Open Post #3

(Note: Today's post might be all over the place as I'm trying to collect my thoughts in the midst of my neighbor's weekly Thursday night ragers - a.k.a beer pong, incessant screaming, yelling, top 40 blasting, and drunken laughter until 4 a.m. Can't you tell I'm already annoyed?)

Upon finding two shoe boxes full of photos and letters buried deep in my closet, I had quite a fun evening plunging into old memories. Well, not that old, considering I only graduated high school less than three years ago. But looking back on all the things that I have accomplished since then, I definitely feel like I have grown a lot in college.

My perceptions of North Korea have also changed, now that I come to think about it. As one of the heads of International Students Association, I was always seeking for ways to update our school community on what's happening on the other side of the globe. Having gone to an all-girls boarding school full of WASP-y country club goers and Ivy League graduates as parents, I was bound to encounter problems truly communicating with our student body on such matters, of course.

Every Monday, we had this one-hour period called "X Block" during which the entire school gathered in the auditorium for a special presentation, ranging from our school band Reckless Collision's performances to alumni lectures. Being a prestigious private school and all, everyone was set on going to one of the top colleges and naturally, obsessed with community service. There were probably at least twenty email blasts about some kind of a drive - clothing, canned food, children's toys, etc. - benefiting all kinds of charity, often local but occasionally international. After seeing with my own eyes how successful our "Save Darfur" movement turned out to be, I wanted to do an X Block presentation on North Korean issues.

The first step I took was to schedule a conference with my East Asian teacher, Mr. Neumann. Although strict in grading and rigid in class rules, he came second to no one when discussing anything East Asia - politics, culture, latest TV shows, you name it. "I wanna tell the girls about North Korea and raise money to help the refugees," I remember my naive, seventeen-year-old self declaring in his classroom. After what seemed like a huge chunk of infinite silence, Mr. Neumann finally faced me and said, "Well, you gotta take baby steps. You have to first make them be aware of the big picture and then slowly guide them toward the humanitarian issues. The situation is a lot more complicated than you think."

I walked out of the classroom disappointed. I expected a little more enthusiasm, but it seemed like I was either on my own to make it happen or go with his directions of "taking it slow." Slow? How slow? I was graduating in two months; I did not have the patience. Later that day as I walked into my usual 2 p.m. East Asian Studies class, Mr. Neumann handed me a huge stack of articles, telling me to read it to "understand the big picture first."

Of course I never finished reading it - nor did the presentation ever happen. It's probably not the best excuse, but being a second-semester senior in the Boston private school circle meant driving up to Providence for Brown's "sophisticated college parties," shopping for multiple prom dresses, tanning on a yacht while drifting down Charles River and sneaking into Braeburn Country Club's outdoor pool. Between senior projects and insanely packed social calendar, I found no motivation to sit down and read article after article about the Korean War and Kim Jung Il. Mr. Neumann, if you're reading this right now, I'm so sorry - but I can guarantee you that I through with my crazy days and now have a whole blog dedicated to North Korean issues, so I hope you'll forgive me.

Funny how things turn out... While I was researching for my last paper, I ran into the exact same article he handed to me two and a half years ago. I can't remember what it was called, but it contained a very deep insight on the relationship between South Korean and North Korean soldiers along the border. If I had read those back then and really understood the things that I know now, I might have made a difference earlier than expected.

I forget where I was going with this post (thanks, ridiculously wasted girl 1 and girl 2 outside my window having a "whose voice is louder" competition), but I guess the moral of the story is never miss your opportunity to study what you're passionate about for the moment's fun - you never know what you'll get out of it.

Open Post #1

Family Guy, Simpsons, South Park, Team America - it seems like Kim Jong Il has gone from a shadowy villain of a far, faraway land to an official joke of the nation. In the past five years, Kim Jong Il's nuclear program has earned him countless headlines in major newspapers, instantly upgrading his status to a nationally recognized figure with funny glasses and funny costume. Take a look at this clip from Team America, for instance. With a Chinese accent and vicious habit of wiping out anyone who comes in his way, Kim Jong Il acts as the ultimate villain in this modern political satire.
Perhaps it is Kim Jong Il's open hatred towards America and his public determination to crush the number one nation that is causing Americans to simply laugh at his absurdity. His ridiculous appearance and solemn expression serve as the perfect target for Americans' elitist sense of humor. "And this little Asian dude is threatening to take all of our lives? I don't think so," the public seems to think. In the midst of recession, America is at the height of its internal turmoil. Maybe it only makes sense that they choose to belittle the North Korea issue since they are so much more occupied with their own problems. President Obama might be meeting with President Lee of South Korea regularly to discuss eliminating Kim Jong Il's nuclear weapons, but lack of public interest in the matter isn't really moving the process forward. America has an excellent ability to assemble and make a difference, unlike other relatively small nations with not much political power in a gloal scale. Why not use that power to put a stop to Kim Jong Il's crazy wrongdoings, instead of simply poking fun at his chubby cheeks?

Paper 2

Introduction:

March 26, 2010. I woke up to three missed calls and five text messages. “Have you called your parents yet?” My roommate asked me. When I slowly shook my confused head and blankly stared back at her, she said, “South Korea has been bombed. It’s all over the internet.”

Indeed, photos of bombed island and evacuating people filled my computer screen as soon as I accessed a national news website. I called my mom to make sure they weren’t affected, and she assured me that everyone was fine. Relieved yet still a bit shaken, I felt like I received a very rude wake-up call that told us the Korean peninsula is still in the middle of a war.

