Hardcover
$51.72
Paperback
from $35.35
Read sample
Follow the author
Donald KirkDonald Kirk
Follow
Korea Betrayed: Kim Dae Jung and Sunshine Hardcover – Illustrated, April 8, 2011
by D. Kirk (Author)
4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars (3)
This book recounts the rise of Kim Dae Jung from an oppressed region of Korea, beginning with his schooldays, his activities in the Korean War and his entry into politics and concluding with discussion of his Sunshine policy, his summit with North Korea's Kim Jong Il and his drive for the Nobel.
Report an issue with this product or seller
Print length
263 pages
April 8, 2011
Editorial Reviews
Review
"As Don Kirk details, Kim [Dae Jung]'s presidency was a tragic disappointment. . . Korea Betrayed helps us better understand the manifold gifts and flaws of this extraordinary statesman." - The Washington Times
"The late Kim Dae Jung - the remarkable political dissident who rose tobe President of South Korea and to win the Nobel Prize for Peace - is revered internationally, but hisreputation in his native South Korea is muchmore controversial and contested. In this critical biography, Donald Kirk - a journalistic eminence whohas been covering Korea for more than 30 years - helps us understand why this could be so. Inhis fascinating book, Kirk not onlytracesKim Dae Jung'sgreat political rise, but also detailsthe moral and financial corruption thatcame to engulf,and permanently tarnish, the DJ Presidency. Korea Betrayed will be a welcome addition to the bookshelf of every student of modern Korea. Kirk's account of the failure of DJ's Sunshine Policy toward North Korea, furthermore,should be must reading forall American policymakers before they prepare to deal with Pyongyang." - Nicholas Eberstadt, Henry Wendt Chair in Political Economy, The American Enterprise Institute
"Donald Kirk's Korea Betrayed is a comprehensive yet cogently written look at one of the most important figures in the past hundred years of Korean history. Brilliantly researched and equally well written, Kirk's newest book could not come at a more important time. Kirk's book reminds American and South Korean policy makers why decisions made in the past are so relevant for foreign affairs today - as Washington, Pyongyang, and Seoul are at a crossroads in foreign relations that will affect the security of Northeast Asia for many years to come." - Bruce E. Bechtol Jr., Professor of International Relations, Marine Corps Command and Staff College and author of Red Rogue: The Persistent Challenge of North Korea
About the Author
DONALD KIRK is a journalist and author who has covered Korea for American newspapers and magazines as a Far East correspondent.
Product details
Publisher : Palgrave Macmillan; 2009th edition (April 8, 2011)
Language : English
Hardcover : 263 pages
ISBN-10 : 0230620485
ISBN-13 : 978-0230620483
Item Weight : 14.4 ounces
Dimensions : 5.75 x 0.75 x 8.25 inchesBest Sellers Rank: #172,180 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)#11 in South Korean History
#17 in North Korean History
#55 in Asian & Asian Descent StudiesCustomer Reviews:
4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars (3)
Videos
Help others learn more about this product by uploading a video!Upload your video
About the author
Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.
Follow
Donald Kirk
Donald Kirk, from Washington, D.C., travels to South Korea, with stops in London, the middle east, Japan, Hong Kong and the Philippines, among other places, writing on the confrontation of forces in the post-9/11 era.
Don has served as Korea correspondent for the International Herald Tribune, Christian Science Monitor and The Daily Beast and has written for such diverse magazines as Forbes Asia, Institutional Investor, Far Eastern Economic Review, The New Leader, Future Korea Journal, National Review, Kyoto Journal and Hemispheres and commentaries for newspapers ranging from The Wall Street Journal Asia, South China Morning Post and Korea Times to the Los Angeles Times, Providence Journal, Washington Examiner and Newsday.
Don first visited Seoul in 1972 as Far East correspondent for the Chicago Tribune and has covered major events in Korea from the assassination of President Park Chung Hee in 1979 and the Kwangju revolt in 1980 to every presidential election since adoption of the "democracy constitution" in 1987.
