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Tuesday, December 21, 2004
No Place Like Home Tomorrow I board a plane to Australia, after a three year absence from my home country. During my trip I may or may not feel like blogging. Let the summer of cricket begin! Also, I added a comment to reply to the comment in the last post but the counter stayed at one. In case the person who wrote the original comment hasn't figured this out.
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Sunday, December 12, 2004
Can Cremated Remains be Used for DNA Testing? This is a good question brought up in the comment to my last post. I don't have the answer but the potential difficulty of this task was discussed by the Japan Times. The Asahi also deals with this. I don't know if the Japanese are going to reveal how they were able to do the tests on the cremated remains. I would like to add though, that I'm inclined to believe the Japanese over the North Koreans, especially in light of the last attempt: The article also notes that the body was exhumed and then cremated. It seems dodgey to bury someone and then exhume it to have it cremated - especially since Koreans are traditionally not inclined to cremate bodies. Thursday, December 09, 2004
North Korea Tries to Diddle Japan The recent finding that North Korea sent Japan the remains of someone other than the Japanese abductee is one of those occasions that highlights just how unpredictable North Korea is. Firstly, no-one in the North Korean regime could possibly have been stupid enough to think they could get away with this stunt. Following that premise we have to try and fathom what they thought Japan would do once they discovered their chicanery. It would seem pretty obvious that the reaction would be negative, possibly to the point of inducing Japan to follow through with their threat of imposing sanctions. This would likely bring Japan and US in closer alignment and exacerbate tension. Moreover, it wouldn't serve to foster any sympathy from China or South Korea. It seems almost as if North Korea would have been better served by remaining belligerent and resisted requests to send remains rather than insult the Japanese by sending bogus dead body parts. Their actions here just don't seem to make much sense. (Or I'm missing a bigger picture.) Wednesday, December 08, 2004
Further to the Prevalence of Liberals in Universities The Economist joins debate on how lack of diversity among academics in universities is a bad thing. While the argument is fair I would re-postulate that the lack of diversity should be first addressed by finding out how and where the conservative academics are hiding. I would guess a few have taken residence at places like Heritage and the American Enterprise Institute but surely that is not the bulk of them. Next would be to look into the matter of discrimination against conservative professors and how (or if) this is affecting the diversity of opinions and quality of free expression in universities. Friday, December 03, 2004
Study reveals that smart people tend to be liberal I'm not usually a frequenter to Instapundit but I was aimlessly wandering in cyberspace and found myself visiting his page where I found this Boston Globe article, which struck me as highly deficient in making anything close to a reasonable argument about a subject which is quite important - left-wing dominance on campuses The survey, which seems to be objectively handled, shows that the predominant number of professors in common fields from University of Houston to UCLAUCLA are leftist leaning to greater or lesser degree. But from this information the article jumps to the conclusion that this means students are being "brainwashed" because professors "frequently comment of politics in class," which is not overly helpful. The first argument goes directly to the quote given by Ben Shapiro who made the "brainwashed" video (which my computer refused to bother downloading so I didn't see it) that liberalism in universities goes "under higher education's facade of objectivity." Much as I knew, private universities were not under any obligation to be objective. Their private, you don't like them, you don't go there. I might mention Bob Jones University, I also found Abilene Christian University. Plus a google check of "conservative university" revealed a high number of seemingly very organised conservative groups and a conservative national association of some kind. This would indicate that despite a prevalence of liberal professors campuses remain open to all kinds of political discourse and persuasions. But that aside, lets suppose you do expect universities to provide a more balanced view in educating students. The next question to ask might be, "if there are so many liberal professors WHERE are the right-wing ones?" Are they being discriminated against in employment opportunities? Is there a mass of unemployed conservative political science and liberal arts professors? Or, could it be that most people with half a brain are not conservative-leaning? (that is putting it in a provocative way but the question remains as to why are the majority of them liberals in the first place?) And then to the crux of the matter. So what? The questions that needed to be asked here are not whether professors talk about their political views in class but whether they prevent students from presenting their own views or whether or not students feel that professors mark them based on political orientation. If that were to be discovered, that would be a MAJOR problem. But just talking politics in a classroom doesn't make the prevalence of leftism "radical, aggressive, and deeply intolerant." that comment is unsubstantiated in the article and until such time as evidence is produced to back it up, it is unfair to make such an accusation. Thursday, December 02, 2004
World Bank in Asia
Wednesday, December 01, 2004
Join the Financial Hub of Asia! (Non-Koreans need not apply) The doyens of the Financial Supervisory Commission have apparently decided that to help Korea realise their long-held but poorly defined dream of becoming an "Asian Financial Hub" (notice the bit that says, "We need to... improve our infrastructure and brand image to attract more expatriates who are key in any regional financial hub.") they should control foreign bank directors. This would include welcoming moves such as, imposing residency requirements on foreign directors of domestic banks, and limiting the number of foreigners allowed on boards. The argument for this, In the context of how well Korean bank managers handled the financial system in the lead up the to 1997 Asian financial crisis makes this comment all the more laughable. The other arguments of anti-foreign sentiment along with the need for local knowledge are simply ruses. The real information is in the last line of the article: "This is seen as a move to ensure Woori Bank will remain in Korean hands when privatised next year." Being an "Asian Financial Hub" is apparently only acceptable if it is a "Korean Financial Hub" where the local regulatory environment is more important than the regional or global arena. Sunday, November 28, 2004
Review of Mr. Eberstadt's Article The Marmot drew attention to the Weekly Standard article "Tear Down This Tyranny" by AEI Scholar Nicholas Eberstadt. In typical hawkish style to be expected of the AEI and Mr. Eberstadt the article makes a case for dramatic changes in US policy toward the DPRK but is arguments are not quite compelling. The introduction notes that “after nearly four years in office, the curious fact remains that the Bush administration plainly lacks a strategy” for dealing with North Korea. Yet, it does not appear to be such a curious fact that the complexity of the situation, and danger of making a wrong move, including the outbreak of hostilities involving not only both Korea, but possibly China as well, has led the administration (arguably this one and the last one) at somewhat of a loss of how to bring about de-nuclearisation. More-so given the absence of trust and mutual respect felt between US and North Korea, and skepticism even among the supposed ‘allies’ of China and South Korea. It would be more curious to find an administration that developed a winning scenario that didn’t rely on mutual trust, would prompt the DPRK to abandon its weapons program and not strike out, and would lead to a situation in the balance of power acceptable to US, China, South Korea, North Korea, and Japan. Given such a tall order, it is hardly surprising that no policy yet has been devised that invokes enough confidence of success that it can be implemented fully. Mr. Eberstadt also describes the past 15 years of dealing with North Korea as miserable failure. Presumably this is premised on the fact that North Korea remains a belligerent enemy and has developed nuclear weapons. However, ‘miserable failure’ seems not to count the fact that despite the belligerence and forward deployment of troops, which have been staring at each other across the DMZ since the cease-fire, there has not been an outbreak of hot war on the peninsula, even with the increased tension and threat of the nuclear weapons. The absence of war in such circumstances should not be so easily discounted as being a ‘miserable failure.’ Moving on gives two precepts before outlining six considerations for devising a successful policy. Precept one makes the point that talking to, and bribing the DPRK is highly unlikely to lead to voluntary de-nuclearisation and that the best time to do this was "during the mid-90s when he nation was starving, and the regime’s survival looked very much in doubt.” Yet last I heard, DPRK was still a nation that was starving and the regime’s survival looked very much in doubt. Surely this implies that the likelihood of success from talking and bribing is as good now as it was then. Perhaps a better argument is that in the mid-90s, the DPRK had not yet developed the nukes whereas these days we estimate that they have at least a couple. It would possibly be harder to talk them out of nukes they already own as opposed to nukes they were still hoping to develop. The second precept is that the DPRK nuclear crisis is the North Korean government and with this I agree. The two are inextricable problems and as long as the existing political set up remains it seems that the nuclear problem will persist. Not only because Kim Jong-il seems unlikely to give up his nukes but because it seems likely that by doing so he would lose the legitimacy of his rule and his grip on power would decline in the face of such a cave in. The six points for successful implementation also warrant review as they often lack sufficient information or miss key details. The first point is that the previous team at the State Department are not up to the task. Whether one agrees of not, it seems that things are indeed about to change in the State Department and National Security Council. As is well known, Powell is out and Rice is in at the State Department. Meanwhile, at the National Security Council VictorCha is expected to join. This should appease Mr. Eberstadt as Mr. Cha is a little hawkish himself and certainly qualifies as someone who understands the threat. The second point is to define “success” and “failure” for the negotiations. This may sound like a good idea but caution should be advised before deciding to do this. Firstly, it is not helpful to define success and failure without having some idea of what you will do in the event of failure. Especially in dealing with DPRK where failure seems quite likely and any empty threats will lead to lose of credibility not only with DPRK, but also with other nations. This would not be a good precedent to set. Second, would be the issue of defining success, especially when, as noted, Mr. Eberstadt does not recognize the “absence of war” as a success. Setting “success” too high so that negotiations only result in neither success nor failure would not help progress. Third point deals with China’s role in the negotiations. China, he argues should think more clearly about its own interests and stop its unprincipled ambiguity. China’s hedging has led it to vacillate between being help and hindrance because it is trying to hedge its bets. Yet, that would appear to demonstrate a keen understanding by China of its own interest. China undoubtedly favours a de-nuked DPRK but possibly not at the expense of an increased threat of US presence near its border. Its interests and how it acts depend heavily on how the situation is going to turn out and it would be arguably unrealistic to expect China to act any differently. The US and South Korea and Japan for that matter are all jostling and hesitating according to their own interests and trying to hedge as much as possible. Expecting China to get fully on board without giving them good reason to do so would lead to unrealistic policy, not a successful one. As already mentioned by Marmot in his review of the article, point four, which suggests going on the South Korean administration’s head to talk directly to the people fails to grasp the domestic political situation. Fifth point is to man the torpedoes and prepare to use non-diplomatic instruments for threat reduction. The argument being that increasing the threat on force may paradoxically lead to a reduction in the need to use it. In cases where the country being threatened has a face-saving way out and, more importantly, threatening force is done in an environment where an outbreak of hostilities can conceivably be contained to a small war, this may have some merit. In the case of North Korea, with its ability to strike the megalopolis of Seoul, in view of the possible reaction of China, Japan, and even Russia, this is not a good idea. As noted earlier, any use of threat must carry sufficient credibility and threatening force in North Korea is not likely to lead to any reduction in tension on the part of any party involved. A little off-topic but somewhat relevant is the idea expoused by Joseph Nye about the decline of American soft power, which highlights that the more you use threat and abuse the trust of nations by provoking them, the more you lose the ability to cajole and use carrots in situations when you want to avoid force. The final point is the need to plan for a post-Kim Jong Il era on the peninsula (personally I don’t like to use ‘Communist’ to describe the DPRK system). This is an excellent point but fails to give merit to the work already done on this. Firstly, the difficulty with planning for a post-Kim Korea is that nobody knows the circumstances under which the regime will eventually fail. Each possible scenario naturally demands a different response. Second, much work is already being done in this field from by experts in the field,to work by the Korean government, especially the Ministry of Unification and MPB is also planning for unification costs. At Stanford I met some people working on studies that dealt with post-Kim DPRK issues from education to media. While a more cohesive approach to planning for this may be a good idea and the US certainly has a key role to play here, the importance of South Korea and its neighbours in planning for such an event should not be ignored if they don’t acquiesce to the resultant situation it may lead to new problems. Mr. Eberstadt rightly notes that although the Bush administration inherited the situation with DPRK it has now had four years to deal with and any failure in the future will be their own legacy. But in the absence of a viable plan, even after reading the article, it may not be the right moment to be optomistic about a forthcoming solution. Friday, November 19, 2004
Back in DC My whirlwind tour to Korea that involved far too much work is over. Information about the conference, Managing Fiscal Risks and Realigning the Sectoral Resource Allocation is now up on the KDI site. The information is in Korean but the files it links to are in English as the conference was in English to accommodate guests from Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam, and Mongolia. The main thrust of the schedule looked Korea's plans to introduce program budgeting as a means of improving management of fiscal risk and resource allocation decision-making, among other objectives. As Professor Allen Schick notes in his paper on the assessment of Korea's reforms, the sheer size and magnitude of reform plans in Korea is breathtaking. I think this is not surprising to many familiar with Korea. I got the chance to read an evaluation of Korea's plans for the World Expo 2010 which were noted politely as "very ambitious" (read: completely over the top). It seems that the success of economic development and speed with which it was accomplished has led Koreans to think that everything must also proceed with the same breakneck speed and is assured success merely by having the right 'can do' attitude. While it would certainly be good if Korea is successful in becoming better at managing and spending public money for the good of society, it seems to me, after attending the conference, that a slower pace would be more prudent. This is especially so given the emphasis on the need to change the institutional culture to match procedural reforms and my own impression that Korea's organisational culture with its rigid hierarchy and close link with wider social norms will be VERY difficult to change. For example, introducing a performance-based system and flat hierarchy in the old-school style work place that is Korea's public sector when such casual relations are not even common in a family structure will be a mammoth task. Not to mention hopes of establishing a culture of consensus building among the National Assembly, the President's Office and political parties! Thursday, November 11, 2004
Coming to Korea! I just got word that work is sending me to Korea. I arrive on Saturday and am staying until Thursday. Hooray! Wednesday, November 03, 2004
NNNNOOOOOOOO!!!! Kerry has conceded and we are faced with another four years of Bush. Another four years of Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, John Bolton, and the rest of the neo-conservative-leaning hawks who have led America and a posse of 'allies,' including Albania and other stalwarts of human rights and democracy such as Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Ethiopia to war against "terrorism" which apparently was manifested in Sadam Hussein in Iraq. And while the situation there continues, it seems that the money for rebuilding is only a fraction of what is needed or what was pledged, while even more money for the "war effort" is being sought by the Pentagon. And I expect that we've just got more of the same mis-placed judgement and poor spending priorites will persist over the next four years. SAY IT ISN'T SO! Cathartidae has got some commentary going on the election and I'm sure much of the (US)blogosphere is doing similar. Last night before I passed out from knocking off a bottle of cheap plonk things were looking alright for Kerry but this morning the news is not so positive. There was a small group of vocal protesters marching around Dupont Circle. I missed what the first main banner said (something about one day not having to fill out ballot forms) and another one informing me that "anarchy is possible." Although I am certain anarchy is possible, I remain unconvinced that it is desirable. A few hearty protests on the other hand are always a good thing, especially if Bush gets to stay in the Whitehouse. Tuesday, November 02, 2004
