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Tong Kim

Tong Kim is a Washington correspondent and columnist for The Korea Times.

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Tong Kim

Cracks opening in North Korea

By Tong Kim As information is tightly controlled in North Korea, we are often attracted to speculation about what is happening in the secretive state. Many stories that emerge, but not all them, have turned out to be untrue. Last week Seoul’s major Korean language dailies again published a couple of unconfirmed, but curiosity arousing, news stories related to the North Korean regime.  One was about a slush fund manager for North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, who allegedly fled to Russia with $5 million. The Joongang Ilbo published the story based on an unidentified “informed source,” adding that the defector was looking for a political asylum in a third country.  Soon afterwards, Reuters and AFP rewrote the story, attributing the Joongang Ilbo as the source. But they also reported that the Korean government authorities, including the National Intelligence Service, have said they were not aware of the authenticity of the news reports. Some defectors from the North quickly pointed out that the report was a sign of instability and that more t

Aug 31, 2014By Tong Kim
Tong Kim

Rumors about N. Korea

By Tong Kim Due to the rigid control of information enforced by the reclusive regime in Pyongyang, it is hard to know what is really going on inside the North Korean leadership. Watching North Korea is like playing a guessing game that feeds on inconclusive speculation and wishful thinking. The difficulty in sorting fact from fiction provides a breeding ground for wild rumors from and about North Korea. Rumors tend to be sensational, and the rumors thrive when people are gullible. They may sometimes fill in gaps between what is officially announced and what is not under an authoritarian state system. In this day and age, no reader expects a reputable newspaper to publish rumors. However, when it comes to North Korea, even major media publish rumors without checking the facts. Most rumors reported in the South Korean and Japanese media are debunked or prove to be dubious due to a lack of evidence. Last week a North Korean female performer who was reported to have been machine-gunned to death along with 10 other young women on orders from North Korean lead

May 26, 2014By Tong Kim
Tong Kim

N. Korean propaganda backfires

By Tong Kim A recent vituperative insult on President Obama reported by the North Korean Central News Agency reveals how little North Korean leaders know or care about the serious consequences to their own interest such distasteful and deplorable propaganda of name-calling can cause.    Propaganda has long been used as an effective tool of rule by authoritarian and totalitarian regimes in world history.  At times of war, even democratic nations use propaganda in psychological warfare to discredit the leadership of foreign target audiences.      The negative connotation of propaganda originates from its deliberate use of selective or false information to help or injure a political leader, a cause, or a political system. “Communist propaganda” during the cold war period and “Nazi propaganda” during WWII are some of the examples of how it was used by dictators. North Korea of today is not exactly a Communist state, but an authoritarian monarchy with a mix of nationalism and Confucian influences that has an ineffective socia

May 11, 2014By Tong Kim
Tong Kim

Obama: style and substance

By Tong Kim President Barrack Obama’s visit to South Korea should not have been an easy, comfortable one as its timing coincided with a time of sorrow following the tragedy of the Sewol ferry that sank off the southwestern coast. Yet, Obama pulled off a very successful visit, touching many hearts in Korea, not by his policies but by his good-natured compassion. In presidential diplomacy, well-choreographed gestures, protocol, itinerary, rhetoric and symbolism all have a role to play. These tools can help build a good image for a president and even popular support at home and abroad. But, none of these tools would work if they were perceived as only existing for show. The key element to this equation is the actor’s genuineness. President Obama appeared genuine when he, as a father of two daughters of similar ages to the Sewol victims, sympathized with the grieving parents. He brought an American flag that flew over the White House on the day of the ferry accident and a magnolia tree from the White House lawn in memory of the victims. Before, he began hi

Apr 27, 2014By Tong Kim
Tong Kim

Arms race and peace

By Tong KimAs diplomatic efforts to improve inter-Korean relations or resolve security issues for a permanent peace settlement on the peninsula are failing, both sides have resorted to bolstering their military might for security in an arms race at the cost of scarce resources.North Korea has proven its nuclear, missile and other destructive capabilities to attack and inflict unbearable damage to South Korea. It is believed to still be working on technology to fit a nuclear warhead atop a missile. North Korea can employ a less sophisticated nuclear delivery means to attack the South.    The most threatening assets of the North Korean arsenal include 6–8 plutonium bombs each with a yield of up to 40 kilotons, and an array of short- and mid-range missiles as well as long-range ballistic missiles, including Taepodong 2 and untested KN08 mobile intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of targeting the South, Japan, Guam and some parts of the United States. North Korea has threatened to conduct a fourth nuclear test in “a new form,” which, if carried ou

