David Sanger and North Korea

By Lee Seong-hyon

In the summer of nuclear love in 1998, a big story was broken by the New York Times, which said, "United States intelligence agencies have detected a huge secret underground complex in North Korea that they believe is the centerpiece of an effort to revive the country's frozen nuclear weapons program." The story was powerful, like a nuclear weapon.

However, the report turned out to be false. The writer of the New York Times was David Sanger.

Yet, the damage was already done. Sanger's article generated a huge uproar and "bad faith" about North Korea. The Clinton administration faced mounting domestic pressure. It demanded an inspection of the site. Pyongyang reacted angrily but agreed after months of haggling. Washington dispatched investigators to the site. They found nothing close to a nuclear weapons program.

Fast forward 20 years, Sanger, today, still with the New York Times, made another headline, "In North Korea, Missile Bases Suggest a Great Deception" (Nov.12). It said, "North Korea is moving ahead with its ballistic missile program at 16 hidden bases that have been identified in new commercial satellite images." Sanger claimed that the satellite images suggest that the North has been engaged in a "great deception."

Sanger sourced it from the Center for Strategic and International Studies, which wrote a report about it. However, the CSIS was cautious with the report, adding, "Some of the information used in the preparation of this study may eventually prove to be incomplete or incorrect."

Tim Shorrock, an investigative reporter with the Nation took issue with Sanger's article, underscoring that it was a product of "stretching the findings" of a think-tank report on Pyongyang's missile bases.

North Korea's continuation of its nuclear and missile programs are a violation of the United Nations sanctions resolutions that prohibit Pyongyang from doing so. In that vein, the report by the CSIS deserves merit for bringing it to the public attention.

However, it's a different matter when it comes to the New York Times, the venerable icon for journalism in both the United States and around the world.

From journalism's perspective, the obvious problem with Sanger's article was its characterization of Pyongyang's activities as a "great deception." This has been pointed out, already, by many commentators as false. For instance, Bruce Klingner, a former CIA analyst on North Korea and now with the Heritage Foundation said that "North Korean missile bases are a violation, but not a deception."

"The New York Times appears to think that North Korea's failure to declare the existence of these facilities constitutes a "deception." It does not. None of the summit agreements with the U.S. and South Korea requires North Korea to declare them," said Klingner.

If the title of Sanger's article didn't contain the word "deception," it probably wouldn't have gotten the kind of attention it garnered. The New York Times didn't have to use the "editorialized" title, without sensationalizing it. Perhaps, the recently hired digital media editors at the New York Times may have calculated that the Google search algorithm would make the word "deception" increase the web traffic.

Being a "senior writer" with the New York Times carries a big stick that comes with great social responsibility. Sanger is not freelancing, but using the medium and the outreach of the venerable newspaper many of us cite for as "evidence" for the reasoning behind our views.

Sanger's pen will also be part of history. As a journalist, Sanger for decades wrote many "first drafts" of the North Korean nuclear saga. And for years many analysts, including nuclear expert Jeffrey Lewis, publicly have taken issue with the accuracy of Sanger's reporting on North Korea.

The 1999 U.S. government inspection of the suspected nuclear facility at the Kumchang-ri cave ― the one written about by Sanger ― substantiated North Korea's claim that it was not running a nuclear weapons facility at that location and had not abrogated an earlier agreement with the United States in 1994, "the Agreed Framework." The U.S. government inspected the facility one more time the following year and reaffirmed that same conclusion.

North Korea is an important story. We may go to war with it. Journalism as the "Fourth Estate" wields significant social influence by shaping the narrative the public understands. The late AP reporter Red Smith compared the process of journalism writing as "opening a vein and bleeding it." The problem with Sanger is that he seems to take journalism too lightly.

Lee Seong-hyon (sunnybbsfs@gmail.com), Ph.D., is the Director, Center for Chinese Studies; and also the Director, Department of Unification Strategy at Sejong Institute.

Site Map E-paper Subscribe Register LogIn
Site Map E-paper Subscribe Register LogIn