I received this invitation to a seminar on the nuclear threat from North Korea entitled “Endgame: A Hard Debate on the North Korean Nuclear Threat” from the Korean Foundation for Advanced Studies. I was deeply disappointed that I cannot attend because of a conflict with my classes. I wanted to attend the seminar so that I could stand up in the middle of the discussion and state loudly and clearly that this rigged up “hard debate” between American and Chinese scholar does not in any way represent the views of either the American people, or American experts on East Asia.
Rather the “hard debate” is a fabricated one in which representatives of think tanks that have been bought off by military contractors and the super rich parade their false and misleading data about the “threat” of North Korea, making it look like the United States and North Korea, or China, are so far apart that their is no dialog possible. This is not policy, but rather a criminal form of corruption and collusion with for profit organizations.
Above all, I wanted to demand that I be included in the discussion as an expert who actually knows Korean language, who actually knows what he is talking about and who is not deeply in the pocket of military contractors.
The Chinese speakers invited, Jia Qingguo (Peking University) and Zhang Duosheng (China International Institute for strategic Society ), are rather diplomatic personalities and are unlikely to mention that the United States is in violation of international law and in violation of the Nonproliferation Treaty itself. They will not bring up just how dangerous and irresponsible US policy is under the so-called Trump administration. F
ormer Korean Foreign minister Professor Yoon Young-kwan is even more diplomatic and even less likely to mention the criminal actions of the Trump administration.
Bruce Klingner of the Heritage Foundation is a nice guy, but has been presenting arguments about North Korea that make no sense over the last few years, skewed to make it look like the problems originated in Pyongyang. He is a smart guy and he obviously knows that what he is saying is untrue.
Gary Samore, Executive Director for Research at the Belfer Center at Harvard University is equally compromised and even more ignorant of Korea.
Sadly, I cannot attend the event, but I hope that other Americans will go and shout out, if necessary, that this debate between China and the United States does not represent the American people. Tell them all that these two “experts” who don’t speak a word of Korean and have been consistently promoting an unnecessary confrontation with North Korea are not qualified to represent our country.
Korean Foundation for Advanced Studies
“Endgame: A Hard Debate on the North Korean Nuclear Threat”
Tuesday October 17, 2:50-4:10 PM
@ Changchung Arena 장충 에래나
(near Shilla Hotel; Dongguk University, Line 3)
Circles and Squares 