The tug of war between the hawks and doves over North Korea policy continues within the Bush administration. In the latest move, the administration has unveiled its new, flexible negotiating position with Pyongyang: a willingness to provide security guarantees. Examined more carefully, however, this new dovish position appears to have the wing prints of the… Continue reading Tug of War
The war against terrorism is entering its third year, but the U.S. has already lost the most critical battle. The Taliban have been booted from power. Saddam Hussein is on the run. The Bush administration is tightening the noose around the remaining two members of the “axis of evil,” North Korea and Iran. But the… Continue reading We’ve Lost Their Hearts and Minds
It is a testament to the absurdly low expectations attached to the diplomatic abilities of both North Korea and the United States that pundits have avoided the obvious conclusion concerning the recently concluded Six-Party Talks in Beijing. They were a disaster. Here’s the rub, though: the hardliners in Washington got exactly what they wanted and… Continue reading Hexagonal Headache
War so far has not returned to the Korean peninsula. Negotiators from six countries–North and South Korea, China, Japan, Russia, and the United States–are about to sit down in Beijing to keep it that way. In a world dominated by military “solutions” to obdurate problems, even the muted vote for diplomacy represented by the upcoming… Continue reading Six Countries in Search of a Solution
The streets of the capital are broad and the buildings monumental. Inside the grand state offices, a power struggle rages among the political elite, and the side that seems to have the upper hand is insulated, single-minded, and shamelessly belligerent. This clique supports a military-first policy that doesn’t shrink from the first use of nuclear… Continue reading Fearful Symmetry: Washington and Pyongyang
Roh Moo-hyun is coming to Washington with a public and a private message. Publicly, the South Korean president will affirm his government’s desire to strengthen its relationship with the United States and bring a peaceful end to the nuclear crisis with North Korea. The private message, which won’t appear in any newspaper headlines, will be:… Continue reading Eyes on Different Prizes
At the Sunday market at the Place de la Bastille in Paris, the produce proudly announces its origins. There are bananas from Martinique, olives from Spain, artichokes from Brittany and broccoli from Saint-Malo, the place names written just above the prices. Signs tell which family dairies the cheeses come from and whether the lamb grazed… Continue reading Trans-Atlantic Food Fight
A serial invader is always looking over the horizon for the next target. The new U.S. rationale for invasion–the doctrine of “preventive war” that flies in the face of international law–justifies invasion anywhere, anytime. With the war launched in Iraq, the Bush administration appears to be laying the groundwork for its next move: an attack… Continue reading Is North Korea Next?
Roh Moo Hyun, the incoming South Korean president, is part of a trend that raises the hackles of the Bush administration. America now has another outspoken and uncowed “ally.” Roh joins an axis of independence that includes France’s Jacques Chirac and Germany’s Gerhard Schroeder. With friends like these, the Bush team laments, who needs an… Continue reading South Korea Joins the Axis of Independence
For the past two years, the Bush administration has treated North Korea like a child throwing a tantrum. Rather than charm a crying child with a piece of cake or apply a switch to its backside, the current child psychology approach is the “time out”–separate the child from the group until it calms down. Similarly,… Continue reading Time-Out Method Doesn’t Work
“Responding to North Korea’s Surprises,” Foreign Policy in Focus, October 24, 2002 “Diversity Comes to the Meat We Eat,” Newsday, July 29, 2002 “The Politics of Dog,” American Prospect, June 2002 Korean Workers (Review), Korean Quarterly, Summer 2002 “Bush Policy Undermines Progress on Korean Peninsula,” Foreign Policy in Focus, March 2002 “Osama bin Laden’s Secret Strategy” Global Beat Syndicate,… Continue reading 2002 Archives
Hagen Koo, Korean Workers: The Culture and Politics of Class Formation (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2001) Korean workers broke into the international headlines in August 1987 when tens of thousands of Hyundai employees poured into the streets of the South Korean industrial city Ulsan, demanding increased wages and independent unions. The authoritarian regime in… Continue reading Korean Workers (Review)
Newsday, July 29, 2002
