Opinion - The Korea Times

Hope springs eternal

By John BurtonIn 1992, when I was appointed Korea correspondent for the Financial Times, my editors and I thought I would be covering the end of the Cold War on the Korean Peninsula, following the demise of the Soviet Union just months earlier. After all, the two Koreas had just signed in December 1991 a basic agreement on reconciliation, non-aggression and cooperation and exchanges. Of course, that agreement proved to be a false dawn, along with several other inter-Korean peace agreements that started with the 1972 joint communique under Park Chung-hee and continued through the 2000 Joint Declaration under Kim Dae-jung and the 2007 peace declaration under Roh Moo-hyun. So will the deal reached between President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un on Friday be any different?The answer lies in why the earlier agreements failed and if anything has changed since. The 1972 agreement, for example, promised that the two Koreas would pursue reunification in a peaceful manner, but neither side was willing to compromise when rival proposals were offered on how this could be achiev

Apr 29, 2018By John Burton

John Burton

Korea's terrible DC blunder

By John BurtonThe Korean government has done itself a great disservice in cutting funding to the US-Korea Institute (USKI), which will force the think tank's closure. There is no upside, only downside in the decision.With this one action, the Moon administration has alienated the close-knit and influential “Korea watchers” community in Washington, D.C., at a time when it needs its support as Seoul prepares for the upcoming South Korean and U.S. summits with North Korea.There is already skepticism about the Moon administration among many U.S. experts on Korea. Most of these analysts have national security backgrounds in government, including working at the Defense Department, the CIA and the National Security Council, and adopt a conservative and hawkish position on Korean issues.In contrast, the USKI, which is housed at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, D.C., is known as being one of the few liberal U.S. institutions on Korean affairs, which makes the Moon administration's decision even more inexplicable.As a former U.S. nuclear neg

Apr 16, 2018By John Burton

John Burton

Topsy-turvy Washington

By John Burton It has been interesting to see the topsy-turvy reaction in Washington, D.C. over the past month to the proposed summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korea leader Kim Jong-un.The Washington foreign policy consensus has rapidly shifted from fears that Trump would launch a preventive war against North Korea to criticism that Trump shouldn't meet Kim.Trump himself has made fun of such diametrically opposing responses. “He's going to get us in a war,” Trump recently told a fundraiser as he mimicked a news anchor. Trump then added that the liberal news media was now criticizing him for “conceding” to meet Kim. “They were afraid of being blown up. Then all of a sudden, they say, let's not meet.” Trump's comments have some validity about the confusion that reigns in Washington about how to solve the North Korean nuclear issue and the lack of bold imaginative thinking.But the conservative news media has also gone through contortions over recent developments. Fox News, Trump's favorite cable channel, once criticized President B

Apr 2, 2018By John Burton

John Burton

'Korea asserting'

By John Burton Will Moon Jae-in become the second Korean president to win a Nobel Peace Prize after Kim Dae-jung? If the summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un comes off successfully, he could well be an award recipient. It would also be an example of how “Korea passing” has suddenly become “Korea asserting.” Moon has done an extraordinary job of rescuing Seoul from being sidelined in the escalating tensions between the U.S. and North Korea, and assuming instead a central role in finding a way out of a looming conflict.He displayed deftness in responding to Kim Jong-un's olive branch at the beginning of the year by inviting North Korea to participate in the PyeongChang Winter Olympics. He has since undertaken the much more difficult task of keeping momentum toward a peaceful resolution of the nuclear crisis going once the Olympic Games ended.Moon has not only promoted continued inter-Korean diplomacy, but has managed to bridge the divide between Washington and Pyongyang by serving as a mediator. Imagine Park Geun-hye try

Mar 19, 2018By John Burton

John Burton

America's Sewol moment

By John BurtonWeeping children. Distraught parents. Those images have played across American cable news channels over the last two weeks following the shooting at a Florida high school that killed 14 students and three teachers. It also brought back memories of the emotional scenes we saw on Korean television in the wake of the sinking of the ferry Sewol in 2014 that killed 304 people, most of them high school students and teachers. The Sewol sinking was the biggest tragedy in Korea’s recent history and it would have profound political ramifications, starting a chain of events that would lead to the impeachment of President Park Geun-hye in 2017. The shooting at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school also carries with it possible political consequences, including growing public demand for a clampdown on America’s lax gun laws.The common ingredient that unites both events is that high school students were at the center of both tragedies and that factor may explain why both events have had such a strong emotional impact.Americans are still puzzled why the shooting at the