Seoul Essay Contest Winners Announced!! The results for this years Seoul Essay Contest have been announced! Hooray - I get a prize. This is a little surprising since I only decided last minute to keep up my tradition of entering every year, which meant that I didn't spend as much time on it as usual. Last year my essay was off topic and consequently got me nowhere so this year I stuck to the theme and this has paid off with a "bronze" placing. I'll link to the site that posts the all the essay when it gets put up. Saturday, October 30, 2004
National Assembly in Gridlock.....Again. The National Assembly was boycotted by the Grand National Party over comments made by Prime Minister Lee Hai-Chan against the GNP and the Chosun Ilbo and Dong-a Ilbo. According to the Joongang Ilbo, The conflict between Mr. Lee and the Grand Nationals began last week when Mr. Lee said during a European tour, "The whole world knows that the Grand National Party is bad." Mr. Lee refused to apologize, as the party requested, and stepped up his attacks. Yesterday, during a meeting with governing Uri Party lawmakers, Mr. Lee said, "The Grand National Party should offer an apology for its unwarranted attacks calling the Roh administration leftist."And apparently this is very bad because the PM is supposed to be non-partisan. The GNP has gone so far as to appeal to the National Election Committee because, "Prime Minister Lee's remarks were in breach of the political neutrality of the official responsible for the overall administration of the government, exposed a dangerous anti-liberal democracy view on the press, and caused a political catastrophe by attacking the opposition party for partisan interests," said Rep. Lim Tae-hee, speaking for the GNP at a press briefing. "The GNP won't join any National Assembly session until the issues surrounding Prime Minister Lee are addressed."The GNP has also stated that if Roh Moo-Hyun doesn't have him fired they will seek impeachment. You'd think the GNP would be wary of talk of impeachments after the damage it did them last time they tried to blow things way out of proportion. Of course the timing could not be much better as end of the year also means end of the fiscal year in Korea, making this the season for Annual Budget to be approved by the NA. Although I wasn't able to find/ask on information as whether this is currently being held up by the latest personal tiffs among political parties. (If I get an update on the status of the budget I'll update). US-Korea Relations John Feffer, author of North Korea, South Korea: US Policy at a Time of Crisis, and current fellow at Stanford's Korea Studies Program has written on Untangling the Knot: The Future of US-South Korea security Relations in which he addresses the differences in perception between US and South Korea in dealing with North Korea. Regarding South Korea's approach to North Korea, he notes that:
However, the continual delay of the defense White Paper due to a reluctance to name North Korea as the "main enemy" is a concern regarding which direction defense issues are going to take in the future. If South Korea starts to perceive the North Korea as less of a threat than Japan, whose posture in Iraq and defense capabilities are becoming more offensive, than the rise in military spending may not be pragmatic toward North Korea but more prepatory for shifts in the geo-political power in the region once US forces start to deploy. Tuesday, October 19, 2004
North Korea Human Rights Act The North Korea Human Rights Act has been passed into law. The bill earmarks US$24 million for the cause of NK Human Rights and deals with the issue making North Koreans eligible to receive asylum in US. Although, as noted, it is questionable about what kind of impact the law will have on the ground. I guess it will take a bit of time to determine what the impact, if any, will be. Sunday, October 10, 2004
Australian Election John Howard has won the election. Not only that, he won convincingly. The win also looks set to give JH control of the senate, which, as Senator Brown of the Green notes, is going to lead to a nastier Australia. More of the Sheriff to USA to come it would seem. Especially if, heaven forbid, Bush gets re-elected. Friday, October 08, 2004
Calgary, Canada I arrived in Calgary on Wednesday evening for a brief visa run. However, due to an unexpected delay in the documents it appears that I'll be staying a while longer in this rather cold, seemingly quiet town. This is my first time to Canada so I guess I'll try and make the most of it. At leas the public library internet is cheap and convenient so I might have more time for blogging. Friday, September 24, 2004
Quiz I noticed that It makes a difference to the sheep and Big hominid took a quiz to find their inner fantasy/sci-fi character. I did the quiz too:
Thursday, September 16, 2004
False Lies The video clip for False Lies by the group Exhausted was featured on Rage this week and it is totally cool.
Friday, September 10, 2004
Viva Las Vegas!! I'm currently wasting time in Las Vegas for a few days which, so far, is proving to be a huge amount of FUN. Friday, August 27, 2004
Gold for Australia in the Men's Hockey!
Kudos to the Aussie men's hockey team scoring their first Olympic gold! As a lifelong hockey player myself, I am always especially excited to see us do well in this sport. The women, who usually do better than their counterparts at the Olympics, however, did not fare as well this year. They came fifth. Australian Politics PM John Howard is coming under attack for both his handling on Australia's involvement in the Iraq War and for dubious handling of the children overboard scandal, which facilitated his latest electoral victory. By now the scandal and lies of the overboard incident seem to be well known, I think its time to move on. There are plenty of other reasons to dislike Johnny. For example, he and others within the Liberal Party's MPs have hired his son to send spam to their electorates. It amazes me that any politician thinks their own image is going to improve by sending people unsolicited trash to their email accounts. Korean Smokers The Constitutional Court has upheld the ruling that the smoking ban for public buildings IS constitutional. This ruling comes after some Korean twat protested the ruling with lame-arse arguments such as: cigarettes can be a good stress-reliever for smokers, and smoking is a matter of choice for individuals. He also claimed cigarettes play a positive role in the local economy, saying more than 30 percent of local authorities? budget originates in taxes imposed on cigarettes.Now these points about stress and helping the local economy may well be true. But the twat does not provide any logical basis for arguing that the smoking should occur INSIDE public buildings at the expense of other people's health. If you want to smoke to relieve stress or to do your bit for the economy, then do it outside. Moving On My time at Stanford is now over and its time to pack up and move on. Fortunately, during my AWESOME vacation I got a job offer starting late September in Washington DC. This is not only a dream job, its also a good chance to experience another side of the US (pun intended). In the meantime, I have been watching the Olympics, in which Australia is doing very well. And avoiding the drama of Korea's "stolen" medal, which is being well covered by fellow bloggers, particularly Jeff. I also took some time to make some minor aesthetic changes to my blog, mostly by grouping and adding some new link sections. This is a work in progress and I will add further links and perhaps delete a few sometime soon. Since I have a few weeks till work starts I am going to hang out in LA with a friend there and am not sure how convenient access to the internet will be so blogging may continue to be sparse. Sunday, July 18, 2004
