Opinion - The Korea Times

To avert war

By Tong KimIf the current escalation of tension continues, and if mutual hostility continues to mount on the Korean Peninsula, one should be legitimately concerned of the possibility of a costly confrontation between them, limited or all out. With all lines of communication cut off and the abrogation of all economic agreements between the North and South, Korea once again is in a crisis of war, perhaps the most dangerous one so far.It is terrifying to listen to harsh statements or to watch confrontational actions by the leaders in Pyongyang and Seoul. The North Korean authorities are notorious for employing belligerent rhetoric, which has been largely dismissed like “the boy who cried wolf.” What if the wolf may indeed show up this time? It is shocking that the leaders seem ready to accept the horrendous consequences of war.In the wake of the adoption of the UNSC resolution 2270 against the DPRK ― the toughest in 20 years and characterized by a virtual air and maritime blockade, prohibiting trade and denying access to international financial services ― Pyongyang rejected

Mar 13, 2016By Tong Kim

Tong Kim

Korea: back to fate of shrimp

By Tong Kim Last week’s agreement between the U.S. and China to push for “a stronger U.N. Security Council resolution that goes beyond previous resolutions” to sanction North Korea for its nuclear and missile programs brings back to Koreans the memory of an adage that compares their country to the fate of “a shrimp that gets hurt in a fight of whales.”Whereas a new U.N. sanction resolution has finally taken shape and is expected to pass the Security Council soon, owing to China’s reluctant agreement, deployment of the THAAD system to Korea has become somewhat obscure because of China’s strong opposition. South Korea and the U.S. agree that the THAAD is required to defend the South and the United States.Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi on Feb 23 met respectively with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and with White House National Security Advisor Susan Rice to discuss a range of areas of interest to the world’s two most powerful nations. One of the timely issues was the DPRK’s nuclear and missile program. President Obama join

Feb 28, 2016By Tong Kim

Tong Kim

Korean situation getting worse

By Tong Kim Pressure on North Korea has been mounting since its defiant nuclear test on Jan. 6, followed by a satellite launch last week, which is regarded by the West as a missile development test.  While the UN Security Council has yet to adopt an additional resolution to sanction the North Korean provocations, a series of significant actions have been taken by Seoul and Washington.The South Korean government closed the Gaeseong Industrial Complex (GIC). Pyongyang responded by expelling South Korean workers from the complex, putting it under military control. This all happened within a span of 24 hours after Seoul announced its decision to close the GIC.  Immediately afterwards, the South cut off its supply of electricity and water to the industrial complex, which also benefits the families of the North Korean workers in the area.The U.S. Congress passed a tough unilateral sanction legislation to punish anyone involved in North Korea’s nuclear and missile development, arms-related materials, luxury goods, and cyber attack activities.  Under this new author

Feb 14, 2016By Tong Kim

Tong Kim

Living with a nuclear N. Korea

By Tong KimThree weeks have elapsed since North Korea conducted its fourth nuclear test on Jan. 6, and the U.N. Security Council has yet to agree on a new resolution for another set of sanctions against Pyongyang.  This delay is largely due to differences in interest and policy between the two most powerful, veto-wielding permanent members of the Council ― China and the United States. They quickly denounced Pyongyang’s nuclear test that was conducted in flagrant violation of the UN resolution. However, after five hours of discussion between their foreign ministers ― John Kerry and Wang Yi ― last week, they simply agreed to adopt another sanction resolution, but without specifying measures to be included in it. Kerry said “an accelerated effort” would be exerted to produce a new U.N. resolution.The next resolution will have to be stronger than one in 2013 resolution that stated it would “take significant action” in the event of a further nuclear test.  All sanctions have so far failed to prevent the impoverished North from advancing its nuc

Jan 31, 2016By Tong Kim

Tong Kim

Nuclear bomb test and consequences

By Tong Kim It is not difficult to identify multiple consequences of North Korea’s fourth nuclear test on Jan. 6 ― aside from the question of whether it was a hydrogen bomb test, as Pyongyang claimed, or a boosted nuclear fission test as Western experts suspect. However, it is not easy to understand North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s reasoning for conducting the test. Contrary to speculation from several analysts, the motivation does not seem to have been to get attention or gain increased leverage for negotiations or acquire the status of a nuclear weapon state.The latest test has reinforced an argument that denuclearization efforts by Washington and its allies and partners have completely failed. It made the recent international condemnation sound hollow.The peaceful resolution of the nuclear issue has become more distant. No resolution is in sight for the remaining time in office for President Barack Obama or President Park Geun-hye. The state of inter-Korean relations has returned to last August, when the two sides were on the brink of war following a DMZ lan

