New Ninja movie by zainichi director

from Japan Times:

Friday, Sept. 18, 2009

Ninja epic not all about action

By MARK SCHILLING
Staff Writer
Producers, both here and abroad, have been busy scouting film properties among the anime and manga of the 1960s and 1970s, from kiddie cartoon fluff such as "Yattaman" to the apocalyptic thriller "MW," created by manga maestro Osamu Tezuka.

Given the growing popularity of the originals around the world, the target audience is often not only nostalgic Japanese graybeards, but also young foreign fans.

Yoichi Sai's "Kamui Gaiden" would seem eminently exportable to these fans. Based on a classic manga by Sampei Shirato that ran in "Shukan Shonen Sunday" from 1965 to 1967 and then again in "Big Comic" from 1982 to 1987, "Kamui" has a hot-blooded ninja hero, played by the star du jour Kenichi Matsuyama, as well as action scenes galore, choreographed by Hong Kong-trained Kenji Tanigaki (see my June 12 profile at japantimes.co.jp).

Those expecting a fun two hours with campy chopsocky are in for a letdown, however. Shirato was a pioneering alternative-comics artist who injected "Kamui" with his own leftist politics, including a pointed critique of discrimination and inequality in Japanese society. Sai's screen version, with a script by Kankuro Kudo, is more on the entertaining than politicizing side, but it preserves the core of Shirato's dark, violent vision. In his Japan, outsiders are, not merely marginalized, but hunted and exterminated like vermin.

Sai is the right director for this story, if background and filmography are any criteria. A zainichi (ethnic) Korean, Sai has often examined the lives of minorities and social marginals in his films, from his 1993 comedy "Tsuki wa Dotchi Deteiru" ("All Under the Moon"), whose hero is a cynical zainichi cabby, to the prison comedy "Keimusho no Naka" ("Doing Time," 2002) and the zainichi family drama "Chi to Hone" ("Blood and Bones," 2004).

At the same time, Sai had not had much action experience prior to "Kamui" and the shoot, which began in April 2007 and wrapped in September 2008, was long and grueling. That effort is visible on the screen — and not always in a good way, with airborne battles that look a bit labored instead of lyrical, as though, after weeks of 20-hour days, everyone was running on fumes.

But energetic and inspired action moves are also on abundant display, many of which are supplied by Matsuyama as the inhumanly agile ninja hero. Also, compared with Kazuaki Kiriya's "Goemon," a recent period actioner with the weightless look and feel of a video game, "Kamui" packs far more of a visceral punch — the positive side of all that heavy breathing.

Kamui (Matsuyama) is raised by a ninja clan and becomes one of its strongest fighters, but feeling hemmed in by the clan's rules and yearning for freedom, he decides to leave it. The story proper begins after he has taken this fateful step and is being relentlessly hunted by his former fellow ninja as a traitor and renegade. After eliminating his pursuers one by one, he meets and befriends Hanbei (Kaoru Kobayashi), a fisherman whose rank in the social pecking order is almost as low as his own.

Hanbei, however, ends up being chased himself by the minions of Gumbei (Koichi Sato), a local lord who is convinced that his favorite horse has been killed by Hanbei. Kamui helps him escape and, in return, Hanbei takes him to the remote island village he calls home. There Kamui finds Sugaru (Koyuki), Hanbei's wife — and a runaway ninja like himself. Thinking Kamui has been sent to assassinate her, she tries to kill him and, even after he pleads his innocence of evil intentions, is slow to trust him. But Hanbei's teenage daughter Sayaka (Suzuka Ohgo) takes an immediate liking to this dashing stranger.

Then the island receives a visitor — a ship on the hunt for the killer sharks that infest the surrounding waters. The captain, Fudo (Hideaki Ito), is playing a double game, however, and pulls Kamui into it. Soon our hero is faced with a choice that could cost him his life.