The Main Enemy is North Korea The Korea Herald is running an editorial about the Ministry of National Defense and the problem of producing a white paper that would single out North Korea as the biggest danger to the country's security. Now it seems to me that the country with which you at war with (technically), with which you regularly clash with militarily, and the one which threatens to turn your capital city into a 'sea of fire' with disconcerting frequency would meet the criteria to be awared the title of -- enemy numero uno. The editorial offers some lackluster arguments as to why the MND is in a quandary on this issue: Compatriots they may be and reunions are certainly important but that is nothing to do with defense. If you consider economic partners as meaning an economic black-hole and potential sweatshop, which is what it has so far proven to be then that is okay. But economic partnership, too, is nothing to do with defense. Indeed the Ministry of Unification needs to work on the former, and businesses, the MoU again and other government and non-government bodies can work on issues of economic and cultural exchanges. But this is nothing to do with defense and the line should be clear. The idea of the Sunshine Policy initiated by Kim Dae Jung shows that defense and engagement can occur contemporaneously. The policy (now called something like the Peace and Co-prosperity Initiative) has three pillars: no absorption, zero military tolerance, AND active engagement. The important point here being that the policy specifically clarifies a difference between defense and engagement and sees both goals as equally important. As such, the MND should keep its mind on its primary duty and leave matters of engagement to those arms of government and society that are responsible for that side of matters. As the MoU should not interfere into military defense of the country so too the MND should not interfere in the matter of economic engagement and family reunions. If the MND is not going to face the reality of South Korea's military situation the White Paper wouldn't be worth the paper its written on. Australian Politics There is still speculation about when the election is going to be called but already campaigning and the like are underway. This new website got particular attention in the media and is worth a gander. I also read that one Margo Kingston has reportedly written a book called "Not Happy! John, which reportedly argues that PM John Howard is undermining Australian democracy. I haven't read it but one book I have read that I would add to a list of books to read before the election would be Dark Victory by David Marr & Marian Wilkinson. The End of Blogging -- for now I am about to go on vacation for about three weeks to UK & Ireland which also means a vacation from blogging. Thursday, July 15, 2004
US Congress Passes US-Australia Unfair Trade Agreement US Congress voted 314-109 in favour of the Unfair Trade Agreement with Australia. It has yet to be approved in Australia though where the Senate is expected to put up some opposition to it. Sunday, July 11, 2004
Pictures from the Human Rights in North Korea Awareness Week - Stanford May 10-14, 2004 Okay, I have attempted to put some photos on-line. The photos are there so I guess I was successful but I'm sure I did it the hard way. These are a few shots of the Human Rights in North Korea awareness we had in May. Hope you like them. The display highlighting different human rights abuses occurring in North Korea. For example one line would highlight the food crisis, another, the prison camps, and so on
Volunteers went around collecting signatures and informing people about human rights in North Korea
Friday, July 09, 2004
Australian Anti-Americanism - GO HOME YANKEE
A deal has been signed between the US and Australian governments for US military to set up permanent military training camps over here in both Queensland and Northern Territory. The purpose of the bases is so that: tens of thousands of US and Australian troops can use it to practice combined air, land and sea operations. [And]where US and Australian troops will carry out operational training, including bombing runs with live munitionsApparently the QLD government even lobbied for this possessed with some fool idea that it will be 'good for the economy'. Hmmm like the US bases in Korea have been good for certain parts of the economy in Itaewon, Pyeongtaek, and the like, not to mention all the good experience the police might get dealing with US military crimes at overseas bases. We already had an alleged rape incident in Darwin earlier this year (of which further newspaper searches revealed no follow up to what happened so if anyone knows, please share the information. I think they had some kind of hearing in June). Despite bi-partisan support for this, Anti-base has launched a campaign to protest the move. And Peter Garrett who recently made a rather unspectacular entry into the Labour Party has stood up and said he opposes the move so we respect him for that. Australia also signed on to the missile defence project which promises to cost us a lot of money so that US can get a hi-tech defence system. And in case we didn't think we'd given up enough sovereignty, details of the Unfair Trade Act with US reveal that, after the Free Trade Agreement is ratified, they say, "The inclusion of US Trade Representatives in Australia's quarantine decision-making processes will now give foreign trade officials the power to intervene in policies of utmost national importance for economic security."Does Australia think it will honestly be able to uphold its quarantine standards with US bullies having a say in the decision-making process? Australia was unsuccessful in getting sugar in the FTA deal, which had presumably been a 'make or break' issue. It certainly doens't bode well for future negotiations. Extra - off topic I want to add a bit more to the on-line shopping issue that I mentioned in my previous blog entry. First, Kimchee GI also picked up the story and made the good point that the lackluster approach to opening up to foreigners was not becoming of a "Asia Hub" wannabe. I also had a further thought that when I was in Korea signing up on-line for marathons was an easy process even when the event was organised by smaller local clubs. The system simply required foreigners to put their birthday date for the first part and for the remaining numbers, girls would type 1000000 and boys would type 2000000. This was not only easy, gave all the information they needed to categorise us for the running divisions, it also had the advantage of not asking for too much information. The fact that even small clubs had this available would indicate that is not an expensive thing either. Wednesday, July 07, 2004
The Competition to be the Most Out-of-Touch First up, the on-going ban by the Ministry of Idiots and Censorship (MIC) continues. According to an article by Asia Media: With its emergency monitoring system running for 24 hours, the Ministry of Information and Communication said it would advise Web sites to get rid of the clips as soon as they discovered them. "The Web sites that fail to follow through the instructions will be subject to shut-down or police investigation," an official at the ministry said.Um, I don't think the Korean government has any right to do such a thing, especially regarding a website run outside their own country. Block sites they may technically be able to do, but prosecute the operator (presumably for the "crime" of providing access to the feared video)...well they can ... Second, on-line shopping and access to Korean sites that require the Korean Registration Number. I hate that Korean sites, notably the TV and music websites require the registration number even to enter. But now the government is trying half-heartedly to increase accessibility to such sites, but like Koreans Foreign residents are required to enter foreigner registration numbers or passport numbers when using the system. Now, maybe its just me, but I have a problem with that kind invasion of privacy and big brother type tracking system. Why should the Korean immigration office know what on-line shopping site I visit? I'm personally not one for on-line shopping but I suspect other sites don't require such registration requirement to enter/browse their sites. And they wonder why their sites aren't popular with foreigners; I don't think requiring passport numbers is going to bring any crowds. Third, Korean political parties. Now there is always much hype about the instability of political parties in Korea. Accordingly there are a few theories as to what is causing this. Some say the parties lack ideology, some say Korean society lacks western-style class identities that would allow parties to represent certain groups, others blame the focus on personalities, and some blame the perpetuation of regionalism. I say its because politicians in Korea are a bunch of clueless fools. For example, First, there was the controversy over the naming of a new prime minister to start what the ruling camp called the second phase of the Roh presidency, to succeed Goh Kun who acted as president during Roh's suspension. A recent turncoat from the GNP, former South Gyeongsang governor Kim Hyuk-kyu was chosen and naturally the opposition party took it as a deliberate political provocation. A good many Uri members also disliked the choice and Roh eventually canceled the nomination, smearing a new start.Who, I mean honestly, WHO could possibly think that this kind of move was going to do anything but outrage the public and make party members from both the ruling and opposition parties see red!!?? But there's more: disclosure of intra-party "donations" by a proportional representation candidate to ensure her selection, and a number of Uri members voting to deter the arrest of a GNP lawmaker accused of illegal electioneering all happened in quick succession, alienating many former supporters of the party and administration.Now if party politics, as it is often accused of being, is a tool for fulfilling political aspirations then you could at least expect politicians to be a little more savvy and possessing of a longer-term vision for their ambitions than this kind of blatant short-sighted jostling. Maybe the public will be less fickle in their voting (and approval) patterns when the politicians themselves gain some principles and start thinking long-term. Sunday, July 04, 2004
I started watching 대장금 (Dae Jung-Kum - spelling?) over the last week thanks to DVD's my friend sent over for me. This coincided, quite by accident, with my reading of "The True History of the Kelly Gang" by Peter Carey. Such a juxtaposition prompted some thinking on my part about the state of Australia's TV and the understanding and perception we have of our own history.
