People often say that President Moon Jae-in is a good man, but instantly add that he is “not necessarily a strong or capable leader, though.” The constantly smiling president demonstrated his affable character on his two-night, three-day visit to North Korea last week, during which he signed a broadly worded peace communique with North Korean chief Kim Jong-un and produced a fairly detailed agreement on reducing military tension in the Demilitarized Zone. Doubtless, Moon was immersed in the warm

Viewpoints Sept. 26, 2018

“Sweat in peacetime saves blood in war,” drill sergeants shouted to us young recruits many years ago. Maybe they still use those same words, but compulsory military service in the 1960s really meant a lot of sweat, from both physical and mental hardships. Instead of romantic adventures, my memories largely consist of loneliness and the boredom of nighttime guard duty, endless fortification work in and around camp, food hardly satisfying the stomach and horrible corporal discipline. Strangely, ho

Viewpoints Sept. 12, 2018

One advantage from living on the lower Han River northwest of Seoul is easy access to North Korea. Not that I have any private intelligence mission on the North, but I love to look at the riverside villages, low hills and paddy fields over there from the observatories established on this side of the river. Standing at the Aegibong peak, the cliffs of Ganghwado and Gyodongdo islands or Odusan Hill of Paju, I fantasize of adding just one more bridge to so many existing ones over the Hangang to rea

Viewpoints Aug. 29, 2018

The new Seoul Eastern Detention House, or “Dongbu Guchiso,” is located on Jeongui-ro, or “Justice Street,” in Munjeong-dong. Across the street are the Seoul Eastern District Court and Seoul Eastern Prosecutors’ Office adjoining each other. Opened a little over a year ago, Dongbu Guchiso has become the judgment grounds of old power, as it accommodates many “celebrities” from the administrations of presidents Lee Myung-bak and Park Geun-hye who are being prosecuted under the Moon Jae-in government

Viewpoints Aug. 15, 2018

A US Marine honor guard, holding a case wrapped in the UN flag in both arms, steps out of a military cargo plane and walks to a US Army sergeant major in full dress. The noncommissioned officer stoops forward, receives the case and then approaches one of several vans lined up nearby. US Army, Navy and Air Force honor guards follow one after the other to deliver the small coffins to the vehicles on the ground. Hundreds of service persons salute to the silent procession only accompanied by taps pl

Viewpoints Aug. 1, 2018

The present power holders in Korea like to refer to the turmoil in 2016 as the “candlelight revolution.” President Moon Jae-in and people around him may want to use the word revolution for its strong political appeal, but not many would agree that the monthslong protests in Seoul that eventually brought them to power deserves that title in the bumpy annals of our republic.　Tens of thousands of people gathered at Gwanghwamun Square on weekend evenings with candles in their hands to denounce Presi

Viewpoints July 18, 2018

The new headquarters of the US Forces in Korea and the United Nations Command officially started business at Camp Humphreys in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province, last week. Having been to Camp Humphreys many years ago when it was a center of logistic support for US troops here, I hope to have an opportunity in the near future to look around what is now the largest US military base in the world. While being curious of the shape of an integrated military community existing in a foreign country in the

Viewpoints July 4, 2018

South Koreans hoped US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un would start concrete steps toward “CVID” -- the complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula -- in the historic meeting in Singapore last week. That hope was seemingly dashed in a vague 400-word joint statement, which failed to contain practical measures to attain the goal.　They saw CVID in another major event the following day, the quadrennial regional elections here to pick provi

Viewpoints June 20, 2018

For a long time, “reunification” has been a North Korean monopoly, at least in the propaganda business. On any inter-Korean event, North Koreans led singing the song “Our Wish Is Reunification,” and when drafting a joint communique, it was the Pyongyang side that provided strong wording to vow joint efforts to achieve the national goal.　 South Korea has the Ministry of (Re)unification to take charge of inter-Korean affairs, but the Department of United Front of North Korea’s ruling Worker’s Part

Viewpoints June 6, 2018

Capricious, audacious, shrewd and merciless, yet enigmatic. These words are how South Koreans have branded North Korea’s supreme leaders over the seven-decade history of conflicts on the peninsula. The third and present ruler Kim Jong-un adds one remarkable feature, his superb acting skills.　Of late, our extremely competitive TV channels gave the North Korean leadership almost as much exposure as the president of the Republic of Korea, both in frequency and air time. Therefore, we could closely

Viewpoints May 23, 2018

In my adult life, I belonged to three kinds of societies, each of which operated in a more or less similar top-down hierarchical order based on authoritarian philosophy.　The first was a newspaper. Media companies generally have a more liberal working milieu than most other jobs open to college graduates. Reporters saved honorifics when talking to seniors and freely smoked cigarettes while discussing work with them, and we were proud of our office culture that was different from, say, financial c

Viewpoints May 9, 2018

Living in the 21st century we owe a lot to the geniuses and entrepreneurs who have played a part in the development of the computer technology and mobile communications. Everyone breathing in the contemporary world saves a lot of time, energy and money in obtaining information and data that he or she needs for everyday life -- far more than actually needed.　Our family is well familiar with the time-worn story of the young father spending agonizing weeks waiting for a letter from his wife after w

Viewpoints April 25, 2018

While watching the live TV broadcast of the Seoul District Court’s sentencing on Park Geun-hye last Friday afternoon, people must have had several different images of the disgraced former president passing through their depressed minds.The defendant’s seat was empty, as Park has boycotted her hearings since October last year. Filling the space in the courtroom between the two state-appointed defense lawyers, in my screen of imagination, was Park taking the oath of office at the pinnacle of her c

Viewpoints April 11, 2018

To a friend of mine who was about to go on a long European journey from early next month, I joked, “Korea may have been reunified by the time you returned home.” He retorted, “Well, then I will take the land route via Beijing and Pyongyang on the way back.”　Things may not develop as quickly as that, but the Korean Peninsula this spring will certainly make headlines with summits scheduled between top South and North Korean leaders and then between US President Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un. 　Armed

Viewpoints March 28, 2018

Three retired journalists are talking politics over dinner on a Sunday evening. Mr. A and Mr. B were at “Taegeukki rallies” at two different locations in Seoul earlier in the day, but Mr. C is indifferent to those events promoted by this and that rightist organization.　A believes that the impeachment last year of former president Park Geun-hye was the result of a grand leftist conspiracy and that Moon Jae-in’s prosecutors should stop molesting her in a kangaroo court. B’s position is different c

Viewpoints March 14, 2018