From 1988 to 1994, he focused on economics and labor, writing Korean Dynasty: Hyundai and Chung Ju Yung, a critical study of Hyundai, Korea's largest chaebol, and its founder. Again in Seoul, he wrote Korean Crisis: Unraveling of the Miracle in the IMF Era, published in 2000, and Korea Betrayed: Kim Dae Jung and Sunshine, a biography of the late South Korean president.
The University of Maryland University College in 2004 awarded him an honorary doctorate as "one of the United States' most knowledgeable observers and commentators on Asia."
Customer reviews
4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5 out of 5
11 people found this helpful
Helpful
bookbug
4.0 out of 5 stars good analysisReviewed in the United States on February 28, 2013
Verified Purchase
a pretty good analysis of a typical male egomaniac who fooled the Korean public for decades, and then, as the title says, betrayed them. as the first president ever from the much maligned Chollado region, he should have striven to become a model president in order to elevate the status of those people and to give hope to the future possibility of other presidents from the region. His betrayal, i fear, has completely doused that hope.
3 people found this helpful
HelpfulReport
See more reviews
Top reviews from other countries
Craig Urquhart
5.0 out of 5 stars This is a vital book. Kirk takes personal knowledge ...Reviewed in Canada on November 21, 2016
Verified Purchase
This is a vital book. Kirk takes personal knowledge and behind-the-scenes reportage to unveil a work of inquisitive journalism that dethrones Kim from the seat of uncriticized reform in Korea. A little polemic in style, the reason it generates anger in Munjung enthusiasts is because it relentlessly exposes the character flaws inherent in Kim as a man and a politician and traces the contradictions in the politics of Minjung and democratic reform - showing how DJ, in the end, is more of a tragic and flawed figure than any of his uncritical supporters would tend to admit.
This should be required reading for any review of modern Korean democratic history, and the dangers of assuming your enemy's enemy is your friend - for Kirk makes a convincing case that DJ betrayed his country out of personal ambition and an overcalculated sense of democratic ambition.
Report
===
Community Reviews
2.60
5 ratings2 reviews
5 stars
0 (0%)
4 stars
0 (0%)
3 stars
3 (60%)
2 stars
2 (40%)
1 star
0 (0%)
Search review text
Filters
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
Nick
678 reviews30 followers
Follow
January 22, 2010
As a witness to many events covered in the book, and having met and gotten to know many of the people mentioned, I regret to say this is not a very good book. This very well-researched book is spoiled by Don Kirk's heavy-handed innuendo. A straightforward presentation of the facts would have made a better and perhaps more damning portrait of the late Kim Dae Jung. For example, although Kirk admits at one point that the rough-and-tumble of (south) Korean politics would have turned up the merest trace of evidence that Kim was a Communist or Communist sympathizer, much less a North Korean agent, he repeatedly implies that Kim, if not a North Korean agent, was a closet supporter of Pyongyang.
biography history international
...more
2 likes
1 comment
Like
Comment
Sean
16 reviews
Follow
December 13, 2012
Donald Kirk’s Korea Betrayed details the background, life and rise of South Korea’s 15th president, Kim Dae-Jung (DJ). A virtual statesmen celebrity in South Korea and appearing to be revered by all the late president of the ROK is perhaps most well-known in the western world for his famous “Sunshine Policy” culminating in his famous meeting with Kim Jong-Il in Pyongyang in 2000 for which he also won the Nobel Peace Prize. From the perspective of the outside world Kim Dae-Jung looked to be almost an “Asian Nelson Mandela” of sorts, suffering under the Japanese occupation as well as unlawful imprisonment under the militarist regimes of Park Chung-Hee and later Chun Doo-Hwan. His story appears to be one of triumph and success, a child born into adversity, surviving the oppression of the Japanese and the horrors of World War II and the Korean War to become one of the most beloved Executives of South Korea. His later life was smeared however after several accusations of “paying off” the DPRK to meet him among other things marred his great successes for the rest of his life.
Reviewing Kim’s early life, career and the struggles he faced to finally ascend to the presidency, it seems almost as if he dedicated his life to the success and preservation of his homeland. After witnessing the atrocities of the Japanese as a child followed by the macabre scenes of the Korea War as a young man, he must have felt some type of connection, endearment to his homeland. That being said the man was also a politician, and as such perhaps fell victim to the necessities of the political rhetoric and strategy of a politician. Using his political clout and know-how he negotiated an audience with the despot of North Korea Kim Jong-Il, the apex of his Sunshine Policy toward his northern brethren. His idea was to, in effect, shower the DPRK with kindness and well-intended acts to win them over and perhaps facilitate more open and amiable relations in an otherwise hostile political and international environment, even if it may have involved a little bribery.
