Donald Kirk

Korea Betrayed: Kim Dae Jung and Sunshine
This book recounts the rise of Kim Dae Jung from an oppressed region of Korea, his ascent to the national stage, and his encounters with the dictatorial leaders who tried to take his life and then had him tried for his role in the Kwangju revolt. For the first time, using original sources and his own reporting going back to 1972 when he met Kim Dae Jung at his home in Seoul, Donald Kirk explores the great untold story of modern Korean history.


The book details Kim Dae Jung's exile in the United States and his drive for power climaxed by his election as president in 1997 at the height of economic crisis. The story focuses on his Sunshine policy of reconciliation with North Korea, his summit with North Korea’s Kim Jong Il, his drive for the Nobel Peace Prize -- and reveals the corruption that ensnared his sons and aides.

(Palgrave Macmillan, NY, UK, 2009)

"Kirk’s account of the failure of DJ’s ‘Sunshine Policy’ toward North Korea....‘must reading’ for all American policymakers before they prepare to deal with Pyongyang.”
—Nicholas Eberstadt, Henry Wendt Chair in Political Economy, The American Enterprise Institute

"Brilliantly researched and equally well written, Kirk’s newest book could not come at a more important time."
--Bruce E. Bechtol Jr., Professor of International Relations, Marine Corps Command and Staff College

Encyclopedia of Human Rights, Oxford
Three lengthy articles discuss in detail the very different experiences of the two Koreas in dealing with the issue of human rights. The articles, written at the request of David P. Forsythe, distinguished professor at the University of Nebraska and editor-in-chief of the Encyclopedia of Human Rights, published in 2009 by Oxford University Press, appear in volume three of the five-volume project.

The article on North Korea covers the tragedy of the gulag, in which tens of thousands of North Korean citizens are consigned to work, suffer and die. David Hawk's studies, notably The Hidden Gulag, were a rich resource. The article on South Korea analyzes the South's transition from the era of dictatorship to democracy. A biographical sketch of the late Kim Dae Jung chronicles his life from his birth, upbringing and education in South Cholla Province to his battles with South Korea's dictatorial leaders to his election as president in 1997, his June 2000 summit with North Korea's Kim Jong Il, his successful quest for the Nobel Prize and the corruption that mired his legacy.

Korean Crisis: Unraveling of the Miracle in the IMF Era
(St. Martin’s, NY; Macmillan, UK, 2000; Palgrave, NY and UK, paper, 2001)

The first book to look at Korea in the economic turmoil that swept Asia in 1997; probes the origin and impact, the battles between government and business, and the role of the IMF.
“Kirk writes vividly and illustrates his story throughout with firsthand reporting." -- Shim Jae Hoon, Far Eastern Economic Review

I.--Looted: The Philippines After the Bases II.--Philippines in Crisis: U.S. Power versus Local Revolt
I.--(St. Martin’s, NY; Macmillan, UK, 1998; Palgrave, NY and UK, paper, 2000)

Unveils the democratic myth that has shrouded the Philippines, exposing endemic corruption and exploitation. One of history's greatest volcanic eruptions symbolizes the seething discontent of society -- and unbridled greed amid the loss of America’s largest overseas air and naval bases.

II.--(Anvil, Manila, paper, 2005)

Expanded, updated version, from the escapades of the World Trade Center plotters in Angeles City to tragedy and political chicanery in Manila to revolt on the southern islands of Jolo and Basilan.

Tell it to the Dead: Stories of a War
(M.E. Sharpe, Armonk, N.Y., hardcover and paper, 1996)

“Journalist Kirk arrived in Vietnam in 1965 and covered the war for The Washington Star, the Chicago Tribune and other American periodicals. Here are 15 stories, most reprinted, from that period as well as visits over the decades after the war.”

Korean Dynasty:
Hyundai and Chung Ju Yung
(M.E. Sharpe, Armonk, N.Y.; Asia2000, Hong Kong; hardcover and paper, 1994)

"Readable and honest study of the emergence of an Asian conglomerate" -- Forbes Global

From the publishers:
"A trail-blazing book, the first major study of the inner workings of a Korean chaebol or conglomerate. Kirk, over the course of six years, probed deep into the inner fabric of the Hyundai group in pursuit of the story of the Korean economic miracle since the end of World War II and the end of Japanese rule over the Korean peninsula."

Wider War: The Struggle for Cambodia, Thailand and Laos
(Praeger, NY; Pall Mall, UK, 1971)

This book was written at the height of the Vietnam War, in Saigon's Majestic Hotel. The title derives from President Nixon's declaration that U.S. forces, as they poured into North Vietnamese base areas in Cambodia, were not seeking a "wider war."

The Business Guide
to the Philippines
(Butterworth-Heinemann, UK and Singapore, 1998)

"All contributors are experts and specialists in their fields, providing you with an unparalleled wealth of insider knowledge. Each chapter is packed with the kind of information and advice usually available only to elite clients with large budgets for outside consultants."

"A guide for potential investors which covers negotiation preparation, marketing and distribution, foreign trade, taxation, customs, intellectual property and business law, financing, economic conditions and trends, environmental regulation, the work force, and other information."

Viewpoint: Lambs to the Slaughter
Washington's pact with Pyongyang won't help the starving children

Donald Kirk, TIME ASIA
MARCH 29, 1999

She looks about six or seven, but tiny Kim Yun is all of 12 years old. And she is one of the lucky ones--a child who has escaped death by slow starvation in North Korea. Now she approaches foreigners, usually tourists from South Korea, as they take photographs from the Chinese side of a bridge across the Tumen River between China and North Korea. Her father died several years ago, probably from starvation, she says. Her sister drowned trying to cross the river. She tries not to think about her mother, now dying slowly of malnutrition. "What's the use?" she asks.

Economic Battles
I.--Iraq Wages Economic War

Don arrived in Baghdad on June 28, 2004, the day of the "handover" to the interim government, and spent a month on interviews for this Institutional Investor cover, September 2004.

II.--Korea Fights Corruption

The sight of Chey Tae Won, handcuffed and his arms bound by rope, being led off from his court sentencing to jail on June 13, brought back unhappy memories of the late 1990s in South Korea.

Korea Witness: 135 Years of War, Crisis and News in the Land of the Morning Calm
I.--More than 60 correspondents chronicle the ups and downs of covering Korea from the arrival of the first photographer-correspondent Felice Beato with American troops attacking Kangwha Island in 19871. This book, published on the 50th anniversary of the Seoul Foreign Correspondents Club, includes selections on the Korean War, the Kwangju Revolt and North Korea too, edited by Don Kirk and Choe Sang Hun.

II.--Charles Duerden interviews Donald Kirk for Korea Trade & Investment, a journal published by the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency, KOTRA, Vol. 21, No. 5, September-October 2003.

Seoul Food
Seoul throbs with a vigor and a vitality that come as a shock to anyone returning years after visiting the shattered capital in the aftermath of the Korean War—or even a generation ago, when it remained a distant Asian outpost, clearly fallen behind other major regional centers.