Wednesday, June 30, 2004
Banned Bloggers Seems like the ban on blog sites is continuing in Korea and it is all anyone from the so-called IKK is talking about. I wrote to a former colleague from the Korean Government to see what they might say about it and he had no idea what I was talking about. This led me to think that this issue may be well-known among us bloggers but is not being made widely known to the broader public. Further to that, I'm not sure many Koreans will be overly sympathetic to the plight of a handful of foreigners who blog from Korea. I did find some articles in Korean about it but it hardly seems to be getting much publicity/empathy. I also suspect that some less avid netizens will side with the MIC in their argument of protecting the people. I recall the US government asking (not demanding) media to stop playing the 9/11 video for similar reasons of 'causing distress'. Although, of course, it was still available on the internet as were other pictures of the tragedy. About Joel and Big Ho and others are calling for petitions and other lobbying efforts but I think it might be prudent to remember that as foreigners any petitions by us are of little worth. Citizens have the right to petition, not aliens. (at least as far as I'm aware). Therefore the government wouldn't even be obligated to so much as look at any petition collected. So what to do, what to do...?? Perhaps a candlelight vigil might be in order. Friday, June 25, 2004
Six Party Talks Taking a moment away from preparing my application to Wonderland. Its being reported that the latest round of six party talks has seen some proposals from various sides and new signs of flexibility. Also, the DPRK and US sat down for bilateral discussion as well that lasted over two hours but one report says that DPRK threatened to test one of their nukes. On the US side, they have suggested Libya-style procedures that would give DPRK three months to get on board before inspections began to ensure complete, irreversible, and verifiable dismantlement (CIVD). It has been noted that three months is also around election time which may imply that this is an attempt to put off the need for any real progress until after the voting. These talks have been completely overshadowed due to the Iraqi affair, of which I won't talk about except to ask how it is that the media was INSIDE their house to take such disturbing photos of their personal grief!? In addition to that, the low expectations and correspondingly lacklustre results have ensured little interest in this round of non-event talks. Shifting the Capital Roh's big plans to move the capital regardless of what anyone else wants is moving ahead and he has decided to forego a referundum. Afterall, who needs public approval for policy in a democracy anyway? The article brings up a few good points, including noting the economy can ill afford the cost of such a massive move. The current surplus of the budget is largely comprised of the pension fund savings which has been building up to support the new welfare programs initiated after the financial crisis. Add to this the fact that the budget does not include "funds" which are not recorded in the consolidated budget figures. This ties in with the second matter, namely that shifting the capital will not improve balanced regional growth in Korea. Roh argues that the idea is to decentralise power and reduce the concentration in Seoul. Regional balanced growth has been the mantra for pursuing local government development since 1995. Research and seminars on how best to achieve this has been ongoing for several years to find out how to develop policies that will enable greater intra-regional equality. But this move won't serve to alleviate regionalism or reduce disparity. It makes less sense given the size of the country as well. Its a small nation, there is little reason to have two major centres of power. The money that would go towards the move would be far better spent on implementing sound policies that will address the structural and institutional inhibitants to revigorating regional areas and enabling them to find ways to boose their local economies and create opportunties for local populations to develop and rejuvenate their region. Monday, June 21, 2004
Candle Light Vigils Jeff continues to be the key source of links on this issue but I just thought I'd add my own update on the candle light vigils held last night. A group of about 5000 gathered in front of Kwanghwamoon in Seoul for the vigil and you can get some video footage and other updates over at Oh My News. Koreans just love an excuse for a candle light vigil; just imagine how many there will be after this guy dies (presuming that will be the outcome of this saga). That sounds a bit callous I know, but I don't mean it to be.
South Korean Abducted!
Jeff has got the scoop on the story and a link to the video as well, which is worth a gander. Joongang has the story (in Korean), so too does Korea Times (in English)and any other Korean news site you fancy.
Meanwhile the parents are appealing for their son to be rescued (in Korean), and here as well. (in Korean) As well, the National Security Council under the president has held an emergency meeting and set up a task force (in English). I can't see that it is feasible for the government to rescue this poor guy, but it will be a real test for a government that has been vacillating about this issue and faced much opposition and still hasn't actually sent the troops. Sunday, June 13, 2004
Stanford Graduation 2004
Thursday, June 03, 2004
Last night PRINCE rocked San Jose and I was there - it was personal and he is SEXY. The band, as to be expected, was first class! The drummer had arms of jelly, the brass players rocked. It was blues, it was jazz, it was funny, it was carefree, it was classic Prince. It was the night before my final exam but what would you rather do - study about Korean or rock the HP Pavillion with PRINCE? And Prince is SSSOOOOO coool that he gave a free copy of his latest CD to all ticket holders. He is the coooolest sexiest man alive. Monday, May 31, 2004
US-Korea Relations What with the plannied removal of some 3,000 odd troops out of Korea to Iraq, and recent revelations of a further massive exodus of troops the debate over the future/current state of the US-Korea alliance is hotting up. The witheld notification of the troop removal is also an issue of interesting discussion but since 12 months ago there were massive protests going on I suspect it was deemed an inapproriate time to bring the issue up for objective and rationale debate. Perhaps more information on why it was witheld will be forthcoming. Representative Park Jin has just returned from US lamenting perceptions held in Washington of Korea's disdain for the alliance, especially the findings that Koreans see China as a more important ally than US. This view was augmented as China surpassed US as Korea's A1 trading partner. The 17th National Assembly There may be some high expectations for the new four year Assembly but already the usual bickering is already underway. Part of the problem, as I humbly see it, is that parites are used as simply tools for the elected officials. This is in contrast to a party that is elected by interests or classes within civil society whose aims and interets it then strives to represent. If then, the party's goal is to distinguish itself and uphold itself as the opposition and has no expressed interests to represent (apart from perhaps region), there is no reason to expect bi-partisanship on any level greater than what we have seen in the past, i.e, very little. Pension Update The Ministry of Health and Welfare has announced that it likes to gamble and will be investing some of the pension money into stocks and bonds. For Korean readers, the MoHW has more information. I know this was an interesting debate in the Ministry of Planning and Budget when I was there over the matter of whether it was a good idea or not to risk pensions on unpredictable stock markets. Of course, on the economic side, throwing a large amount of cash into the bond and stock markets is a good idea to boost confidence but that doesn't make it a good idea for actual pension fund if the stock market continues to fall and they end up losing money. Friday, May 28, 2004
