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Tong Kim

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

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Tong Kim

The Seoul mayoral race

By Tong Kim No mayoral race for Seoul has drawn as much interest as the one scheduled for Oct. 26. This is because of its likely impact on the prospects of who might win in the next year’s big elections for the National Assembly and the presidency. The mayoral bi-election became necessary to fill the vacancy created by former mayor Oh Se-hoon’s resignation after an unsuccessful referendum on the issue of free lunch for school children. The referendum was virtually aborted as it failed to gain the minimum 33 percent participation of eligible voters, and the city by law could not even open the boxes to see who voted for or against the free lunch proposal. Until that fatal moment, former mayor Oh was considered as one of the potential presidential nominees for 2012 for the Grand National Party (GNP). Oh lost in an unnecessary political gamble he chose and which his party (GNP) opposed. Oh’s resort to direct democracy was motivated by an ill-conceived attempt to override the opposition of his city council dominated by the Democratic Party (DP). He failed to read the citiz

Oct 2, 2011By Tong Kim
Tong Kim

Conditions to six-party talks

By Tong Kim A second inter-Korean nuclear contact between South Korean nuclear envoy Wi Sung-lac and North Korean vice foreign minister Lee Young-ho is scheduled for this week in Beijing. If this meeting finds ways to meet the preconditions to resume the six-party talks as set by Washington, it would turn back the clock to Sept. 19, 2005, when the multilateral talks adopted a landmark joint statement, which is still unanimously supported by the six participants ― the two Koreas, the United States, China, Japan and Russia. Washington is known to have made it clear during the Bosworth-Kim Gye-kwan meeting at the end of last July in New York that Pyongyang should meet three conditions for the resumption of the six-party talks ― suspension of all nuclear activities, including uranium enrichment, a moratorium on missile tests, and improvement of inter-Korean relations. The U.S. demand for these pre-steps is understandable in terms of its basic position that Washington would not return to the nuclear talks unless Pyongyang shows its serious intent by action. It is also unders

Sep 18, 2011By Tong Kim
Tong Kim

Realism in N. Korea policy

By Tong Kim Domestic factors are one of the important sources of a state’s foreign policy according to Neoclassic Realism. Applied to South Korea's North Korea policy, the realist theory explains why the South has not been able to achieve the undisputed goal of improving relations with the North towards unification. Politically, South Korea is a full-fledged democracy, where diverse views flourish and the people vote largely based on their views. The South’s decision on North Korea cannot ignore its impact on domestic politics, while the people are still divided on approach, not the goal, between realist conservatism and progressive liberalism. In contrast, the authoritarian North Korean system is much freer from domestic pressure to make a decision regarding the South. Although the North has an internal process of decision-making, its leader Kim Jong-il makes the final decision for the people to follow. Somehow, this system is still working in the North. President Lee has nominated Ryu Woo-ik, former ambassador to China and Lee’s confidant, as new unification ministe

Sep 4, 2011By Tong Kim
Tong Kim

Fate of China-US relations

By Tong Kim American Vice President Joe Biden’s visit to China last week provided a glimpse of a critical juncture in Sino-American relations, which, if not properly handled, may unravel the international economic order put in place under U.S. stewardship that has worked well to benefit the world as a whole for the past half a century. Biden told his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, who is expected to succeed President Hu Jintao next year, “Fifty years from now, 100 years from now, historians and scholars will judge us based upon whether or not we’re able to establish a strong, permanent and friendly working relationship.” He also said a close relationship and cooperation between U.S. and China “is the key … to global economic stability.” In response, Xi emphasized that the two countries should “share even broader common interests and co-shoulder more common responsibilities” and an enhanced relationship “fits not only the interests of the two nations but that of the world.” From the beginning, the Obama administration chose to reach out to, rather than contain, a rising

Aug 21, 2011By Tong Kim
Tong Kim

US-North Korea talks

By Tong Kim Although the U.S.-North Korea talks of July 28-29 in New York produced no substantive agreement or new information regarding the North Korean nuclear issue, the talks signaled Washington’s policy shift from waiting to dialogue. This revival of bilateral talks is significant, as it is likely to contribute to preventing provocation and reducing tension on the Korean Peninsula, while talks or at least a mood of talks would continue. The format, nature and positive characterization of the New York talks by both sides, however, recall top U.S. North Korea policy official Stephen Bosworth’s visit to Pyongyang in December 2009, after which nothing positive happened. Both meetings were held between the same people (Bosworth and DPRK Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye-gwan), for the same duration (two days), on the same topic (denuclearization), in the same context of an “exploratory” meeting. And both meetings brought the same result of no agreement, but in different places (Pyongyang and New York), and with very similar upbeat descriptions of the talks. However, there

