Ask a Korean!

2009-12-14T23:37:00.000-05:00

China is dealing with race issues now -- and it's not pretty. Hooray to the least racist nation in the world.

2009-12-12T15:34:00.000-05:00

Kobe does not need fingers to play basketball.

2009-12-11T12:22:00.003-05:00

One of the finest Korean Americans, JuJu Chang, is slated to be the next news reader at Good Morning America.

Religions in Korea?

2009-12-09T23:20:00.008-05:00

Dear Korean,

I would like to know of the common religion that most Koreans believe in. Is there some sort of fixed Korean religion, or are they just a bunch of Koreans who believe in different religions or so? If so, what other religion do they believe in?

Max

Dear Korean,

Recently there was a news story of Armenian and Greek Orthodox monks in Jerusalem (again) brawling over procedure/territory. That makes me wonder whether the factions in Korean Buddhism, or, for that matter, Christianity, share a particular enmity. (You know how God can fire up some folk.) Personally, I can see where the followers of Mithras might have a problem with the rest of the world (those pesky safety regulations), but what is the situation in the Land of the Morning Calm?

Cactus McHarris

Dear Korean,

Do you know how common traditional Korean religions are in Korea these days? I used to have the impression that most Koreans no longer practice traditional religions, and that most are not religious or are some form of Christian--but sometimes I still come across stories about rituals in the mountains or business execs moving their family graves for good luck but at horrendous cost. I'm sure some Koreans are still following traditional religious ways, but do you know how common it is? Are there any stats anywhere? As for fortune telling, I know it's still widespread, but almost all young people I've talked to (under 30) say they go to a fortune teller just for fun and don't take it seriously.

John

Dear questioners,

First of all, a full disclosure – the Korean is a Presbyterian. Discussing religion is always a tricky subject, so that disclosure was necessary.

Let us address Max’s question first. The answer is that Koreans generally believe in different religions. According to the 2005 census by Statistics Korea (a quasi-governmental body dedicated to creating official statistics,) here is the breakdown of major religions in Korea: Buddhists 22.8 percent, Protestants 18.3 percent, Catholics 10.9 percent and 1 percent for Other.

What you may notice is that there is a very large population of Koreans who have no religion at all, since the religious population only adds up to 53.1 percent. This does not mean the non-religious Koreans are atheists – it just means that many Koreans simply do not care too much about religion. Accordingly, religion is not really a part of public discourse in Korea. What may be controversial in the United States because of religion – e.g. abortion or stem cell research – is not controversial in Korea.

To answer Cactus’ question, people of different religions in Korea get along with one another quite well. To be sure, recently there has been some backlash against some Protestants who proselytize very aggressively, mostly in the form of nasty Internet rants and some scattered cases of vandalism on church buildings. Also, the fact that the current president Lee Myeong-Bak is a devout Christian whose cabinet includes some of his church members draws some collateral fire against Christianity from those who dislike Lee. (For example, when Lee was a presidential candidate, Buddhist leaders of Korea demanded that Lee to be more accommodating for Buddhists. Lee promised he would.)

But in the grand scheme of things – especially given our knowledge of how explosive and deadly a religious strife could be – religious life in Korea is generally diverse and tolerant.

-EDIT 12/11/09- Upon reading Cactus' question again, the Korean realized he read it completely wrong. How embarrassing -- the Korean is very sorry. Let us actually address it. The different factions within each religion in Korea mostly get along just fine. But there are occasional instances of tension that sometimes escalate to physical jostling. For example in 2006, there was a physical altercation between Buddhist monks of Seonam-sa and of the Buddhist head organization Taego-jong, the second largest faction of Buddhism in Korea. (The largest is called Jogye-jong.) The altercation occurred because the monks of Seonam-sa temple wanted more independence from the head organization, and Taego-jong was not going to stand for it. This incident was roundly mocked by irreligious Koreans.

Nothing to see here folks, just brawling monks at Seonam-sa.
No nunchakus or anything.

Also, certain Protestant churches in Korea are known for their extremely aggressive proselytizing, which includes denigrating other Christian branches and other religions. But while they are highly visible due to their shrill loudness on the streets and on the Internet, their absolute number is quite negligible. So while those groups generate some amount of tension, the manifestation of that tension is usually confined to flame wars on the Internet message boards, not any actual physical altercation. -EDIT over-

Now, onto John’s question. The question about Korea’s traditional religion is slightly tricky because there is some ambiguity as to what really counts as “traditional religion.” For example, vast majority of Koreans perform rituals (e.g. jesa) for their dead ancestors, which may be considered a traditional religion in the form of ancestor worship. But in fact, those rituals are not particularly religious – they are more like a memorial ceremony rather than ancestor worship. Evidencing this characteristic, both Buddhists and Catholics in Korea participate in jesa and other traditional rituals. Korean Protestants also engage in the traditional rituals, although they tend to somewhat modify the rituals.

Also, there are a host of minor organized religions in Korea that may be considered “traditional religion,” in a sense that they contain some reflection of traditional faith. Such religions include Won Buddhism, Chondogyo, Zeungsangyo, Daejonggyo, etc. For example, Daejonggyo, established in 1909, is based on worshipping Dangun, the mythical progenitor of all Koreans back in 2333 B.C.E. But the influence of these religions is nearly negligible, as less than 0.5 percent of all Koreans believe in those minor religions combined.

Then there are the traditional, unorganized faiths/superstitions, such as fortune telling, feng shui, shamanistic rituals (gut), etc. There is no real statistics about how prevalent these things are. The Korean’s own experience has been that the oldest generation of Koreans takes them seriously, while the rest not so much. (The Korean Grandmother, 94 years young, is a huge fan.) It is not very easy to see a real-deal gut, for example – which is a pity, because it is quite a spectacle.

Yeongdang Poong'eo gut - a gut asking for plenty of fish for the fishermen (Source)

Instead, the younger generation in Korea has turned them into somewhat of an entertainment, like the way American girls use a mirror and a brush to find out what their future husbands look like during a sleepover. There are a number of “fortune telling cafes” in Korea, where mostly young clientele enjoy coffee while different fortune tellers visit the tables to read their future.

But, to the extent it does not take too much effort, many Koreans lukewarmly follow those superstitions in a eh-what-have-I-got-to-lose manner. For example, many Koreans do consult some feng shui-type book or website when choosing the gravesite for their parents. Similarly, many Koreans do a perfunctory check when naming their children to make sure they did not inadvertently saddled their children with a name that invites bad luck.

One time when he was living in Korea, the Korean visited a fortune teller, whose trick was to pull three Chinese characters out of hundreds that represented the Korean's personality and destiny. The characters for the Korean were: 才, 才 and 才. Talent, talent, talent. The Korean does not (and did not) take fortune telling very seriously, but he's not going to lie -- that felt pretty good.

Got a question or a comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@hotmail.com.

2009-12-08T12:22:00.003-05:00

The Korean works at a big skyscraper in New York, which has a little screen in the elevator showing news, weather and such. Just now, the screen was showing "Today's Tweeter Buzzword," and one of them was... "Jaebum". As in 2PM. What the hell. Did anyone else see this?

2009-12-07T23:44:00.000-05:00

Interesting NYT article on Theodore Roosevelt's stance on Imperial Japan.

Ask a Korean! News: Internet and Korean Entertainment

2009-12-05T23:32:00.017-05:00

Here is an interesting article that nicely describes the interplay between Korea's Internet and its entertainment programs. Original here.

Portal-Friendly Talk Show or Chumming Heaven?

