The Korea Times
amn_close.png
amn_bl.png
National
  • Politics
  • Foreign Affairs
  • Multicultural Community
  • Defense
  • Environment & Animals
  • Law & Crime
  • Society
  • Health & Science
amn_bl.png
Business
  • Tech
  • Bio
  • Companies
amn_bl.png
Finance
  • Companies
  • Economy
  • Markets
  • Cryptocurrency
amn_bl.png
Opinion
  • Editorial
  • Columns
  • Thoughts of the Times
  • Cartoon
  • Today in History
  • Blogs
  • Tribune Service
  • Blondie & Garfield
  • Letter to President
  • Letter to the Editor
amn_bl.png
Lifestyle
  • Travel & Food
  • Trends
  • People & Events
  • Books
  • Around Town
  • Fortune Telling
amn_bl.png
Entertainment & Arts
  • K-pop
  • Films
  • Shows & Dramas
  • Music
  • Theater & Others
amn_bl.png
Sports
amn_bl.png
World
  • SCMP
  • Asia
amn_bl.png
Video
  • Korean Storytellers
  • POPKORN
  • Culture
  • People
  • News
amn_bl.png
Photos
  • Photo News
  • Darkroom
amn_NK.png amn_DR.png amn_LK.png amn_LE.png
  • bt_fb_on_2022.svgbt_fb_over_2022.svg
  • bt_twitter_on_2022.svgbt_twitter_over_2022.svg
  • bt_youtube_on_2022.svgbt_youtube_over_2022.svg
  • bt_instagram_on_2022.svgbt_instagram_over_2022.svg
The Korea Times
amn_close.png
amn_bl.png
National
  • Politics
  • Foreign Affairs
  • Multicultural Community
  • Defense
  • Environment & Animals
  • Law & Crime
  • Society
  • Health & Science
amn_bl.png
Business
  • Tech
  • Bio
  • Companies
amn_bl.png
Finance
  • Companies
  • Economy
  • Markets
  • Cryptocurrency
amn_bl.png
Opinion
  • Editorial
  • Columns
  • Thoughts of the Times
  • Cartoon
  • Today in History
  • Blogs
  • Tribune Service
  • Blondie & Garfield
  • Letter to President
  • Letter to the Editor
amn_bl.png
Lifestyle
  • Travel & Food
  • Trends
  • People & Events
  • Books
  • Around Town
  • Fortune Telling
amn_bl.png
Entertainment & Arts
  • K-pop
  • Films
  • Shows & Dramas
  • Music
  • Theater & Others
amn_bl.png
Sports
amn_bl.png
World
  • SCMP
  • Asia
amn_bl.png
Video
  • Korean Storytellers
  • POPKORN
  • Culture
  • People
  • News
amn_bl.png
Photos
  • Photo News
  • Darkroom
amn_NK.png amn_DR.png amn_LK.png amn_LE.png
  • bt_fb_on_2022.svgbt_fb_over_2022.svg
  • bt_twitter_on_2022.svgbt_twitter_over_2022.svg
  • bt_youtube_on_2022.svgbt_youtube_over_2022.svg
  • bt_instagram_on_2022.svgbt_instagram_over_2022.svg
  • Login
  • Register
  • Login
  • Register
  • The Korea Times
  • search
  • all menu
  • Login
  • Subscribe
  • Photos
  • Video
  • World
  • Sports
  • Opinion
  • Entertainment & Art
  • Lifestyle
  • Finance
  • Business
  • National
  • North Korea
  • 1

    Korean Lunar New Year vs. Chinese Lunar New Year

  • 3

    TWICE becomes first K-pop group to win Billboard Women in Music award

  • 5

    Cute canine film 'My Heart Puppy' reunites Yoo Yeon-seok, Cha Tae-hyun

  • 7

    Korea ranks 31st in international corruption perception index in 2022

  • 9

    Free subway rides for elderly emerge as headache for Seoul mayor

  • 11

    Samsung refuses to cut chip output despite plunging profits

  • 13

    Cyber University of Korea offers online Korean language programs for foreigners

  • 15

    Retailers return to Myeong-dong as more foreign tourists visit

  • 17

    Ex-Ssangbangwool chief said to have paid N. Korea $8 mil. in 2019 on behalf of Lee, Gyeonggi Province

  • 19

    Korea seeks measures to better protect foreign workers

  • 2

    INTERVIEWProduction company AStory expects great success with 'Extraordinary Attorney Woo' franchise