Aug 7, 2011By Tong Kim
Tong Kim

Resumption of nuclear talks

By Tong Kim The Friday meeting of July 22 between South Korean nuclear envoy Wi Sung-lak and his North Korean counterpart Ri Young-ho in Bali, Indonesia, followed by an unofficial foreign ministerial contact of the two sides the next day, is a welcome development for the prospect of resuming the six-party talks aiming at the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. DPRK Vice Foreign Minister Ri told the press, ``I met with the South side’s head of delegation as a part of our effort to resume the six-party talks as soon possible and to implement the Sept. 19 Joint Statement.” There are clear traces of the joint collaboration between the United States and China that led to the holding of the inter-Korean meeting on denuclearization. Both China and the United States, despite their disagreements in other areas, share the same interest to prevent provocations and to maintain stability on the peninsula. They seem to have successfully cajoled their respective allies toward the resumption of the multilateral nuclear talks, which have been suspended since December 2008. The inte

Jul 25, 2011By Tong Kim
Tong Kim

Washington pushes Seoul

By Tong Kim After a long period of waiting and inaction, the United States is finally showing some dissatisfaction with the lack of progress in inter-Korean dialogue. Washington had set improvement of North-South relations as a precondition to the resumption of the six-party talks. At its inception, the Obama administration determined that it would not move forward on the North without concurrence of South Korea. That made sense then. However, two and a half years of the Obama administration and three and a half years of the Lee Myung-bak government has been a stalemate in the dismantlement of the North Korean nuclear program. This does not mean that there has been no diplomatic activity. In fact, there have been a significant number of policy coordination trips by senior diplomats between Washington and the capitals of the participating nations in the nuclear talks. These trips included the first trip to Pyongyang by U.S. Representative for North Korea Policy Stephen Bosworth in December 2009 and a recent trip by Special Envoy for North Korean Human Rights Issues Coordi

Jul 10, 2011By Tong Kim
Tong Kim

North Korea policy

By Tong Kim For all the debates and discussions during the last three years and a half since the start of the Lee Myung-bak government, it is still not clear how the President is trying to approach North Korea. As a lame duck syndrome creeps in, as the pressure of domestic problems mounts, and given the intransigent ``principled” position of his policy, he might end up finishing his term without making any progress on the vital issues of denuclearization, forging a peace settlement and ultimately unification. A year and a half left in office, any president would think of his legacy in terms of accomplishments. History illustrates the difficulty of a president to embark on a major program or to make a fundamental policy shift towards the end of his term, especially when the country is swept in domestic politics. The governing Grand National Party (GNP) has already started showing policy differences ― for example on corporate tax reduction and college tuition cuts ― from the government, even acting independently of the President. The GNP will elect its new leadership in

Jun 20, 2011By Tong Kim
Tong Kim

Truth of secret contacts

By Tong Kim Regarding the Beijing secret contacts between the North and the South that took place since May 9 this year, both sides are claiming different versions of what had transpired in those talks. This latest episode of controversy involves two factual questions. Did the South ``beg” for a summit? Did it try to bribe the North side with cash for it? Then there is a broader question of its impact on the prospects of inter-Korean relations. The North Korean disclosure of this incident on June 1 seems to have ended the North’s interest in dealing with the government of President Lee Myung-bak, who still has one and a half years in office. The breakdown of talks also creates a serious obstacle to the resumption of the six-party talks. South Korea worked hard to win the support of the United States and China for its initiative in ``a three-stage formula” to revive the six-party talks. In the first stage, inter-Korean talks would be held, followed by the second stage of U.S.-North Korea talks in advance of reconvening the six-party talks. The reasons behind the North’s abr

Jun 12, 2011By Tong Kim
Tong Kim

Pyongyangs dependency on Beijing

By Tong Kim In the wake of the completion of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il’s latest visit to China, the punditocracy is still struggling to determine what to make of it. Whether Kim will be more inclined to or be able to undertake economic reforms as pushed by China is a secondary issue to the definitive development of Pyongyang’s deepening dependency on Beijing, an unfortunate outcome of failed U.S. and South Korean policy. In his summit with Chinese President Hu Jintao, Chairman Kim made three points. First the North is ``focusing its efforts on economic construction, for which a very stable surrounding environment is required.” Second it is “still upholding the goal of denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula” and calling for an early resumption of the six-party talks and third, the North ``has made sincere efforts to improve relations with the South.” However, the ``sincerity” of his statements is still questioned by Seoul and Washington, which heard similar statements before. From Kim’s seventh China visit, it is possible to draw a set of plausible assumptions. First th

May 29, 2011By Tong Kim
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