"Kamui" thoroughly demythologizes the ninja of fabled secrecy and cunning, showing them as a closed society of absolute conformity and amoral duplicity. Quitting a ninja clan is like quitting the old Sicilian Mafia — you leave as a corpse or not at all. Also, once you are a clan renegade, you can never rest easy, since friends and lovers can suddenly reveal themselves as deadly enemies. Whom can you trust? The short answer, Kamui finds, is "no one."

This may sound grim, but Matsuyama, who made his breakthrough as the sweets-addicted detective L of the "Death Note" films, is an eye-riveting combination of feral grace and intensity as Kamui. Also, while flashing those wary-animal eyes, he gives the character a humanly likable and tongue-in-cheek comic side. Meanwhile, Hideaki Ito, so stiff as the pure-hearted skin-diver hero of the "Umizaru" films, delivers an exuberant stemwinder of a performance as Fudo, all toothy, menacing grins and hammy, vicious energy. One reference point is Gregory Peck as Ahab in "Moby Dick" (for the shared beards and borderline nutso affects). Another are the charmingly ruthless villains that were a specialty of postwar star Tetsuro Tanba.

A sequel is implied at the end, which is only right, since Shirato's manga epic has hundreds more pages yet to film. But if Sai wants to take a break who could blame him? Fortunately for us, he got "Kamui" in the can before he and everyone around him collapsed of exhaustion.

Missile Defense on the Peace Island

Missile Defense on the Peace Island


I just got home from 3-weeks in South Korea. It was quite a trip.
During my last two days I was visiting Jeju Island (about 500 miles south of the Korean peninsula) which is recognized by UNESCO as being a place of world class environmental quality and one that hosts many endangered forms of corals and other sea life. To say it is a jewel would be an understatement.

Soon after arriving our delegation of five activists, which included some real notables in the South Korean movement for democracy and peace, we were brought to the offices of Jeju Solidarity for Participatory Self-Government & Environmental Preservation. There we were shown a most impressive 50-minute video about the struggle on the island to stop plans by the federal government to build a Navy base on the south side of the island. Jeju calls itself the "Island of Peace" and activists wonder how a Navy base, hosting Aegis destroyers outfitted with missile defense systems, could be considered a compatible use.

Three villages have been approached to host the base and the first two turned the government down. By the time the third village was asked the government had decided to offer bribes of $100,000 each to the respected sea diving women who are known for searching the bottom of the ocean for sea urchins which they then sell to make a living. The third village, Gangjung, is predominately opposed to the base but the bribes created enough of a division to cause the government to say they will build the base in this village.

Gangjung, like the rest of Jeju island, is most famous for growing tangerines in this tropical climate. Tourism is the second industry as people come from around the world to experience the wonders of the lush volcanic island. A long walking trail takes people across the island and recently the government has removed Gangjung from the walking trail maps so they can limit the numbers of people who would see the active signs of resistance amidst the splendid beauty of the rocky seaside where the proposed Navy base is to be built.

When I asked activists who the government said they needed the base to protect against the answer was followed by much laughter: pirates they told me. The truth is that the US will be jointly using the Navy base with the South Korean Navy as a port to deploy Aegis ships that will be used to help surround the coast of China and to give the US the capability to choke off China's ability to import 80% of its oil through the Malaka Straight that flows right off Jeju Island.

The villagers of Gangjung do not see the Navy base as offering them much. Their local economy is thriving from the tangerine groves that are everywhere in the town and from the abundant numbers of tourists who come there to experience the seaside. In fact the Navy base would take significant portions of their village land now used for farming and would destroy the environment. The rocky shoreline would be covered with cement and the proposed base pier would extend to the edge of where the fresh water Gangjung River flows into the sea.

Kang, Dong Kyun, the mayor of the village and a key protest leader, told me that 70% of the drinking water for the community comes from the river and would surely be negatively impacted by the Navy base. Take away our water, he said, and you destroy the town.

