Opinion - The Korea Times

Remembering 'Peace is at hand'

By Donald KirkComparisons between the Korean and Vietnam wars have always been misleading if not ridiculous, never more so than when Henry Kissinger, in a new documentary, “Last Days in Vietnam,” says that he and his boss, President Richard Nixon, believed the Vietnam War would end as had the Korean War.That is, after Kissinger and North Vietnam negotiator Le Duc Tho signed the “Paris Peace” in January 1973, all sides would stick by the terms dictated by the truce. The Americans would go home, North and South Vietnam would survive under separate regimes, and the Vietnamese would live happily ever after.Release of the 98-minute documentary, directed by Rory Kennedy, youngest of Robert F. and Ethel Kennedy’s 11 children, coincides with the run-up to the 40th anniversary in April of the final disaster in Vietnam, the surrender of the Saigon government to the North Vietnamese. If the film captures the suffering of those “last days,” it also gives Kissinger the benefit of doubts about his role in engineering the false peace. The inference is that

Feb 12, 2015By Donald Kirk

Donald Kirk

Hazards of war reporting

By Donald Kirk The murder of journalists at the hands of ISIS forces shows how far a few daring correspondents will go to find out what’s going on.Covering wars has always been hazardous, never more so than when highly resourceful, motivated reporters go beyond the protective cover of military units with which they are “embedded,” mingle with people of uncertain loyalties and affiliations and look for trouble ― that is, the war they’re trying to witness. For those journalists, seeing is believing. That axiom applies especially to camera people, for whom there’s no substitute for recording the images on film.The nature of the conflicts flaring across the Middle East if anything seems more dangerous than the wars that I remember first-hand in Southeast Asia or those that I’ve read about. Journalists were killed by shots and shells, when aircraft blew up or in accidents, but they didn’t have to range so far over uncharted territory to get close to the war. And there were no instances of beheading ― the fate of several journalists, most rece

Feb 5, 2015By Donald Kirk

Donald Kirk

Covering war, then and now

By Donald Kirk In sunny Florida, while storms and blizzards rage in the American Northeast, old war correspondents whom I knew in Vietnam and Cambodia talk about those days of fighting in the jungles, of going down remote roads, of running into the bad guys and coming back alive.One of them, Don Tate, one-time star of the Scripps-Howard chain, shows me fading newspaper clippings featuring his stories on the front pages of papers that have long since gone out of business. And he also digs out features and photos from war games in Korea where he was writing about American and South Korean troops as they floundered over snow-covered crags south of the DMZ. The going in Korea, if anything, was tougher than in Vietnam, Tate notes, but the difference was that no war was going on.Tate tells war stories as armies fight off and on in the Middle East and war clouds gather from Africa to Northeast Asia.  For sure, these wars look quite different from the ones we covered as journalists decades ago. High-tech means weapons with far greater range and accuracy than those we saw in our tim

Jan 29, 2015By Donald Kirk

Donald Kirk

Telling a defector's story

By Donald KirkDefectors from North Korea all have harrowing tales of suffering that are difficult to imagine in real life.Their stories differ widely depending on the circumstances ― some have spent time in prisons, most have not. Many have been hungry, or have seen relatives and friends starve to death or die of some dreaded disease. They’ve witnessed executions of those caught for offenses that mostly have to do with their struggle to survive ― the theft of rice or selling stolen goods on the black market, for instance, are capital offenses.Typically defectors make their way across the Tumen River, the shallow stream that divides the far northeastern reaches of North Korea from China’s Jilin Province. The Tumen is easy to find, but a defector must then escape the patrols on the North Korean side or arrange for safe passage by paying huge fees to brokers, who then pay off the guards.Defectors, if they’re lucky, find shelter within the large Korean community on the Chinese side. Many of the women are likely to wind up in forced marriages or in bars and brothels. The

Jan 22, 2015By Donald Kirk

Donald Kirk

Obama, the Great Conciliator

By Donald KirkWASHINGTON ―” Incredibly, President Obama was the missing man among world leaders massed in tight formation in the front rank of the peace march mourning the slaughter of a dozen people at the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo and four more killed in a kosher supermarket in a Jewish neighborhood. You had to look at the front-page photograph in disbelief to confirm, no, he hadn’t made it over to show solidarity with America’s European allies.Somewhat belatedly, the White House said Obama should have been there, but that expression of regret was too little, too late. It’s doubtful the White House would have made such a confession were it not for a tidal wave of media criticism that inundated initial explanations of poor security, time constraints, etc.The symbolism was clear. Sure, Obama was sorry and saddened about the wanton bloodshed, but how committed is he to the global war on terrorism? Is he, at heart, reluctant to pour still greater resources into the pursuit of Al Qaeda, ISIS and the Taliban ―” or would he prefer a more laid-ba