Pardon me Roh's aide Choi Do-sul got sentenced to 2 years gaol for soliciting illegal funds mostly from SK. I believe he pocketed some and used the rest for the presidential elections. In the meantime, those found guilty in the 2000 cash-for-Summit scandal have been issued get out of gaol free cards otherwise known as presidential pardons according to the Ministry of Justice. Park Jie-won though was not included in the list of those to be freed. Pension Scheme There is an article about civil discontent with the pension plan in Korea. I found this interesting mostly cause I just finished reading/editing an article by a Korean scholar here at the Korea Studies Program regarding the historical development of Korea's pension plan. Applying certain western-oriented theories in combination he explains that welfare policies in developmental states, using Korea as a case study, tend to be used as tool to gain ends other than public welfare such as legitimate government, gain public support for authoritarian regimes and to quell public anger against hardship, such as welfare efforts in the aftermath of the crisis. In this context, he noted that welfare policy was much more heavily influenced over the years by the Economic Planning Board than the Welfare Ministry and was considered valuable for capital accumulation for promoting economic growth rather than supporting disadvantaged. Hopefully, the maturation of civil society in Korea will give rise to more 'public good' considerations for the future development of social welfare. Monday, May 17, 2004
Bay to Breakers 2004
Today in San Francisco was the Bay to Breakers 7 mile run. I was part of the Stanford Escondido Village Team which meant that at the race we were right up the front just behind the seeded runners which was pretty sweet. It also meant that we had to get up at four am this morning to get there in time. This was a huge amont of fun and I ran and walked and took photos along the way. There were lots of interesting sights. I saw two naked (fit)men who ran past me. There was a sign that announced free beer for any women willing to flash her boobs. (NO! I did not do that), a Wonder Women centipede group, the salmons running agaisnt the tide, people dressed up as members from Kiss and Elvis was dancing on a balcony of a house along the path. A lot of houses along the path had parties going on with music blaring and cheering the crowd which was not only hugely encouraging but great to see. Everyone was having a good time. Wednesday to Friday of Human Rights in North Korea Okay, apparently a daily blog during such a busy week was too ambitious. The week is now over so I'll just recap the last days. Wednesday Wednesday was speaker panel. Debbie discussed the situation of human rights abuses in North Korea. The dprivation of basic rights such as equal access to food, suppression of freedom of speech, mobility, cases of torture and imprisonment without trial. She also spoke about the plight of North Korean refugees fleeing to China only to be repatriated, trafficked, living in fear and in hiding. David Hawk discussed the background of his research for the publication, The Hidden Gulag and how that basic research could/should be utilised by varying groups to start increasing our knowledge of the atrocities in human rights and to bring this issue to the attention of the world. Larry Diamond talked about some hopeful signs of the regimes collapse and economic reforms and the need to address human rights in consideration of what China, Japan, and South Korea are capable of doing and what they are likely to do and how US should be working with these nations which in many areas have much greater leverage over North Korea to affect meaningful change. In all, it was a pretty powerful panel with loads of good and compelling information about the human rights situation in North Korea. Special thanks for my good friend Jane Pak for being a great moderator at the event. Thursday Thursday was the Benefit Concert. Korean American comedian PK performed as did Ken Oak. Both were exceptional performers which made for great entertainment. We also had Stanford's own, Hwimori which is a Korean drumming outfit and some poetry and a performance written by fellow organiser Casey. Friday Friday was pretty much the wind down with the usual White Plaza petition and information drive being the main highlight. As the last day a lot of us came out for a final effort. We were also treated to a show by some African American performers on campus putting on a lunch show just opposite our table which made it all very festive and drew a good crowd to our table as well. So that was the HUMAN RIGHTS IN NORTH KOREA AWARENESS WEEK and my first experience as a human rights activist. In sum, I loved it. It was loads and loads and loads of hard work but it was great to see the week go so smoothly and to see people asking about human rights and learning more about it. Wednesday, May 12, 2004
Day Two - Student Rally and Documentary Screening
The student rally held in White Plaza featured some speakers reading testimonies from prisoners and some facts andd information on human rights abuses in North Korea. We also had a girl called Jackie singing. Wow! She had the kind of voice that made people stop and listen. At the table, where I was, we had a steady stream of people asking us what was going on, signing petitions and letters to senators and congress regarding the North Korea Freedom Act. And we got the hand print display going so people could put a hand print in paint and sign their name and make a comment as a sign of support. I took my (old but faithful) camera to White Plaza to take some action shots of the team at work and hope to finish the film during the week so I can put up some photos. We also had Joongang Ilbo taking some action shots at White Plaza today so keep an eye out for us in the Joongang! And for the evening's event we had a screening of Children of the Secret State. That was my second time to see that documentary and I think its quite powerful to show the human rights tragedy in DPRK and what that regime is really about. Tomorrow is VERY exciting as we have speaker's panel which is the event I was in charge of organising. We have Professor Larry Diamond, Deborah Liang-Fenton, and David Hawk all ready to talk on human rights and answer the tough questions regarding the complexities of the matter. Tuesday, May 11, 2004
Day One Not much to report on day one. I forgot to take my camera and couldn't participate in the lunch hour campaigning as I had class. I did manage to stop by White Plaza to check out the display more closely. It was pleasing to see others also reading the stuff and looking about. I also picked up a copy of the Stanford Daily which has an opinion piece about the HR week. I picked up a gift for Amb James Lilley and went to the talk. The best thing was seeing so many people from my course attending...I guess my bugging them paid off. The talk was pretty good, but focused more on the nuclear issue rather than HR. The manifold problems of trying to bring any human rights issues onto the agenda was the main crux of the talk. I'd explain more but am absolutely buggered - its been a 16 hour day. Monday, May 10, 2004
Human Rights in North Korea EVE With just one day to go before the big week I thought it might be a cool idea to start up the UNOFFICIAL DIARY OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN NORTH KOREA WEEK. The group met (not me cause I didn't check my email advising of the time) late this afternoon to set up the display at White Plaza. There are sections on refugees, hunger, ideology and more which give information on the issues of each and what is going on in DPRK. It all looks very cool. I'm pretty impressed as I had nothing to do with that part of the organisation but the guys did a great job. We are even going to have an interactive section where people can do a paint handprint to show support. And there will be copies of "The Hidden Gulag" available. Tomorrow is DAY ONE of the Human rights week which is very exciting. Former Ambassador James R. Lilley will give a talk at 5:00pm at 320-105. And don't forget to come by White Plaza to check out the display, do a handprint, and donate to Helping Hands Korea! Tuesday, May 04, 2004
Saturday, May 01, 2004
HUMAN RIGHTS IN NORTH KOREA This May 10-14th is Human Rights in North Korea Awareness Week. Check out the website and if you are a Stanford student PLEASE make a time to visit White Plaza and any of the events we have organised. We have former Ambassador James Lilley coming to give a keynote speech on Monday 10th, a speakers panel on Wednesday boasting Professor Larry Diamond, Deborah Liang-Fenton from the US Committee for Human Rights in North Korea and David Hawk who was one the researchers for the publication of "The Hidden Gulag" - a must read. We also have a student rally, a benefit concert and daily opportunities for people to write letters, learn more and donate. All money raised will go to helping North Korean human rights issues. Monday, April 19, 2004
Back to DC
Am off again to the Nation's Capital so blogs will continue to be in short supply for at least another week. Monday, April 05, 2004
North Korea's Nuclear Crisis Conference Last Friday the Center for the Pacific Rim at the University of San Francisco held a conference on North Korea's Nuclear Crisis. Speakers included such prominent figures such as Victor Cha of Georgetown University, David Kang, Rosemary Foot, Patrick Lloyd Hatcher, Peter Hayes of Nautilus fame, Bruce Cumings, Kongdan Oh, T.J. Pempel, Scott Snyder, etc. In sum, a very impressive line up of the top Korea specialists. The Pacific Rim center put on a good show which was well organised and provided a schedule that was highly informative and gave ample time for Q&A. Although, of course North Korea's nuclear crisis was not solved during the conference we did get to hear some interesting perspectives on the inter-play of North Korea's economic reform and its politics, US, China and Japanese relations, South Korea's perspective, and other factors which all have implications for what US and other countries can do to try and resolve the matter of North Korea's nuclear development. Thursday, April 01, 2004