Throughout the village you see many tall bamboo poles with yellow flags on them that say, "We desperately oppose the Naval base." But no one in the government wants to listen to them. They have tried all the usual steps of meeting with government officials, organizing protests, and they recently tried to recall their provincial governor in a special election but did not turn out a high enough percentage of voters to make the vote official.

They've now set up a camp along the rocky coastline where some are now holding a round-the-clock vigil. More tents will be erected in the coming weeks as construction is set to begin at the end of this year. When I spoke to the village people in their community center last night there were key activists from other parts of South Korea who are trying to help.

I was deeply touched by the good people of Jeju. Mayor Kang told me, "This is the land of our ancestors that we must pass on to the future generations. This village must not be used as a 'strategic' base but must be preserved. The government is dividing people against each other which is the worst thing of all. The long lasting people will ultimately win."

I told the mayor and the village people that because the proposed base would have Aegis destroyers homeported there, with missile defense systems on-board, that the Global Network must do all it can to help them with their valiant effort. Just as we did what we could to support the people in the Czech Republic last year in their effort to resist US missile defense deployments, we must do the same for Jeju Island. That is what solidarity means.

Who will speak for the fish, the coral, the rocks, or the water I asked? We must all do it.

It has been a remarkable journey to South Korea and one that I am proud to have taken. I have met splendid people who are doing their best to resist the destruction of their democracy by corporate interests, the destruction of their farming lands, and the expansion of militarism. There are many fights going on in the world that we all have to be concerned about, more than we can all handle I know, but every now and then one comes along that represents all of these important struggles in one bundle. That is Jeju Island.

I hope that once we get the Jeju Island video, expected in a few weeks, that all of you will get a copy from us and show it in your community. I promise that everyone who watches it will be moved beyond tears about the beauty and the wonder of the island of peace. We must help bring the struggle on Jeju Island to the world.

Bruce K. Gagnon
Coordinator
Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space
PO Box 652
Brunswick, ME 04011
(207) 443-9502
http://www.space4peace.org
globalnet@mindspring.com
http://space4peace.blogspot.com (Blog)

Rest in Power, Gina Hotta, Executive Producer, APEX Express on KPFA Radio

Eugina Haruko Hotta (Gina, or "G" of APEX Express)
June 15, 1953-September 29, 2009

This is a tribute to the 1 person responsible for securing a platform for the progressive voices of the minorities of Japan in the Bay Area - Gina Hotta, a fierce advocate for social justice and particularly the empowerment of the Asian & Pacific Islander voices through media and organizing. She produced APEX Express on KPFA in Berkeley for 20 years - and 10 of those years, she consistently went out of her way to ensure representation of zainichi & Okinawan voices, as well as the progressive Nikkei voices on her show that also played a key role in illuminating the vibrant API hip hop scene, and before, the Asian-American jazz explosion and the cultural dimensions of the Third World organizing struggles of which she was part.

It also surfaced, unfortunately only after Gina's passing, that she was a staff of Japan Pacific Resource Network (JPRN) and an integral member of the larger progressive JPRN community in Japan and the US. Located in Oakland, JPRN is a respected ally organization of Eclipse Rising since founding.

Eclipse Rising represented at the Memorial held to celebrate and honor the life of this amazing sister & comrade, Eugina Haruko Hotta in Oakland. Here are some quotes from the speakers that together convey the depth of her humanity and the depth of her commitment to social justice - it is no wonder that she was always there to make sure that groups like Eclipse Rising had a venue to inject our voices into our communities.

Some folks who spoke moving words in her memory and honor were:
Ann Hotta, Gina's sister
Penina Taesali
Jeff Chiang
Brenda Wong Aoki
Greg Morizumi, member of the Eastside Arts Alliance and Eclipse Rising ally "Papa G"
...and many more, but here are listed (in order of appearance) those whose excerpts are quoted below.