Mar 5, 2018By John Burton

John Burton

American paternalism

By John Burton The U.S. has been doing itself no favors in its rather paternalistic response to the thawing relations between the two Koreas at the Winter Olympics. The bottom line message emerging from Washington is that South Koreans cannot be trusted in handling Pyongyang. The U.S. is worried that North Korea is trying to drive a wedge in relations between Seoul and Washington. But the Trump administration’s own behavior is contributing to the possibility of any split. And if the South Koreans can’t be trusted with their own security, then why should the U.S. be so concerned about defending them unless it is for some ulterior motive such as maintaining a military presence on the Asian mainland to counter China? The fact is that the Koreans have reached out to each other because of fears that Trump might launch a “bloody nose” preventive attack that could result in appalling destruction across the Korean Peninsula. No wonder why Koreans want to give peace a chance. But the U.S. has not reacted well to what is happening in PyeongChang. The American media has

Feb 19, 2018By John Burton

John Burton

Crypto craze in Korea

By John BurtonKorea is not normally known to be a big player in international financial markets. But there is one major exception: its trading in cryptocurrencies. Korea’s importance as the world’s third largest cryptocurrency market has been highlighted in recent weeks when a government threat to ban local cryptocurrency exchanges triggered a global crash in the prices of bitcoin and other digital currencies. But the cryptocurrency saga also provides insights into the sharp divisions emerging in Korea about the role of technology in society and response of regulators to rapid change.It may not be surprising that Korea along with its Asian neighbors China and Japan has been wrestling with issues raised by cryptocurrencies since these countries are at the forefront of global digital trends. Authoritarian China has decided to banish cryptocurrency trading, while liberal Japan has embraced it. Korea’s response, in contrast, has been muddled. It is easy to see why the crypto craze has taken off in Korea. It reflects the country’s impressive skills in navigating th

Feb 5, 2018By John Burton

John Burton

Keep it simple, Mr. Moon

By John BurtonIt’s no secret that there is considerable skepticism in Washington, D.C., about the durability of the inter-Korean detente that has led to North Korea agreeing to participate in the PyeongChang Winter Olympics. Most U.S. analysts believe that even if the Olympic Games go ahead without a hitch, further progress will flounder in the spring as the U.S. and South Korea resume joint military exercises and North Korea conducts more missile tests. The challenge for President Moon Jae-in is to keep the spirit of reconciliation alive in the face of daunting odds and that means managing expectations. He cannot be seen as being “played” by Pyongyang into undermining international sanctions against the North. He also needs to dampen down talk that the current process will somehow lead to North Korea’s denuclearization. He needs to focus on incremental confidence-building steps instead of tackling big issues at the beginning.Seoul has already made one tactical mistake in raising the denuclearization issue early in the talks with Pyongyang. That was a ges

Jan 22, 2018By John Burton

John Burton

Grasping the olive branch

By John Burton Many things divide North and South Korea. But the two appear to share the same growing fear that a possibly mentally unstable U.S. president could plunge the Korean Peninsula into a horrendous conventional war and even a nuclear one.North Korean leader Kim Jong-un spotted that opportunity to win over South Korea when he proposed in his New Year address holding direct talks with Seoul, which will result in today’s scheduled meeting between the two sides in Panmunjeom, their first high-level dialogue in two years.Kim’s clever diplomatic move underscores that this year could determine the future relationship between Washington and Seoul. It will also provide a test of how willing President Moon Jae-in is to stand up to the Trump administration and whether that will force the U.S. to take a less aggressive approach to Pyongyang.Kim is pushing hard the nationalist button to win support in the South. He referred in his speech to “uriminzokkiri” (among us Koreans only) in creating peace on the Korean Peninsula and he reached out to Koreans overseas as

Jan 8, 2018By John Burton

John Burton

Moon's economic balancing act

By John BurtonThis past weekend marked the 20th anniversary of Seoul’s agreement with the International Monetary Fund to expedite financial reforms and open its domestic financial markets. It was part of a $10 billion support package to help rescue the economy from the ravages of the 1997 Asian financial crisis.Although the IMF measures that Korea agreed to were heavily criticized at the time by many and inflicted sharp short-term economic pain, in retrospect they made the country more resistant to many subsequent economic crises, including the 2008 global financial crisis. Seoul’s willingness to relax rigid regulatory rules and shut down many of the country’s leading chaebol to reduce excessive corporate debt, while strengthening the soundness of banks and rebuilding foreign currency reserves, has meant that Korea has enjoyed relatively good economic growth since 2000.But Korea is now facing another set of challenging economic issues that relate to the need to increase wages, promote greater income equality and overhaul an industrial structure that relies heavily o

Dec 25, 2017By John Burton

John Burton

Read more

Hope springs eternal

Korea's terrible DC blunder

Topsy-turvy Washington

'Korea asserting'

America's Sewol moment

American paternalism

Crypto craze in Korea

Keep it simple, Mr. Moon

Grasping the olive branch

Moon's economic balancing act

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