November 8, 2006

If the American public isn't well informed about Korea, the American press is partly to blame. "Coverage of Korea has [traditionally] intensified during crises," like the Korean War, the Kwangju Uprising and the IMF Crisis, says Donald Kirk, longtime Asia correspondent for the International Herald Tribune, Asian Wall Street Journal and South China Morning Post, as well as editor of a new collection of journalism on Korea: Korea Witness: 135 Years of War, Crisis and News in the Land of the Morning Calm. But after the crises abate, Kirk says, so does the media's interest in Korea.

This pattern of alternating excitement and disinterest isn't new. In 1871, photographer Felice Beato became the first American journalist to visit Korea when he rushed to cover the Kanghwa Island conflict, but Beato left shortly after the shooting stopped. News of Korea's anti-Japanese rebellion in March of 1919 reached the outside world only because an American businessman happened to be in the country and filed a report for the Associated Press.

Western journalists who wanted to continue covering Korea after the frenzy of press activity during the Korean War faced opposition from the country's military government. For much of his rule, Park Chung-hee prevented foreign news organizations from setting up bureaus in Seoul. Prior to the late 1970s, when the Wall Street Journal became the first paper to establish a permanent presence in the country, most of what reached the West about Korea came from a small set of Korean correspondents.

Korea became friendlier to press during the 1980s, though the government still regulated access to sources and mandated that official "minders" be present at interviews. By the early 1990s, however, the information control regimen had fallen away entirely.

This openness hasn't done much to change the "crisis coverage" mentality of most American news organizations. The pattern continues to the present. Just weeks ago, the American media was buzzing with stories about North Korea's nuclear test. Now, even with North Korea's return to the Six-Party Talks tenuous, coverage has dropped off precipitously. Meanwhile, major stories in Korea-such as the progress of the ongoing U.S.-ROK free trade talks-go entirely unreported in major papers.

Unfortunately, Kirk feels, there probably isn't much that can change this pattern, at least in the near term.

October 25, 2006

When Jimmy Carter went to Pyongyang in the summer of 1994 on an unofficial, last-ditch mission to negotiate a solution to the nuclear impasse that was threatening to engulf the Korean peninsula in war, Marion Creekmore went along as a top aide. Speaking about his recently published book on Carter's trip-A Moment of Crisis: Jimmy Carter, the Power of a Peacemaker and North Korea's Nuclear Ambitions-Creekmore, now a distinguished visiting professor of history and political science at Emory University, related the lessons Carter's surprising diplomatic success might have for leaders still trying to curb a nuclear DPRK.

In mid-1994, the DPRK was poised to eject international monitors from the country and begin reprocessing plutonium, the U.S. was preparing to strike the North's nuclear facilities and neither side was talking to the other. Carter had a standing invitation to visit North Korea, and decided that even if there was only a slim chance of avoiding war, he should use his invitation to start a dialog with North Korea's leadership. The Clinton administration was not enthusiastic about Carter's mission, but acquiesced after insisting that he conduct his trip as a private citizen and make no promises to the North.

Carter's meeting with North Korean leader Kim Il Sung proved to be a breakthrough, with the two establishing a warm rapport. The former president told Kim that the U.S. would likely accept a deal that committed the North to a verifiable nuclear freeze in exchange for U.S. economic assistance and talks on normalizing diplomatic ties. Kim agreed in principle to the proposal.

Creekmore said the underpinnings of Carter's negotiating success were his twin convictions that a solution required the U.S. to provide the DPRK with incentives to suspend its nuclear activities, and that he personally needed to show respect for his North Korean interlocutors.        

In the following days, North Korean officials attempted to backtrack on the agreement and the Clinton administration grew furious that Carter had announced the deal without first consulting them. However, the agreement held, serving as a blueprint for the subsequent Agreed Framework.

The situation today is very different than in 1994. The North Koreans have tested a nuclear weapon, and the Bush administration's approach to North Korea is very different from its predecessor's.  Still, asked whether the U.S. should pursue the sort of high-level, bilateral negotiations with the DPRK that led to Carter's breakthrough, Creekmore said "I'm not sure it'll work, but we should try."