"Gina was very proud of her blue-collar experiences"

"She wanted us to envision a better world, grounded in the past - the past was very important to her... she was very proud of her Japanese-American heritage, but at the same time, openly critical of Japanese imperialism. She was a staunch internationalist, and she identified with the Third World communities"

"She was the alchemist of all social movements..."

"...a builder of bridges, alchemist of light"

"1 thing about Gina is, when she got your back, she REALLY got your back, period. NOT just about an issue, but por vida she was with you all the way. How many people can you really say that about anybody, really?"

"It is said that she is the single most responsible person for the creation of a generation of API media warriors today"

Eclipse Rising is honored for the opportunity build upon the platform to speak out to the Bay Area community that she was instrumental in securing for us. We will always carry your legacy in our hearts... Travel well, sister Gina.

Deepest condolences to the Hotta family and we together mourn a loss of a dear spirit in our community. Thanks to every one with their time, energy, artistic talents, food, and other skills that put together a truly touching Memorial Service.

--Eclipse Rising

NK Candlelight Vigil Event Oakland 2009

This event was co-sponsored by a number of Korean American & zainichi organizations of the Bay Area and also hosted by Oakland Asian Cultural Center. Amazing program, opened by Christine Ahn, with performances by Dohee Lee, Chamesori, and Eclipse Rising...and amazing testimony of stories from the Korean War, the division, from young queer voices to survivor elders....these are the Corean voices for an END TO THE KOREAN WAR! PEACE TREATY NOW! Photos taken by Eclipse Rising, eclipserising@gmail.com

http://web.me.com/flowergold/Site/NK_Candlelight_Vigil_Event_Oakland_2009.html

Koreans in Japan may be granted suffrage

Koreans in Japan may be granted suffrage
DPJ administration begins to reveal gestures towards Asia-policy focus and possible “gift” towards Korea surfaces
http://img.hani.co.kr/imgdb/resize/2009/0922/125349892208_20090922.JPG

» Japan’s new Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama listens to a question from a reporter during a press conference at his official residence in Tokyo Sept. 17. (REUTERS)
An opening for one of the greatest aspirations of Korean permanent residents in Japan, local voting rights for foreign permanent residents, to become a reality may be appearing.
While attending a Korean-Japanese cultural festival in Japan on Saturday, Ozawa Ichiro, secretary-general for the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) administration, met with Grand National Party (GNP) Lawmaker and Japan-Korea Parliamentarians’ Union Chair Lee Sang-deuk and told him “something must be done” about the issue of giving local voting rights to foreign permanent presidents. Ozawa said that he would settle the matter during the National Diet of Japan’s regular session. Japanese media reported that Ozawa apparently intends to present legislation as early as the regular session of the Diet convening in Jan. 2010.

However, opposition has been expressed not only by the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), but also by conservative DPJ representatives and the DPJ’s coalition government parter, the People’s New Party, who view the extension of local voting rights to permanent residents as “rocking the foundations of the country.” As a result of these sentiments, attention is focusing on whether core DPJ figures in favor of extending voting rights, including Ozawa, Prime Minister Hatoyama Yukio and Foreign Minister Okada Katsuya, will be able to break through the conservative opposition to pass the legislation.

Perhaps leery of creating friction early on, the DPJ simply distributed a one-page statement to reporters Sunday without explaining the content of the discussion.


At a debate among party heads last month, Hatoyama said that the DPJ was “integrating opinions for and against the extension of voting rights, but the time is coming when we must think about the future and act in the most forward-thinking way.”

In a Sept. 11 meeting with leaders of the Korean Residents Union in Japan, Ozawa said, “I have always been in favor of extending voting rights to permanent residents, and we will definitely decide on a plan at next year’s regular session of the Diet.” In Feb. 2008, during his time as DPJ president, Ozawa met with President Lee Myung-bak during a visit to South Korea and declared his intention to work toward the extension of voting rights.

