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.

Tuesday, February 8, 2005



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

with

Bradley Martin
Manship Chair in Journalism, Louisiana State University
Author, Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader: North Korea and the Kim Dynast

Bradley K. Martin received his bachelor’s degree in history from Princeton University and was a Peace Corps volunteer teacher in Thailand before beginning his news career on The Charlotte Observer. He has covered Asian developments since 1977, including stints as bureau chief for The Baltimore Sun, The Asian Wall Street Journal, Newsweek and Asia Times. He was co-founding managing editor of Asia Times Online (atimes.com), where he wrote the “Pyongyang Watch” column. He has made four reporting trips to North Korea, in 1979, 1989, 1992 and 2000. His new book, Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader: North Korea and the Kim Dynasty, was published in October by St. Martin’s Press/Thomas Dunne Books. He is also the author of Intruding on the Hermit: Glimpes of North Korea (East-West Center, 1993) and of “Yun Sang Won: The Knowledge in Those Eyes,” a chapter in The Kwangju Uprising: Eyewitness Press Accounts of Korea’s Tiananmen (M.E. Sharpe, 2000). He currently teaches at Louisiana States University, where he holds the Manship endowed chair in journalism.