This one evaded my attention for a long time because it was never put up on any of North Korea's open websites to download, and none of my contacts had a digital copy either, just a pdf in a non-portable font. Without a digital copy to feed into my bespoke text analysis tools, I had to wait until I had time to read it the slow old-fashioned way, using my slimy human eyeballs like a caveman.
Once I dipped my toes in, I was immediately kicking myself for not getting to this one sooner. I should have known better, since the same author also created a memorable depiction of the late Clinton era in Gun Barrel [총대] (2003). This author is a master of cleverly weaving together disparate real-life events from around the same time period into a fiendishly cloak-and-dagger plot with wily mustache-twirling villains and sexy femme fatales. In this case, the plot weaves together: George W. Bush’s “Axis of Evil” State of the Union speech, the 2002 World Cup jointly hosted by Japan and South Korea, the inter-Korean diplomacy of the Kim Dae-jung era, and the Second West Sea Battle.
On the US side, there are quality speaking parts for George W. Bush, Laura Bush, George H.W. Bush, NSA Condoleezza Rice, SecState Colin Powell, Henry Kissinger, Rev. Franklin Graham, Speechwriter Michael Gerson, SecDef Donald Rumsfeld, VP Dick Cheney, CIA Director George Tenet, CENTCOM Commander Tommy Franks, Assistant Secretary of State William Kelly, Barack Obama, and a couple of purely fictional goons named "Saul" and "Elsa" who do the administration's dirty work in Korea. George W. Bush, Gerson, and Powell each serve as POV characters in different chapters.
High-powered palaver down at the ranch
We first encounter W. relaxing at "Clifford Ranch" in Texas the weekend after the Axis of Evil speech. Several Cabinet officials gather there to comment on the speech and its ramifications, along with a glowering Bush Senior and "long-time Bush family friends" Henry Kissinger and Rev. Franklin Graham. The famously tee-totaling Bush Jr is depicted here sipping on Scotch poured by his indulgent wife Laura. Powell and Rumsfeld enter together and begin a heated discussion:
[Rumsfeld:] "Gentlemen, the President's annual speech has thrown the world's media into a frenzy. This is truly the first sensation of the new century. Jiji, Reuters, NTV, CNN, and even Xinhua are all in awe and dismay. This could be called the first salvo of our neoliberal movement." Secretary Rumsfeld had abandoned his usual cool demeanor and was madly gesticulating.Bush felt a strange, inexplicable sigh of relief escape him. He locked eyes with Secretary of State Powell, standing behind the Secretary of Defense. Powell nodded and cautiously approached the empty seat at the table."The problem, Mr. Rumsfeld, is that I think it’s too early for celebration. The idea to divide the world ideologically and propagate values through military superiority is not a new one. It’s a relic of the so-called Cold War. A few days ago, I met with Brzezinski, and he expressed concern about the lack of a new geopolitical strategy and expressed great discomfort with the new administration’s neoliberal approach and anti-terror policy. The strategy of deliberately targeting potential enemies on all sides and attacking them is doomed to failure."Kissinger's calm words left Bush inwardly dismayed. He sensed this was Kissinger's cunning attempt to indirectly criticize him by citing the views of Brzezinski, a renowned political scientist and special adviser on national security under President Carter.Abruptly, Powell glanced at Kissinger and retorted, "But Brzezinski's logic betrays a lack of strategic insight to accurately analyze and assess today's world. Hasn't it already been disproven by last year's shocking September 11th incident?"The moderate Powell stood in stark contrast to Vice President Cheney and Rumsfeld, who were considered hardliners in the political world. Bush felt immediately bolstered by Powell's astute diplomatic thinking in support of the president's foreign policy.Kissinger glanced at Bush Sr., sitting impassively in silence with a glass of wine, and at Graham, who was slicing a hamburger with a knife, a relaxed smile on his face. He licked his lips."Mr. Powell, I’m speechless at you applying such a dichotomy. In fact, we must recognize that the very concept of the war on terror itself bears a profound contradiction. Democrats regard it as a police action, while the current administration has revealed its intention to mobilize the military. The ‘axis of evil’ has been designated as the target of this test. Critics have argued from the beginning that since terrorism is a methodology, it cannot constitute a real concrete enemy of the US. While Al Qaeda may be viewed logically as a kind of secret organization, experts consider it more of a spiritual entity. This fact could render all strategies based on neoliberal principles meaningless."
 |
| Bush, Rice, Rumsfeld and Cheney at Crawford Ranch, Aug 2003 (src: White House Archives) |
Rev. Graham is present to discuss his upcoming trip to North Korea; he thinks he can serve a diplomatic role since he is "our nation’s religious leader" and "For some reason, since the time of Chairman Kim Il-sung the Graham family had enjoyed Pyongyang's warmest welcome" (I've previously covered Rev. Billy Graham's depiction in a different novel). Condoleeza Rice contributes her insight on Pyongyang's internal politics. Bush Sr. offers historical perspective as the man who "ended the Gulf War and brought down the socialist Eastern Bloc" but left America's most formidable foe (guess who) untouched.
