Opinion - The Korea Times

How about tracking N. Korea?

By Donald KirkSometimes you have to wonder when reading the top stories how much people are really thinking about some of the implications.Take this running story about Edward Snowden. It’s a fun read, and it would not be a good idea to put him in jail for a lot of reasons, the most compelling of which is that thousands if not millions of people around the world would be nominating him for sainthood.Then there would be copycat cases by people looking for similar nominations for sainthood or, if they were from a country that took an extremely harsh view of such goings-on, martyrdom.But that’s not the point, either. The real point is, just think how easy it would be for a real spy to make off with that stuff. What if, in fact, Snowden had been spying for China or Russia ― or, why not, North Korea? No, he undoubtedly was not, but what if? What if other people, not looking for publicity or sainthood or martyrdom, but just for fat fees, or for who-knows-what ideological or religious beliefs, had similar access and were purveying it to bad guys anywhere and everywhere?At l

Jun 20, 2013By Donald Kirk

Donald Kirk

To talk or not to talk

By Donald KirkOk, the North-South talks fizzled when neither could agree on who was truly “ministerial.” Now the question is when, how, or if the talks will happen.No matter, the Xi-Obama summit has to be viewed as a success in view of the post-summit sideshow between negotiators of North and South Korea in Panmunjom. Whatever the glitches, the North Koreans would never have agreed to talk had it not been for the specter of the leader of their great protector and ally jetting off to California to see the leader of their worst enemy. Remember, it hadn’t been that long since the North Koreans were refusing to meet at all with the South Koreans.For the strategists in Pyongyang, it was as though the roof were caving in on the elaborate structure they had fashioned for months including their third underground nuclear test, test-firing of missiles, phantasmagorical threats of a nuclear holocaust hitting the U.S., and hyped-up descriptions of the Korean Peninsula as in a “state of war.” The imagery exploded as President Xi Jinping chose to spend hours in chit-c

Jun 13, 2013By Donald Kirk

Donald Kirk

Where 'Maoism' endures

By Donald KirkNEW DELHI ― The late “Great Leader” Kim Il-sung no doubt drew upon the teachings of Mao Zedong when he formulated his philosophy of “juche” or self-reliance, but one word you never hear on visits to North Korea is “Maoism.”If North Korea recognizes Mao Zedong as an historical eminence, you would never know it from the rhetoric put out by the Workers’ Party newspaper Rodong Sinmun or the Korean Central News Agency. Nor do you see photographs, much less statues, of Mao in North Korea ― though the noble style of statues of Kim Il-sung and son the “Dear Leader” Kim Jong-il bear a resemblance to those of Mao that still stand tall here and there in China.It’s startling to discover, then, that Maoism not only exists in India but poses a real and present danger in India’s eastern and southeastern regions located far from swarming metropolises comprised of high-rise office buildings and glittering shopping centers surrounded by urban blight.  It’s not in those highly visible slums that Maoism feeds a si

Jun 6, 2013By Donald Kirk

Donald Kirk

Japan's neo-imperialist drift

By Donald KirkFor a people who, to superficial appearances, convey an impression of extreme politeness, calmness and all-around good manners, some Japanese in quite high places are doing their best these days to alter this image.The Japanese have so many ways of saying, sorry, with so many gradations of feeling and emotions or coldness or hypocrisy, you would have thought that the mayor of Osaka would have made use of at least one of them to show repentance the other day in Tokyo.But no, there was Toru Hashimoto at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan saying there was no way really of proving that the Japanese forced tens of thousands of women to service Japanese troops in the Pacific War. Earlier on his home turf of Osaka, he remarked that "a comfort woman system is necessary” to give soldiers "a rest in such a situation.” Actually, with memories of American GIs on "r & r” _ rest and relaxation, or was it recreation? ― from Vietnam in the fleshpots of Bangkok and other likely havens, one can sort of grasp what Hashimoto was saying.  There i

May 30, 2013By Donald Kirk

Donald Kirk

Fixing runs and pitches

By Donald KirkNEW DELHI ― It’s a toss-up what’s of more concern to India’s 1.2 billion people ― border disputes with China or the arrests on bribery charges of stars of India’s most popular sport, the old British game of cricket.India’s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh mingled firmness with smiles in a summit this week with China’s Premier Li Keqiang that focused on Chinese encroachment on Indian turf in the high Himalayan roof of India. The meeting was overshadowed, however, by non-stop revelations of ever more flagrant payoffs of celebrated athletes. That story, not the visit of the Chinese premier, was the unending topic of TV talk shows ― an internal affair with far-reaching global implications.The game of cricket is much too complicated for this baseball fan to comprehend, but there’s no misunderstanding the scope of an investigation involving teams in the Indian Premier League, the top level of cricket in India. The story, moreover, promises to get a lot bigger.The reason the story is so disturbing from an international viewpoint is obviou