Korea Conflict Profile History The Korean peninsula, colonized by Japan from 1910 to 1945, was liberated and divided at virtually the same time. In the closing days of World War II, the Soviets moved in from the north and repatriated guerrilla leader Kim Il Sung as leader of the new communist state. After… Continue reading Korea Profile
Key Points North Korea has been trying both carrots and sticks to win deals from its neighbors and the United States. The recent admission that it has continued to develop a nuclear weapons program is most likely North Korea’s attempt to win a package deal from the United States. Although South Korea and Japan have… Continue reading Responding to North Korea’s Surprises
President Bush’s inclusion of North Korea in an “axis of evil” with Iran and Iraq is only the latest indication of Washington’s new hard-line approach to Pyongyang. Since taking office, the Bush team has deliberately distanced itself from the Clinton administration’s policy of engaging the former “state of concern.” Even North Korea’s condemnation of the… Continue reading Bush Policy Undermines Progress on Korean Peninsula
The line dividing acceptable from unacceptable meat is sometimes a fine one. While vegetarians naturally reject meat of all kinds, the rest of America maintains some form of double standard — chicken but not crow, beef but not horse, venison but not reindeer, lamb but not mutton, legs and wings and rumps but not hearts… Continue reading The Politics of Dog, American Prospect
The September 11th attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon may have been just the tip of the iceberg. What lies hidden is not a plan to hijack more commercial airliners and use them as bombs. Osama bin Laden’s secret strategy owes more to jujitsu than firepower. America’s most wanted criminal, who learned… Continue reading Osama bin Laden’s Secret Strategy
Militarization in an Age of Globalization, FPIF, November 1, 2001 “Food Fight”, Gastronomica, Summer 2001 “Bush Faces Challenges on the Korean Peninsula,” Foreign Policy in Focus, March 2001 (with Karin Lee) “Bush Fumbles with Korea Policy” Progressive Media Project, March 29, 2001
Gastronomica, Summer 2001
Bush Fumbles with Korea Policy George Bush is on the verge of making a big foreign policy blunder. Instead of running with the Clinton policy on North Korea, the Bush team appears to be bobbling the hand-off. At risk is not simply the slow process of detente between North Korea and the U.S. At their… Continue reading Bush Fumbles with Korean Policy
Weapons, from handguns to fighter jets, are a profitable business. Generous government contracts, huge profit margins, and inevitable cost over-runs ensure spectacular dividends for weapons producers. Conflicts burning throughout the world guarantee plenty of buyers. After a post-cold war decline, global weapons purchases rose in 2000 to $800 billion. In the aftermath of the September… Continue reading Militarization in the Age of Globalization
The Bush administration faces challenges from allies and adversaries alike in East Asia. The recent submarine incident and rising anti-bases sentiment in Okinawa have put the U.S.-Japan “special relationship” on rocky ground. The war of words with Beijing about human rights and its relations with Iraq suggests that the Bush team’s downgrading of China to… Continue reading Bush Faces Challenges on the Korean Peninsula
Review of Han Sorya and North Korean Literature, Korean Quarterly, Winter 2000 North Korean Economy, Dollars and Sense, 2000 “Progress on the Korean Peninsula?” Foreign Policy in Focus, December 2000 “Gunboat Globalization: The Intersection of Economics and Security in East Asia,”Social Justice, vol. 27, no. 4 (2000) North Korea Reaches Out, FPIF, July 2000 “After… Continue reading 2000 Archives
The Seaview Hotel is the North Korean version of the “field of dreams.” The nearly completed luxury hotel and casino overlooks a beach along Rajin-Sonbong, the free-trade zone in the northeast corner of North Korea bordering China and Russia. It is not a particularly well-known or exciting place. Not yet, at least. The zone is… Continue reading North Korean Economy
Review of Brian Myers, Han Sorya and North Korean Literature: The Failure of Socialist Realism in the DPRK (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University East Asia Program, 2000) by John Feffer Han Sorya, the North Korean novelist, seems an unlikely subject for a book. He is little known outside his own country, and was purged and censored… Continue reading Han Sorya and North Korean Literature: The Failure of Socialist Realism in the DPRK (Review)
FPIF, July 2000
FPIF, December 2000
Social Justice, 2000
Panama City News Herald, June 25, 2000