South Korea's 'heroic' spy

South Korea's media and elected officials have been heralding the patriotic virtue of a Korean-American released on house arrest after serving seven years in a US prison on espionage charges - a national celebration of deceit that may further cloud the "future of the alliance". Meanwhile, the ninth round of the US-South Korea Future of the Alliance Talks dragged on - concluding on Tuesday without reaching a resolution on contentious issues concerning the timing of a US Forces in Korea (USFK) withdrawal from Seoul and the allocation of land south of Seoul for the development of a unified USFK facility.

In 1997, Robert (Chae-gon) Kim, a naturalized US citizen since 1974, was convicted of using his position and access to highly sensitive, top-secret information at the Office of Naval Intelligence to locate and pass off top-secret intelligence on North Korean submarine movements and Chinese naval deployments to South Korean naval attache Baek Dong-il. Evidence has it that he offered his services to the South Koreans in a bid to build trust and potentially pave the way for more lucrative acts of duplicity in the future.

According to US Federal Bureau of Investigation wiretaps, Robert Kim and his brother Kim Yung-gon devised a plan to "acquire", reverse engineer and sell a secret US military computer system to the South Korean government, a plan that if successful would likely have ensured the two brothers a huge windfall for their efforts. Robert Kim acquired export permits and licenses that would have allowed the Kim brothers to export stolen, sensitive technology to South Korea under the guise of normal technology trade. These licenses were ultimately revoked by the US Department of Commerce in June 2000.

Espionage in intelligence agencies is not new. Money, blackmail - the motivators are many, but the gall of Kim claiming his treasonous behavior was motivated only by love of his birth country is frustrating, not supported by fact, and wholeheartedly accepted by the South Korean press and relayed as truth to the Korean people, many of whom consider Kim a hero and a patriot - nationality notwithstanding.

That Robert Kim is guilty of sedition is incontrovertible. He was not tried and found guilty, but rather pleaded guilty to "conspiring to gather national defense information" when confronted with the mountain of evidence investigators had compiled. He pleaded guilty and cut a deal on sentencing; a deal that in 1997 reflected the strong desire of the US government to maintain the perception of a strong US-South Korea alliance, vital to maintaining the deterrence component of the 1994 Agreed Framework with North Korea.

But these facts are conveniently avoided in the South Korean press, and by extension, ignored by the South Korean people. Robert Kim, with a nudge and a wink from the South Korean government, is being portrayed in all media sources, left, right and center, as a patriot who selflessly sacrificed for his homeland. There has been no discussion of his financial problems: the US$200,000 in credit-card debt the assistant US attorney asserted during Kim's bail hearing; the export license he acquired; the highly sensitive technology he was hoping to sell to the government of South Korea; to say nothing of the fact he's still clutching his US citizenship, apparently in no hurry to settle in the land of his true patriot love, South Korea.

The intentional exclusion of relevant facts related to his case by South Korea's media and government is an example of a national tendency to bifurcation, a bipolar approach to the world that portrays issues as starkly "good or bad", with any act committed in defense of Korea's "pride" being good. Reality and logic take a back seat to a system of institutionalized myth-making that makes a hero of someone like Robert Kim, a national myth that bears little resemblance to the truth, and casts the "alliance formed in blood" with the United States in doubt.

The government of South Korea does not seem at all embarrassed about the celebration of Kim's "espionage in the name of Korea". Indeed, sitting lawmakers, the press and various civic groups have been very vocal in demanding that Kim be allowed to return "home", regardless of his US nationality or the fact that he's spent the past 30 years living in the United States.

While Robert Kim sits out his house detention at his home in Virginia, his South Korean support groups are kicking activities into high gear in anticipation of his eventual return to Korea - though the Korean patriot has not indicated he'll be giving up his US citizenship any time soon.

The chairman of President Roh Moo-hyun's Our Open Party pledged his party's support for Robert Kim and his family - Robert's brother Kim Song-gon is now a sitting member of the party. Robert Kim "Aid Associations" have been sponsoring "white envelope" meetings, hoping to collect more than $4 million for South Korea's spy - a retroactive salary of more than $500,000 a year for the seven-plus years Kim spent in prison. The National Assembly is hosting a public exhibition of his pictures, while newspaper editorials express hope that Kim will "come home" and tour South Korea's schools giving lessons on how to be a patriotic Korean - a guide to duplicity and advice on how to use a position of trust for personal gain, all while wrapping the whole vile exercise in the flag of patriotism.

Robert Kim is not a patriot of any country. He is a deeply corrupted American of Korean ethnicity who used his position of trust within the United States government to further his own agenda. He made it known to his South Korean handlers that he would be more than happy to violate both laws and any remaining ethics or morals he may have had in order to build trust and buy him the credibility necessary to broker even larger, more lucrative illegal transactions in the future.

The nation's reaction to Kim and the insistence that he was somehow noble in his quest to enrich himself through espionage is absurd and deals a further blow to what remains of the "future of the alliance".

David Scofield, former lecturer at the Graduate Institute of Peace Studies, Kyung Hee University, is currently conducting post-graduate research at the School of East Asian Studies, University of Sheffield, United Kingdom.

Now here's a great topic for discussion.... Great piece by David Schofield, and he is right on target.

Here's a couple examples of the praise he's getting in the ROK media that I just found in the last sixty seconds:

Korea Herald: Robert Kim,the 64-year-old Korean American convicted for handing out some 30 classified confidential military documents to a South Korean mission in Washington in 1996,is finally back home in Virginia after seven years in prison - and he yearns to visit Korea. Kim was a computer specialist at the Office of Naval Intelligence in the United States when he was arrested for relaying the secret documents,reportedly related to critical issues concerning North Korea as well as unification of the Koreas. He said his spying was for the national interests of his homeland but Kim,a naturalized American,was convicted of espionage in 1997 and given a nine-year sentence,later reduced to seven and a half years because he was a model prisoner. Tuesday he was released to confinement at his Ashburn,Va.,home until his sentence ends July 27,after which he will be on three years parole. Kim,whose Korean name is Chae-gon,is the Herald Person of the Week in recognition of what he has endured."

Joongang Ilbo: "The price that he paid for loving his country was huge, yet the country of his love did nothing for him."

Robert Kim took a free oath of allegiance to the United States (his chosen home country after he dumped Korea) when he became a naturalized citizen, and he also took an oath of loyalty upon being granted clearance to access classified documents. Robert Kim running his mouth is no more surprising to me than any other con's doing so, but the national consciousness of the ROK is warped.

This is what happens when the Left's obsession with "multi-culturalism" encourages our citizens, immigrant and native-born alike, to think of themselves as something other than simply "American". Someday I'd like to see national leaders with moxie enough to call for an end to all "Saint Paddy's Days", "Cinco de Mayos", "Asian American Pride Days", etc., etc. ad nauseum. If the Fourth of July aint good enough for you, then go back to whatever dung heap your ancestors emigrated from.

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