[TK Note: "Portal" is the word Koreans use to describe sites like Naver or Daum, which is similar to the structure of Yahoo! or MSN with a lot of content in the front page along with a search engine.]

The media scholars of the future may record July 2004 as a significant moment, because it is the date when Paran.com, Internet portal operated by Korea Telecom, officially launched. Why must we remember the launch of Paran, which no longer has much presence at this point?

At the time, paran.com focused on the Korean Internet users' high interest in contents regarding sports and entertainment. So it secretly entered into an exclusive deal with the five largest sports newspapers in Korea for a groundbreaking sum of $100,000 per month for a year. [TK Note: "sports newspapers" are Korea's tabloids, focusing on sports, celebrity gossip, lots of pictures and cartoons. All dollar figures assume $1 = KRW 1,000.]

Behind the so-called "Paran incident", there exists the portal market that was on a meteoric rise.

Gangshimjang, a mass-guest talk show, is the top rated show on Tuesday

At the time, the portal companies were engaged in a heated competition to attract visitors by cramming articles about sports and entertainment, preferred by young Internet users. Paran, which was late in joining this competition, reacted by hoarding the sports and entertainment content from the sports newspapers for $6 million for a year (five companies for $1.2 million each.) This was based on the erroneous judgment that monopolizing the killer contents would lead to the domination the portal market.

The result is as we know now. The competitors -- Naver, Daum and Yahoo Korea -- began to focus on supporting Internet news media that created similar contents. Within a year, the sports newspaper suffered a precipitous drop in circulation as well as in the public opinion-forming power that they previously had. Although this example is limited to entertainment content, the Paran incident went down in history that symbolizes the changed media environment.

Gangshimjang, an Epitome of a Portal-Friendly Broadcasting

The recent trend is that a portal site's main screen and real time search term rankings each morning are filled with gossips about celebrities who appeared on a talk show the night before. For a show to make a hit, it has to be "portal-friendly" -- because now there exists a virtuous cycle of voluminous and strong gossips feeding into higher ratings.

Of course, in any country's television, the night time is filled with talk shows featuring superstars. The the defining characteristic of "orthodox" talk shows, such as Jay Leno's "Tonight Show" or David Letterman's show, is a 1-on-1 conversation between the host and the guest. The conversation may be shortened through editing, but it does not veer from the basic framework of "person-to-person" conversation. Korea's best talk show, Gang Ho-Dong's Mureupak Dosa, follows the same format. There is no other show that is more populist, nor is there any other show that better showcase of the character of the guest. But it does have a weakness -- because there is only one guest, there is a large variance in its power to create issues.

At the point opposite of Mureupak Dosa is Gangshimjang, the ambitious new project by SBS. [TK Note: name of a TV station.] Gangshimjang focuses on how it could produce the greatest quantity of gossip materials in the shortest amount of time. Airing its seventh episode on December 1, this program is the culmination of the talk show format that reflects the very Korean, portal-led media structure.

"Quantity" and "Speed" - the Strength of Talk Shows Today

First, one must take note of the overwhelming number of guests. The number of guests for talk shows, including Yashim-manman (the previous edition of Gangshimjang) and KBS's competitor program Imagination Plus, has not exceeded 4 to 6 so far -- because even as a "mass talk show," that number was about the upper limit of a conversation considering the number of hosts (usually two to four.) In fact, the number of people before the camera on most domestic talk shows, including the hosts, are around ten.

But Gangshimjang came out with a groundbreaking format of two hosts and over 20 guests.

Gangshimjang's two hosts, Gang Ho-Dong and Lee Seung-Ki.
But their roles in fact are very limited.

Of course, not all 20 guests can be the main focus of a conversation. So the show boldly discards the conversation format; instead the guests toss to the viewers the pre-packaged "strong issue-creator" (or "chum", according to the Internet vernacular.) Seen positively, the show is an evolution toward a conversation with the viewers; seen negatively, it is an degeneration toward yellow journalism.

Of course, reaction from the Internet users alone is not enough. What really makes a TV talk show shine is the Internet-based entertainment-focused media companies. For these Internet-based, breaking news-focused media that strives for low cost and high volume, relaying the contents of a TV talk show plays to their strength. They are also welcome allies to television, since they provide a near-watching experience that does not require actually watching TV, and also some "official" authority even to simple gossip-like remark. In the end, the entertainment news on portal sites on Wednesday morning is filled with gossips provided by Gangshimjang and its competitor, Imagination Plus.

The limit of a traditional talk show is that there are only two or three topics to focus in one hour. But Gangshimjang brims with more than ten well-summarized and interesting stories. Thus, there is no overlapping news among different media, and generally more articles can be written.

Gangshimjang was initially considered a "survival talk show," emulating its predecessor Seo Sewon Talk Show. But now, it appears that it is an evolved form of talk show, aggressively accepting the portal environment. Leeteuk of Super Junior would reveal a fictitious "Realtime Search Term Ranking" in the middle of the show, and a portal company's search window naturally appears at the bottom of the screen as advertisement.

Because of Gangshimjang's rise, KBS's Imagination Plus (which had loudly proclaimed public interest) also began to invite multiple celebrities, quickly churning out "stimulating topics" without dragging on. We have now arrived at an age when the quantity and speed of a talk show "chum" determine ratings.

A Critical Moment

Singer Hwang Hye-Yeong on Gangshimjang.

On its December 1 episode, a 90s favorite Hwang Hye-Yeong (36 years old) appeared on the show after a long hiatus. She began on the topic of "Dating in my 20s":

"The biggest pop star at the time asked me out. I liked him too, so we began dating. We were on a secret date in a car, but we got into a fender bender on a snow road. Both of our production companies found out about us, took away our pagers and began a 24-hour watch. So we broke up against our will ..."

Immediately, the hosts asked who the man was. The secret of high ratings is not giving the answer right away. Hwang mumbled, "A member of the most popular group in 1994, who is still single." To this, Gang Ho-Dong concludes: "Don't worry. We have the Internet search party."

As Gang predicted, on the morning of December 2, the leading portal search term was: "Hwang Hye-yeong". The leading candidates for the mystery date, "Seo Taiji and Boys" and "R.E.F.", were also near the top. And the numerous entertainment news articles about this "scandal"! Everything worked out as planned.

Got a question or a comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@hotmail.com.

2PM, Jaebeom, and Korea's Internet Culture

2009-12-04T22:50:00.015-05:00

Dear Korean,

You may recall about two months ago that a kid named Jaebeom from the boy group 2PM (managed by JYP) was basically run out of Korea for some "anti-Korean" comments he made on his MySpace page a few years ago. What's your take on this, especially surrounding the jingoistic knee-jerk reaction to his comments, as well as the equally ridiculous movement to boycott JYP for not "protecting" Jaebeom?

Simon

Dear Simon,

The Korean will first state this for the record: the Korean loathes K-pop. Most Korean music worth listening to was produced before the 21st century. As of now, the Korean can count with one hand the Korean singers/bands that are worth listening to. Everyone else is a pretty, soulless shell mass-produced by production companies. Watching them or listening to most K-pop stars makes you stupider. There is nothing redeeming about them. They are the musical equivalent of McDonald’s French fries.

If you are interested in contemporary Korean music, try this guy.
His name is Jang Gi-Ha (장기하). Absolutely fantastic.

But the phenomenon that you described is indeed interesting, so here is the Korean’s take on it. But first, for those who are unfamiliar with the context, the Korean will provide an executive summary:

JYP, or Jin-Yeong Park, is one of the most successful talent developer/managers in the K-pop scene. (Park himself was a relatively successful pop star when he was younger.) The products of JYP Entertainment include such luminaries of K-pop such as Rain and Wonder Girls. JYP frequently mines talent out of both Koreans and Korean Americans.

