At The New Ledger: On the New Hostage Diplomacy

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1. “As the old media wanders slowly into the friscalating dusklight, and the new media evolves from pajama-clad niche to embodiment of the whole, The New Ledger aims to tell the story of the world in a form that is useful, vibrant, inquisitive, and does justice to the tale.”

   Lol, “friscalating dusklight”!

   When was the last time The New Ledger’s ace Korea correspondent set foot on Korean soil, anyway?

   ========================

   OFK:  Since you feel fit to play literary critic — by quoting someone else’s words, I’d add — it seems fair to contrast this to a sample “zine” from King Baeku.  Ah, yes.  This would be one of your more recent pilgrimages to Pyongyang, written with all the elegance of a reader’s letter to Tiger Beat.  I appreciate the subtle, grey hues you use to paint a nuanced, morally conflicted portrait of a dehumanizing display of mass child abuse for gawking waegooks:

   It was a touching scene, and when one young South Korean man reached over the barrier to clasp hands with a North Korean halmoni or grandmother, it was almost as if life was imitating art, and at that moment, at least, “Arirang” did indeed seem to be a triumph of the Dear Leader.

   Outside the stadium, a packed row of North Koreans leaning from an upper balcony waved farewell to us all, South Koreans and Americans alike, and the emotion was overwhelming. We were no longer “hostile foes” or “imperialist aggressors,” but simply fellow human beings who had just witnessed together the greatest show on Earth. We can only wait to see what a future “Arirang” shall show the world.

   You could play a drinking game with such a richness of cliches — “life imitating art?” … take a drink! — but that would be such a clear case of negligent homicide by alcohol poisoning.  I’d certainly hope that anyone who writes crap like this has a day job and a reliably fixed address.

2. “Thus, if the North Koreans crossed the border to kidnap Laura Ling and Euna Lee, it would be an act of international terrorism against two U.S. citizens.”

   Your whole hypothetical argument that the “abduction” of these two journalists is an instance of “international terrorism” relies entirely on other traditional media sources — you know, the ones wandering “slowly into the friscalating dusklight” — which in turn have no clue about what actually happened at the river’s edge. In other words, your speculation rests on yet more speculation, pajama-man.

   [OFK:  You didn’t read the piece very carefully, or you’d have noticed that I quoted an unpublished source — a well informed reader of this blog who prefers to remain anonymous.]

   Also, you are wrong that the border between China and North Korea has recently become less well-regulated. To the contrary, the Chinese have between tightening up control of the border on their side, for example, putting up fences along various portions of the border over the past few years, removing stepping stones to facilitate river crossings at narrow points and whatnot.

   [OFK:  The Chinese have, but on the North Korean side, control is breaking down because of corruption, social disillusionment, the growth of markets, and the regime’s lack of funds.]

   Anyway, I’m no lawyer, but your presentation of the “evidence” you offer in your article would hardly pass muster in a court of law, I dare say.

   [OFK:  Well, the obvious authority with which you speak certainly gives me pause.  Lucky for me that expat anarcho-syndicalist zine writers without fixed addresses don’t serve on juries.]

3. Unfortunately, I was eating dinner when I read OFK’s quote in the comments…

   Anybody who writes crap like that should be slapped a good one in the face – or – left in a locked room with some North Korean refugees…

   And I mean that with no hint of humor. Anyone who talks like that about North Korea and those mass games should be made to hurt…

4. By deleting the controversial attack scene, it would seem that Kim Jong Il tipped the thematic balance of the narrative in favor of reconciliation, and really, who can blame him? The projected film sequence that opens the ‘Arirang of Reunification’ is truly heartbreaking, with a grey-haired mother and her middle-aged son reaching out longingly for each other but divided by the barbed-wire of the DMZ — separated for so long that they no longer quite recognize each other.

   If you can live with it, fine.

   If these are the compromises you feel you have to make… I’m sure it’s for a good cause, no?