October 3, 2006

With crisp, black and white digital photos projected onto a screen behind her, Pohl outlined the swelling refugee flow to the South. From 1959 to 1991, only 600 North Koreans successfully fled to the South. Spurred by worsening economic conditions in the 1990s, over 1800 were arriving each year by 2004. At least 70-percent of the refugees are women.

Pohl, who began her project in a community of North Korean refugees in Seoul in 2005, and continued shooting through 2006, focused on two illustrative subjects. The first was Kyong Hee, a 54-year old woman who fled into China five years ago, and only continued to the South because of pressure from Chinese authorities. Spare images of full rooms that seem somehow empty, and of Kyong Hee poised to perform a traditional Korean dance, an awkward arm's length from her peers, communicated a penetrating feeling of roped-off pain.

Recounting their friendship, Pohl said that Kyong Hee was often lonely and uncommunicative. She spent most of her days sitting around her government-provided apartment. Her daughter, 21-year old Mee Young, was adjusting well to South Korea, working part-time and dating a South Korean. Kyong Hee was not. She did not see the point in working. Like many refugees, she had assumed that the benefits of middle-class South Korean life would come to her automatically, and so disdained menial labor. She did not have any South Korean friends (none of the refugees did, and few South Koreans were interested in reaching out). And she felt her daughter was slipping away into an alien culture.

Continuing to a hopeful counterpoint, Pohl introduced photos of Mee Heh, a 43-year old North Korean woman who arrived in the South in 2002. Pohl said that though the South Korean government encouraged idleness by providing refugees with large cash grants but little in the way of job training, Mee Heh had begun working to provide for her two young children. Appearing buoyant and social even in pensive profiles, Mee Heh joined a church, connected with other refugees, and dedicated herself to raising the money needed to bring the rest of her family from the North.

Though many refugees aren't prepared for the realities of life in South Korea, Pohl ended with an anecdote that illustrated how completely the refugees can change. Pohl remembered noticing a prayer written by Douglas McArthur stuck to Mee Heh's refrigerator. She asked Mee Heh if she knew who McArthur was. She did. "In North Korea, we learned that he was very bad," she said. "But now, I think he was very good."

September 25, 2006

On multilateralism, Ban began his remarks by noting that while the Asia-Pacific region was on the rise in terms of political and economic influence, the region's security situation is far less developed. With different cultures, different assessments of the past and different political systems, Asian nations are wary of one another and don't share a sense of common purpose. Regional cooperation needs to be increased and institutionalized. Progress has been made, Ban pointed out, as regional forums, like ASEAN+3, APEC and the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), grow in relevance. However, more action-oriented bodies are needed to assure peace and security. With this imperative, Asians should learn from Europe's post-war experience of committing itself to multinational governance through the EU and the OSCE. The prospects for an "Asian EU" are generally dismissed as overreaching and dreamy-eyed by critics, but Ban believes that significant progress can be made towards such a goal with the leadership of the U.S.

On the diplomatic impasse over North Korea's nuclear program, Ban highlighted the progress that the Six-Party Talks had made, culminating in the September 2005 joint statement, before the talks broke down. The DPRK's missile test this July has further destabilized the diplomatic situation, and the U.S. and South Korea are working closely to coordinate their positions in response. The only viable solution, according to Ban, is for North Korea to return to the Six-Party Talks unconditionally.

Coming to the subject of the United Nations, and his much-discussed candidacy for secretary general, Ban said that the Republic of Korea had been a major beneficiary of UN action and was a strong supporter of the UN's mission. As secretary general, he added, his primary focus would be to reform and streamline the organization so it can better perform its mission.

"The global organization is overstretched and fatigued, and often criticized for not delivering on promises made," Ban said. "The organization needs to sharpen its tools and streamline its work...the next secretary general of the UN will have the chance to take the UN to a new era of effective multilateralism.  This, I believe, lies in greater focus on implementation and fulfillment of pledges already made, such as the [Millennium Development Goals], so as to strengthen states and the inter-state system against the new challenges of the 21st century."

Minister Ban's speech was followed by a question and answer session with the audience.