  • 4

    Garbage collector mistakes sex doll for corpse

  • 6

    Hybe acquires 56.1 percent stake in AI sound startup Supertone

  • 8

    US bill introduced to honor Korean War hero

  • 10

    South Korea, US to expand size and content of joint military drills

  • 12

    Popular travel YouTuber recalls painful memories of being bullied at school

  • 14

    Holy Moly concert series brings 4 punk bands to Haebangchon

  • 16

    IMF slashes Korea's 2023 economic growth outlook to 1.7%

  • 18

    AmorePacific Museum of Art brings Joseon-era folding screens to center stage

  • 20

    Korean corporations' dividend payout system to follow global standards

Close scrollclosebutton

Close for 24 hours

Open
  • The Korea Times
  • search
  • all menu
  • Login
  • Subscribe
  • Photos
  • Video
  • World
  • Sports
  • Opinion
  • Entertainment & Art
  • Lifestyle
  • Finance
  • Business
  • National
  • North Korea
Opinion
  • Yun Byung-se
  • Kim Won-soo
  • Ahn Ho-young
  • Kim Sang-woo
  • Lee Kyung-hwa
  • Mitch Shin
  • Peter S. Kim
  • Daniel Shin
  • Jeon Su-mi
  • Jang Daul
  • Song Kyung-jin
  • Park Jung-won
  • Cho Hee-kyoung
  • Park Chong-hoon
  • Kim Sung-woo
  • Donald Kirk
  • John Burton
  • Robert D. Atkinson
  • Mark Peterson
  • Eugene Lee
  • Rushan Ziatdinov
  • Lee Jong-eun
  • Chyung Eun-ju and Joel Cho
  • Bernhard J. Seliger
  • Imran Khalid
  • Troy Stangarone
  • Jason Lim
  • Casey Lartigue, Jr.
  • Bernard Rowan
  • Steven L. Shields
  • Deauwand Myers
  • John J. Metzler
  • Andrew Hammond
  • Sandip Kumar Mishra
Thu, February 2, 2023 | 09:52
Donald Kirk
Edging into war
Posted : 2022-02-24 16:29
Updated : 2022-02-24 17:40
Print PreviewPrint Preview
Font Size UpFont Size Up
Font Size DownFont Size Down
  • facebook
  • twitter
  • kakaolink
  • whatsapp
  • reddit
  • mailto
  • link
By Donald Kirk

The descent of Eastern Europe into war is like an excruciating movie in which you have to fear the worst.

You can't believe that Russia's Vladimir Putin would have marshalled all those forces within shooting distance of Ukraine without planning to use them. You know you have to accept the tragic news that people will be killing one another across a corner of the region that few of us could have spotted on a map until all TV networks began showing us maps of where the Russians are likely to strike.

Putin and his ministers and assorted flunkeys presented one distortion after another in what was described as a press conference in which they mouthed every rationale imaginable for going to war. The only relief came in the prospect of more dialogue as enunciated by Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov while Putin looked on silently like a master approving the carefully rehearsed words of his loyal servants.

It would be difficult to sort out all the nonsense they were talking about, but what sticks are repeated claims that the Ukraine forces, with the blessing of the 30 NATO nations led by the U.S., have been opening artillery and rifle fire across the line in the southeast into the Donbas region. The fact that this region was part of Ukraine until a few years ago is irrelevant. Now the Russians are saying it's divided between two "people's republics," Donetsk and Luhansk, and should even be recognized as independent countries.

Putin gives the appearance of a beast of prey sizing up his next dinner before pouncing. It's hard to know why he wants to conquer a nation where millions died under the control of the former Soviet Union in the 1930s, but obviously plain and simple nationalism underlies the whole crisis.

In that sense Putin bears comparison to Xi Jinping in China and Kim Jong-un in North Korea. Xi's burning ambition is to recover Taiwan, the island province that remained independent after the victory of Mao Zedong's Red Army in 1949. Kim Jong-un, of course, would like to atone for the failure of his grandfather, Kim Il-sung, to take over the South in the Korean War by uniting the Korean Peninsula under his rule.

Both Xi and Kim would appear to have enough common sense not to risk wars in which millions would die. Xi cannot be sure the Americans and probably the Japanese would not rush to Taiwan's defense, repelling his forces in the Formosa or Taiwan Straits, and Kim has to worry about the Americans, again with the backing of Japan, turning back invasion of the South. Better to test-fire missiles and fabricate nuclear devices, Kim seems to believe, than to take chances on a war in which his regime might not survive.