One of JYP’s most recent creations was 2PM, a boy group with seven members that debuted in 2008. (Hilariously, JYP simultaneously created 2AM, a four-member boy group who sing ballads rather than the beat-heavy dance numbers that 2PM do.) Jaebeom, a third-generation Korean American from Seattle, was one of the members. Jaebeom joined JYP Entertainment in 2005 at age 18, and was trained in Korea prior to his debut as a 2PM member. 2PM was very successful, rising to the top of the charts by early 2009.

2PM. Barf.

Trouble began for Jaebeom in September 2009, when his MySpace page that he kept between 2005 and 2007 became public. Particularly problematic was a correspondence from Jaebeom to his friend on Feb. 22, 2005, which said: “Korea is gay. I hate Koreans. I want to come back like no other.” (Quote is cleaned up for grammar and punctuation.) When the news broke, JYP initially defended Jaebeom, calling the posts “youthful mistakes.” Jaebeom also issued an apology. Other members of 2PM stood by him, expressing support on their own homepages.

But the reaction of K-pop fans, particularly over the Internet, was swift and harsh. Massive amount of hate mail and blog posts soon overwhelmed the popular Korean websites such as Naver and Daum (similar to Yahoo and Google.) Petitions calling for 2PM’s disbandment circulated. JYP suspended 2PM’s appearances. Jaebeom then quit 2PM and returned to Seattle, four days after the news broke. Counter-protest from Jaebeom’s fans also broke out on the Internet over this development, claiming that JYP threw Jaebeom under the bus.

As of now, 2PM chugs along without Jaebeom, releasing a new album. In November, JYP appeared on a TV show indicating that he is considering Jaebeom’s return.

So there is the summary. Now, what does the Korean think about all this?

The Korean thinks that Jaebeom is a fucking retard. It is hardly a secret that Koreans are rather nationalistic, and some of them are prone to complete overreaction at any perceived slight against their nation. It should also be very clear that if you are a star, you have no privacy. Your MySpace page will be made public sooner or later. If Jaebeom did not know that when he was 18, he should have known by the time when he was 22. There is no excuse.

This is a different case from other cases of swift, harsh judgments on the Internet driving celebrities into a corner, for example like Choi Jin-sil. In case of Choi, the rumors on the Internet were baseless lies. In case of Jaebeom, the possible implications of his own words on the Internet were very clear. The Korean has no sympathy for him. Worse has happened to better people.

We still miss you very much.

Having said that, this episode is indeed very interesting because it is an excellent illustration of a particular characteristic of a Korean society that often baffles the outsiders – its interconnectedness. Korea is an extremely interconnected society. Put differently, everyone knows everyone in Korea. (Or more accurately, in Korea, everyone knows at least someone who knows another, leading to knowing everyone.) And by “everyone”, the Korean truly means everyone – including the biggest stars and celebrities.

Often this is described as Korea’s being small, but it is more than that. Compared to Americans, Koreans build a much denser social network over their lives through school, work, hometown and neighborhood. Also, Korea itself is literally denser than America – anything and anyone that matter are located in Seoul, a 12-million people gigapolis. On top of that, Korea is unquestionably the most wired country in the world. Internet works on incredible speed. (What is now advertised as Verizon FiOS has been available in Korea for the last 10 years.) Cell phones work everywhere, including in the subways.

There are many practical implications of this, which will be discussed over other posts as well. But one of the major implications is that in Korea, the distance between the media/Internet and the real world is very, very small.

Contrast America. Take Britney Spears, for example. There is no doubt that she lives in a fish bowl of sorts in America. Paparazzis follow her around everywhere. Any small detail of her life gets publicly exposed on Perez Hilton and TMZ. But as bad as her life is in America, few Americans can reach her in a meaningful way, because Spears is physically removed from most Americans. Few people know Spears personally, nor do they know anyone who knows Spears personally. Her career as a celebrity might suffer, but she can more or less go on living her life.

Not so in Korea. If there is a celebrity, there are already a lot of people who know that celebrity personally. There are even more people who know someone who has a personal relationship with that celebrity. (Heck, the Korean himself can get the phone numbers of a number of celebrities right now by using less than 5 phone calls/emails, and he has been out of the country for 12 years! The Korean even played basketball once with JYP in New York. He had a nice jump shot.) And they all live right around one another, and they are constantly chattering through the world’s fastest Internet and the world’s most extensive cell phone network. One intriguing move, and the eye of the public turns to that celebrity like the Eye over Minas Morgul.

Did anyone see my contact lens?

This is not always bad. For example, when Moon Geun-Yeong was revealed as the anonymous donor who donated around $800,000 over six years, the entire Korea went into a swoon over her commendable act, as the positive opinion of her multiplied quickly over the Internet. The story of her charity was justifiably hyped, which prompted more Koreans to care about charity and donations.

But when things go wrong, the power of the Eye is absolutely terrifying – particularly when it is aimed against ordinary people who never signed up for public scrutiny like celebrities did. The most infamous example is the Dog Poop Girl in 2005. A college student refused to clean up after her dog in a subway car, and another commuter took a picture of her (and her dog) with a cell phone camera. Within days of the picture being circulated on the Internet, everything about her became public – name, picture, address, school (current and former,) websites that she frequents, any comments that she left on the Internet, even where she is right now as “sightings” were reported.

This makes a celebrity’s life in Korea more difficult as well. For example in 2008, comedienne Jeong Seon-Hee made a remark that can be considered disparaging towards the Mad Cow Protestors. The Mad Cow Protestors, also organized over the Internet, began a boycott against Jeong, as well as against the business run by Jeong’s husband, a former actor named Ahn Jae-Hwan. Ahn’s cosmetics business was shut down, and did not do the same business after it re-opened. (Although the complete picture indicates that Ahn probably was not such a good businessman to begin with, as he was vastly overextended in multiple businesses that did not do very well at all.) The loss of income from his wife as well as from his business led to a financial ruin, which prompted Ahn to commit suicide.

But again, by September of 2009, the consequences for a celebrity who pisses off his fan base should have been pretty clear to anyone. Jaebeom is still an idiot for allowing this to happen. Jaebeom is actually lucky, because his sentence was not hell but a purgatory. The Korean society now has had the time to reflect the excesses of its Internet culture, and is coming around to realize that it is being too harsh on individuals for understandable mistakes that individuals are capable of making. This enabled JYP to bring up the possibility of Jaebeom’s return within two months without causing another riot on the Internet. He will be back in K-pop scene sooner or later.

Got a question or a comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@hotmail.com.

2009-12-04T14:25:00.003-05:00

World Cup drawing alert - North Korea is completely screwed (unless they bring grenades to the pitch.) South Korea is in a slightly tough position but OK overall. United States got lucky and is in a relatively soft group.

2009-11-30T22:28:00.000-05:00

Hysterical post from Kimchi Mamas: Twilight is actually a K-drama.

No wonder the Korean loathes Twilight!

2009-11-30T08:06:00.002-05:00

Indians who are educated in America have a tough time to going back to India, and would rather stay in America. Is this a surprise? Maybe to the know-nothings who think highly educated immigrants do not contribute to America because the immigrants always return to their country.

Hooray to immigration, and hooray to America.

Ask a Korean! News: Starvation in North Korea

2009-11-29T11:32:00.006-05:00

Did you give thanks this past week? Perhaps you should give some more thanks, after reading this story. This is a story from a North Korean defector lady who put a post on Nambuk Story.

