Kim Dae-jung and the Quest for the Nobel: How the President of South Korea Bought the Peace Prize and Financed Kim Jong-il’s Nuclear Program PDF
Preview Kim Dae-jung and the Quest for the Nobel: How the President of South Korea Bought the Peace Prize and Financed Kim Jong-il’s Nuclear Program
Kim Dae- jung and the Quest for the Nobel This page intentionally left blank Kim Dae- jung and the Quest for the Nobel How the President of South Korea Bought the Peace Prize and Financed Kim Jong- il’s Nuclear Program Kisam Kim and Donald Kirk kim dae- jung and the quest for the nobel Copyright © Kisam Kim and Donald Kirk, 2013. All rights reserved. Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2013 978-1-137-35308-5 First published in 2013 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN® in the United States— a division of St. Martin’s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. Where this book is distributed in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world, this is by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries. ISBN 978-1-349-46954-3 ISBN 978-1-137-35309-2 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-137-35309-2 Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data is available from the Library of Congress. A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library. Design by Scribe Inc. First edition: September 2013 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 For Sang-m i and Sung- hee With much appreciation for your patience and understanding This page intentionally left blank Contents Foreword by Janet Hinshaw-T homas ix Preface xiii Map of Korea xv 1 Asylum at Last! 1 2 Norwegian Base 13 3 Softening the Swedes 23 4 Spreading the Net 33 5 Eyes on the Prize 47 6 Shielding the Deeds 59 7 Courting the Bishop 71 8 Scaling the Summit 85 9 Beyond the Summit 95 10 Playing the Media 107 11 Swedish Connection 121 12 Easily the Winner 133 13 Sunshine Exposed 147 14 In History’s Glare 159 15 Legacy of Terror 171 Epilogue 183 Chronology 187 Cast of Characters 197 viii CONTENTS Nobel Peace Prize Winners Cited in This Book 203 Glossary: Abbreviations and Acronyms 205 Notes 207 Bibliography 223 Index 229 Foreword When Mr. Kim walked through the doors of our small office, I immedi- ately felt that I had the privilege of meeting a fearless man who champi- oned truth and justice. Many victims of persecution come to our nonprofit (actually “for loss”) agency. Some can prove past persecution, some even with bodily scars, while others have endured severe psychological trauma. It is always a welcome challenge to help such people present their cases in front of erudite immigration judges while facing well-v ersed government attorneys. Usually clients who were journalists are the easiest to coach in help- ing them understand which elements within their often tragic or broken lives are important to the case. Those with absolutely no schooling or who are functionally illiterate commonly fail to distinguish between life- threatening circumstances and those events that the law recognizes as past persecution on the basis of one of the five legal grounds for asylum. Mr. Kim’s case, however, presented a different challenge. He was from South Korea, a country that has had a somewhat checkered past in auto- cratic presidents, but not a country in which torture or persecution is rou- tine. Yet he had diligently uncovered facts of gross governmental deceit. And, almost like Don Quixote, he continued to reveal those facts in the public arena through his articles, blogs, emails, and so on. Although his email was hacked, articles were erased from the web, and publishers threat- ened not to accept his writings, he continued because he was so outraged by the facts he had been able to uncover. Luckily Mr. Kim was not in the clutches of his government, as he enjoyed the temporary protection of life and liberty in the United States. But he always faced the prospect of being forcefully returned by our gov- ernment to South Korea, where he would be tried for revealing the illegal acts of his government and would also be well within the reach of North Korean agents. The life of a whistle-b lower is a precarious one. Some, like Deep Throat of Watergate fame, have decided not to become public; others, even in our democracy, have known ridicule, dismissal from jobs, destitution, and sometimes even jail time. We were lucky in having an immigration judge
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