Opinion - The Korea Times

This film's no joke to N. Korea

By Donald Kirk The North Koreans could not have come up with a better way to publicize a movie. Can anyone imagine a Hollywood comedy causing a diplomatic storm involving United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and threats of “resolute and merciless” retaliation against the country that spawned this slapstick nonsense?The North Korean propaganda blitz against “The Interview,” a movie telling the tale of CIA plot concocted by a pair of journalists to knock off Kim Jong-un, is enough to put the movie on everyone’s holiday must-see list. The film debuts in the U.S. on Christmas Day ― a Hollywood gift of comic relief for audiences inured to reports of North Korean nuclear threats and human rights abuses.Sorry, South Koreans won’t be able to share in the fun, at least right away. While foreigners are chortling over what would appear, from the trailer at least, to be a heavy-handed, hackneyed attempt at humor, South Koreans will have to settle for fragments from the Internet and DVD’s smuggled in from overseas, at least initially.That&rsq

Dec 4, 2014By Donald Kirk

Donald Kirk

Uncovering Asian corruption

By Donald Kirk MANILA ― The title was alluring: “The First Asian Investigative Journalism Conference.” For two days, experts regaled journalists from all over Asia on how to track down the secret stories, the purloined funds, the hidden wealth of the high and mighty in countries and economies ranging from Pakistan and India to Southeast Asia and on to China, Taiwan, Korea and Japan. There is, however, a problem. The more the sleuths of journalism uncover, whether by recondite searches of the Internet or by going through copious paper records or accosting their targets in person, the more we hear of corruption and influence-peddling. The journalists wrapped up the first day of the conference with a “candle light gathering for the international day of impunity” honoring “hundreds of slain journalists.” From the hotel where we were meeting, it was a short walk to Edsa, the 12-lane Epifanio De Los Santos, where I had seen hundreds of thousands of people massing in January and February 1986 in the heady days of “People Power” against th

Nov 27, 2014By Donald Kirk

Donald Kirk

Megachurches under scrutiny

By Donald Kirk The growth of megachurches worldwide is a phenomenon in which thousands of individual churches or parishes each claim more than 2,000 members. The Full Gospel Church in Yeoeuido is the world’s largest, with hundreds of thousands attending 10 or more services every Sunday. Nearly half the world’s 50 biggest Christian megachurches are in Korea when we define Christian, as do Koreans, as meaning Protestant or non-Catholic ― though Catholics are most definitely Christians.The rise of the megachurch in Korea is ironic indeed considering that early Christians, mainly Catholic missionaries and thousands of their adherents, had to suffer and die in their struggle to spread the word of God in the late Joseon Kingdom. These days, however, Korea’s Christian churches are wealthy and influential. In fact, they face an age-old problem, as the apostle Matthew wrote. “Ye cannot serve God and mammon,” one of the most famous lines from the Bible.Clearly a number of Korean pastors, most famously the Rev. David Cho, founder of the Full Gospel Church, hav

Nov 20, 2014By Donald Kirk

Donald Kirk

Korea's champion baseball fans

By Donald Kirk American baseball fans, maybe U.S. major league baseball in general, have some lessons to learn from the way that diehard Koreans cheer on their teams.At the final game of the Korean Series, I was surrounded wherever I hung out in the stands by people standing up, swinging plastic bats, singing songs for their teams – in this case the Samsung Lions and the Nexen Heroes.Never mind that the Lions slaughtered the heroes, 11-1, copping their fourth victory in game six of the best of seven series. These fans, both for the Lions and the Heroes, stayed until the joyous/bitter end, shouting loudly over every strike, every foul ball every routine popup or groundout.Lions fans, waving blue and white flags, popping blue balloons, flashing blue-and white towels thoughtfully stuffed into every seat, filled the third-base side of Jamsil Stadium. Nexen fans, not be outdone, waved burgundy-and-white towels and banners, singing and shouting just as loudly from the first-base side. They were loyal to the end, refusing to leave until the final Nexen batter went down, in t

Nov 13, 2014By Donald Kirk

Donald Kirk

America's political 'takeaway'

By Donald KirkThe U.S. exercise in democracy is a drama that’s turning from success story to farce, and may wind up in tragedy.That’s the “takeaway” — a word that’s come into vogue for wrapping up everything from delivery of fast food and winding up conferences and panel discussions to meditating campaign debates and outcomes.In the case of the U.S. midterm elections on Tuesday, the takeaway might as well be a brown bag bursting with leftovers, if not complete trash. What we’re left with as a result of the elections for one third of the U.S. Senate and all members of the lower house is a Congress that’s rock-solid Republican, pitted against a White House led by a Democrat who seems like a nice enough guy but hardly knows what to do to defend the signature program he’s already somehow got.That would be “affordable health care,” popularly known as Obamacare, for which he’s going to have to stand fast against shrill efforts to tear it apart by Republicans clearly biased in favor of those who have enough to buy whate

Nov 6, 2014By Donald Kirk

Donald Kirk

Korea as the new 'cool'

