and loathing as the world absorbed the news of the slaughter perpetrated in Brussels, for which ISIS, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, immediately claimed “credit.”No sooner were we treated to live coverage of Obama building ties with Cuba than images of bloodshed, terror and panic filled TV and computer screens.  The news from both Havana and Brussels had to resonate in Korea for obvious reasons.The success of opening ties between the U.S. and Cuba might seem superficially to set a precedent for the U.S. forming diplomatic relations with North Korea. Certainly advocates of negotiations on a “peace treaty” with North Korea see reconciliation between the U.S. and Cuba as one step on the way to achieving that goal.The comparison is all the more tempting considering that Cuba has been one of North Korea’s greatest friends.  North Korean leaders might squirm under constant pressure from China, but they could always count on Cuba

Mar 24, 2016By Donald Kirk

S. Korea moving to establish diplomatic ties with Cuba

Donald Kirk

Korea: US election non-issue

By Donald Kirk LITTLE ROCK, Arkansas ― North Korea’s top gun will have to try harder if he expects his threats of another nuclear test will win serious consideration in a U.S. presidential election year. Driving through the American heartland, you hear hardly a thing about the latest threats from Pyongyang. Such are American priorities that even a fifth or sixth North Korean nuclear test might not attract that much attention. Yes, there’d be headlines for two or three days. The candidates would break into their usual messages, mostly “Let’s Make America Great Again,” and issue dire warnings about what they’d do if elected. Then, as the news from the only country to conduct a nuclear test in this century receded from the headlines, they’d be back to the usual harangues and promises. Donald Trump captures the most publicity for his bombast. None of the other candidates can approach him for mingling bully-boy rhetoric with assurances of all the good things he would bestow if given half a chance. Forgetting the encouragement h

Mar 17, 2016By Donald Kirk

Donald Kirk

Waging war of words

By Donald Kirk Ho hum, here we go again. That seems to be the response to the latest rhetorical blasts from Pyongyang as U.S. and South Korean forces dive into their annual war games. A “preemptive nuclear strike”? Destruction of “bases of aggression”? Incineration of Seoul in “a sea of fire and ashes.” When and where have we heard all that stuff before? Oh yes, wasn’t it last year during these same annual military exercises? And the year before? And maybe quite a few other times? It’s tempting to shrug off the hot air blowing down from the North, but every year it seems to get a little worse. How long can this sort of thing go on? Will people be hearing those lines 10 or 20 years from now? Or will the cork finally pop off the bottle, unleashing a shower of who-knows-what? Some are getting worried. “The North’s threats are now backed up by a growing nuclear and missile capability,” Evans Revere, a former senior diplomat, said in an e-mail to me. “They have to be taken seriously even if th

Mar 10, 2016By Donald Kirk

Donald Kirk

Spying on the line

By Donald KirkThey used to say the walls have ears. That was in a bygone era when eavesdroppers strained through ceilings and doors, peepholes and cracks to catch the incriminating words of enemy agents, political foes and adulterous spouses. Plenty of old-time movies revolve around scenes such as these.We have come a long way since then. For years we have been hearing stories about intelligence agents bugging telephones and planting listening devices under desks, chairs and beds. We have grown up knowing nothing is secret, nothing sacred.What is new, though, are the highest of hi-tech means of tracking down enemies and criminals, business competitors and ex-lovers. That is the topic of debate everywhere, nowhere so impassioned as in the U.S. or, for that matter, South Korea.In the U.S., debate focuses on Apple CEO Tim Cook, who does not want the FBI penetrating the technology in its iPhones to find out who the San Bernardino shooters were calling before they shot and killed 14 people and wounded 22 others last December. The FBI thinks the phone records could lead to the circles in w