But I can't get into those details here, because I must skip ahead to share an even more quotable scene.
People of Color
 |
| Powell and Obama in 2010 (AP/J. Scott Applewhite) |
[Powell:] "I hear you're pushing for a world without nuclear weapons? Those nuclear weapons are America's lever, the great hope of American-style governance. You’re a master of utopian pragmatism, but if you keep going on like this, you'll really get labeled a socialist! Fidel spoke highly of you, he says he thinks you’re a new kind of American politician. Better keep your feet on the ground."At Powell's friendly advice, Obama grinned, revealing his white teeth, and raised his Cognac glass. "You hit the nail on the head. There was even a cartoon in the paper labeling me Osama bin Laden's younger brother. Hahaha. If a confrontation with North Korea actually helps boost America's position as a world leader, I welcome it. But do you really think socialism will disappear from this planet so easily?"
There follows a lengthy discussion of late Soviet era intrigues, Perestroika, Yeltsin & Putin. Eventually Obama turns to the topic he came to discuss:
"I met Jay Kim a few days ago, and he brought up something I think you’ll definitely want to address…""Jay Kim?…" Powell looked up, thinking the name was somehow familiar."You know, Kim Chang-jun, the Korean-American congressman from California's 41st Congressional District.""Ah, the mayor of Diamond Bar! He's the Korean-American congressman who won a landslide victory over Democratic candidate Mom Macker [Bob Baker] by a margin of 59 to 35 percent, in a district with few people of color and a significant middle-class white population. What about him?"Obama smiled faintly at Powell's interest. "The 2002 World Cup, the greatest sports festival of the new century, will soon be held in Seoul. Coincidentally, our US team is in the same group as the South Korean team. Jay Kim is concerned that this could be the fuse that will trigger an eruption of anti-American sentiment."Powell had yet to grasp Obama's true intent, but he began to sense a faint flicker in the darkness. He tensed, like a rodent sensing a tectonic shift. Was this some kind of African instinct?"The World Cup... this summer... It's a very interesting concern," Powell muttered, his eyes blank.
Here is another example of how different events are massaged into a timeline to fit a narrative. In 2002, Barack Obama was still just a humble Illinois state senator, and Jay Kim was already long gone. It is of course possible that North Korea does not understand the concept of each state having its own legislature and assumes all "senators" work in Washington.
 |
| Jay Kim in Congress, Oct 1998 |
Kim was indeed the first Korean American elected to Congress, but he was primaried out in 1998 after some illegal campaign financing came to light. California's 41st is a majority white district, but it is also pretty solidly conservative. As the Republican candidate and a wealthy businessman, it was not surprising that he handily defeated his Democratic rival. Kim's positive portrayal here is surprising as he is not someone North Korea would normally approve of; he served in the South Korean military, was fiercely anti-communist, immigrated to the US, and remained a staunch supporter of South Korea's conservative party. In California, one of the issues he ran on was repealing the 10% luxury tax; he argued, “If you work hard and become a millionaire and buy a boat, what’s wrong with that? Is this a socialized country or something?”
As always, and especially with these high-profile Series novels, it is important to be mindful of what was happening at the time of publication. Though the events depicted take place in 2002, when this novel was published in 2012, North Korea would have been much more concerned with creating a coherent vision of why Barack Obama is bad than with relitigating Bush-era policies. This novel seems to particularly linger on American race politics in a way I have rarely seen before or since.
Sports and boats
Sports play a significant role in this novel, as several sports controversies contributed to the rising anti-American ferment in South Korea at that time. The novel even gives brief shout-outs to Olympic speed-skater Apollo Anton Ohno and comedian Jay Leno - if you don't know what they did to piss of all of South Korea in 2002, you can Google it. Of course, the novel devotes more attention (and deservedly so) to the tragic killing of two Korean schoolgirls by a US military armored vehicle that year and to Bush's Axis of Evil rhetoric, which rubbed many South Koreans the wrong way at a time when inter-Korean relations had been making historic progress. Overall, 2002 was a rough year for US-ROK relations.
This all coalesces in massive protests surrounding the US embassy in Seoul, which did happen in real life. In the novel, the unrest prompts the Bush administration to take the drastic measure of engineering a fatal clash between the two Korean navies in order to redirect South Koreans' hatred safely back toward the North again. This, of course, is the Second West Sea Battle, which in reality happened several months before the embassy protests. This skirmish, in which several KPA ships infiltrated south of the NLL and opened fire on a ROK patrol boat causing the deaths of six sailors, was the subject of the 2015 South Korean feature film Northern Limit Line (연평해전). The attack is widely believed to have been planned as retaliation for the KPA's heavy losses in the First West Sea Battle back in 1999, although undoubtedly the timing of the clash - during the World Cup finals - was also designed to darken South Korea's moment in the world spotlight.