Analysts are saying the future-oriented approach from core DPJ members comes from the determination that the administration could clearly show its position of Asia-focused foreign policy by offering a “gift” to the South Korean government, which has been calling for the extension of local voting rights to ethnic Koreans in Japan. Indeed, during his meeting with Rep. Lee, Ozawa showed a desire to resolve pending issues between South Korea and Japan, saying that the new DPJ administration would like “to make relations with South Korea into a relationship of real trust rather than a mere formality” and that it was “definitely possible to resolve fundamental issues” between the two countries.

The DPJ has presented legislation on local voting rights for permanent residents on several occasions in the past, together with the New Komeito Party and the Japanese Communist Party, but LDP opposition prevented them from coming to anything. If related legislation does pass the Diet, some 870,000 foreign permanent residents in Japan, among them 430,000 “special permanent residents,” including unnaturalized South Koreans and North Koreans living in Japan, will be able to exercise voting rights in local elections. However, the Federation of Korean Residents in Japan, which informally represents the North Korean position within the country, has been reluctant to campaign for local voting rights because of a perceived loss of ethnicity.

Please direct questions or comments to [englishhani@hani.co.kr]

Quarterly Zainichi Film Festival:::100 Years of Crossing Between Busan and Shimonoseki: Three Generations of Zainichi Koreans

Eclipse Rising and EastSide Arts Alliance present

100 years of Crossings Between Busan and Shimonoseki:

Three Generations of Zainichi Koreans

Sunday, September 6th at September 6^th 1PM

Eastside Cultural Center

2277 International Blvd. at 23^rd Ave., Oakland

(510) 533-6629

About the film: The documentary takes us back to the history of Korean migration to Japan; their lives under the colonial rule and after the liberation are exposed through the narratives of 1^st and 2^nd generation Zainichi Koreans in Shimonoseki, Japan.
The film then takes a turn to the 3^rd generation Zainichi Koreans who cross the straits,just as their 1st generation grandparents did, but in a reverse course - from Japan to Korea.

Eclipse Rising is a US-based Zainichi Korean group founded in the winter of 2008, by Zainichi Koreans who came together in the Bay Area to recognize and celebrate the rich and unique history of Koreans in Japan, promote Zainichi community development, peace and reunification, and work for social justice for all minorities in Japan and around the world.

e-mail: eclipserising@gmail.com blog: www.eclipserising.blogspot.com Find us on Facebook!

Eastside Arts Alliance is dedicated to nurturing and supporting the work of the Lower San Antonio District's African American, Latino/Chicano, Asian/Pacific Islander, and Indigenous artists and cultural workers, many of whom have not found a home within Oakland's mainstream arts community.

ESAA Website: www.eastsideartsalliance.com

Suggested Donation: $7-15

Film is in Japanese (and partly Korean) with English subtitles

DIRECTIONS:

http://www.mapquest.com/maps/map.adp?formtype=address&address=2277+International+Blvd.&city=Oakland&state=CA&zipcode=94606

From BART, get off on Fruitvale BART and walk several blocks west on International Boulevard or walk 1 block north to International Boulevard and take 1R bus west to East Side Arts Alliance. For travel planner link,http://tripplanner.transit.511.org/mtc

Winner of Nuclear Peace video short

The winner of 2009 Swackhamer Video Contest founded by the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation was teenager Erik Choquette of Santa Barbara. In this age of nuclear proliferation and constant tensions between major world powers, the American public really needs to push for an end to nuclear weapons and war once and for all! I hope the world is listening to our youth, who will be inheriting the world rigged with nuclear weapons unless we take some serious action to end this crisis.

Please take a look at this amazing 3min. footage of the winning video (to the right or click on title of this post for the link to the video) and check out the website for other winners and honorable mentions in the contest.

*************************************************************************************
17-year-old Wins
National Peace Video Contest
For Second Year Running

July 15, 2009
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE :

Contact: Steven Crandell, 805 965-3443, scrandell@napf.org

SANTA BARBARA -- Teenager Erik Choquette has created a remarkable animated video to claim the $1,000 first prize in the 2009 Swackhamer Disarmament Video Contest for the second year in a row.