Like a Speeding Bullet Train Korea's much anticipated Bullet Train has pulled into the station. Cool!! - only six years late which is about standard for Korea's railway systems. The Seoul subway line number six was about five or six or more years behind schedule. And given the often rough-shod approach Koreans take to doing things its actually comforting to know it was behind schedule - hopefully it means they did a better job. On a side to that, I found this little article aboutwhether or not US military can get a free ride on the shiny new trains or not. As the article notes, that could be a sensitive issue in these days of anti-american sentiment. Maybe they could ride in the caboose. Korea and China - Business Week has an article on Korea's deveoping ties with China. Its a very interesting article discussing how Korea is reaping many benefits from making close ties with China and outsourcing labour and production. However, it warns of China's rapid pace of development and its ability to catch-up and overtake Korea in many areas where Korea currently enjoys a competitive advantage. Monday, March 29, 2004
Grave Situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) The United Nations High Commission for Human Rights is currently holding its 60th Session. They held a Special Meeting to pass a Resolution on the Grave Situation in the OPT with only two countries voting no. Who do we think they were? US and Australia. Now I don't agree with the US vote but I am not American so I'll steer clear of commenting on their vote, especially since the resolution was passed regardless of the US and Aussie votes. But Australia has no excuse for voting against a resolution condeming blatant acts against basic human rights and international laws to which it is a signature. This vote was purely a political arse-kiss to US. We could've even abstained like UK, Italy, Korea and others but NNNNOOOOOO we had to vote NO. No to stopping violence, No to stopping assassination, No to human rights, but Yes to America. Sunday, March 28, 2004
Unstable Democracies and Regional Disputes in Asia Taiwan and Korea are both mired in instability in their politics at present. China is following events closely after Chen Shui-Bian was wounded in an apparent assassination attempt. US congratulations to Taiwan also left the Chinese piqued. Of course, Korea never likes to feel left out of the spotlight. Koreans have been diligently striving to prove that when it comes to political unrest not to mention frequency, size and fun to be had a protest they are without peer. The Constitutional crisis has left Roh without a job for the moment and democracy in disarray in the nation. The shallow power politics and petty squabbling in the National Assembly though somewhat entertaining is more than just an embarrasment to the nation, it elucidates with striking clarity the need for more attention to be paid to strengthening the institutionalisation of political bodies, not least of which is political parties. The rapid rise of sympathy for Roh and the Uri party has backfired against the GNP which was hoping to oust Roh and maintain their strangle hold over the legislation. We have to wait for April elections to know if the sentiments of the protesting citizens will translate into a reduction in the GNP in the National Assembly. The irony that the hapless Roh whose track record on the economy had seen his popularity plummet from election highs has now gotten a much needed boost thanks to the opposition. Looking regionally, Japan and China have had a tussle over the island dispute. It seems the matter is clearing up and the document-free Chinese being sent to Shanghai. Further to Japan and China, Japan will pay compensation to wartime labourers, setting a precedent for similar cases for Koreans and more. How much a difference compensation will do to long held animosity against the Japanese is hard to say. And just a final note. The KDI recently held a conference on "Reforming the Public Expenditure Management System: Medium-term Expenditure Framework, Performance Management and Fiscal Transparency" including delegates from World Bank. Some readers may recall I got to work at the World Bank in January this year during which time I helped out with one of the papers that were presented at the conference. That link is in Korean but the PDF papers it links to are in English. Often from the reading the papers it seems that all civil servants and Koreans, especially after the scenes of the National Assembly, are not a very mature bunch and are more concerned in their own power grap than forwarding the interests of Korea but that is an incomplete picture. The work that gets done behind the scenes such as this conference and others are signs that many are working very hard to make things better in Korea; to improve systems, transparency, governance, and economic management to bring Korea up in world standards. Saturday, March 20, 2004
Hip Hip Hooray for Holidays!!! It may be several days yet before any news-related blogging gets done. As others have noted around the Korean blog-o-sphere Big Hominid has put up interesting caricatures of Korean bloggers. My link is Warrior Princess, Lucy Lawless. Kick-arse! Thanks for that. Today Stanford is playing basketball. Apparently we have been doing quite well so to enjoy day one of the holidays I've loaded up on some beer and plan to spend the afternoon in front of the tv getting happily inebriated while watching sport - as any good warrior princess from the Antipodes would. Thursday, March 04, 2004
Visiting Authors We had Don Oberdorfer, author of The Two Koreas give a talk last week. Actually he gave two talks, one on journalism and one on Korea. I attended the one of Korea. He gave a lot of information that you can find in his book but he also gave some opinions of the current nuclear issue and in particular, the six-party talks. He was not overly optimistic abou how they will turn out but had adopted a wait and see policy. The other author to visit last week was Helie Lee author of Still Life with Rice and In the absence of Sun. I first heard of her while reading the transcript of a US senate hearing on the plight of North Korean refugees. She told mostly about some of her experiences growing up as an Asian-American, very apt since the audience was the Korean-American Students Association. She also talked a little about her plight to get her relatives out of North Korea but of course she couldn't reveal the whole story or else we wouldn't be suckered into buying the book. Saturday, February 21, 2004
Stamping out Corruption China-Style China doesn't mess around apparently when it comes to punishing corruption. I think Korea would register a real population decline if they adopted a similar policy to that. Monday, February 09, 2004
The Not-So-Free Trade Agreement between Australia and US
The US-Australia FTA has been signed but the battle ain't over yet. The pact fails to include sugar and already the minority parties, which control the senate are threatening to block the deal. Both countries have put up information on the deal but its a lesson in contradictions. For example:
Australia will make a number of improvements in the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) procedures But the clincher is that manufactures where US is more competitive than Australia would become free and open but that is not the case for Australia's area of strength - agriculture and beef. So while the US are dancing with joy our PM had to try and provide excuses as to why our country accepted an unfair deal, saying simply that We had to do the deal even though it left out key issues for Australia. Thats not right, just not right. Saturday, February 07, 2004