May 23, 2013By Donald Kirk

Donald Kirk

Asia's bloodiest border

By Donald Kirk NEW DELHI ― North Korean declarations of “a state of war” on the Korean peninsula tend to make people forget bloodier border confrontations elsewhere in Asia. None is more volatile than the standoff along nearly 3,000 kilometers of heavily guarded fencing that separates Pakistan from India.Koreans point to terrible episodes such as the sinking of the Cheonan and the shelling of Yeonpyeong Island in the Yellow Sea in 2010, with a loss of 50 lives, as horrifying examples of the terror that North Korea is capable of inflicting. Hundreds of people, military and civilian, have died in shootouts in the Yellow Sea and along the 250-kilometer demilitarized zone since the signing of the truce that ended the Korean War nearly 60 years ago.Those numbers, however, are far less than the thousands killed in very different episodes between Pakistanis and Indians since the “partition” of British India in 1947 between separate nations dominated by Muslims and Hindus. While dividing up the old empire, at least a million people were killed as Muslims fled fro

May 16, 2013By Donald Kirk

Donald Kirk

The 'crime' of Christianity

By Donald KirkThe outlook for Kenneth Bae, the American preacher/tour guide who’s been sentenced to 15 years hard labor in North Korea, is bleak.That’s because his offenses against the system sound a lot more serious than those of two people rescued by former American presidents in great blazes of publicity in 2009 and 2010. Laura Ling and Euna Lee, the pair from Al Gore’s Current TV network, did nothing more than get caught by North Korean soldiers while filming along the Tumen River border between North Korea and China. Convicted and sentenced to 13 years, they were ripe for rescue when Bill Clinton flew in on a plane donated by a Californian tycoon, lunched for three hours with Kim Jong-il and left with the pair safely on board.And then there was Aijalon Gomes, who went to North Korea on a religious mission on January 25, 2010, was sentenced to eight years, held for seven months ― and whisked out by Jimmy Carter. Clearly North Korea got full propaganda value from both incidents though Carter may have been disappointed. Having met Kim Jong-il’s father `

May 9, 2013By Donald Kirk

Donald Kirk

Chinese on a far frontier

By Donald KirkNEW DELHI ― Chinese forces have staged an “intrusion” into Indian territory that would have been top world news had they been North Korean troops straying across the DMZ into South Korea.The story’s big in India, to be sure, but nobody’s paying the slightest attention elsewhere. The “intrusion,” the Indian media’s word for it, is relevant to Korea for one basic reason. It’s another sign of China’s yearning to spread its influence and power around its periphery.However uneasy the Chinese may feel about the North’s rhetoric, its threats, its nuclear and missile programs, China sees North Korea as an extension of that power. The Chinese, pouring fuel and food into the North as usual, have to delight in the spectacle of the North defying the U.S. and South Korea, making sure China holds sway over both halves of the divided peninsula.Can it really be, however, that China wants to flex its muscles against India in a repetition of the Sino-Indian border war of the fall of 1962 that resulted in at least 2,000 killed, t

May 2, 2013By Donald Kirk

Donald Kirk

Old times passing

By Donald Kirk You know you’ve reached a certain age when people who had a lot to do with your “career” begin to drop off in increasing numbers. In recent days, two people who accounted for much of what I have done over many years have passed. Both of them had ties with Korea.The first was Sam Jameson, the redoubtable Tokyo  bureau chief for the Los Angeles Times for 25 years. Sam was one of my closest friends. I first met him when we were neophyte journos in Chicago in 1960 and succeeded him at his recommendation as Far East correspondent for the Chicago Tribune when he moved to the LA Times in 1971.Sam and I maintained close contact over the decades ― the last time I saw him was a year and half ago at a talk I gave at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan regarding a book I'd written, “Korea Betrayed: Kim Dae Jung and Sunshine.”Sam asked tough questions about the payoff that preceded the North-South summit of June 2000 and berated me afterward for not mentioning its enormity ― at least $500 million. I told him I forgo

Apr 25, 2013By Donald Kirk

Donald Kirk

Saving face for Kim Jong-un

By Donald KirkAmid much fanfare, North Korea has advanced to the brink of the dreaded Second Korean War.Now the question is whether there’s a face-saving way to bring about dialogue. Can’t North Korea, at some stage, declare a rhetorical victory and go into negotiations?U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, in his go-around through all three major Northeast Asian  capitals, beginning a week ago in Seoul, then moving on to Beijing and Tokyo, intimated it that it hardly matters how, where or in what format the talks are held. He did say, however, that North Korea has to move toward giving up its nuclear program.The critical word there is how far North Korea has to move. North Korea has said it will never give up its nukes despite agreements reached in 2007 that seemed to have provided specific conditions for doing just that. We would be deluding ourselves if we thought North Korea would ever abandon the program.That does not mean, however, that talks, or talks about talks, cannot begin. Nor does it mean that North Korea has to go on holding a nuclear club over the region

Apr 18, 2013By Donald Kirk

Donald Kirk

Read more

How about tracking N. Korea?

To talk or not to talk

Where 'Maoism' endures

Japan's neo-imperialist drift

Fixing runs and pitches

Asia's bloodiest border

The 'crime' of Christianity

Chinese on a far frontier

Old times passing

Saving face for Kim Jong-un

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