By Donald Kirk Many Koreans don’t know it, but Korea is cool.Three newly published books say so. Two of them even have “cool” in the title ― “The Birth of Korean Cool” by Euny Hong, who describes herself as having “spent her childhood in Chicago and in the elite Gangnam neighborhood of Seoul,” and “A Geek in Korea: Discovering Asia’s New Kingdom of Cool,” by Daniel Tudor, a Brit who’s had an amazing array of experiences since coming here initially as an English teacher.One reason that Koreans may not think of Korea as “cool” is that many don’t share in the exhilaration exuded by these books. Sure, they know K-pop, the most often cited evidence for Korean coolness, but ordinary people may not appreciate the same glittery fun and games. The struggle to survive, often on part-time or casual jobs at the whims of the economy and shadowy business empires, makes it difficult to enjoy the party.The foreign view of Korea as cool echoes the theme of “cool Britannia,” a British slogan during the

Oct 30, 2014By Donald Kirk

Donald Kirk

Hong Kong's isolated crusade

By Donald Kirk The demonstrations in Hong Kong are at a critical stage. In the spirit of democracy movements in Korea, the Philippines, Indonesia and Thailand, these protesters are not giving up. Unlike demonstrators elsewhere, those in Hong Kong have come up with a defense that I never saw when protesters were rampaging through the streets of Seoul in the 1980s, into the 1990s. They’re holding up umbrellas to shield themselves from the torrents of tear gas pouring down upon them.For all the fervor of the protesters in Hong Kong, however, their valiant stand against the authority of Beijing seems strangely remote, disconnected, isolated from crusades in other large Asian cities. The conservative government of Korea has no desire to offend Beijing by speaking out in defense of demands for democratic elections even though Korean democracy rose from mass protests against authoritarian rule. And Korean far-leftists amazingly seem on occasion to sympathize with the dictatorship of North Korea, where the least sign of protest means torture, imprisonment and death.Nor do the Hong

Oct 23, 2014By Donald Kirk

Donald Kirk

Raising Cain about a cane

By Donald Kirk Why do the North Koreans simply refuse to follow the logic and needs of foreign analysts when it comes to the timing of great events? Here everyone was saying that Kim Jong-un had to show up for the 69th anniversary of the founding of the Workers’ Party one week ago, and he was a total no-show. Then, four days later, he’s on the front page of the party newspaper, Rodong Sinmun, smiling happily as he visits a newly built complex for the nation’s scientific elite.Could the “supreme leader” have revived over the weekend after having been suffering so severely as not to have been able to have made even a brief appearance at the final resting place of his dynastic forebears, his grandfather, “eternal president” Kim Il-sung, and his father, Kim Jong-il, “eternal general secretary” and “eternal chairman” of the national defense commission? Did his handlers, seeing those sensational reports in the foreign media, decide the heir to all that power had to put on a public display to snuff out tales of a power s

Oct 16, 2014By Donald Kirk

Donald Kirk

The North Korean power game

By Donald Kirk The world seems to be missing Kim Jong-un. The porcine image of this overweight 30-something reviewing his troops or wagging a finger at a map or “ordering” a missile test had become a media staple until he vanished from view in early September.Oh, we also like to read about his attractive young wife and new baby, which is what you would normally see in gossip or celebrity columns, not reporting on the leader of one of the world’s most repressive and isolated dictatorships. His smiling countenance seemed more suitable for that of a genial politician or perhaps a corporate official trying to act like Mr. Nice Guy in the presence of his loyal workers.We should know a little more about how the North Korean leader is doing later today, Friday, October 10, which marks the 69th anniversary of the founding of the Workers’ Party – the same party of course that the kid is first secretary. He may indeed be a puppet for backstage figures, but you have got to believe whoever is pulling the strings on this stuffed marionette of a “Supreme Le

Oct 9, 2014By Donald Kirk

Donald Kirk

Protesting for democracy

By Donald KirkThe democracy demos in Hong Kong evoke so many memories going back to the late 1960s when I saw thousands pouring on to the streets of what was then a British crown colony brandishing copies of Mao Zedong’s “little red book.”That was the era of the Great Cultural Revolution, and the message then was quite the opposite of what we are hearing now. In those days, Mao was the hero for zealots to whom British rule was anathema. They yearned for Hong Kong’s return to Chinese governance, as happened 30 years later when thousands more poured through Hong Kong’s Central District celebrating the end of colonialism.The concept of “one country, two systems,” worked out by Deng Xiaoping to reassure the colony’s British overlords, guaranteed that Hong Kong could exist as a capitalist enclave in a communist country. That arrangement was to last for 50 years after China formally took over in 1997. China might be the People’s Republic, but Hong Kong would always be Hong Kong.Sooner or later, Hong Kong would have to wake up from

Oct 2, 2014By Donald Kirk

Donald Kirk

Read more

This film's no joke to N. Korea

Uncovering Asian corruption

Megachurches under scrutiny

Korea's champion baseball fans

America's political 'takeaway'

Korea as the new 'cool'

Hong Kong's isolated crusade

Raising Cain about a cane

The North Korean power game

Protesting for democracy

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