Mom, Sis -- We are Humans Too

First, I would like to thank everyone who reads this post, because I could learn much from your comments.

I had a grandmother, a father and a mother who dedicated their entire lives swearing loyalty to Kim Jong-Il and Korea Labor Party. I have no memory of ever sitting on my father's lap, because he would go to work at 6 in the morning and come back at midnight. He wanted to receive an Effort Hero merit for his hard work.

But instead, all he received was invectives, because our ancestors come from South Korea. They said why would a family of shit dogs would receive any award. We could do nothing in our country because of our ancestor, whom we have never met, was from South Korea. Finally, when the crisis [TK Note: the famine in early 1990s] came, our family moved to the mountains to find a way to survive.

I was third of six brothers and sisters. I grew up learning songs like this: "Honk-honk, my little brother drives a "Victory" brand car. I asked him where he was going. He said he was going to give rice to the poor South Korean brothers." I still vividly hear my teacher teaching that there are many beggar children in South Korea with a can on their waist, who gets beaten to death by well-off people while scrounging and begging for food. I also learned that Korea was a slave to another country and cannot even breathe without permission. That it was a land of idiots without pride, mooching off America like a dog.

We had this great life because the Great General Father protected us with the pride and greatness of Korea. We swore our lives for the Dear Leader, who twice a year gave us a whole kilo of candies and cookies that South Korean children could not have.

But we had to walk 6 kilometers of mountain road to get to school. We had to give up school because our legs, fueled only by boiled wild vegetables, would shake and give out. It was especially difficult for my older sister and I, who had no shoes except a piece of plastic wrapping our feet.

When we were living in the city, my grandmother and mother were trying to turn the last one kilogram of rice into rice cake so that they could sell it. They would have used the profit to buy rice and have porridge. But the police took the whole thing away, saying that we are selling rice that was the grace given from the General. We could not even sell things because we were warned that merchants would be considered a criminal who accepts the filth of capitalism.

So we thought we would survive in the mountain by farming. We cut the trees, tilled the land and pulled the weed, with a hope that we can eat in autumn. Then a National Security Bureau adviser said they would take all the harvest, saying the South Korean dog's family just had to act like a landowner. My indignant grandmother yelled, "Go split it with the wild hogs." The remaining potatoes were hashed out by wild hogs, and the remaining corns were ruined from bears, squirrels and birds. Our blood and sweat disappeared with the wind. In the winter, we would face near death from starvation while eating boiled pea pods and crushed corn cobs. We would roast and devour a rat that was caught in a trap.

Although my father was a loyal member of the Korea Labor Party, he left for China to buy food because he could not bear to see the mass deaths of his mother, wife and six children. But on his way back with a bag of rice, he was caught by the NSB, and died from beating and starvation in prison.

My mother was pregnant with her youngest child. She tried to abort the baby because of the hardship, but the doctor wanted 20 kilograms of beans. She had to have the child because there was no way to get those beans. She gave birth after only eight months of pregnancy after having been frightened by the news of my father's death.

She gave birth in a log cabin without any lights. There was no one to help giving birth other than my grandmother, who was 76, and myself, who was 10. I could never forget what my grandmother said when she was cutting the umbilical cord with scissors that were used to cut cloth. She told me, shivering with fear, that mother would die if I don't hold on tight to the umbilical cord. I held the slippery baby on one hand and the umbilical cord on the other, screaming "mom please wake up". Hiding tears, my grandmother put my small brother face down on the ground for him to die. My mother begged my grandmother to let him live. I could only cry out of fear, holding my two younger siblings who were 5 and 6 years old.

My grandmother returned my brother to my mother, but he could only cry for milk that was not coming from my mother. My older sister went to sell the clothes from home to buy some rice, but she was robbed on the way home, barely coming home alive.

Eating only boiled water, we thought we could only die. But a lady from the People's Bureau in charge of monitoring the villagers told us that she would give us 5 kilos of rice if we would take the 20 kilos of beans to sell at the city 50 kilometers away, buy wallpaper with the money and bring it back.

My older sister left, telling me that she would return no matter how late the next day would be, and that I should protect my mother, grandmother and my younger siblings. But seven days later, she would not return. My mother, seven days after giving birth, went on the 50 kilometer journey to find her. She gave my brother to me, telling me to hang on until she came back.

To keep my brother alive, I begged at the houses of the NSB leaders for 500 grams of rice. All I got was a spit in the face and a beating with a broomstick. They told me why the seeds of South Korean dogs would bother trying to live, and that my father was a traitor to the country. Finally, my brother would not take drinking boiled grass water any longer; he starved to death after clawing at my breasts.

My mother heard that my sister was sold away to China. She went to China to search for her, but could not. She came back with two small bags of powdered milk and a bag of rice, and cried when she heard my brother had died. She was taken away when the NSB agents found out that she went to China. Everything she brought back was taken away. My grandmother starved to death, while longing for the illusion of a boiled potato that she saw next to me.

My mother returned after escaping from the prison. There was no part of her body that was fine, after the beatings and tortures. She laid down for two months while wringing towels soaked with blood leaking out of her head. Then she saw us, nearly dying, and summoned the superhuman strength to take the three of us to China, resolving that she could not possibly kill the remaining children.

I carried the five year old brother on my back and held the hand of the six year old sister, and let my barely moving mother lean against me. We could not walk more than 4 kilometers. My shoeless feet were bleeding. I went to this one house and begged that they take care of my brother for just five days, and promised my brother that we will come back if he sleeps for just five nights.

I can still hear my brother. "Nuna, why do you take the other nuna and not me?" I told him, "Guk-Cheol, mother and I have to carry the rice and your nuna has to carry the candies and cookies, so we will hurry back. Ok?"

After one month, we were trying to return from China but we could not because the Tumen river has flooded. But even more than that, they said there was an order from Kim Jong-Il that anyone who did not participate in the election was to be executed. So we gave someone else money and asked him to bring back my brother, but he only returned with this news: the family that was taking care of my brother had fallen on hard times also, and kicked my brother out. My brother starved to death in a windy reed field, looking for his sister.

This was the end of the destiny for our six brothers and sisters. This is how my family was shattered. I want to ask whose fault was our tragedy.

In China, we had to hide from the police in a dirt hole at night, getting bitten by ants and mosquitoes. During the day, we would help tilling someone's land. The landowner would say he would give the money tomorrow, but one bowl of rice was all we got. If we went to him for money, he would call the police. We were sent back to North Korea four times, but we survived by swallowing money wrapped in plastic. We would bribe the guards with that money after we excreted it.

Eighty percent of the prisoners in the prison I was sent to were caught while trying to go to Korea. Those who endure the beating while telling a story that they were only trying to work in China are sent to a prison called Training Center for six months to a year. If they do not die from disease or starvation, they come out alive and defect from North Korea once again. Those who cannot stand the pain and tell the truth are sent to the prison for political criminals and die there.

North Korean defectors can only die, only in different ways. If they stay in their homeland and survive by selling things, everything is taken away under the pretext that they are imitating capitalism. They finally die in prison after living in poverty and becoming economic criminal, thieves, or political prisoners for lamenting their country. They might want to die after at least having a bowl of rice and drown while trying to cross the Tumen River. The women are sold this way and that, dying from disease or beating after trying to run away. The truly lucky ones, like me, receive help from the Korean brothers, gain liberty and live as well as I do.

Please, everyone -- what are we supposed to do? Please tell me if you have any wise ideas.

