Opinion - The Korea Times

Trump inaction

By John BurtonWhen North Korea launched its new solid-fuel medium-range missile on Feb. 12, the U.S. cable news networks immediately gave the event full-blown coverage. They portrayed the launch as the first serious foreign policy test for the new Trump administration, highlighting the fact that the president was entertaining at that very moment Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at the southern White House in Florida.Speculation was rampant whether the unconventional and mercurial Trump would take some type of dramatic action in response to what seemed to be a clear provocation by Pyongyang. Instead, Trump declared that he was “100 percent” behind Japan and left it at that.Trump’s mild response was even more surprising since analysts had been predicting for weeks that North Korea was likely to challenge the Trump administration with a missile launch or nuclear test.  Since then Trump has continued to adopt a largely passive attitude on North Korea despite his hardline rhetoric.“Obviously North Korea is a big, big problem and we will deal with that very s

Mar 8, 2017By John Burton

John Burton

Missile Mystery

By Jack BurtonNorth Korea’s launch of the Pukguksong-2 ballistic missile is another example of the steady advancement that Pyongyang has made in developing its nuclear and missile arsenal. But it also raises the question of how Pyongyang has been able to master such technology.Pyongyang’s propaganda proclaimed the test of the intermediate range missile as an example of “a new strategic weapon of our own style,” implying that North Korean technicians had developed the missile from scratch. But most analysts believe that North Korea has always received help from other countries in developing its nuclear and missile program since the 1980s.The four main enablers of the North’s quest for weapons of mass destruction have been Russia, China, Iran and Pakistan.Western analysts are now debating who might have helped in developing Pukguksong-2. The missile does represent significant technical progress for North Korea. It is a solid fuel missile, similar to the submarine-launched one, the Pukguksong-1, that Pyongyang tested last year. Solid-fueled missiles allow f

Feb 22, 2017By Jack Burton

John Burton

Samsung's testing times

By John BurtonIt is somewhat ironic that Lee Jae-yong, the de facto head of the Samsung group, has borne the brunt of populist public anger against the family-run conglomerates, or chaebol, unleashed by Choigate and its exposure of alleged corrupt ties between business and government.Since taking over leadership of the group after his father’s heart attack in 2014, Lee has done more than any other chaebol boss in restructuring holdings to the benefit of shareholders. This has primarily consisted of selling off some struggling businesses while forging entry into new sectors, such as automotive electronics and biotechnology.Several factors lie behind his actions. The first is Lee has eschewed the empire-building practices of his father. Lee Kun-hee, and has recognized that a more focused business structure – primarily in electronics and finance -- improves Samsung’s competitiveness in global markets.That also represents an acknowledgement that the industrial landscape in which Samsung has been operating is changing. Increased Chinese competition in such areas as chemi

Jan 25, 2017By John Burton

John Burton

Trump's Korea contradictions

By John BurtonWhat is fascinating in analyzing the forthcoming Trump presidency is how many of his policy goals contradict each other, which makes it harder to achieve any or most of them. North Korea provides a perfect case in point.Kim Jong-un’s warning in his New Year’s address that Pyongyang might soon test an ICBM missile brought forth the Twitter response by Trump that “It won’t happen,” before the president-elect castigated China for failing to apply tougher sanctions against North Korea.The only effective way to implement sanctions is to win the cooperation of Beijing in enforcing them.But Trump appears intent in going out of his way to alienate China by threatening, for example, to impose tariffs on its exports to the U.S.Sino-American ties also look set to deteriorate over such issues as Taiwan and the South China Sea. Trump’s policy of confrontation makes it less likely that China will be willing to press North Korea to denuclearize.Although it has received less attention in the U.S., Trump’s policy also threatens to damage relatio

Jan 11, 2017By John Burton

John Burton

Trump's tax threat

By John BurtonWhen he was campaigning as a candidate for the U.S. presidency, Donald Trump vowed that on day one of his administration you would declare China to be a currency manipulator, which gives the U.S. the authority to restrict Chinese imports by slapping tariffs on its products.That is unlikely to happen, however.China does not meet, at least formally, all three of the criteria set by the U.S. Treasury Department that would label it as a currency manipulator. The criteria include having a bilateral trade surplus in excess of $20 billion, a current account surplus in excess of 3 percent of gross domestic product, and monetary intervention that causes foreign exchange reserves to exceed 2 percent of GDP.China is only guilty on the first count. The criteria are so strict that only a handful of countries fall into the category of currency manipulator. But one of those countries is Korea. Although the Trump administration is unlikely to specifically target Korea (except in a few product categories), its de facto status as a currency manipulator leaves it vulnerable to any fallout

