May 18, 1980 – Presente!
The Kwangju Uprising of 1980, and the U.S. response, was a turning point in South Korean history as well as for the Cold War in Asia. It’s being commemorated in Korea today. To mark the date, please read Hankyoreh‘s moving…
The Shorrock Files
New, Rare and Unreleased Material from the DMZ Empire
The Shorrock Files
New, Rare and Unreleased Material from the DMZ Empire
Korea
Korea-US Trade Agreement: The Hidden History
The U.S. Congress last week gave final approval to a South Korean-U.S. trade agreement (KORUS) despite strong opposition from the labor movement and a handful of organizations on the political left. The pact was approved along with treaties with Panama and…
Some thoughts on the #OccupyDC and #October2011 actions
I’ve been around the left for a long time and have participated in dozens, probably hundreds, of actions in Washington over the years. Suddenly last week it looked like we were about to have another major convergence – the DC…
US lawmaker urged ROK to send 30,000 mercenaries to Iraq
During a visit to South Korea in 2008, U.S. congressman Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) floated a proposal for the Korean government to send up to 30,000 mercenaries to serve as “constables” in Iraq, according to a diplomatic cable released last month…
9/11 and capitalism: Joan Didion on the manipulation of grief
In the fall of 2001, Joan Didion, one of the great chroniclers of American politics and foreign policy, had just published a new book, Political Fictions. Shortly after the 9/11 attacks, she went on a book tour to promote her…
My latest: Comparing Egypt/2011 to South Korea/1980
Published by Asia-Pacific Journal/Japan Focus and cross-posted at Z-Net. Thanks to editor Mark Selden for his fine work and encouragement. Since early 2011, major peoples’ revolutions have swept through North Africa and the Middle East. Most recently, the revolts engulfed…
Japan’s nuclear crisis: A report from Tokyo
A friend, Alan G., just wrote me from Tokyo about the dangerous situation at the Fukushima nuclear reactor near Sendai, where the controversial utility TEPCO (Tokyo Electric Power Company) is desperately trying to forestall a meltdown of the core and…
Happy New Year!
To all my friends & colleagues, near and far – may we all be blessed in 2011. Here’s me, playing Auld Lang Syne on my guitar and harmonica – Bob Dylan-style.
Richard Holbrooke RIP
One of America’s most experienced diplomats, Richard Holbrooke, passed away today after suffering heart problems over the weekend. Tonight the cable news shows are devoting much time to his career, focusing primarily on his early years as a foreign service…
North Korea: Less war, more talk
My latest, just posted on Daily Beast: “The only way out of this box is to negotiate,” Leon V. Sigal, the director of the Northeast Asia Cooperative Security Project at the Social Science Research Council in New York, told the…
Telling the People’s Story: A Tribute to Chalmers Johnson
From Korea, 1980, to New Orleans, 2005: How I came to be a humanitarian journalist For Chalmers Johnson, a great man who died this weekend. In February 1996, I broke a major story on U.S. foreign policy, reporting for the…
“We live in hard times, not end times”
In which your correspondent tries to find the zeitgeist at Jon Stewart’s “Rally for Sanity” on the Mall in Washington, D.C., 10 Not really knowing what to expect, and loving any rally trying to counter the right-wing insanity in this…
Allen Ginsberg in Evergreen Review
A wonderful poem, dedicated to Gary Snyder and written just after Allen Ginsberg returned from a trip to Japan to visit Snyder, printed in Evergreen Review, 1967. This was my culture growing up. It was wondrous while it lasted: check…
How Glenn Beck (and Fox) sees the Left
With apologies to Prince Valiant, circa 1310
Things looking a little different?
It’s been a long process, but I’ve made some real progress on rebuilding my website and making my work – on East Asia, Hurricane Katrina and the outsourcing of national security – more accessible. Welcome to my readers, far and…
Twittering away
Yeah, I’m on Twitter. These days I find it one of the best ways to express myself and be in touch with fellow journalists, intelligence experts and activists. So I’m going to start posting some of my comments, with additional…
Amazing! Music and peace in Pyongyang
Lorin Maazel, the director of the New York Philharmonic, presented a bouquet to a performer in Pyongyang (Chang W. Lee/NY Times) More here, here and here. Great shots of the Philharmonic’s visit here. Timely analysis of U.S. ties with the…
Bush and Kim, Peacemakers
Bruce Cumings, the nation’s foremost historian of US-Korean relations, analyzes the Bush administration’s recent deal with Kim Jong Il: “Bizarre events may well place Bush and ‘evildoer’ Kim Jong Il side by side as peacemakers. If so, all well and…
DPRK: Nukes, national pride & goats
Mark Magnier of the L.A. Times is one of the best American correspondents in Asia. I used to work with him at the Journal of Commerce, where he was the paper’s Tokyo correspondent and trade editor. He recently spent four…
Labor gains in US trade bill (or maybe not)
WaPo: Major break seen in labor provisions in Bush/Dem trade bill. “The key to the agreement…was the Bush administration’s reluctant assent to Democratic demands for more stringent labor rules. Under the new policy, enforceable labor provisions will be written into…
DPRK: Japan not welcome at nuclear talks
North Korea, via Reuters: “There is no need for Japan to participate in (the talks) as a local delegate because it is no more than a state of the U.S. and it is enough for Tokyo just to be informed…
North Koreans seek a way out
The International Crisis Group has a harrowing report out on the large numbers of people leaving North Korea for an uncertain and sometimes perilous life overseas. A sobering assessment of the human costs of the US-North Korea standoff and a…
Nuke for a nuke?
Kim Jong Il got his bomb. So now we’re going to start planning nuclear war? Apparently so, according to the Korea Times. Key grafs; scary: “Gen. B. B. Bell, commander of the U.S. Forces Korea (USFK), has been mandated by…
We have a bomb, but it’s just a little bomb
WaPo: “The explosion set off by North Korea yesterday appears to have been extremely small for a nuclear blast, complicating U.S. intelligence efforts to determine whether the country’s first such test was successful or signaled that Pyongyang’s capabilities are less…
North Korea tests an A-bomb: Now what?
As I said on Democracy Now! this morning, North Korea’s test of a nuclear bomb is a monumental event that makes the DPRK the world’s eighth nuclear power (Note: I should have said nine – Israel has the bomb, but…