   There seem to a fair number, but not a great many, thankfully, who decide that is the noble path to take.

   Others disagree.

   If you’re happy writing about Kim’s soft heart in favor of reconciliation and want images of gray-haired grandmothers longing for a group hug to be more shining in your example of NK than the totalitarian nature of the regime —– if you don’t mind writing pieces that – what? – show another side of NK few people get a chance to recognize —

   —- why so bothered when people quote you?

   If it works for you, right….?

   I mean, it’s only a theatrical critique….

5. “Nesting” comments in the replies of other commenters and hijacking user IDs is just so… tacky.

   Good luck at “The New Ledger.” I rate your most recent contribution there a glorified Google search, with plenty of snark thrown in.

   Perhaps one day you’ll learn Korean and live in Korea, and actually know WTF you’re talking about.

6. “If these are the compromises you feel you have to make…”

   I’m not the kind of person to make compromises, especially in my writing, and am rather offended by the suggestion. I interpreted the show the way I saw it, end of story.

   [OFK:  Well, it’s not a compromise if you’re an outright sympathizer.  It wouldn’t be such a stretch to believe that.  But if you really are morally troubled by concentration camps, ethnic and political cleansing, and the mass crushing of souls for the entertainment of bemused foreigners — without seeing fit to denounce any of that — you’re just a cheap hack who still can’t write.  So which is it?]

7. I would have actually gotten my tour company in trouble if I’d written anything about the tour itself because we were forced to sign waivers that we would not write media articles about it, and what I did write was already crossing the line. I could have gotten my NK guides and Koryo Tours in serious trouble if I’d done anything more extreme.

   I fail to see how this is not describing a position of compromise….but it’s minor point for me anyway…

8. It’s quite obvious by your little nesting trick that you’re threatened by what I have to say, or else you won’t have to be such a girl and do it in the first place. Given all your bluster, I’d thought you’d be man enough to take a little tough talk, but clearly I was mistaken.

   “Gee, I’d sure hate to lose you as a reader, Scott.”

   I can already predict what you have to say most of the time, which makes you a very boring writer. But I’ll continue to monitor the other side from time to time, just because it’s part of my job if nothing else.

   [OFK:  Buh bye!  We’ll miss you!]

9. greatly overshadows that of the South as far as most of the West is concerned

   Not to put words in your mouth, since you don’t like that, but are you implying you don’t place South Korea far from the North in terms of it being a terror regime?

   That’s what living in South Korea (and visiting the North) has taught you?

   Heck. Maybe you’re right. I haven’t been living in SK since 2002. Maybe it has become a place that needs to be ranked right down there with the North…

   humanize it for outsiders. Demonization alone is not enough

   I’m in a strange mood, because this made me laugh out loud hard.

   You want to humanize Kim Jong Il’s regime…. Good gravy….

   There is just so much so utterly wrong with that thought. Both in general and in the specific relationship to what you wrote:

   You see your humanization of the most tyrannical regime on the planet, which you know good and well, as something noble. You don’t seek to humanize the poor people of NK living under the tyranny, but the regime itself – the nation, if you prefer…..You couldn’t have humanized some other aspect of the society….???…

   ….you chose the mass games — which is one of the epitomes of what is so wrong with NK: — wasting large quantities of money and man hours — money wasted by a nation with people starving as a way of life in that society for a long time now —- with large amounts of CHILDREN forced to drill hour after hour after hour after hour day after day after day after day after day —– to show utter devotion to —- the tyrannical regime that grinds the society into dust….

   ….that is what you believe is worth humanizing to point out better qualities of North Korea people don’t give it enough credit for….Unbelievable…

   Watching those games – you don’t even have to know anything about North Korea — when you see that large a group of children that young moving with that kind of precision —- you have to know something is very wrong —— that you can only get that kind of result if you rob a significant portion of the lives of those poor kids…..

