Opinion - The Korea Times

Eve of destruction

By John Burton“We had to destroy the village in order to save it,” is a famous quote from the Vietnam War. It referred to the bombing of a village by the Americans in the Mekong Delta during the 1968 Tet Offensive that called into question U.S. war aims.I am reminded of that quote as the White House publicly debates whether to launch a preventive war against North Korea. The idea has gained traction in Washington in recent months that Pyongyang can no longer be deterred from completing its nuclear and missile program and must be stopped with military action or else it will reunify the Korean peninsula on its terms. But there is a strong likelihood that South Korea could also be destroyed in the process.H.R McMaster, U.S. President Donald Trump’s national security adviser and ironically known for his critical book on the Vietnam War, is a strong proponent of the view that North Korea is not seeking a nuclear-capable ICBM system to secure regime survival by deterrence but rather it represents the first step to conquer South Korea by coercion and force that could trigg

Dec 11, 2017By John Burton

John Burton

Is North Korea a terrorist state?

By John BurtonThis question is surprisingly being debated after President Donald Trump last week decided to restore the North to the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism, which now includes Iran, Syria and Sudan. North Korea was first put on the list in 1988 for clearly recognizable terrorist activities, including a bomb attack against senior South Korean officials in Rangoon in 1983 and blowing up a Korean Air passenger jet in 1987. U.S. President George W. Bush removed North Korea from the list in 2008 as part of an unsuccessful effort to resume talks with Pyongyang on curbing its nuclear and missile program. In putting North Korea back on the list, Trump cited the political assassination of Kim Jong-nam, half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, in Malaysia and the alleged torture and subsequent death of American college student Otto Warmbier as reasons for the action. A debate has centered, however, on whether these events this year constitute terrorist acts. The U.S. does not have a standard legal definition for “international terrorism” and what constitut

Nov 27, 2017By John Burton

John Burton

Korea's voice in Washington

By John BurtonWatching American news coverage of Donald Trump’s trip to Korea last week, the focus was naturally on what the U.S. president would say or do. But that also meant that President Moon Jae-in was assigned by the U.S. media the role of a bit player in his own country.That is one example of how Korea has had difficulty in making its voice heard in U.S. in the last few months despite the escalating tension between Washington and Pyongyang. American journalists focus almost exclusively on this dynamic while largely ignoring Seoul’s perspective.This is placing Seoul at a disadvantage in influencing U.S. policy toward the Korean peninsula among the American policy elite as well as the public. There are genuine grounds for concern about “Korea passing,” as the U.S. media gives an inordinate amount of attention to the North Korean nuclear issue, while ignoring other key developments in South Korea. This is occurring at a particularly critical time when the Trump administration also wants to revise or even abolish the KORUS FTA.Americans tend to view events

Nov 13, 2017By John Burton

John Burton

Going to war?

By John BurtonWhen Koreans welcome (if that is the right word) U.S. President Donald Trump next week, they will be greeting a man who has the power to unleash a destructive war on the Korean peninsula that could kill millions. Whether Trump is preparing a preventive war against North Korea has become the subject of a feverish debate in Washington.The consensus among analysts is that the U.S. faces two stark choices in dealing with North Korea’s nuclear program, either accept it and pursue a policy of containment, or engage in a catastrophic military conflict to stop it.At least in terms of rhetoric coming out of the White House, Trump has made clear that he rejects the first option. H.R. McMaster, Trump’s national security advisor, recently said that Trump “is not going to accept [North Korea] threatening the U.S. with a nuclear weapon,” adding that “accept and deter is unacceptable.”Analysts in Washington are worried that Trump is painting himself into a corner with such statements and he will have no alternative but to launch a preventive war if

Oct 30, 2017By John Burton

John Burton

Hard questions

By John Burton When the U.S. intervened in 1950 to halt North Korea’s invasion of South Korea, it was viewed as an effort to halt the expansion of an allegedly monolithic communist bloc led by the Soviet Union and China.The effort to contain international communism and defend the “free world” initially served as justification for maintaining U.S. troops in South Korea after the Korean war ended in 1953.The U.S. decision to protect South Korea also was meant to signal that it was willing to defend friendly governments around the world as Washington sought to create a global balance of power with its communist foes.But those calculations as they pertained to the Korean Peninsula started to change in 1969. Border clashes that year between China and the Soviet Union revealed that the threat of a monolithic communist bloc was largely illusory.President Richard Nixon’s opening to China in 1972 reduced confrontation between Beijing and Washington in Asia. Finally, America’s defeat in the Vietnam war in the early 1970s led to questioning about whether the U