US Military - you can't take them anywhere! Three US Navy guys have been arrested on alleged rape claims in Darwin, Australia. Talk of putting them in US Navy custody at the bottom of the article doesn't seem right. They were off duty so they should be under Aussie jurisdiction, right?. But hopefully this kind of behaviour will make Australia reconsider the stupid of idea of allowing US military to set up bases on our soil which I read about in article a couple of weeks ago. Trade Matters Amidst all the talk of growing rivalry between Japan, China, Korea the FT gives a piece about the growing inter-regional trade as a sign of the closer relations between the countries. It also mentions talk of a free-trade area to consolidate economic relations. Though I suspect that an actuall free-trade area between these three is a long way off. On the subject of trade the European Union has conducted a study on the viability of banning imports from countries that did not share their national values and standards. Note the EU's slogan: "united in diversity"!? Hmmm I think I see a contradiction. Maybe "united in conformity" might be more appropriate. Although, Lamy stresses that it is just a debate topic at present and not a policy option. And finally, the Economist critiques Roh's next chance at getting it right with regard to labour strife. Spring will soon be upon us and the annual labour strikes are probably already in the planning. Economist seemed a little bit more optomistic than I would be regarding Roh's ability to devise a cunning strategy to balance the militant nutters in the labour unions and the businesses that fail to negotiate meaninful knowing that government will alwasy step in to intervene when the public outcry gets too much for them to bear, especially in an election season. Friday, February 06, 2004
Anti-American Sentiment I kinda feel guilty of neglecting my poor blog page lately. I have no time to search sites and get information to discuss issues or keep up with Korean news. The irony of studying in the classroom so much that you have no time to keep up with what is actually happening. My stop-gap answer for this dilemma is to post a piece I used for a class today. My task was to put forth the argument that anti-US sentiment in Korea is an eduring phonomenon and will lead to a weakening of the US-Korea alliance. I wrote it in the wee hours of dawn the day before it was due (as any student would) and tried to be a little controversial. There were two people debating each side so my part is just one half and presentations were followed by informal discussion. Also, before you read it, I would like to list the readings for the week from which I formulated my argument. Some of these can be found at Jstor 1. Shin, Gi-Wook, "South Korean Anti-Americanism: A Comparative Perspective", Asian Survey, Vol 36, No.8 (August 1996) pp.787-803 2. Cha, Victor, "Realism, Liberalism, and the Durability of the U.S. - South Korea Alliance", Asian Survey, Vol. 37, No.7 (July 1997) pp.609-622 3. Jang Jip Choi, "Reality and Image of the U.S. - Korea Relationship: for strengthening the partnership" paper presented at the fourteenth US-Korea Academic Symposium, Stanford University, October 22-24, 2003 4. Kim Seung Hwan, "Anti-Americanism in Korea," The Washington Quarterly, Winter 2002-03 pp.109-122 The rise of anti-American sentiment over the last few years has been manifested in numerous ways. As Shin notes, the overarching source of anti-American sentiment in Korea stems from resentment against political and economic domination. Issues There has been considerable anti-American sentiment against political domination with regards to the North Korea nuclear crisis. President Bush?s perceived mistreatment of President Kim during his visit to Washington, the inclusion of North Korea in the ?axis of evil? and instances of US failing to consult or adequately include South Korea in important developments regarding North Korea and US-North Korea relations has given rise to negative feelings against US. Especially feelings that South Korea?s voice over matters pertaining to the peninsula is irrelevant on matters where US has its own national interest to consider. The death of the two schoolgirls in particular brought this issue of the SOFA to the fore. The untimely death of the schoolgirls, and the ensuing candlelight vigils actually brought out many issues, of which the SOFA is but one. However, the deaths and subsequent actions highlighted to Koreans the lack of equality in the existing SOFA agreement and led to calls for a revision. Furthermore, the acquittal of the two soldiers riled the Koreans, not only as they saw SOFA as unfair but because it denied them justice as they saw it should be carried out and emphasised that even on their own land, American?s will have their way. This particularly hurt after Korea was feeling flush with national pride from not only economic growth and prosperity but from the success of the World Cup. The argument over economic domination surfaced with US calls for greater liberalisation and market opening in Korea. The resultant farmer?s protests, which included American flag burning, were something to behold. Friction over the US trade deficit and exchange rates are seen as impinging on Korea?s right to determine their own policies and to protect their own workers and economy. Underlying Sentiment What we can discern from these events are the underlying problems fuelling anti-American sentiment in Korea. Briefly, I list them as inequality, rise of nationalism, and divergent perceptions of security. Firstly, Koreans perceive with increasing angst the inequality of the current US-Korea relationship. Second is the rise of nationalism. Koreans are notably proud of their achievements and feel that they deserve greater recognition as a viable player on the world stage. Through this, they see the presence of US and its policy toward the peninsula as holding them back and even threatening to destroy what they have attained. And thirdly, as Victor Cha notes, is a divergence in the conception of security. America sees security through a global lens and the threat of WMD as paramount. South Korea has a more local perspective and sees the threat of conventional war as the greater danger. Why are they not resolvable? So why then are these issues going to have a long-term impact on the US-Korea relations? I argue that they reason anti-American sentiment won?t go away anytime soon, and may even increase over time is that both America and South Korea have divergent goals that cannot be reconciled ?the tendency is toward a zero-sum game. The clearest example is the discord in the rationale of the alliance. As mentioned, America sees the threat from North Korea as the proliferation of WMD and potential to sell those weapons to terrorists who would strike the US. The policy to deal with this is to take a hardline to bring about the dissolution of their nuclear programs ? even if that means use of force. On the other hand, South Korea sees North Korea as a declining threat with a stagnant economy; and famine and shortage make them more a country that should be aided, not bombed. Moreover, antagonising the desperate state may bring about irrational action on the part of North Korea and make them strike the South. The policy to avoid this then is to engage North Korea through aid and exchanges. This will lead to a security dilemma: the more America pursues a hardline policy, the less safe South Korea feels; the more South Korea pursues its softer approach, the less safe America feels. The two parties cannot agree of ?what the situation is? how then can they establish a joint policy stance, on ?how to deal with that situation?. SOFA and presence of US bases in Korea have long been a thorn in Korea?s side. Particularly, as Korea becomes a stronger and more prominent player on the global scene it becomes insulting to be subject to such an unequal arrangement as the SOFA. Recent revisions have occurred which may have appeased the Koreans but it?s important to note that revisions to SOFA have a limit. And this limit may not coincide with what Korea perceives as an equal arrangement. Furthermore, in the case of Korea, the difference in (justice) systems and values may make Americans more circumspect before signing over too much discretion concerning US military in Korea. Here?s a catch, (my opinion only) the more Korean?s scream about the inequality and protest vociferously and emotionally for justice, the less likely the Americans are to grant concessions to seemingly unreasonable and highly emotional country. We need to ask, what possible arrangement would actually make Koreans perceive that the relationship is ?equal? as long as US military remains on their soil, and would that arrangement be acceptable to US military? In the matter of economics, Koreans feel threatened by the omnipotent power of the US economy and its competitiveness, particularly in agriculture. But again, it?s a zero-sum game. The more closed the Korean market the less American?s benefit. The more open the Korean market the more they feel over-run and dominated by the US, thereby creating resentment which will linger, especially if unemployment or economic conditions worsen in Korea. Anti-US sentiment has been burgeoning in Korea in the past decades and is not likely to disappear. The sources of the problem require compromise that neither party, in the long-run, would be willing to agree on. As Korea becomes more nationalistic and less tolerant of perceived US political and economic domination the more they will demand ?equality?. Meanwhile, the more America asserts itself on the global stage and focuses on the War on Terrorism the less willing it will be to make sacrifices for South Korea?s pride.
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