   And then the more you learn about North Korea – and the more you learn about those mass demonstrations —– the more shameful you should find them — not less…

   for personal research

   –sigh– I’ve been known in the K-blogs for blowing gaskets in exchanges like this, and I’ve been in a mood to try to work on it — but it can be hard….

   It isn’t the fact you went to the games and toured the North that is the problem we’re pointing to (at least that is how I read OFK’s comments too).

   I can’t stretch my imagination enough to see how writing such a “humanizing” piece about the regime that puts on those games is part of your “research” —

   A few of the people I’ve know in Korean Studies, and a few K-bloggers I’ve read over the years, have made the same or similar trip to North Korea. A couple as part of their research. And they managed to come back without writing laudatory pieces about the regime. (If I think about it long enough, the fact you got money for the effort might even manage to piss me off a little more….but I don’t know….I’ll have to think about that a little more —- which is worse? feeling the need to volunteer to help de-demonize Kim Jong Il’s regime or doing so because you want to but also getting paid for it….???….

   I can conclude this: if you had strictly done it for pay — because you needed the money — I’d honestly respect you more.)

   Anyway, I haven’t been into the part of this discussion about either party’s writing ability, but:

   the general tone you produce in your writings is no doubt extremely off-putting to the average reader

   and

   You’re clearly so partisan that you’ve already lost half your potential readership right there

   Yes, I imagine most of the average readers who feel the need to find some “balance” by “humanizing” Pyongyang will find the tone and information offered at this blog a bit much to stomach.

   — but I don’t think they’ll be a sizable enough block to be considered “half” of anything. Not counting North Korean officials who have internet access, I’d say the number is probably not greater than the number of fingers I have on one hand…

   Do you really mean to come out looking like such a defender of Kim Jong Il’s regime?

   You are preaching “balance” and against “partisanship” — when it comes to the government in North Korea?

   You really want to do that?

   I’m serious. That is your objective in this discussion: to fight for balance and non-partisanship in coverage of the regime in Pyongyang?

   Next, your line of attack about how OFK should shut his trap because he isn’t living in Korea and thus can’t know anything about it —– is surely making the average reader here think much less of you than him. —- His reputation is rather good……due to the writing, the sourcing of information, and the personal sources of information he’s built up over time while doing so much work on issues that can be downright depressing and overwhelming when you deal with them week after week for years…

   Again, I think I can speak for a large percentage of the regular readers here, judging by the comments on threads going back years….you are really only damaging yourself with this “You’re not even in Korea and so don’t know what you’re talking about!!” line…

   Lastly, I don’t put much stock in your making this a conservative vs. liberal thing.

   In fact, it’s demonstratively false – for anyone whose read the site off and on the past few years: OFK attacked Bush’s flipflop and turning his NK policy over to HIll from early on. He’s been consistent in that.

   And in fact, most of the people who’ve commented here, people who have knowledge about the issues, have also been consistent critics of both the Bush and Clinton administrations when they have been following similar paths on NK.

   The criticism hasn’t been based on party affiliation.

   Dismissing it out of hand as some blank partisanship also doesn’t work. The left/liberals are typically the ones most often vocal about human rights violations.

   Even I don’t chalk up your need to humanize and de-demonize the most tyrannical regime on earth as stemming from liberalism…

10. or else you won’t have to be such a girl …

    I was a girl once. So was my mom. And yours. I wouldn’t expect such a elementary school playground sexist remark like that from you, Scott.
    You DID compromise. You admitted yourself that you imposed significant self-censorship in your writing. Whether or not you wanted to avoid demonizing the North Korean regime is irrelevant because you didn’t have a choice as you acknowledged.

11. Sonagi, thanks for the PC lecture. Yawn.

    I did not compromise. My goal before going and afterwards was to review “Arirang” and describe as accurately as possible what I saw. I did that. I did not visit any prison camps, but if I had I would have described them at some point, too. The remainder of my visit involved the standard tour and nothing extraordinary happened that wasn’t already written about many times before by others. No big story there, and my primary aim was simply to interact with people there and learn more about the country and culture.