Called The Nuclear Genie, the three minute video uses inventive graphics to connect nuclear weapons history with a way to “get the genie back in the bottle” through public participation in the democratic process.

The top three videos, as well as the four receiving honorable mention, can be viewed on line at:

http://www.wagingpeace.org/menu/programs/awards-&-contests/video-contest/2009/winners.htm

Choquette, 17, had a clear strategy for this year’s competition. “I focused on a call to action and how this issue has influenced our society for so long,” he said. “It's an issue that many people simply ignore, never fully realizing, or wanting to realize, the possible effects of using a nuclear weapon again especially in our modern society.”

There were 120 videos submitted to this year’s Swackhamer competition. They displayed a variety of approaches from animation to claymation to live action drama. There was even one nuclear disarmament rap – “War on Nuclear Warheads” – which ended up getting Honorable Mention

“The judges and the staff of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation were all overwhelmed at the research, creativity and countless hours that went in to each of the videos,” said Rick Wayman, Director of Programs for the Foundation and contest coordinator. “It was difficult to pick the winners for this year’s contest; there were many videos contesting for the top spots. We honor each and every one of the entrants for their commitment to the cause.”

Choquette enters his senior year at Santa Barbara High School this fall. It promises to be a very busy time in his life.

“I'm applying to roughly 9-10 major film schools like USC, NYU, and UCLA. My dream school is USC, but it's going to take a lot to get in. For now, I'm starting to focus on narrative filmmaking. I'm starting production soon on a film I wrote several months ago which will act as an application film for colleges, but also as a film to enter into festivals.”
Second prize, and $750, went to the animated video, "Numbers of Destruction" by Tyler Short of Portland, Oregon. Third prize, and $250, was awarded to "Beautiful World" by Calvin Brue of Fergus Falls, Minnesota.
All videos had to be three minutes or less.
The topic for the contest was: “Breakthrough: Putting the Nuclear Genie Back in the Bottle -- How can we achieve a world free of nuclear weapons by the year 2020? Once this is achieved, how can we make sure that the “nuclear genie” stays in the bottle forever?”
The video contest will be held annually. There will be an announcement about the next contest in March 2010.

Please contact Steven Crandell, 805 965-3443 for interview requests and information.
OLAR.
Steven Crandell
Director of Development & Public Affairs
Nuclear Age Peace Foundation
PMB 121, 1187 Coast Village Road, Suite 1
Santa Barbara, CA 93108-2794
805-965-3443
www.wagingpeace.org

Need Your Help for the Transnational Korean Peace Candlelight Vigil

Dear Eclipse Rising members, supporters and zainichi/Korean/Japanese/Bay Area communities,

July 27 marks the 56th anniversary of temporary armistice agreement to end the fighting between the United States and Korea. However, that was not a peace treaty and the war between the US and Korea has technically never ended.

With recent escalating tensions between North Korea and the US (nuclear testing, missiles, military training, the detention of the American journalists) highlighted by the media, the horrendous thought of the "forgotten war" starting up again is not such a far-off reality.

On Sunday, July 26, there will be an international candlelight vigil held to voice our concerns and convince Washington, President Obama, and the international community that we must end the Korean War, the ongoing militarization and occupation of the Korean peninsula, and move forward toward a peace treaty and a reunification of the Korean peninsula.

The candlelight vigil will be happening in the following US cities: Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, Oakland, Washington DC, and possibly Chicago and Minneapolis. Also, some South Korean peace groups are going to join us along with the delegation of Korean Canadians and Korean Americans visiting North Korea this summer through the DPRK Exposure and Education Program.

The one planned in Oakland will be at the Oakland Asian Cultural Center (88 9th St # 290, Oakland, CA 94607-4295) from 6 - 8pm. The vigil will be co-sponsored by other local organizations and feature light snacks and refreshment and possibly a presentation of community folks sharing their thoughts about the Korean war and the need for a peace treaty through artistic means like poetry, song, and dance!