I think the North Korean themselves are the only answer. They must somehow revolt, eliminate Kim Jong-Il and the parasites that suck on the blood of the people, and gain liberty. I believe that is the only way to resolve their misery and tribulations. It is not as if Koreans, busy with getting rich, will rescue them by killing Kim Jong-Il with their tanks.

The people of North Korea are taught like this: "Today, again, General went out for supervision without even eating, for the welfare of his people. He cannot sleep, refusing corn and rice, saying how could I have rice when my people are eating porridge because of the puppet South Koreans? Why is Korea trying to kill the people of North Korea? Why is it trying to start a war over and over? Why does it continue to send spies to put glass shards in the food that our poor people eat?"

Koreans, are you really like so? The Koreans I know are kind and love their people. Many times I wished North Korean people and military would learn the truth and endeavor toward life and liberty. That Kim Jong-Il is a true villain, who suffers from diabetes and clogged arteries because of eating so well. That while he condemns those who watch Korean movies as traitors but he still watches those movies and follows Korea's famous actors and actresses. That while he punishes those who divorce and bury them society while having a harem of women.

While I was in prison, I wished that I could put a picture of Kim Jong-Il's wives and the shark's fin banquet that he eats, along with 100 Chinese yuan, in front of every single house in North Korea. But those in Korea went further, and began sending flyers in balloons. This made me so happy. How else could we save the dying people?

JSH Note: This is a post in support of flyering from a defector, ID "Thank You", when there was a debate over the balloon flyering in North Korea last winter. I read this three times, and each time I cried. This post gives me strength, as it makes me reflect how and for what I should live.

Got a question or a comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@hotmail.com.

2009-11-28T20:21:00.001-05:00

New York Times has a report on mixed-ethnicity children in rural Korea. Incidentally, the Korean made the same report, with basically the same analysis, more than three years ago.

Gotta catch up, New York times.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2009-11-25T13:28:00.003-05:00

The Korean wishes happy Thanksgiving to everyone who celebrates it. This year, the Korean is thankful for having a job, turning the Korean Girlfriend into the Korean Fiancee, great family and friends as always, and another great year for AAK!

Here is what the Korean wrote last year for Thanksgiving:

Thanksgiving is truly the Korean's favorite holiday, although sadly it is increasingly becoming an inconvenient roadblock for American retailers to get the Christmas shopping season going early.

Thanksgiving is the most American of all holidays, save perhaps the Independence Day. It is the day for immigrants. The Pilgrim's dinner with the Native Americans symbolize our ideals as a nation of immigrants: newcomers and the natives, on the same table, sharing a meal.

Beauty of history lies in that the patterns in its fabric repeat endlessly. On the Thanksgiving Day of 1997 -- some 380 years after the Pilgrims -- the Korean Family arrived at the port of Los Angeles International Airport, full of anticipation for the Land of Opportunity. The Korean Family was greeted by natives, the distant family friends who have lived in the U.S. for decades as Korean Americans. And like a beautiful fugue, the pattern repeated once again; the natives helped the immigrants to get settled in, and begin their lives in the new world.

Thus, Thanksgiving Day is doubly special for the Korean Family. We never miss celebrating it. We are thankful for all the great things in our lives, but most of all, we are thankful to be in America. Like the Pilgrims who were grateful for their new lives and new opportunities, the Korean Family is grateful, each and every year, for our own new lives and opportunities.

Got a question or a comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@hotmail.com.

2009-11-21T23:38:00.002-05:00

ROLL ON YOU BEARS!!!!!!!

Alcoholism in Korea

2009-11-18T22:01:00.007-05:00

Dear Korean,

Why are there so many alcoholics in Korea? Why is it so socially acceptable to be an alcoholic in Korea? What sorts of organizations are there for helping alcoholics in Korea?

Someone deeply affected by an alcoholic when living in Korea

Dear Drunk Friend,

Let us take one question at a time.

First, are there many alcoholics in Korea? There is no way to know for certain, because the definition of “alcohol dependence” is very elastic, and the estimation of the total number is not an exact science. The firmest statistic comes from National Health Insurance Corporation – a fantastic nationalized health insurance that most certainly did not turn Korea a socialist country – there were around 182,000 patients who were treated for alcohol dependence in 2008. How that number extrapolates into the total number of alcoholics in Korea is anyone’s guess: the estimates run anywhere between 1.8 million to 7 million.

(Aside: Can we just agree that American healthcare system sucks like a Hoover? Consider this -- Korean American travel agencies now have a "medical tourism package", where people can tour Korea and take advantage of Korea's incredibly cheap health checkup and other treatments. Why more Americans are not embarrassed by how crappy America's healthcare system is beyond the Korean.)

Yes, it is totally inappropriate to have this picture up for a post that talks about alcoholism. But the Korean could not help himself.

While there is no firm data, available comparative data indicates that Korea probably is not among the world leaders in alcohol dependence. World Health Organization compiled a list of countries by per capita alcohol consumption, and Korea finishes at number 50 – above the median among 191 countries surveyed, but not necessarily in the elite group of drinkers. The winner is Portuguese, who – astonishingly, the Korean must add – consume more than twice of Koreans per capita. Both United States and Canada rank ahead of Korea. Among Asian countries, Thailand ranks first, then Korea, followed by Japan.

Second, is it socially acceptable to be an alcoholic in Korea? Not really. It is true that there exist specific subgroups in Korea (e.g. among young people or high-stress occupation like attorneys) where binge drinking is a badge of honor, like within fraternities or among investment bankers in the U.S. But overall, alcoholism in Korea is nothing to be proud of. There is a general sense of benign neglect over alcoholism in Korea, but the Korean is not aware of any country or culture that swiftly intervenes at the first sign of alcohol dependence. (Except, of course, certain cultures that condemn alcohol consumption altogether.)

One important distinction, however, is -- while alcoholism is not a badge of honor in Korea, public drunkenness in Korea is certainly more tolerated than in America. Korea has no open container law that is common in the U.S., and no "drunk tank" that rounds up the intoxicated. In fact, at night around popular hangouts, it is quite common to see people having passed out on the street after what presumably was a night of revelry. (An excellent new blog, Black Out Korea, chronicles the examples of this hilarious phenomenon.)

Third, where can you get help for alcoholism in Korea? A quick Internet search reveals a number of options, spread throughout major cities in Korea. Here are some links to visit:

Lifeline Alcohol Counseling Center: www.lifeacc.or.kr
Seoul Caritas Counseling Center: www.cacc.or.kr
Busan Alcohol Counseling Center: www.busanacc.org
Daegu Catholic Alcohol Counsel Center: www.alcoholcenter.or.kr

Got a question or comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@hotmail.com.

2009-11-17T19:44:00.004-05:00

As always, Deadspin has the best description for Michelle Wie's recent victory:

It's about freakin' time that 20-year-old Michelle Wie won a real golf tournament, a two-stroke win in the Lorena Ochoa Invitational. Now maybe she'll give up this silly dream and finally enroll in dental school.

Deadspin: Michelle Wie's Life is No Longer Worthless

2009-11-16T22:58:00.000-05:00

America has hit a new low -- Mexicans are sending money to their relatives in the north.

Ask a Korean! News: Acclimation of a North Korean

2009-11-14T20:02:00.009-05:00

An unusally light-hearted, yet nonetheless insightful, piece from Joo Seong-Ha:

Evidence that I am Becoming a Korean

When I was in China after having escaped North Korea, I heard news on the radio that said, "South Korea produces 4.5 million tons of food waste every year." My jaw dropped -- 4.5 million tons! I, as someone who was in China after having witnessed people starving to death, could not understand the South Koreans who threw food away.

