Search Results for: nationalist left front

If I may adapt something G.K. Chesterton said about the English and Ireland: Americans will speak to Korea, and speak for Korea, but they will not hear Korea speak. Least of all do they care to hear Koreans speak to Koreans. Our journalists present President Moon’s approach to the North not in the context of … Continue reading “On Media-Induced Ennui
(or Foreign Coverage of Moon, Part II)
— B.R. Myers”

In November 2019, shortly after making the scandal-ridden Cho Kuk his Justice Minister, Moon Jae-in was described in the sub-heading of an Asia Times article by Andrew Salmon as “Mr Clean, Mr Nice Guy.” (The headline: “Defying Darkness, Moon Shines On.”) In 2020 Salmon called the president “probably the nicest fellow ever to inhabit the … Continue reading “On Foreign Coverage of Moon Jae-in — B.R. Myers”

The press is always behind the times, as T.S. Eliot noted, and it’s only natural that the foreign press should be further behind, but the lag seems especially great in South Korea. Bias plays a larger role than the language barrier. Until this spring most correspondents for foreign media avoided reporting on ruling-camp corruption and … Continue reading “On the Mayoral Elections — B.R. Myers”

In early 2020 the heroic teamwork of doctors and nurses in Daegu and South Koreans’ collective willingness to take proper precautions induced the foreign press to hail Moon Jae-in as a master of pandemic control. The international hype helped his party win a parliamentary majority with which it has since passed a few un-hyped laws … Continue reading “On the “Association of Korean States”
— B.R. Myers”

“I have been wallowing in the bog of politics for a long time, and I have in fact come to be quite fond of it. In it, corruption cleanses people…. It makes you forget what should be forgotten, and overlook what should be overlooked.” – A character in Yukio Mishima’s After the Banquet (1960; transl. … Continue reading “The Korea Spectacle is the Guardian
of Our Korea Sleep
— B.R. Myers”

NORTH KOREA’S JUCHE MYTH (Sthele Press, 2015) INTRODUCTION With minor variations from writer to writer, the Western version of North Korea’s ideological history goes like this: In 1955, seven years into his rule, Kim Il Sung proclaimed the nationalist ideology that had been guiding him all along. Instead of mimicking the USSR, he said, Korea had to … Continue reading “North Korea’s Juche Myth:
Introduction (2015)
— B.R. Myers”

The one resolved only to do what they believed the people would like and approve; and the other that the people should like and approve what they had resolved. And this difference in the measures they took was the true cause of the so different success in all they undertook. — Clarendon, The History of … Continue reading “On the United Future Party —
B.R. Myers”

1 Imagining what will have to happen before the Western commentariat begins taking Korean nationalism seriously is an instructive exercise. I thought the two leaders’ trip to Mount Paektu on September 20 might do the trick. But foreigners are still talking only of Moon’s peace-minded pragmatism and Kim’s desire for security guarantees and investment. Ideology, legitimacy, … Continue reading “League-Confederation Goes
Outer Track — B.R. Myers”

1 A while ago a South Korean journalist called and asked if he could spin out my stalker-bodyguard story in one of his Youtube editorials. This got me thinking it could use an update. As of last April, the stalker and stalkee are engaged. The former no longer seems so hostile to Sam, the bodyguard of … Continue reading “Confederation (Again) — B.R. Myers”

[Abandoning my readers to the Western commentariat is like leaving a child standing on the edge of a well, to borrow a vivid Korean phrase, but I no longer have the time or inclination to blog regularly. My sabbatical is over, I have a book to work on, and those who haven’t yet grasped the … Continue reading “Portrait of the Ally as an Intermediary
— B.R. Myers”