Michael Mosettig's Blogs
-
Change Comes by Way of Resort in North Korea
Had Prince Potemkin been a 21st century man, he would have gone into the luxury hotel business. With help from South Korea and one of its major corporations (the Hyundai chaebol), North Korea presents a deluxe picture to more than 1.5 million tourists, nearly all from South Korea, who have arrived at the Mount Kumgang resort, a complex of nine hotels and lodges as well as a spa, gift shops and a coffee stand that sells lattes at Starbucks prices. Hiking trail in North Korean mountains. Photo Credit: Michael MosettigThe attraction, beyond the exotic of going into previously forbidden territory, is one of Korea's most famous mountain ranges in a nation where mountains have drawn nature lovers and artists over centuries. The complex is a four-hour drive northeast of Seoul, just off the coast of the East Sea/Sea of Japan and whose coves remind an...
-
Music Blends Korean Tradition with Modern American Sound
She is a fusion person. She sings what she calls fusion music, part of a Korean wave of song, film and TV soap opera that has gained wide popularity across Asia. Her name is Insooni, born Kim In-Soon, the daughter of a Korean mother and an African-American father who served in the U.S. military. Her mother raised her alone, sending her to an international school to help avoid the social stigma that can befall mixed-race children here. Now 50 with a daughter of her own, she has been singing and dancing since she was 21. Singer Insooni. Photo Credit: Insooni Web siteHer publicity sheet calls her \"South Korea's acclaimed R&B; diva.\" Insooni has performed in Carnegie Hall, her latest song \"Goose Dreams\" is on YouTube. But her growing audience, beyond her home country, is across Southeast Asia, where the music that combines an American sound...
-
Demilitarized Zone Reminder of War and Tenuous Peace
Stretching 155 miles wide and two and a half miles deep across the entire peninsula, the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) divides the two Koreas. It also separates the universes of a war long forgotten by most Americans and a peace tantalizingly close for nearly all Koreans. Patrolling soldiers, miles of barbed wire fence, mine fields, guard posts and observation decks serve as reminders that the three-year Korean War ended on July 25, 1953, with a military armistice rather than a peace treaty. Guards in the Demilitarized Zone. Photo Credit: Ray Locker of USA TodayIn the five decades since, U.S., South Korean and North Korean soldiers have patrolled the Zone, operating under a dizzying array of initials and acronyms. Those are a legacy of a war fought under the United Nations flag, with troops from 17 nations, under an American commander against the combined forces of North Korea and China. ...
-
Passion for Korea Unification Giving Way to More Pragmatic Approach
Nearing 84, his gait has slowed and he walks with a cane. But former South Korean president and Nobel laureate Kim Dae Jung still delivers with quiet intensity his message that the two Koreas are on the path to peace and unification. It is outside the confines of his presidential library in Seoul (the first of its kind here) that the unification issue has diminished as a priority for South Koreans, especially those several generations younger than the man who symbolizes Korea's struggle to establish democracy. Former South Korean President Kim Dae Jung. Photo Credit: Ray Locker of USA TodayJust what that struggle entailed for Kim was summed up by the American historian and Korea analyst Bruce Cumings. Here's his description of what the military government tried to do with Kim after he ran strongly as the opposition candidate in the 1971 elections: \"He was run over...
-
Among Sea of Glittery Crosses, Christianity Makes Its Mark in South Korea
Sunday in Seoul -- As dusk turns to dark in this capital city, the skyline glitters with more than the urban lights of office towers and apartment blocks. From the hills that define Seoul's topography and neighborhoods it is easy to spot lighted electric crosses. They are among the most visible reminders of just how deeply Christianity shapes South Korea. Somewhere between a quarter to a third of South Korea's nearly 50 million people are estimated to be followers of a Christian denomination, a third of them Roman Catholic and the remainder Protestant. Another quarter of the population are Buddhist and many of the rest followers of Confucian precepts. In Asia, only the Philippines counts a higher percentage of Christians. Youth service at Yoido Full Gospel Church. Photo Courtesy of The Stanley FoundationFrom this country's conservative social mores to its often conservative politics, the Christian influence...
Your donation helps continue the IRP's work to inform the public about international issues.
Make A Gift