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Opinion

Columnists

Apathy about North Korea

I recently attended a United Nations conference in Seoul at which a couple of distinguished speakers asked: Why aren't more of the almost 30,000 North Korean refugees directly involved in activism against North Korea? A few others at the conference asked: Why don’t South Koreans care more about their Northern brethren? And others asked: Why are so many expats in Korea interested in helping North Korean refugees?

2016-07-18 16:47

From Hwang Solo to Team Hwang

On December 11, 1969, a North Korean agent hijacked domestic flight Korean Air NAMC YS-11 from Gangwon to Gimpo just 10 minutes after take-off at 12:25 pm. All 50 people on board (46 passengers and 4 crew members) were abducted by North Korea.

2016-06-28 16:45

Storming the Bastille for freedom

I was delighted to be invited to be a keynote speaker alongside esteemed Yonsei University economics professor Kim Chung-ho on May 28 at the inaugural Students for Liberty (Korea) conference in Seoul, but I also wasn’t sure I would be an appropriate speaker.

2016-05-30 16:01

What are you doing about North Korea?

“What should be done about North Korea?" "How can we help North Koreans?" Those questions are often asked, but rarely answered to the satisfaction of questioners. In the last five years of speaking at and attending North Korea focused events, I have yet to see audience members, reporters or experts respond, “At last! This is the answer about what to do about North Korea!”

2016-04-18 15:37

Top Secret

Back in 2007 when I launched a radio talk show, I predicted that I wouldn’t get major media coverage until there was a problem. After I got fired from the show in a dispute with management, I was proven correct. I got a long article published in the Washington Post, several national media invitations, mentioned in a book about conspiracy theories, and later became a regular commentator on a National Public Radio show.

2016-03-21 16:19

Bear hugs in Texas

My previous column was about celebrating every day I am alive. Later that day, my grandaunt passed away in Texas and the grandmother of a North Korean refugee friend passed away in North Korea. I last saw my grandaunt two years ago when I flew from Seoul to Texas to attend my paternal grandmother's funeral. The people who were already adults when I was born, probably changed my diapers when I was baby, and celebrated my achievements during my formative years are passing from the scene.

2016-03-17 16:29

'I don't have to'

Korean friends and conversation partners are shocked when I tell them I never feel stress. When some challenge me, I just say I'm a hedonist in search of pleasure. When doubters probe deeper, I confess: “I never feel stress because I know I am going to die one day.”

2016-02-23 16:44

Stereotypes and funny culture

One thing I love about Korea that I hope globalization won’t destroy: eating manners. You can slurp your food without feeling like a barbarian. The most common response I have heard from Koreans I have eaten with: “You are more Korean than Koreans!”

2016-01-26 17:08

Trump's secret sauce

Back in 2007 when I was co-host of the Casey Lartigue Show on satellite radio station XM 169 The Power, my phone lines were burning up as I tried to explain how talk show host Rush Limbaugh uses the anger of his critics to boost his ratings. The controversy then was Limbaugh's “Barack the Magic Negro” song, a parody of presidential candidate Barack Obama, based on the words of an LA Times commentary. My inspiration was a 1995 column by Thomas Hazlett of Reason Magazine asking: “What propelled Limbaugh?” Hazlett's short answer: “Ratings.”

2016-01-12 17:05

Chopstick champion of the world!

“You use chopsticks well” is something expats or visitors in Korea who don’t repeatedly poke themselves in the eye can expect to hear during meals with Koreans. While I accept it as a compliment, I learned in the late 1990s from a fellow American that some long-term expats view that comment as an attempt to single them out as unwelcome foreigners incapable of assimilating.

2015-12-29 16:43

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