When you think about it, 4.5 million tons of food would feed the entire North Korea. One side starves to death and the other side throws food away -- what incongruence, I thought then.

That must have shocked me a great deal, because I never left any food behind for about three years since I came to Korea. No matter how full I was, I would scrape to the bottom of any serving that the restaurants gave. If I could not finish it, I felt like I was committing a crime to the North Korean brethren who were clutching their hungry stomach.

Having lived that way, my stomach ended up growing by 5 inches since I first came to South Korea. The first pairs of pants that I bought after arriving Korea no longer fit me. I also have several suits that I can no longer wear because they are too small.

Gradually, I began to think that it was only to my damage that I finished all the food -- my cheap conscience was hastening my death, since the lipid accumulated in my stomach would shorten my lifespan. According to the Secret of Life, Aging, Disease and Death [TK: a popular Korean health documentary], having intestinal fat was just like stuffing poison in the body. Also, there was a study in the U.S. that immigrants from poorer countries who become obese in the U.S. are three to four times more likely to die from cancer than native-born Americans who are obese.

So no, this wasn't it. I still have a lot to do, I have to see the reunification, and so on and so forth... So at any rate, I should never contract obesity. Now, after coming to Korea seven years ago, I leave food behind without any sense of guilt. I decisively do not eat any more after I am full.

And there was that time when I got my first job after coming to Korea.

My boss, Mr. Kim, was laughing at an entertainment program with celebrities. I could not understand that for the life of me. I could not understand why he would watch such trashy program that had no educational value, where celebrities showed up as if to parade how stupid they were. I would have read another page of a book for that time.

Humor has a cultural background and code. I don't know if South Koreans would laugh at North Korean mini-series (probably not, since they would not understand it,) but at first I could not understand why they even had the programs like Wootchatsa [TK: name of a program like SNL] or Gag Concert [TK: same]. Even when I tried to laugh, I could not understand when I was supposed to laugh, and it was no fun.

So I asked. "Why do you watch and waste time with that program? Seems like it has no educational value and just turns people into idiots."

The answer flew back. "What do you need 'educational value' for? You just laugh at the moment and forget about it." At that point, I had to re-evaluate him. "Wow -- all that education and wisdom are useless. I thought he was a capable guy, but that's all he has for intellectul capacity? What a disappointment."

Seven years since, I now watch Gag Concert, and laugh and chuckle. I do not schedule my day for it, but I would flip the channels and gape at Two Days One Night [TK: another show name].

Of course I don't go out of my way to watch any entertainment program, but I got to a point of watching it if they happen to be on. There is no telling how I would be in the future.

And another thing. I could not help but drink coffee in Korea in order to meet people. At first when someone took me to Starbucks or Coffee Bean to buy me coffee, I thought "Why would anyone drink this?"

Even after I began to drink coffee, the best coffee for me was the 200 won [=20 cents] vending machine coffee. It seemed strange that people would pay 5000 won [=5 dollars] for coffee that was far worse than the vending machine coffee.

Seven years since, I now have turned into someone who enjoys the aroma of a latte. Now I know that the 5000 won coffee is definitely worth more than the 200 won coffee. Of course, I still cannot bring myself to pay for the coffee. I do not yet understand why what is essentially a cup of water costs as much as a meal. But I do appreciate it when someone buys me an expensive cup of coffee.

The last one. When I first came, the politicians under investigation always said, "I am truly innocent." Seeing that, I thought, "Why would a National Assemblyman, a representative of the people, sell his reputation for some tens of million won [=tens of thousands dollars]? There has to be something wrong."

On top of that, they always say "I swear upon my honor that this is the truth." When I see that, I thought: "Right -- this has to be a frame job, since that politician is willing to bet his honor that he must have built all his life. A National Assemblyman's honor cannot be had for that cheap."

I have been in South Korea for seven years. Now when I see a politician who says "That is not true at all," I say: "Come on -- how do you deny such an obvious thing? Tsk tsk."

Got a question or a comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@hotmail.com.

2009-11-13T23:53:00.000-05:00

Two Korean restaurants in Sao Paolo are investigated for selling dog meat. End this oppression of cultural imperialism!

2009-11-12T12:37:00.007-05:00

Finally, a school that gets the idea that America's K-12 schools should strive to be the world's best:

By the time these fifth-graders at the BASIS school in Scottsdale, Arizona, reach 8th grade they will have the option of taking Advanced Placement (AP) exams, standardised nationally to test high-school students at college level. By the 9th grade, they must do so. As a result, says Michael Block, the school’s co-founder, our students are “two years ahead of Arizona and California schools and one year ahead of the east coast.”

But that, he emphasises, is not the yardstick he and his wife Olga use. Instead, their two BASIS schools, one in Tucson and this one in suburban Phoenix, explicitly compete with the best schools in the world—South Korea’s in maths, say, or Finland’s in classics.

They had the idea after Olga Block came to Arizona from her native Czech Republic, looked for a school for her daughter and was horrified by the mediocrity and low expectations at American public schools. So they decided to “establish a world-standard school in the desert,” says Mr Block.

Is there any surprise that it took an immigrant to realize how soft American K-12 schools are?

Story from the Economist.

Is Korean Similar to Any Other Language?

2009-11-10T20:14:00.000-05:00

Dear Korean,

I've discovered this quotation in Wikipedia, that paragon of scientific knowledge: “However, Korean is considerably easier for speakers of certain other languages, such as Japanese; in Japan, it is more widely studied by non-heritage learners.” Is it true that Japanese is considerably easier for native speakers of Korean to learn? What other languages (as suggested by the quotation and reasonable inferences) will native speakers of Korean have an easier time learning than other languages?

I love your blog

Dear Kiss Ass,

While Wikipedia has numerous inaccuracies regarding Korea (e.g. about Koreans’ dog-eating habits,) what you read is correct – Korean language is very easy to learn for Japanese speakers. The reverse is true as well.

It is actually not too difficult to realize the reason once the two languages are compared. Both Korean and Japanese utilize Chinese characters. Korean and Japanese have a similar grammatical structure, with a heavy usage of particles, honorifics, subject-object-verb sentence construction, and many other things that bedevil a Romance language speaker, for example. (In fact, based on the Korean’s limited knowledge of Japanese, it seems that Japanese grammar is almost like a simplified Korean grammar. But he could be wrong on this count, since the Korean’s knowledge in Japanese is really rudimentary.) Both languages also have a very similar set of sounds for pronunciation.

On top of that, because Korea (voluntarily and involuntarily) relied on Japan to be introduced with modern objects and concepts, many of the words in both languages use the same Chinese characters. This is in contrast with the Chinese character usage between China (ironically) on one hand and Korea/Japan on the other. To give an example of a modern contraption, in both Korean and Japanese, a camera is 寫眞機 (pronounced sa-jin-gi in Korean, sha-shin-ki in Japanese), which translates to “truth-copying machine”. But in Chinese, a camera is 照像機 (pronounced zhao-xiang-ji), which translates to “image-lighting machine”.

What other languages would Korean speakers have an easier time learning as opposed to others? The Korean has heard that Mongolian and Cherokee are similar to Korean, but these are all hearsay. Among the languages of which the Korean has some rudimentary knowledge, the Korean (surprisingly) found Latin to be very similar to Korean. The noun conjugation in Latin is comparable to adding a particle to a noun in Korean, which was rather interesting. But it is not as if the Korean knows all the world’s language, so there is really no way for him to definitely answer that. Readers are welcome to contribute.