Oct 16, 2017By John Burton

John Burton

Vietnam redux

By John BurtonI can tell you what Washington policymakers and think tankers have been doing during their evenings the last two weeks. They have been watching the 10-part, 18-hour documentary by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick on the Vietnam war, which has been airing on America’s public television stations (whose funding is under threat by proposed budget cuts by the Trump administration).The series has repeatedly come up in conversations, none more so than among those who follow North Korea. Its sobering look at the death and destruction in Vietnam and the ideological splits the war caused in the U.S. is a useful reminder of the risks of going to war with a tough-minded and nationalistic Asian country.Talk of war with North Korea has escalated in Washington over the summer, encouraged by President Trump’s bellicose rhetoric. In August, he talked about unleashing “fire and fury” against Pyongyang, followed by a warning that the U.S. military was “locked and loaded.” But in September, he took to issuing personal insults against Kim Jong-un, called him &ld

Oct 12, 2017By John Burton

John Burton

War's economic havoc

By John BurtonThe possibility of a conflict on the Korean peninsula is a scary proposition. But as The Economist recently pointed out, global financial markets don’t seem bothered by the prospect. That may be because the markets are discounting the likelihood that war will ever break out, with the threats from Pyongyang and Washington seen as lacking credibility.The case for complacency rests on the assumption that the U.S. would not want to launch a preventive war against North Korea because it would lead to the deaths of millions, including thousands of U.S. soldiers. But some have also pointed out the adverse global economic impact of a second Korean war.For example, a recent analysis by BMI Research, a sister unit of the Fitch credit rating agency, concluded that a war would have huge economic ramifications around the world because of the vital role that Northeast Asia plays in the international supply chain. Korea alone produces 40 percent of the world’s liquid crystal displays and 17 percent of its semiconductors. If a war dragged in Japan and China, the consequence

Sep 18, 2017By John Burton

John Burton

Moon's military maneuvers

By John BurtonWhile President Moon Jae-in has been trying to promote a policy of reconciliation toward North Korea, known as the Sunshine Policy 2.0 after similar approaches pursued by Presidents Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun, he is also overseeing a strong defense build-up, dubbed by some as Defense Reform 2.0.Moon’s defense plan is patterned after Defense Reform 2020 launched in 2006 by Roh, under whom the current president served as chief of staff. Previously, South Korea’s military structure was heavily tilted toward the Army, whose troops would be expected to do much of the ground fighting in a second Korean War, while the U.S. would provide air and naval support.But Roh sought to introduce a more balanced structure among South Korea’s Army, Navy and Air Force branches to make the country less dependent on the U.S. if a future conflict erupted. He also wanted South Korea to assume operational control of joint allied forces from the U.S. in the case of war.The military should “strongly push ahead with a reform of the military structure to meet [the require

Sep 4, 2017By John Burton

John Burton

Media-driven nuclear crisis

By John Burton On July 25, The Washington Post reported that the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency had concluded that “North Korea will be able to field a reliable, nuclear-capable intercontinental ballistic missile as early as next year,” two years ahead of previous estimates.The report attracted only modest attention among the U.S. media, which was focused that day on an upcoming vote in the U.S. Senate on healthcare reforms, U.S. President Donald Trump’s twitter attacks on U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions and the denial by the president’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, that he had colluded with the Russians to affect the outcome of the 2016 presidential election. Presumably, Trump had already been briefed on the DIA assessment, but made no public comments on it or issued any threats against Pyongyang based on it.On August 8, The Washington Post published another report stating that DIA had concluded for the first time that North Korea was now able to place a miniaturized nuclear warhead on top of its new ICBMs. Although the report was less consequential

Aug 23, 2017By John Burton

John Burton

Trump's cultural revolution

By John BurtonI have a confession to make. In my wayward youth, I was a Maoist. The idea of overthrowing bureaucratic structures appealed to my libertarian sensibilities. If I felt the same now, maybe I would be a Trumpist.For one way to understand Donald Trump and his tumultuous presidency is to compare him to Mao Tse-tung and the Cultural Revolution. They share the same strategy of trying to create chaos to challenge and disrupt a hostile establishment.Mao launched the Cultural Revolution in 1966 to overthrow senior government officials who were trying to sideline him after his disastrous Great Leap Forward that led to widespread famine and the deaths of millions of people between 1958 and 1962.  Mao called on high school and university students, the famous Red Guards, to come out in support of his goal to dismantle existing state institutions and overthrow the officials who were running them. The Red Guards were sent out onto the street under the slogan, “Bombard the Headquarters.” Out of the destruction, Mao hoped to reassert his power and personal authority.Trum

Aug 9, 2017By John Burton

John Burton

Read more

Eve of destruction

Is North Korea a terrorist state?

Korea's voice in Washington

Going to war?

Hard questions

Vietnam redux

War's economic havoc

Moon's military maneuvers

Media-driven nuclear crisis

Trump's cultural revolution

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