Is it just me, or is the Herald getting worse by the day? This is from their last editorial (”On six-way talks in Beijing“):
Yet watching the conference setting, the average Korean feels bitter. Among the imperial powers that encroached on Korea some 100 years back, only Europe is absent from the conference. In the 21st century, our neighbors’ goals should be unselfish. However, they have such divergent, complex stances on how to settle the crisis.
Since the two Koreas initiated political contacts in the early 1970s, they have often pledged to solve their problems without foreign interference. The first such pronouncement was made on July 4, 1972 and the latest one on June 15, 2000 during the inter-Korean summit. Now the four powers have stepped on the stage to tackle the Korean question.
And why have the four powers stepped on the stage? Because the Koreans dropped the ball, that’s why! Look, no matter how many times the national leaderships of both Koreas promise to “solve their problems without foreign interference,” in the end, it’s the very same national leaderships who invite the foreign powers to solve their problems for them. North Korea has steadfastly refused to talk with South Korea about the nuclear issue, and the South, for its part, has refused to threaten “Korean detente” by putting anything resembling pressure on the North. At times, it even appears that Seoul wants no part of negotiations at all. Given how badly both Korean governments have handled this problem, can either one be surprised when those nations whose interests are affected by Korean diplomatic screw ups decide to solve the problem “for” them.
This time North Korea seeks a guarantee for the regime’s security in addition to economic aid in exchange for giving up its nuclear armaments. The United States would normalize relations with the North and provide some form of assurance of security, but only after it dismantles its nuclear facilities and allows inspections.
Washington, having demonstrated its increased high-tech preemptive strike capability in Iraq, will use its military option as major leverage in the negotiations. Economic assistance will also be offered, probably indirectly, as a carrot.
With China and Russia being go-betweens and insisting that the U.S. not attack, and with Japan promising substantial aid in return for the North promising to resolve the years-old issue of the kidnapped Japanese, the six-party conference may bear fruit. But will this rosy outcome transpire?
Will this “rosy outcome” transpire? Probably not, for reasons I have elaborated on ad nauseum.
If South Koreans are not highly enthusiastic about the Beijing talks, it may be because of their historical memories and their more recent experiences in dealing with the North. But more fundamentally, it is due to their sense of being detached and powerless on an issue that directly impinges on their fate.
Look, South Koreans are “detached and powerless” because they have consistently failed to take on an “issue that directly impinges on their fate,” i.e. the North’s nuclear weapons program. I mean, Jesus, sometimes it seems like the Western press deals with this issue more than the Korean press. And look at the meaningless shit the politicians up in Seoul have been concerning themselves with - party reform, secret video tapes, judicial uprisings, everything BUT the nuclear crisis. Heck, Seoul seems more concerned with inter-Korean sports events and protecting Hyundai’s corrupt business deals with the North than it is with ending the North’s nuclear program. The South Koreans passed off responsibility for this problem onto the Americans, so I don’t want to hear bitching and moaning about “powerlessness” and “detachment,” OK?
The multilateral talks might explore the peace process, but ultimately the two Koreas must seek the solution. The South can and will provide whatever aid the North needs to build its economy. If the North most fears regime change, it must realize that the South least desires its collapse for many practical reasons. The Beijing dialogue will have greater significance if it helps the North realize this.
The only solution there is to this problem is when one side - the North - gracefully exists stage left. The longer the South continues to through good money down the North Korean drain, the longer this problem will last. Does the North need to build its economy? Yes. Can the current regime bring about sustainable economic growth? No, it can’t. But it can continue to drag along by extorting money from its neighbors, especially when it has neighbors as generous as South Korea.
PS: I’d have written something more thought-provoking, but I’m in a rush to go see “The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.” Anyway, sorry for the rush-job.
5 Comments
Another good (”mini”) Fisking, Marmot. It never ceases to astound me how obtuse the Korea Herald editorial writer is. It’s almost as if a special search engine is run over the editorial before publication that helps weed out all intellectual consistency and honesty and logic. I still hope that a concerted effort by bloggers can get Lee Kyung-hee expelled from her position. The Herald would be better off running NO EDITORIAL than to let her spin her twisted screeds.
May I kindly recommend you stop reading Korea Herald and Korea Times editorials?
I have always believed those two publications were part of some sort of conspiracy to keep the foreign community in the dark. The Herald in particular is out of touch with Korea in that it is written by people who’ve studied nothing but English all their lives. Despite the many lackings in their English, they still know more about the language than they know about Korea, and are not thinking of the Korean public when they write (they are writing only with those who read English in mind, people who with rare exception are outside the sphere of (Korean) public debate).
What if people like you and I, writing in Korean, were all that most Koreans read about America? It might be worth considering how well a Korean publication in the United States represents what Americans are thinking or what Americans are reading. Reacting to opinion pieces in that kind of publication would seem rather strange. Having once been an “honorary member” (officially, too!) of the Seoul Foreign Correspondents Club, I can tell you that foreign journalists steer away from the editorials and opinion pieces in the Herald and Times, sticking mostly to the hard facts (economic figures, etc) largely for the reasons I mention. I’m almost twenty years in Korea, and think I’ve read an editorial in one of those ???뱓ourist newsletters??? perhaps twice. Can’t even remember.
Anyway, since it seems you can read Korean at least to some degree, think of what insight your fine blog would provide for them foreigners by digging more into realms them foreigners can’t approach on their own. In the meantime, keep up the good work. Sorry for the long comment.
Actually, I used to have (albeit it briefly) a page dedicated to translations of Korean newspaper editorials (mostly from the Hankyoreh), but I found that just writing up translations took up so much time that it left me with little time left over to do anything else (and my fiance is pissed off at the amount of time I spend on this thing as it is). Occasionally, as you have seen, I do link to Korean-language material, but usually with the catveat “For those who read Korea…,” which I really hate to do because many (if not most) of my readers cannot, which thus deprives them of the source material.
Nevertheless, your suggestion is a good one, and I will try to add more Korean-language realm-seaking. However, for better or for worse (mostly the later), the Times and the Herald ARE the most widely read papers in the Korean expat community (and judging from other blogs, they appear to be read by many outside Korea with an interest in Korea, sadly enough), so I still think its worthwhile taking them to task.
Coincidentally, Mr. Schroepfer (or is that Dr. Schroepfer?), you being a much more accomplished Koreanist that I, I’d love to see you keep up that proto-blog of yours over at http://oranckay.net/. I know you must be busy and all, but it would provide not only the expat community here, but all those with an interest in Korea with much insight. Besides, being the soon-to-be husband of an ??짚????쨘?, I really like the name.
> The Herald [...] is written by people who’ve studied nothing but English all their lives.
I have to disagree. They might have graduated from an English Department, but A) As a Yonsei boy you should know that it’s not the same as studying — proofreaders are always overworked there — and B) ‘all their lives’ is very much an exageration. Four years of sitting idly in crowded classes would fit the bill better, I’d say. I don’t recall whether that nice guy, Choi whatever, who used to be my boss, and then moved on to be Editor in Chief (at least in title), is still there, but that fine Cholla gentleman didn’t speak a word of English. Heck, he didn’t even speak proper standard Korean…
As a fan of your Hankyoreh and OhMyNews translations, I can honestly say that it doesn’t bother me a bit if they take up a lot of your time.
So go ahead and do them. I’m open-minded like that.
I’ve heard rumors that the Hankey is gonna start translating its editorials, though….