Got a question or a comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@hotmail.com.

2009-11-09T22:44:00.000-05:00

Interesting NYT article about Korean American adoptees.

Mediocre Sports Heroes?

2009-11-06T22:56:00.002-05:00

Dear Korean,

Why is my father (a first generation immigrant) completely obsessed with any Korean athlete, even the ones that are mediocre at best, simply for being Korean? I do not understand this at all! Chan Ho Park and Hee Seop Choi have done absolutely nothing to warrant the demigod status they've attained in his eyes. Is it simply enough that they are Koreans who are "good enough" just to compete in traditionally non-Asian/Korean endeavors (i.e. sports excluding table tennis, badminton, or short track speed skating)? At least Hines Ward won a Super Bowl, and he's certainly no Jerry Rice, or even Randy Moss.

Confused Twinkie

Dear Confused Twinkie,

While your question waited in line for more than a year, right now Chan Ho (and his wife, apparently) is improbably making news again as a key setup man for the Phillies. (By the way, the Korean had to endure the triple commute time because of these stupid parading Yankee fans. Both Phils and Yanks can go die.) So this is a great time to answer your question.

You can go die too, Chan Ho.

Your father is being a good old-fashioned Korean nationalist. The Korean previously explained nationalism thusly:

At the foundation of nationalism, there is a very simple premise: a person is nothing without his country, and his country is in constant danger of disappearance. Therefore, a citizen of a nation must absolutely devote himself to his nation to prevent such disappearance. Every member of the nation must contribute what he can for the country – soldiers must guard their country, businessmen must earn money for their country, artists must display the country’s creativity, and athletes must display the country’s physical prowess.

The corollary to this premise comes from the obvious truth that the world is made up of many nations. For nationalists, every citizen of every country in the world strives to strengthen their country. Essentially, each and every person in the world operates as a member of a team called "United States of America", "Brazil", "Thailand", "South Africa", "France", etc. And each team is striving to outdo one another in a giant world race for power, be it economic, political, social, cultural, or any other type one can think of. …

[Koreans] have lost their whole country twice in the last century – for 36 years to Japan, and briefly to communist North Korea during the Korean War. At each occasion of losing their country, many Koreans lost everything –their history, tradition, language, their property, family, children, and their own lives. Set against this historical experience, any objection to nationalism rings hollow. For Koreans, it is obviously true that without Korea, Koreans are nothing.

(That’s right, the Korean just quoted himself. Big whoop. Wanna fight about it?)

At this point, it should be fairly clear why nationalists love sports. Nationalists have this vision of the world in which there is a giant world race, in which different nations compete. Well, what is a better representation of that worldview than an actual giant world race, i.e. sporting events?

If they did not win, no one in Korea would care about this.

Accordingly, although Korea often has amazing displays of fan support for their athletes, it is fair to say that Koreans are bigger fans of their country rather than being fans of a particular sport. Short track speed skating is an excellent example. One might think, based on Korean fans’ enthusiasm during Winter Olympics, that there is a huge fandom of short track speed skating in Korea during non-Olympic times. Not so – Korean fans love short track skating because they win gold medals in Olympics. Same goes for nearly all sports in Korea – baseball and perhaps soccer might be the only sports in Korea that are popular for their own sake.

This means that the athlete’s individual skills necessarily take a back seat to the fact that they are Korean. Of course, Koreans love winners – short track skating and Kim Yu-Na are popular among Koreans because they win. But when a Korean athlete reaches a big stage like the Major Leagues, Koreans will root like hell for him and overplay every little good thing about that player, while swallowing down the knocks against him or remain intentionally blind to them. This phenomenon is much more intense for first generation Korean Americans, who often are more nationalistic than Koreans in Korea and also seek a validation for the idea that Koreans can succeed in America in those athletes. That’s what is going on with your father.

To close, here is a revealing dialogue between the Korean and the Korean Father a few years back, when Chan Ho Park was playing for the Mets and Hee Seop Choi was playing for the Dodgers.

Korean Father – Are you watching TV? Chan Ho is pitching.
The Korean – I’m watching, but how could you root for the Mets? I’m living in New York but I still root for the Dodgers.
KF – I don’t care about the Mets. I’m watching Chan Ho.
TK – Dodgers have Hee Seop batting fourth. If there are Korean players on both teams, shouldn’t you at least root for your home team?
KF – There is a difference between a pitcher and a batter. Watching a pitcher standing by himself on that mound in the middle of the stadium like he owns the place… it’s just better.

Got a question or a comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@hotmail.com.

Ask a Korean! News: Thoughts on Afghanistan

2009-10-31T14:43:00.015-04:00

After having been outshined by Iraq for the last few years, Afghanistan is coming to the forefront of the news lately. There is much discussion on whether or not to increase troops there, whether or not to do something about the recent rigged election, etc.

The Korean does not nearly know enough about Afghanistan to offer any specific thoughts as to what to do with Afghanistan right now. But the Korean does know a good deal about America-led nation building, because he knows a lot about Korea. Recently, comparing Afghanistan to Vietnam has been in vogue. The Korean is certain that there are important lessons to be drawn from the Vietnam experience. But he also believes that America would be remiss to ignore the lesson from its Korea experience.

Why Korea? Because bar none, Korea has been the most successful America-led nation building attempt in history. For the last 100 years, America has invaded, occupied and established governments in a number of different countries, including Germany, Japan, the Philippines, Iraq, etc. After the Americans finished establishing the government and (more or less) left, each of these countries generally followed its pre-existing historical arc. Germany and Japan were world powers before World War II; after World War II, they resumed being world powers. The Philippines was not exactly a world power previous to American occupation, and it currently is not either.

Only Korea bucked this trend. Korea was in desperate poverty for centuries prior to the American occupation. Korea was never strong enough to influence its neighboring countries in any meaningful way. Korea never had any tradition of democracy. There is absolutely nothing in Korea’s history that suggested that within 50 years of American occupation, it would turn itself into its current incarnation.

Yet the current incarnation of Korea is magnificent, and completely unexpected. At this point, Korea is one of the wealthiest countries in the world; one of the most influential creators of soft culture, in the form of movies, dramas and the like; one of the soundest democracies in Asia, and a rising regional power.

Of course, a huge caveat must be attached: Korea is not, and never has been, Afghanistan. The two countries’ historical experiences have many significant differences, which must be taken into account in attempting to glean any lessons from the Korean experience and apply them to the Afghan situation of today. Again, because the Korean does not know much about Afghanistan, he is not giving an opinion about what America should do with Afghanistan today one way or the other. With this post, he is only providing a data point to consider.

Regardless, there are still lessons to be learned, because America’s nation building project in Korea was such a remarkable success. How did this happen? What are the lessons to be learned from America’s experience with Korea? The Korean will proceed by listing the eight important lessons to be gleaned from the American involvement in Korean history.

Lesson 1: America can indeed successfully engage a nation-building project.

As explained previously, Korea moved from a destitute, backwards monarchy to a prosperous democracy – indeed, one of the world’s leading countries – in a manner of a few decades. America deserves a huge credit for this development, because …

Lesson 2: America’s help is essential for a nascent democracy.

Despite what Korea’s nationalist historians would like to believe, South Korea would not exist without the United States of America. America removed the murderous Imperial Japan from Korea. America defended South Korea against communist North Korea’s invasion, at great cost to its economy and people. America implanted in Korea a tradition of constitution and democracy. America conferred enormous economic benefit to South Korea, allowing it to develop its economy. At times (but not always), America withdrew its support from dictators who threatened Korea’s democracy – most notably Syngman Rhee, Korea’s first president who was not above constitutional amendments to make himself the lifetime president, rigged elections and torturing/killing his political opponents.