Dec 28, 2016By John Burton

John Burton

Bright side of Choigate

By John BurtonAlthough Koreans are complaining that Choigate has brought the state of the country’s democracy to its lowest point since 1987, there are also reasons for hope that it could trigger important and positive changes.The fact that hundreds of thousands of Koreas are willing to gather peacefully each Saturday in central Seoul is one indication that the citizens are taking democracy seriously and showing their strong interest in civic affairs and engagement.The protests also display an increased maturity among both demonstrators and the police. Gone are days of violent confrontation and firing of tear gas barrages. Instead the protests now have a family-friendly festive air and the police are showing professionalism in calmly managing the crowds.But more importantly, Choigate might finally spell the end of another cult besides that associated with Choi Soon-sil. That is one surrounding Park Chung-hee and the authoritarian economic system that he created and which still lives on in the chaebol dominance of the economy.The older generation of Koreans who voted for Park Ge

Dec 14, 2016By John Burton

John Burton

Echoes of Watergate

By John BurtonI was a university student in Washington D.C. in the early 1970s and so witnessed at first hand the unfolding of the Watergate scandal that brought down the administration of Richard Nixon. It is interesting to see now how Choigate bears both similarities and differences to that major U.S. political scandal.First just to recap what was the Watergate scandal. In June 1972, several men were discovered breaking into the headquarters of the opposition Democratic Party in the Watergate complex. It was later disclosed that the burglars were linked to the Nixon administration and were part of a wider illegal campaign to harass the president’s political opponents.Although the Washington Post reported on the connections between the burglary and the Nixon administration, the president still was re-elected in November 1972 in one of the biggest electoral landslides in American history.But in early 1973, new questions started to be asked on what Nixon knew about the break-in. He fired several close advisors in April 1973 to take responsibility. The U.S. Senate launched a

Nov 30, 2016By John Burton

John Burton

Trump's North Korean test

By John BurtonNorth Korea represents a Rorschach test for President-elect Donald Trump on how he will conduct his foreign policy.During his election campaign, Trump seemed to offer contradictory views on North Korea as he did on many other issues. On the one hand, he suggested that he would be willing to negotiate with Pyongyang on its nuclear weapons and missile program, while reducing the U.S. military presence in Northeast Asia. On the other hand, Trump indicated that he would support a muscular foreign policy in an effort to win renewed global “respect” for the U.S., while describing North Korean leader Kim Jung-un as a “madman” who he would like to see “disappear.”One thing is certain. The issue of North Korea is likely to receive higher priority in a Trump administration as Pyongyang accelerates its nuclear and missile development program, with two nuclear tests this year and multiple missile tests, including those involving submarine launched ballistic missiles.Trump inherits a situation where Pyongyang appears committed to maintaining its n

Nov 16, 2016By John Burton

John Burton

Why Samsung should worry

By John BurtonIf I was at Samsung Electronics, I would be worrying about how the issue of exploding batteries with the Galaxy Note 7 has become comic fodder for late night TV shows in the U.S.“There was a terrible terrorist attack last weekend in New York, New Jersey. No one died, that’s the good news. And, boy, were we lucky because the bomb was made from acid, ball bearings and electronic igniters. It was either that or a sackful of Samsung phones,” Bill Maher joked on his HBO show, Real Time.“I have a special message foranyone watching tonight’s show who watching this on a Samsung Galaxy Note 7 – run for your lives,” said Stephen Colbert on his popular CBS show, The Late Show, about the smartphone that enjoyed great popularity because of its curved, waterproof and iris-scanning features until the battery problem emerged.“It’s literally a burner phone,” Colbert continued, while noting some customers were still using the phone. “Just what kind of person uses a phone when they’ve been told it’s dangerous? H

Oct 5, 2016By John Burton

John Burton

Where are Seoul-Beijing ties heading?

By John BurtonThe recent explosion of North Korea’s fifth and biggest nuclear bomb raises a key question of the whether the test will bring South Korea and China closer together or further apart.The test has hardened President Park Geun-hye’s determination to deploy the U.S. advanced missile defense system, Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD), with a majority of Koreans supporting the decision. Park recently said the deployment was an “inevitable defensive measure,” adding there would be no need for THAAD if Pyongyang abandoned its nuclear weapons program.A retreat from the THAAD decision now appears to be unthinkable in the face of Pyongyang’s accelerated nuclear and missile tests, including the unexpectedly successful launch of a submarine-based missile, which theoretically would lead to North Korea gaining a “second strike capability.”Beijing fiercely opposes the THAADdeployment because the range of the system’s radar could help plot Chinese missiles once they are launched, thus undermining its nuclear deterrent. This ha

Sep 21, 2016By John Burton

John Burton

Read more

Trump inaction

Missile Mystery

Samsung's testing times

Trump's Korea contradictions

Trump's tax threat

Bright side of Choigate

Echoes of Watergate

Trump's North Korean test

Why Samsung should worry

Where are Seoul-Beijing ties heading?

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