Jan 15, 2015By Donald Kirk

Donald Kirk

Getting tough with N. Korea

By Donald Kirk The rapid-fire sequence of events surrounding the film “The Interview” raises a familiar question: When will the world lose patience with the North Korean regime and toss out the “supreme leader” along with the flunkies and toadies and cronies surrounding him? Or do we need the regime in place as a buffer among quarreling great powers?This is easy to ask but never easy to answer. In fact, the answers may be getting more difficult while Kim Jong-un talks about talks with the South while his people move ever closer to miniaturizing a nuclear device to attach to a long-range missile. Are we looking at the same familiar pattern or a new level of diplomacy and terrorism?Certainly the U.S. has done very little to “punish” North Korea, as promised by President Obama, for breaching Sony Entertainment’s entire computer system. While the North’s anonymous “Guardians of Peace” threatened mass destruction in retaliation for the assault on “the dignity” perpetrated against Kim Jong-un in “The Intervi

Jan 8, 2015By Donald Kirk

Donald Kirk

'The Interview' - funny but serious

By Donald Kirk By now so many people have seen “The Interview” that it almost seems ridiculous to think that Sony briefly banned its release. The film is so accessible that Sony’s main problem may be how to get people to pay to see it when anyone can download it or get it from a contact who’s glad to spread it around.The only ones left out of the party, it seems, are the North Koreans. They may be wondering what it’s all about since denunciations of the film and of President Obama for having “forced” Sony to release it neglect to mention the story line. It would be nice to think that Kim Jong-un, who gets blown to pieces on screen, and some of his aides and cronies got a few laughs from it, but somehow it seems unlikely they see this action comedy as all that amusing.So what are North Koreans really saying about the whole ruckus? Any chance the Pyongyang bureau of the Associated Press is looking for reaction or comment beyond the official statements of the Korean Central New Agency? Oh, please. “The Associated Press in North Korea:

Jan 1, 2015By Donald Kirk

Donald Kirk

The perils of cyber war

By Donald Kirk WASHINGTON ― Maybe we should all be thankful. No harm done in this Sony/North Korea flap; just a war of words. A torrent of them, in fact, but so far no fatalities, no injuries, merely hurt feelings, stunned outrage, routine mass media strum and drang.Ok, sound and fury, signifies nothing or not that much? Actually, I’m outraged too. Damn, I was gonna put this flick on my definite to-do list for Christmas. Normally, I don’t like movies much, having spent too much time watching stuff that turned out to be terrible bores. I would have consigned this film to that category were it not for all the hullabaloo.One thing is for sure, though. The ruckus over ``The Interview” does beat the alternative ― a real shooting war. Regardless of the wisdom of canceling the release of the film, we can be totally sure of one thing. We haven’t seen anything yet. Look for countries and internet whiz kids with a lot more smarts than the North Koreans to be sabotaging sacrosanct systems, corporate, government, and the military, all over the place. Cyber-war is a f

Dec 25, 2014By Donald Kirk

Donald Kirk

Arguing against torture

By Donald Kirk Throughout human history people have tortured people to assert their power, to destroy enemies, to gain information ― or simply to hurt those whom they don’t like. No doubt such cruelty has worked to prop up regimes, but in the long run the torturers also suffer. Certainly it was that way for both the Germans and the Japanese in World War II when each of them, in different ways, committed unspeakable atrocities.Now, for the first time on such a broad scale, Americans have to consider whether torture of terrorists at the prison on the historic U.S. base at Guantanamo, a bastion of U.S. military strength on the southeastern corner of Communist anti-American Cuba, was really a good idea. The Senate Intelligence Committee report on CIA ``techniques,” including torture of those held at Guantamano and “rendition” of many more to the tender mercies of dozens of other countries with still more fearsome techniques, exposes graphically the cruelty of the CIA inquisition.That torture rarely produces meaningful dividends in terms of useful information

Dec 18, 2014By Donald Kirk

Donald Kirk

Going nuts in first class

By Donald KirkI know how she feels. You ask for nuts, you get pretzels, and that’s upsetting. That’s just the view from economy class. Up there in first class, you ask for nuts, and you’ve got to have them strewn on a plate.  Open up the baggie yourself? You’ve gotta be kidding. Those bags can be tricky. How many times have I resorted to stabbing the nut or pretzel bag with a ballpoint pen when all else failed?Not that I ever really expect to find the nuts on a plate. Generally I consider myself lucky if the plane carries nuts ― and bless the attendant who gives me two or three extra bags along with a refill of coffee in a paper cup.  The real issue is who would believe, on some carriers, they charge for every bag. On others, they don’t have them at all. Those are strictly complaints from the vantage of economy class.Now imagine the consternation up there in first when you’re treated to anything but subservient, pretty smiling and everlastingly patient service. When you’re flying with the wealthy, the elite, the expense-account exec

Dec 11, 2014By Donald Kirk

Donald Kirk

Read more

Remembering 'Peace is at hand'

Hazards of war reporting

Covering war, then and now

Telling a defector's story

Obama, the Great Conciliator

Getting tough with N. Korea

'The Interview' - funny but serious

The perils of cyber war

Arguing against torture

Going nuts in first class

Top 5 stories