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The Korea Times

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Asia

The Korea Times

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Donald Kirk

Shocks of modern Korea

One of the axioms of modern Korean history is that the future is hard if not impossible to predict. We've had so many surprises since the division of the Korean Peninsula by U.S. and Soviet diplomats in 1945 and the North's invasion of the South nearly five years later that it would be impossible to list them all. Not all unforeseen happenings have been bad. Nobody after the Korean War ended in 1953 would have dared predict the rise of South Korea as a major industrial power. Nor would anyone have imagined at the height of the presidencies of Park Chung-hee and then Chun Doo-hwan from May 19...

2020-01-02 17:27

N. Korea's human rights

We've been hearing a great deal about North Korea's “gift” to the U.S. in the form of the test of a long-range missile or satellite launch as punishment for the failure to agree to sanctions relief. Considering all that's at stake, a “step-by-step” deal under which Kim Jong-un slowly surrenders his nuclear program while the U.S. and U.N. let up on sanctions might seem sensible. Why not, it's tempting to ask, deprive the North of a rationalization for making good on its threats?

2019-12-26 17:50

China's strategy for Korea

In the first annual “Transactions” published by the venerable Korea Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society in 1900, James S. Gale, one of the early missionaries here, wrote, “The more we read, the more we are forced to the conclusion that Korea was under a mesmeric spell at the hands of the Great Middle Kingdom.” In refutation, H,B. Hulbert, another notable missionary, author of a classic history of Korea, argued that “the points of similarity with the Chinese are the exception and that the survival of things purely native and indigenous are the rule.”

2019-12-19 18:18

Korean masterpiece

Unlike just about every Korean, I had not heard of “Parasite” when I walked into the E Street Cinema in Washington a few weeks ago with every intention of seeing another film also being shown. Then I heard a person asking for tickets to “Parasite” and learned it was a highly rated, popular Korean film. In fact, it was so popular that showings on two screens in the cineplex were sold out. I had to see it another night.

2019-12-12 17:30

N. Korea's New Year's deadline

By my rudimentary arithmetic - which is by no means infallible - as of Friday (Dec. 6), we're 25 days away from the end of the year. When the clock strikes midnight, Dec. 31, we'll pass the deadline set by the North Koreans for the U.S. to cave in to their demands and come to terms on a nuclear deal.

2019-12-05 17:25

ASEAN 'co-prosperity'

BUSAN - Rodrigo Duterte, the president of the Philippines, had his hands in his pockets and a bored expression on his rugged face as President Moon Jae-in extolled high-tech Korean manufacturers on the big day of his summit with the leaders of 10 Southeast Asian countries.

2019-11-28 17:46

Slashing U.S. forces

WASHINGTON - Here's a view I've been hearing around here about why President Donald Trump is demanding huge sums from both Japan and South Korea for the privilege of having U.S. bases and forces on their soil.

2019-11-21 17:53

America's political drama

WASHINGTON - Inside the Beltway surrounding the American capital, a single topic these days excites the elitists, politicians, lobbyists, bureaucrats, journalists and intellectuals who compete to run the country.

2019-11-14 17:16

Korea versus Japan

WASHINGTON - Koreans have innumerable reasons to resent Japan's sense of superiority and also every reason to get over it. Astonishingly, apologists for North Korea deride U.S. attempts at persuading South Korean and Japanese leaders to get along with each other. It's as though they really think South Korea and Japan should go to war - or at least avoid contact - while favoring North-South reconciliation on terms favorable to the North.

2019-11-07 17:24

Mount Geumgang evokes so many memories. The first time I went there, in April 1995, was with a group of Korean-Canadians who had gone to North Korea ostensibly to attend the Pyongyang International Sports and Culture Festival, featuring the Japanese wrestler Antonio Inoki and the American Ric Flair, two of the greatest of all-time. This group, which I had joined at the suggestion of a diplomat in North Korea's UN mission, had not gone there to watch the wrestling.

2019-10-31 16:57

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