Mar 3, 2016By Donald Kirk

Donald Kirk

Dialoguing for peace

By Donald Kirk Listen to people talking about the panacea of “dialogue” and “a peace treaty” with North Korea.  They make it seem so simple. We need to talk, they say. We’ll never come to terms with North Korea if we don’t talk. One advocate of dialogue put it this way when I asked about the shutdown of the Gaesong Industrial Complex: “Only when the US and the two Koreas agree on a peace treaty will projects like Gaesong achieve stability.” But wait a minute. Hasn’t everyone tried talking before? Need we go over the agreements that North Korea has violated, beginning with the “Joint Declaration on the Denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula,” signed by North and South in 1991? And what about the agreements that the flashy, uber-confident Christopher Hill reached with the North Koreans in 2007, calling for step-by-step nonsense whereby the North would do away with its nukes in return for, what else, amazing quantities of aid? It all seemed so well “crafted,” in the parlance of a dip

Feb 25, 2016By Donald Kirk

Donald Kirk

Myanmar versus North Korea

By Donald Kirk Comparisons between North Korea and Myanmar over the years have suggested that the two nations share some of the same problems. However, even in the worst periods of military dictatorship, Myanmar never bore any similarity to North Korea. The contrast extends from urban market places to fields and forests to inner sanctums of power. On a visit to Myanmar from Korea, I discover a place that’s outlived its historic image of revolution and violence. One reads of clashes in remote Shan villages, but the bloodshed is largely over while streets and markets in Yangon, the historic capital, the largest port and center of commerce, give every impression of flourishing. People swear, yes, that the old army-led regime will be history by the end of March, opening up an orderly succession led by the hero of the National League for Democracy, 70-year-old Aung San Suu Kyi. Ask if the army won’t again step in, and you hear, no, the victory of Suu Kyi’s party at the polls means the transition has to happen. That understanding contrasts sadly with more d

Feb 18, 2016By Donald Kirk

Donald Kirk

Raising the risks of war

By Donald Kirk North Korean rocket launches and nuclear tests risk getting boring. The pattern is familiar: expressions of outrage, loud condemnation ― then nothing. Has the latest one-two punch of nuclear test and rocket launch changed a thing? The easy answer is not really ― but think again. The lines of confrontation are deepening.On one side, China and Russia are lined up with North Korea in opposing tough sanctions that might persuade Kim Jong-un to think twice. Sure, neither seems happy about North Korea’s challenge to their shared domination of Northeast Asia, but neither is going to stop the young ruler from doing whatever he wants.The standoff now is deepened by the sales talks that American commanders, diplomats and technical experts have been giving the North Koreans about Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD). No sooner was word out that North Korea had launched its latest rocket than U.S. generals were selling reluctant South Korean defense chiefs on the need for THAAD, which will cost billions of dollars paid to American defense firms.The Sout

Feb 11, 2016By Donald Kirk

Donald Kirk

Healing history's wounds

By Donald Kirk MANILA ― No city suffered more in World War II than this sprawling metropolis of more than 10 million people. No enemy was more cruel, more hostile, more destructive than the Japanese after defeating U.S. forces in the Philippines at the outset of the war in the Pacific. Japanese commanders knew the Americans were returning and would soon regain control yet did nothing to halt the atrocities that resulted in the deaths of more than a million Filipinos. Under these circumstances, it seems almost beyond belief that the Japanese Emperor Akihito and his wife, Empress Michiko, could return to the Philippines as deeply honored guests, paying homage to Japanese war dead while bowing low in remorse for the suffering the Japanese had caused during three years of harsh rule. Elderly Filipinos still talk of the harshness of the Japanese even in regions far removed from combat. Akihito and Michiko visited the Philippines last week on a peace offensive in which they created nothing but a great impression even as aging comfort women recalled their fates as sex slaves

Feb 4, 2016By Donald Kirk

Donald Kirk

Read more

State of terrorism

New York Times vs. Trump

Cuba, North Korea and US

Korea: US election non-issue

Waging war of words

Spying on the line

Dialoguing for peace

Myanmar versus North Korea

Raising the risks of war

Healing history's wounds

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