Jan 17, 2016By Tong Kim

Tong Kim

Repercussions of Dec. 28 accord

By Tong Kim The Dec. 28 agreement between South Korea and Japan to end the decades-long issue of comfort women should only be the beginning of a resolution, not the “final and irreversible” resolution. In Seoul, survivors of Japan’s wartime sex slavery and representatives of the relevant civic organizations called it “a diplomatic humiliation,” and the major opposition party said it was “void” because the legislature was not consulted.A few dozen survivors, most of whom are in their 80s, complained that they had not been informed about the deal before it was announced. One survivor, 88, shouted at Lim Sung-nam, Seoul’s vice foreign minister, who was visiting a sharing home for survivors to explain the deal, “What country do you belong to? Why are you going to kill us twice? Could you not tell us what kind of a deal you were making with the Japanese?”In a joint press conference in Seoul, Japanese foreign minister Fumio Kishida conveyed Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s “most sincere apologies and remorse” to

Jan 3, 2016By Tong Kim

Tong Kim

US presidential election 2016

By Tong KimThe two Koreas have traditionally shown great interest in an American presidential election, because, depending on who is elected, it can affect U.S. policy on the Korean Peninsula.  Next year’s presidential election is no exception, even if its outcome will not make much difference.  No candidate has spoken of a radical departure from the current North Korea policy of the Obama administration.Nevertheless, this election comes as Americans ― and their two major parties ― are clearly divided over many domestic and foreign policy issues, including Obamacare, the fight against terrorism, Planned Parenthood, accepting refugees from Syria, gun control, stopping Iran developing a nuclear weapon and how to defeat ISIS.Hillary Clinton, a former first lady and a former secretary of state, appears as the presumptive nominee of the Democratic Party, leading her main chaser Bernie Sanders, a senator from Vermont, by a comfortable margin.  The so-called email scandals will not stop her way to nomination, unless the FBI accuses her of crimes.By contrast, Republican

Dec 20, 2015By Tong Kim

Tong Kim

No big expectations for talks

By Tong Kim Vice-ministerial talks between the two Koreas scheduled for December 11 at the Kaesong Industrial Complex, are without a fixed agenda. The objective set is to have dialogue on a range of issues within inter-Korean relations, but this is not expected to break new ground.  It is still possible to make a positive step toward mutually beneficial cooperation by moving away from tension and volatility to stability and peaceful coexistence.Reasons to be skeptical are multiple.  The biggest hurdle is mistrust.  Both sides occasionally make positive statements to each other, yet neither side takes these seriously. Second, dialogue at the vice-ministerial-level is not high enough. At this level, there is unlikely to be a fundamental shift in each nation’s policy of military confrontation or containment. At a preparatory meeting on November 26, the South first proffered a ministerial meeting between Unification Minister Hong Yong-pyo and Director of the United Front Department of the North Korean Workers Party Kim Yang Gon, assuming that the men were o

Dec 6, 2015By Tong Kim

Tong Kim

N. Korea: forget-me-not

By Tong KimIn the midst of an unending series of ferociousattacks by ISIL and other “extreme Islam terrorists” ― in Paris, Turkey, and most recently in Mali ― that keeps shocking a divided international community with respect to how to eliminate the sources of global terrorism, North Korea refuses to be forgotten.Pyongyang finally on November accepted Seoul’s proposal for holding working-level talks. Two delegations will meet at the Tongilgak on the North Korean side of Panmunjom to discuss timing, venue, and agenda for high-level inter-governmental talks.  In the August 25 agreement, which was reached following a dangerous standoff over a landmine explosion in the DMZ, both sides pledged to hold government-to-government talks to improve inter-Korean relations.  The August accord led to another reunion of separated familiesin October, while easing up humanitarian assistance to the North.Pundits in Seoul believe the North Korean decision to re-engage the South has to do with a few relevant  factors, including Pyongyang’s announced Workers&rs

Nov 22, 2015By Tong Kim

Tong Kim

South Korea's balancing act

By Tong Kim South Korea continues to play a delicate balancing act in its increasingly complicated relationships with China, Japan and the United States.  At the ASEAN defense ministers’ meeting in Kuala Lumpur last week, the South Korean defense minister supported the U.S. secretary of defense in proposing a statement for inclusion in a joint statement that called for restraint from further militarization of reclaimed islands in the South China Sea and the protection of the conventional freedom of navigation as guaranteed by international law.The proposed statement also called for peaceful resolution of the territorial disputes through talks among co-claimants, including China and five other countries in the region.  In the end, no joint statement was adopted due to strong opposition from China, which insists on its “historic sovereignty” that has little ground in international law.  China says its reclamation does not ― and will not ― affect freedom of navigation.For South Korea, a robust military alliance with the U.S. is indispensab

Nov 8, 2015By Tong Kim

Tong Kim

Read more

To avert war

Korea: back to fate of shrimp

Korean situation getting worse

Living with a nuclear N. Korea

Nuclear bomb test and consequences

Repercussions of Dec. 28 accord

US presidential election 2016

No big expectations for talks

N. Korea: forget-me-not

South Korea's balancing act

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