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 crisis and confrontation, including the North Korean nuclear threat, in the post-9/​11 era.

From 1997 through 2003, Don was Seoul correspondent for the International Herald Tribune, also filing for The New York Times and CBS, covering nuclear and economic crises. In addition, he has written articles for such diverse magazines as Institutional Investor, The New Leader, National Review, The Nation, Soldier of Fortune, Kyoto Journal and Hemispheres and commentaries for The Wall Street Journal Asia, Los Angeles Times, South China Morning Post 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.

Don's latest book, Korea Betrayed: Kim Dae Jung and Sunshine, was published by Palgrave Macmillan in October 2009. He continues to file for CBS News/​Radio and The Christian Science Monitor. 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."

Scenes of Two Capitals:
Pyongyang and Seoul

CITY HALL, OLD AND NEW: Don in front of image of old Seoul city hall and new one, under construction

TIMES OLD AND NEW: Foreign tourist against the background of guards in ancient garb reenacting traditional ceremony in front of Kyongbuk Palace, Kwangwhamun, central Seoul

Sidewalk salesladies offer their wares beside busy street in central Seoul

The Ryugyong Hotel, never completed, rises 105 stories, a landmark on the Pyongyang skyline

Crowded class in the Gand People's Study Hall

Kim Il Sung Square, Pyongyang, from the Grand People's Study Hall, North Korea's national library

Kim Il Sung, "eternal president," stands in field of grain at Arirang Festival, September 2008, marking 60th anniversary of the founding of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. Tens of thousands hold cards forming the image in the stands of May 1 Stadium; thousands more fill the field below, completing the image of rural riches in a land free from hunger.

Flash cards at Arirang Festival in Pyongyang's May Day Stadium form an image of happy kids while dancers go through the motions on the playing field, October 2005

At the feet of Great Leader Kim Il Sung, in front of the immense building in Pyongyang where his body lies under glass, North Korean women in Hanbok step back after laying wreaths

North Korean guide, Ryu Ok Hai, stands by the gun on the spyship USS Pueblo, captured with its crew in 1968, now moored in Pyongyang.

North Korean soldiers stare at camera and crowds, Sports and Culture Festival, Kim Il Sung Stadium, Pyongyang, 1995

Night shopping in bustling Myongdong, central Seoul

Traffic swirls around Namdaemun, Seoul's ancient South Gate, against backdrop of office towers.

Scenes of Disaster, Hope

Vats of oil line Mollipo Beach on the Yellow Sea as soldiers and volunteers sop up more of the ooze from supertanker spill on December 7, 2007

Station master at Dorasan, south of the demilitarized zone, greets first freight from Kaesong special economic zone, above DMZ, December 11, 2007. The 12-car train carried building material from Seoul to Kaesong, then returned with finished products for unloading in Seoul. Service stopped in 2009 amid North-South confrontation.