Democracy is a precious weak flower to grow in a fledgling country. It is constantly imperiled by external and internal threats. America can play an indispensable role in removing those threats.

Lesson 3: Healthy economy is essential for democracy.

Having elections is a necessary condition for establishing democracy, but it is far from sufficient. Destitute people do not care who rules them. In fact, they are perfectly willing to sacrifice democracy and freedom if there is a promise that they will not go hungry. (This is exactly what happened in Korea during the reign of Park Chung-Hee.) Only after Korea settled on a relatively high economic ground in the 1980s did the democratization movement in Korea gain steam.

Healthy economy also assists democracy in a subtler and less visible way. In a destitute agrarian society, people rarely move from their place of birth. People’s interactions become high localized and tribal, and politics reflect that – Korean politics was no exception. Until very recently, political leaders always had to have a regional base from which they could count on 90 percent of votes coming their way. But in a prosperous industrialized society, people move and mingle with other people. The sense of nationhood emerges and takes priority over the parochial regionalism. This is essential for people to consider the fate of the nation as a whole, rather than the narrow interest of their own region.

Lesson 4: Understand the power of nationalism and use it toward establishing democracy.

America’s experience in Korea, while resulting in a great success, nonetheless had plenty of miscues that could have been avoided. One such mistake is that it never understood how important nationalism is in just about everywhere outside of America.

Because of America’s frequent mishandling of nationalistic issues backfired on America’s policies so many times, many Americans have a tendency to write off nationalism’s positive – indeed, essential – contribution toward democracy. This is a mistake. Like the Korean alluded previously, democracy only operates among people who agree that they share the same destiny as a single nation. People who do not have such agreement, when given democracy, vote themselves into secession and civil war.

Also recall that healthy economy is essential for democracy. Healthy economy fosters nationalism, but nationalism in turn fosters healthy economy as well. The surest way for a poor country to stabilize its economy is to exploit its cheap labor. The workers must be motivated to work harder, longer, in a poorer condition compared to their counterparts in richer countries. Nationalism provides this motivation. During its rapid economic growth, Korean government did everything it could to connect the power of nationalism with economic growth. Public campaigns emphasized that Korea was fighting an economic war, particularly against North Korea. Leading exporters were given medals from the president as if they won a military battle. To be sure, Korea was not the first country to use nationalism as a fuel for economic growth – but it may well be the most successful example. (Until, perhaps, China gets to where Korea is in the next 20 years or so.)

But when mishandled, nationalism backfires massively upon America, precisely because nationalism rejects undue influence from any other country, including (ironically) the country that enabled the nationalism to act in the first place. In order to avoid this, America must …

Lesson 5: Maintain unassailable moral authority

By invading a foreign country and trying to establish democracy, America is essentially playing a hero. Then America must look the part. America must constantly prove to the world that it indeed is the shining beacon of democracy that it claims itself to be. Would you respect Superman the same way if you knew that privately, he was a raging alcoholic who beat Lois Lane when drunk?

All kidding aside, it is imperative to America’s mission to demonstrate, time and again, that it genuinely cares about human rights and democracy, and it is not another imperial power that seeks to colonize the world. On this score with Korea, America had both spectacular success and spectacular failure. The good grace that U.S. military earned during Korean War is still extremely valuable. To this day, the easiest way for any homeless man in America to get $20 from the Korean Mother is to say, “I fought in the Korean War.” Koreans of the Korean War-generation essentially elevated America to the pedestal of sainthood, a country that is purely motivated by altruistic concerns that can do no wrong.

A Scene from Gwangju

On the other hand, America tolerated a number of dictators who did not give a rat’s ass about democracy as long as they were not communists. America stood pat during May 18 in Gwangju, when Korean paratroopers ended up killing hundreds of civilians. On a smaller scale, it did not help that American military stationed in Korea (particularly in the early days) sponsored rampant prostitution near the base or recklessly polluted the land on which their bases were built. It also does not help that American military and the State Department are appallingly incompetent in handling potential PR challenges.

(Big caveat here – The Korean is fully aware that U.S. military in Korea gets a completely bum rap from nationalistic Korean media that is willing to hype up any small wrong for which no attention is given when committed by a Korean person or entity. That is completely unfair. But that does not change the fact that Americans should not be fostering prostitution or causing pollution. Fairness has nothing to do with it – this is what must be done if America wants to build a democracy in a foreign country.)

This goes beyond the direct interaction between America and the occupied country. A nascent democracy will always, always, always look to America for examples of how a democracy would conduct itself – which means the imperative of maintaining moral authority reaches to domestic politics as well. For example, during Cold War, America did itself no favor by maintaining the system of racial segregation – the fact that Martin Luther King Jr. used very skillfully in the Civil Rights Movement.

Lesson 6: At the end of the day, the people must carry themselves to democracy

This is self-explanatory. Democracy necessarily means self-rule, involving the entire voting public. While America’s role is significant and indispensable, the best that America can do is to set the stage – the people must carry themselves over the finish line. This certainly happened in Korea, as it was the relentless protests for democracy that brought down the long chain of military dictatorship.

Lesson 7: It will take a while

Korea’s first democratic government started under America’s auspices in 1948. Korea was not fully democratic until 1993. While America made its share of mistakes that may have delayed the full democratization of Korea, it seems to safe to say that at least a generation is required before a semblance of real democracy takes root in a country that has no previous experience of democracy.

Lesson 8: The result might be worth the cost

Probably the most controversial point. Again, the Korean is not completely informed about the current Afghanistan situation (and welcomes education from better-informed readers.) On top of that, the Korean is very obviously biased, given that he is a beneficiary of American help.

But the Korean thinks that the current Afghanistan situation is not worse than Korean War. Recall that at the time of Korean War, half of Americans believed that this was the precursor to World War III. Their belief was not unfounded – Cold War was just beginning to take shape, and Korea was right in the thick of Russia and China, the leading communist powers at the time. One wrong move, and the war had a potential to escalate toward another global conflict. It was not a small conflict either – America committed 480,000 soldiers, and more than 36,000 died. The war lasted four years. The Afghan conflict is unlikely to escalate toward a world war. It has taken longer, but so far America only committed 68,000 soldiers. Around 1,000 died so far.

Of course, this is no simple mathematics. American tolerance for military casualty has become a lot lower, as the nation came to better understand the enormous human cost of any war. The characteristics of the warfare are also very different. Korea and Afghanistan have had very different history, culture, religion. There can be a million more caveats.

But if Afghanistan can become another Korea of the region, the potential reward for continued American presence can be extremely huge, and therefore must be taken into account. The most important takeaway from America's experience with Korea is this -- in 1953, upon looking at the smoldering rubble that was South Korea, nobody except the most ardent optimist (who must have appeared borderline delusional at the time) would have thought that Korea would be one of the world's leading countries within 50 years.

What if within 50 years, Afghanistan could turn into a top-25 economic power with stable democracy (albeit with occasional brawls in its legislature)? What if U.S. could gain a near-permanent ally in the region in which there is currently no single dominance by any of the world’s powers? What if Afghanistan pumped out annoying yet somehow irresistible soft culture that makes other countries in the region to aspire to be like Afghanistan? What if America can deliver peace, freedom, prosperity and democracy to the 33 million Afghans?

It is, in the very least, something to consider.

Got a question or a comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@hotmail.com.