Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader: North Korea and the Kim Dynasty

Bradley Martin, then Manship Chair in Journalism, Louisiana State University, was hoping to get some practice debating conservative skeptics when he arrived at The Korea Society to give a talk based on his recently published book, Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader: North Korea and the Kim Dynasty. But he didn't get it. Most everyone in the audience was convinced and reassured by his point: that the U.S. can finally resolve the North Korean nuclear impasse if it reaches out directly and respectfully to Kim Jong Il. Martin was stopping in New York before heading to Washington to speak to officials whose preferred course of action on all issues related to the DPRK is regime change. What they obstinately neglect, he said, is the fact that Kim can be reasoned with. Unlike his father, Kim Il Sung, who largely believed the hyperbole of his personality cult, Kim Jong Il is in touch with North Korea's realities. When important American and South Korean officials met with Kim in 2000 and 2002, thus affording him a measure of public respect, they were able to reach deals quickly thereafter. In contrast, lower level negotiations with North Koreans often grind on for years. Eventually, Bradley added, the issue that most grates on hard liners' nerves, North Korea's inadequate human rights record, could be negotiated with Kim. Getting North Korea to let down its guard, by convincingly demonstrating U.S. friendship, is the only prerequisite.