The question that Kirk seems to ask without answering is how exactly was Korea betrayed? Was it by her former leader or was the betrayal perhaps the critics of his actions? The trouble with politics is sometimes it is an environment where less-than-reputable means can lead to progress and prosperity. While the world may be critical of Kim Dae-Jung’s methods, they certainly achieved some results, at least during his life and whether or not Kim Jong-Il was bribed to meet with him may perhaps be irrelevant in the light of the symbolic gesture it entailed and what it symbolized in the hearts and minds of the peoples of North and South Korea.
Like
Comment
===
Community Reviews
2.60
5 ratings2 reviews
5 stars
0 (0%)
4 stars
0 (0%)
3 stars
3 (60%)
2 stars
2 (40%)
1 star
0 (0%)
Search review text
Filters
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
Nick
678 reviews30 followers
Follow
January 22, 2010
As a witness to many events covered in the book, and having met and gotten to know many of the people mentioned, I regret to say this is not a very good book. This very well-researched book is spoiled by Don Kirk's heavy-handed innuendo. A straightforward presentation of the facts would have made a better and perhaps more damning portrait of the late Kim Dae Jung. For example, although Kirk admits at one point that the rough-and-tumble of (south) Korean politics would have turned up the merest trace of evidence that Kim was a Communist or Communist sympathizer, much less a North Korean agent, he repeatedly implies that Kim, if not a North Korean agent, was a closet supporter of Pyongyang.
biography history international
...more
2 likes
1 comment
Like
Comment
Sean
16 reviews
Follow
December 13, 2012
Donald Kirk’s Korea Betrayed details the background, life and rise of South Korea’s 15th president, Kim Dae-Jung (DJ). A virtual statesmen celebrity in South Korea and appearing to be revered by all the late president of the ROK is perhaps most well-known in the western world for his famous “Sunshine Policy” culminating in his famous meeting with Kim Jong-Il in Pyongyang in 2000 for which he also won the Nobel Peace Prize. From the perspective of the outside world Kim Dae-Jung looked to be almost an “Asian Nelson Mandela” of sorts, suffering under the Japanese occupation as well as unlawful imprisonment under the militarist regimes of Park Chung-Hee and later Chun Doo-Hwan. His story appears to be one of triumph and success, a child born into adversity, surviving the oppression of the Japanese and the horrors of World War II and the Korean War to become one of the most beloved Executives of South Korea. His later life was smeared however after several accusations of “paying off” the DPRK to meet him among other things marred his great successes for the rest of his life.
Reviewing Kim’s early life, career and the struggles he faced to finally ascend to the presidency, it seems almost as if he dedicated his life to the success and preservation of his homeland. After witnessing the atrocities of the Japanese as a child followed by the macabre scenes of the Korea War as a young man, he must have felt some type of connection, endearment to his homeland. That being said the man was also a politician, and as such perhaps fell victim to the necessities of the political rhetoric and strategy of a politician. Using his political clout and know-how he negotiated an audience with the despot of North Korea Kim Jong-Il, the apex of his Sunshine Policy toward his northern brethren. His idea was to, in effect, shower the DPRK with kindness and well-intended acts to win them over and perhaps facilitate more open and amiable relations in an otherwise hostile political and international environment, even if it may have involved a little bribery.
The question that Kirk seems to ask without answering is how exactly was Korea betrayed? Was it by her former leader or was the betrayal perhaps the critics of his actions? The trouble with politics is sometimes it is an environment where less-than-reputable means can lead to progress and prosperity. While the world may be critical of Kim Dae-Jung’s methods, they certainly achieved some results, at least during his life and whether or not Kim Jong-Il was bribed to meet with him may perhaps be irrelevant in the light of the symbolic gesture it entailed and what it symbolized in the hearts and minds of the peoples of North and South Korea.
Like
Comment
===
No comments:
Post a Comment