Background and Significance:

It has been a few years since Kim Jong Il announced his plan to develop nuclear missiles, but thankfully, we haven’t seen any chunks of a continent chipping off and being wiped out by this threatening technology. We as South Koreans, however, are constantly facing such threat every second, especially when military outbreaks like the one mentioned above fly at us and hit us in the face without any warning. It has been the same way since the 1990s – attempted terror of a South Korean airplane, countless bombs buried and ticking away along the border, continuous invasion of their spies – and no one can predict when the Korean War will resume. As the frequency of such events is rapidly increasing as Kim Jong Il nears his death, however, many experts predict that a war might be more imminent than we thought.

            North Korea’s military actions such as the bombing and open firing can be analogous to a temper tantrum of a younger sibling. Whenever Kim Jong Il doesn’t get something he wants, or when something doesn’t go the way he had planned, he throws bullets at us and kicks spies and submarines toward our shores. Then who plays the role of a parent? The South Korean government, of course. Just as a parent would try different methods to discipline (or simply to pacify the house in some cases) his troublesome child, past presidents of South Korea have employed various strategies to stop Kim Jong Il’s crazy tantrums. Their actions can be largely divided into two categories: the “sunshine policy” and the “cold shoulders strategy.” While the presidents strongly leaning towards the left favored the former, others, including the current president, decided to discipline our neighboring nation by depriving them of what they rely on us for: food aid. It is a widely known fact that tons and tons of food and money we send to help out North Korean citizens all go into feeding Kim Jong Il’s ever-growing army, so basically we are feeding those who could potentially point their guns at us – or their nuclear weapons, in this case – any moment.

Statement of Purpose:

            In this paper, I am willing to set aside my strong political preference in order to objectively analyze what experts have said about both strategies and their effectiveness, what they indicate about Kim Jong Il’s personality and how such information can be used to predict the future of the peninsula.

Review of Research:

            Political experts have extensively analyzed pros and cons of the sunshine policy over the past two decades. President Kim Dae-Jung was the initiator of the sunshine policy, eventually earning a Nobel Peace Prize for his strong outreach to North Korea. While the rest of the world sees him as a hero who was able to successfully warm up to Kim Jong Il, there has been a certain degree of controversy regarding his presidency and especially the legitimacy of said Nobel Prize. Donald Kirk, a journalist and correspondent who has covered major events in Korea from Park Jung Hee’s assassination to every presidential elections following, offers an in-depth analysis of this controversy in his book “Korea Betrayed: Kim Dae Jung and Sunshine.” His keen political eyes sharpened over the past forty years in the midst of internal turmoil in Korea have enabled him to catch the hidden corruptions leading up to the award, claiming that the money used to “buy the Nobel Prize” is what ultimately strengthened Kim Jong Il to create his nuclear weapons.

            Succeeding President Kim Dae-Jung was President Roh Moo-Hyun, now deceased but still a controversial figure highly revered by left-wing political activists but frowned upon by right-wing conservatives for his hidden corruptions and motives. Although it was during his presidency that North Korea announced the launch of their nuclear project, President Roh continued to pacify the matters between the two Koreas by continuing the sunshine policy, as portrayed in this article in Asia News. He also spent large sums of government money on pleasing Kim Jong Il, thus the reason North Korea has displayed a favorable attitude during these two presidents’ rules. Thanks to them, Kim Jong Il agreed to a number of reunification projects including the meeting of separated families from the Korean War and the Summit talks, experts say.

            When Lee Myung Bak stepped up as the first right-wing president in a decade, however, South Korea’s North Korea relations took a dramatic turn. The ex-mayor of Seoul not only cut the government spending on North Korea by a significant amount but also openly declared an end to the sunshine policy, as this article from InternationalBusiness Times states. His new vision of international relations is well detailed in a book called “TheKee Myung-bak Government’s North Korea Policy: A Study on Its Historical andTheoretical Foundation” and a Daily NK article titled “Analysis of Lee MyungBak’s policy toward North Korea.” Both of these sources are excellent in examining what aspects of the sunshine policy were affected by President Lee’s decision and how the rest of the world reacted. Of course, the North Korean government was enraged. They held public rallies to denounce the presidency of Lee, as we can see here in a NK News article, and the frequency of North Korea attacks took a sharp increase. It is also around this time that rumors about North Korea going broke started to surface in the international community. Kim Jong Il took multiple trips to China to ask for food aid, to which China responded with a generous helping hand. With all ties severed from South Korea and its rally America, however, we can’t predict whether Kim Jong Il will finally collapse and come to agreeable terms with the world or throw a final blowout with his beloved nuclear technology.

            Foreignpolicy.com had an interesting article on the sunshine policy between the United States and its allies. Although the author doesn’t make direct references to North Korea, his insights on another instance of sunshine policy helped shed light onto the understanding of Kim Dae Jung’s policy. America’s attempt at sunshine policy also had its pros and cons, just as President Kim’s did. The result of America’s policy discussed in this article can also be used to predict North Korea’s next move.

Questions and Expectations:

            What was North Korea’s relationship with the past three presidents of South Korea? How did this relationship affect the way North Korea acted in respective time periods? What will be North Korea’s next move if anti-sunshine policy continues? Ultimately, what is the expected method of reunification, a violent war or a pacified talk? Considering that Kim Jong Il’s relationship with the liberal presidents to the conservative president went from favorable to hateful, it is expected that his government will throw more “temper tantrums” as he grows more desperate for aid he no longer receives from South Korea. In regards to what his next move will be, no one can tell for sure but it seems to be leading towards the violent side judging from how frequent military outbreaks have been in the past few months.

Methodology:

I will be primarily drawing from newspaper articles for information and editorials since 1995 for experts’ analysis. Lastly, survey results will be used to examine the public’s attitudes toward the two policies and what they deem more effective. If situation allows, I would like to speak to Professor David Kang at USC, a North Korea specialist, who has provided me with insights and knowledge on North Korean issues during my post at Liberty in North Korea.