Eclipse Rising has committed to bring some zainichi foods, share a slideshow presentation of our families and our stories, and possibily sing "Imjim River" with the antendees.

We are looking for volunteers in our lovely community for the following:
1. help us cook or prepare zainichi foods (if you've never made a "zainichi" dish you can still help - we'll send you a recipe or we can cook together)
2. if you are zainichi - e-mail photos of your family that you are willing to share through a slide show. If you can also include a short blurb about your personal experience or family experience and maybe include how you or your family are affected by the division, even better! Please send those (2-3 photos only please) to eclipserising@gmail.com
3. We know there are some musically talented folks we're sending this to! We want to play Imjin River for our small and intimate audience that night and we'd love it if anyone could join and play a musical instrument or sing along!
4. Write up a short piece or create an artistic expression (essay, poem, song, photos, painting) on how the division and war of Korea has affected you or your family as zainichi in some way and be willing to share it
5. Lastly, we're looking for help in outreach and publicity for the event once fliers and PR stuff are created and the event does need volunteers day of - set up, clean up, maybe during stuff too

In closing, please let us know if you can jump in on any aspect of this important project, and please ASAP because July 26 is fast approaching! You can e-mail us at eclipserising@gmail.com

Please save the date (July 26 6-8pm)!

Check out this website:
http://www.endthekoreanwar.org/
Thanks,
Eclipse Rising

Okinawa Radio - Churadio.com

Please check out the following link to an Okinawan Radio station on line, with Okinawan music, links, and an online shop!*

http://churadio.com/index.php

*Website is in Japanese

Sending Another "Jimmy Carter" to North Korea

Reading this made me think of what might happen to the zainichi Koreans who reside in Japan if there was a war between North Korea and Japan.

You can read the article here or click on this link:

http://kpolicy.org/documents/interviews-opeds/090708seligharrisoncartertonk.html

Sending another "Jimmy Carter" to North Korea

Selig Harrison | July 8, 2009
(Originally published June 20, 2009 in The Hankyoreh)

North Korea is often accused of dishonoring the commitments it makes in negotiations. However, in North Korean eyes, it is the U.S. that has failed to live up to its promises. This is the main reason why military hard-liners have been able to take control of North Korean foreign policy in the past six months and justify an increasingly provocative series of nuclear and missile tests in internal policy debates.

Kim Jong-il's failing health and his reduced work schedule have made it easier for the hard-liners to consolidate control. Their strength is rooted in a cavalier U.S. disregard of its commitments that has vindicated their opposition to the 1994 Agreed Framework and the 2007 six-party denuclearization agreement.

For nearly eight years, from June 1994, to December 2002, the moderates in North Korea led by First Deputy Foreign Minister Kang Sok-ju prevailed, and North Korea suspended its nuclear weapons program over the bitter protests of the hard-liners. In return, North Korea was promised two light water reactors as a token of U.S. readiness for normal relations. The reactors were never built, however, despite large South Korean and Japanese financial outlays. The Bush Administration not only abrogated the Agreed Framework, but dissolved the Korean Energy Development Organization (KEDO) and bludgeoned South Korea into approval in order to leave no doubt that the U.S. had repudiated its commitment.

Despite this, the moderates were able to get Kim Jong-il to support the six-party process with help from China and to disable the Yongbyon reactor. In return, the six parties pledge of 600,000 tons of oil. Although Japan, angered by the U.S. decision to remove North Korea from its List of Terrorist States, refused to provide its share, 200,000 tons, and the moderates were once again discredited.