You have to hope Putin would also have that much common sense. The ultimate consequence of the Russian invasion of Ukraine could be a European or even another world war. The war might not reach those proportions right away, but expansion of the conflict would be likely when considering Russian ambitions.

It's not just that the Russians are eager to pile up every pretext they can think of to cross the line into Ukraine. Bearing in mind that revenge and a return to the greatness of the Soviet Union in its finest hours would be a prime motive, Putin soon would want to recover other former satellites. They already have Belarus under dictator Alexander Lukashenko in their orbit, so much so that Russian troops have been training there above Ukraine's northern frontier.

The Russians want more. How about Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania? They're ripe for the taking, on the Baltic, exposed to Russia with no other neighboring power to guarantee safety and permanent independence. Lithuania does share a brief common border with Poland, but Poland was divided between Hitler's Germany and Stalin's Soviet Union before those two evil tyrants went to war with one another in mid-1941. Poland, after the German surrender four years later, fell under Soviet rule.

We should look at the expansion of the Soviet Union to encompass Eastern Europe, and much of Central Asia too, in terms of Russian nationalism rather than communism. Putin, by gnawing away at Ukraine, sees himself avenging the wrong of the breakup of the Soviet empire. Similarly, Kim Jong-un, as he threatens his enemies with nukes and missiles, dreams some day of leading a united Korea, avenging 35 years of Japanese colonial rule and the division of Korea by the U.S. and USSR after the Japanese surrender


Donald Kirk (www.donaldkirk.com) has been covering conflict in Asia for decades.


 
Top 10 Stories
1Garbage collector mistakes sex doll for corpse Garbage collector mistakes sex doll for corpse
2Free subway rides for elderly emerge as headache for Seoul mayor Free subway rides for elderly emerge as headache for Seoul mayor
3Retailers return to Myeong-dong as more foreign tourists visit Retailers return to Myeong-dong as more foreign tourists visit
4Korea seeks measures to better protect foreign workers Korea seeks measures to better protect foreign workers
54 South Korean activists arrested for executing orders from Pyongyang 4 South Korean activists arrested for executing orders from Pyongyang
6President pledges support for Korean chipmakers to overcome crisis President pledges support for Korean chipmakers to overcome crisis
7Income gap widening among workers Income gap widening among workers
8Is non-consensual sex not rape? Is non-consensual sex not rape?
9Korea's presidential couple celebrates recovery of Cambodian boy who received heart surgery Korea's presidential couple celebrates recovery of Cambodian boy who received heart surgery
10Space industry takes off in South Jeolla ProvinceSpace industry takes off in South Jeolla Province
Top 5 Entertainment News
1[INTERVIEW] Production company AStory expects great success with 'Extraordinary Attorney Woo' franchise INTERVIEWProduction company AStory expects great success with 'Extraordinary Attorney Woo' franchise
2TWICE becomes first K-pop group to win Billboard Women in Music award TWICE becomes first K-pop group to win Billboard Women in Music award
3Cute canine film 'My Heart Puppy' reunites Yoo Yeon-seok, Cha Tae-hyun Cute canine film 'My Heart Puppy' reunites Yoo Yeon-seok, Cha Tae-hyun
4AmorePacific Museum of Art brings Joseon-era folding screens to center stage AmorePacific Museum of Art brings Joseon-era folding screens to center stage
5$120,000 banana, praying Hitler: Infamous art world prankster Maurizio Cattelan's first Seoul outing $120,000 banana, praying Hitler: Infamous art world prankster Maurizio Cattelan's first Seoul outing
DARKROOM
  • Nepal plane crash

    Nepal plane crash

  • Brazil capital uprising

    Brazil capital uprising

  • Happy New Year 2023

    Happy New Year 2023

  • World Cup 2022 Final - Argentina vs France

    World Cup 2022 Final - Argentina vs France

  • World Cup 2022 France vs Morocco

    World Cup 2022 France vs Morocco

CEO & Publisher : Oh Young-jin
Digital News Email : webmaster@koreatimes.co.kr
Tel : 02-724-2114
Online newspaper registration No : 서울,아52844
Date of registration : 2020.02.05
Masthead : The Korea Times
Copyright © koreatimes.co.kr. All rights reserved.
  • About Us
  • Introduction
  • History
  • Contact Us
  • Products & Services
  • Subscribe
  • E-paper
  • RSS Service
  • Content Sales
  • Site Map
  • Policy
  • Code of Ethics
  • Ombudsman
  • Privacy Statement
  • Terms of Service
  • Copyright Policy
  • Family Site
  • Hankook Ilbo
  • Dongwha Group