    I am the kind of writer who likes to see things first-hand before I write about them. If I ever see a prison camp in North Korea, I’ll probably write about them, but for now I haven’t. In any case, plenty of others have opined about them so I don’t feel a particular need to do so myself.

    Usinkorea, following your logic, I’ll make a point next year of reviewing the Super Bowl half-time show and working in numerous references to the US prison system, the largest in the world and a gulag of sorts itself in which rape, torture and murder occur there on a regular, systemic basis.

    Would that make you happy? Why aren’t you doing so yourself?

12. Yes! Because imprisoning a man for armed robbery after a trial before a jury of his peers is EXACTLY the same thing as imprisoning a whole family — kids included — in a death camp where they’re tortured and starved to death because their grandfather was denounced as a class enemy by some anonymous informer. So have you ever seen the inside of a American prison or been to Gaza?

    I like the way Robert Koehler put it:

    Not a night passes when I don’t sleep soundly at night knowing that somewhere out there, Scott is leading the fight against the forces of evil tearing down Korean culture, allowing the rest of us to take cushy hack jobs pushing Seoul’s propaganda on the unsuspecting English-speaking masses.

    I’m seeing at least five levels of irony in that comment.

13. Joshua, I’m flattered by all the attention, but you really are starting to approach stalkerdom.

    [OFK:  Exactly.  I’m stalking you by responding to your ninth comment on this post alone.]

    Don’t you have better things to do with your time than trawl the Web in search of my past Internet activity, however obscure or ephemeral?

    [OFK:  I couldn’t resist looking into how well a “professional critic” writes.  And I wondered about all of that critical acclaim for your writing, which led me to google your name and the title of your book, which led that TMH thread.  You made an obviously dubious boast and I called bullshit.]

    In fact, another one of your rather disingenuous strategies is to detemporalize statements and make them seem like they apply to the present. Robert and I get along quite fine now.  He actually works right around the corner from where I live. People’s opinions do often change over time, and that quote of his above was made some time ago. In a similar way, did it not occur to you that 4 years after I wrote my “Arirang” review, some of my views on North Korea may have also evolved or changed?

    [OFK:  And yet you’re still keeping it to yourself.  I suppose we’ll have to await the outcome of that “personal research” of yours to find out how.]

    That said, I do stand by my original “Arirang” review and think I did a good job.

    [OFK:  Congratulations on that masturbatory golf clap.  Give yourself one thumb up for your first good review.]

    And by the way, if I was really a “hack” for the North, I probably wouldn’t have made a reference to Nazi propaganda in the title of my review, nor would I have thoroughly deconstructed it at the end. Some people happen to prefer ambiguity and subtlety, if only because we can’t all be so morally certain and self-righteous as individuals such as yourself.

    [OFK:  Yes, I can see that from the extensive critical acclaim of your subtle and ambiguous writing.  Are you ready to quit yet?]

14. and what I did write was already crossing the line.

    As I noted before with the longer quote, he clearly carved out a position of compromise – whether he sees it or not. And maybe if he’d spend less time trying to be snarky, he would see things like that.

    Like, when he is so obtuse to draw a comparison between the Super Bowl half-time show and the mass games.

    These things are not hard to see….(and it has nothing to do with logic…)

    When our Super Bowls start requiring elementary to high school students to spend several hours a day throughout the year learning to move with such precision, we’ll be absolutely correct in ridiculing it and demanding it stop.

    And look further at the idiocy of equating the US prison system with North Korea’s concentration camp:

    King Baeksu — this is not rocket science!!

    Rape, torture, and murder that occurs in the US prison system — isn’t a product of a national policy!! It’s a product of the people incarcerated, not a systematic use of such things to punish and control them.

    You really need to stop commenting. You’re just making yourself look worse and worse…