This is a very dangerous moment in our relations with North Korea, the most dangerous since June 1994, when Jimmy Carter went to Pyongyang with the grudging consent of the Clinton Administration. Carter negotiated an agreement with Kim Il-sung that headed off a war and paved the way for the Agreed Framework. Now, we are in urgent need of another high-level emissary, but the Obama Administration is not even prepared to give its grudging consent to Al Gore. Gore has expressed interest in negotiating the release of Laura Ling and Euna Lee, the two imprisoned U.S. journalists and employees of Current TV, which he founded, and in the process pave the way for a reduction of tensions.

Gore met Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on May 11 and asked for the cooperation of the Obama administration in facilitating a mission to Pyongyang and in empowering him to succeed in such a mission by exploring with him ways in which the present stalemate in relations between North Korea and the U.S. can be broken. She said she would "consider" his request, but the Administration has subsequently delayed action. The Administration's position is that the case of the two imprisoned journalists is a "humanitarian" matter and must be kept separate from the political and security issues between the two countries. In a News Hour interview with U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice on June 10, Margaret Warner asked Rice how the latest U.N. sanctions resolution would "complicate efforts to win the release of the two American journalists." Rice turned the question around, declaring that the issue of the two journalists "cannot be allowed to complicate our efforts to hold North Korea accountable" for its nuclear and missile tests.

This is an unrealistic position. It shows a callous disregard for the welfare of Laura Ling and Euna Lee. It ignores the danger of a war resulting from the Administration's naive attempts to pressure North Korea into abandonment of its nuclear and missile programs. Past experience with North Korea has repeatedly shown that pressure invariably provokes a retaliatory response that makes matters worse. The Administration should instead actively pursue the release of the two women through intervention in their behalf by a high-level unofficial emissary empowered to signal U.S. readiness for tradeoffs leading to the reduction of tensions, such as the provision of the 200,000 tons of oil that had been promised and not delivered to North Korea since the six-party talks broke off last fall.

Looking ahead, the goal of the U.S. should be to cap the North Korean nuclear arsenal at its existing level and to move toward normalized relations as the necessary precondition for progress toward eventual denuclearization. The prospects for capping the arsenal at its present level have improved as result of Pyongyang's June 13 announcement admitting that it has an R&D program for uranium enrichment. Since this program is in its early stages, and Pyongyang is not yet actually enriching uranium, there is time for the U.S. to negotiate inspection safeguards limiting enrichment to the levels necessary for civilian uses. Until now, North Korea's denial of an R&D program has kept the uranium issue off the negotiating table and kept alive unfounded suspicions that it is capable of making weapons-grade uranium.

Progress towards denuclearization would require U.S. steps to assure North Korea that it will not be the victim of a nuclear attack. In Article Three, Section One of the Agreed Framework, the U.S. pledged that it "will provide formal assurances against the threat or use of nuclear weapons by the U.S." simultaneous with complete denuclearization. Pyongyang is likely to insist on a reaffirmation of this pledge. Realistically, if the U.S. is unwilling to give up the option of using nuclear weapons against North Korea, it will be necessary to live with a nuclear-armed North Korea while maintaining adequate U.S. deterrent forces in the Pacific.

In my view, in the event of another war with North Korea resulting from efforts to enforce the U.N. sanctions, it is Japan that North Korea would attack, not South Korea. Some of the hard-line generals in the National Defense Commission, I learned on my January visit to Pyongyang, were outraged at Kim Jong-il's apology to Prime Minister Koizumi in 2002 and have alarmed moderates in the regime with their swaggering confidence that North Korea could win a war with Japan.

*Selig S. Harrison is director of the Asia Program at the Center for International Policy and a senior scholar of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. He is the former director of the Century Foundation¹s Project on the United States and the Future of Korea. Specializing in South Asia and East Asia for fifty years as a journalist and scholar, he has visited North Korea over ten times and on two occasions, met with the late Kim Il Sung. He is the author of six books on Asian affairs and U.S. relations with Asia, including Korean Endgame: A Strategy For Reunification and U.S. Disengagement, published by Princeton University Press in May 2002. Dr. Harrison serves as an advisory board member of the Korea Policy Institute (KPI).