Apr 13, 2014By Tong Kim
Tong Kim

Meaning of Dresden Declaration

By Tong Kim In Dresden last week, President Park Geun-hye offered North Korea a multitude of comprehensive and specific proposals to prepare for Korean unification in three major areas of humanitarianism, co-prosperity, and integration between the people of the two Koreas. Although most of the proposed projects and ideas of what the Korean press refers to as the “Dresden Declaration” may not be ingenious or bold, the declaration certainly confirms that President Park is pursuing a possible unification process by peaceful means, not by force or by way of North Korean collapse. Her comparison of unification to a “jackpot” has successfully rekindled the people’s interest in unification.  But, a jackpot is only an empty dream until you hit it. In other words, there is no real bonanza, until unification is achieved.   The jackpot effect of unification is enticing. But, as former American President George W. Bush said in Seoul earlier this month, you cannot bring about unification without involving the other party.  Peaceful

Mar 30, 2014By Tong Kim
Tong Kim

Merger of opposition forces

By Tong Kim As the state of North Korean affairs appears calm, compared to this time last year, the major political parties ― Saenuri and Democratic ― are moving into high gear toward the upcoming local elections slated for June 4 that will choose mayors, governors and council members for all levels of administrative autonomies ationwide.This year’s local elections would not be a referendum to judge the performance of the Park Geun-hye administration, given the comfortable level of public support it currently enjoys as reflected in various polls.   However, if Saenuri exaggerates the significance of the local elections and lose, it could precipitate an early lame-duck syndrome to the Park administration. The mayoral election for Seoul is already attracting a great deal of interest from political observers. The stature of a Seoul mayor stands only next to that of the presidency, and it could add an automatic advantage to candidacy for the next presidential election. Incumbent Mayor Park Won-soon was elected basically as a Democrat, and he is unchallenged

Mar 16, 2014By Tong Kim
Tong Kim

No paradise on earth

By Tong Kim Last week in Seoul, a mother and her two grown daughters took their lives in a small rented room, giving up their hard struggle to eke out a bare living.  They left a note to their landlady, “Ma’am, we are sorry.” With that note, they also left an envelop that contained about $700 for rent and utilities for their next monthly payment. South Korea is already doing very well economically compared to most of the other countries of the world, ranking the 12th -16th largest economy by GDP with $20,000 per capita. South Korea also has a welfare program that helps the disadvantaged people but needs to expand to develop a healthier social safety net against widening economic and social polarization, a price for the way wealth is distributed in a market economy.  The tragedy of the three self-reliant women, who did not even ask for government assistance, shocked the nation, as it was only a few days after President Park’s announcement of an ambitious three-year economic reform plan.  The plan is intended to normalize “abnormal

Mar 2, 2014By Tong Kim
Tong Kim

Positive progress on peninsula

By Tong Kim Hundreds of separated family members from both sides of the Korean Peninsula will meet at the snow-covered Mt. Geumgang as scheduled Feb. 20-25, thanks to the final agreement in a high-level inter-Korean contact Friday. This is a big breakthrough to the long deadlock of inter-Korean dialogue.The North’s decision to delink the military exercises from the family reunion was not a surprise as Pyongyang seemed to have a pragmatic interest in making progress in dialogue for future gains. Pyongyang could not afford to keep breaking its promises at the last minute as it did last September.The two sides also agreed to end mutual slander and vituperation and to meet again to discuss the other pending issues of interest to each side. Whatever the motive or the strategy each side may have had in mind to engage each other in the first vice ministerial level contact in seven years, the outcome of their talks should be hailed as a good re-start to improvement of inter-Korean relations.In addition to the agreement on three areas ― reunion of the families, suspension

Feb 16, 2014By Tong Kim
Tong Kim

Stuck with ineffective policy

By Tong Kim Families who were separated during the Korean War are waiting anxiously to hear a positive response from Pyongyang to Seoul’s proposal to hold their reunion meetings Feb. 17-22 at Mount Geumgang.Both sides agree on the issue and therefore it ought to be treated as a humanitarian matter. Yet, it remains linked to other complicated issues.Pyongyang’s decision on this issue will probably set the tone for inter-Korean relations and security development on the Korean peninsula for the rest of the year.Recently, the North Korean regime has been sending some positive signals to Seoul for suspending mutual slander and improving relations. Seoul believes the North is engaged in what might be termed “a disguised peace offensive.” It does not matter which side launches a peace initiative, as long as it is genuinely intended to contribute to serious dialogue and it is not just a tool for political propaganda.Since North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s New Year’s message and the “National Defense Commission’s important proposal of

Feb 2, 2014By Tong Kim
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