Edition: U.S. | Arabic | Set Pref
February 20, 2008
Posted: 1812 GMT

SEOUL, South Korea – I leave for North Korea in less than a week to cover the New York Philharmonic’s concert in Pyongyang. It is the first time an American orchestra has ever been invited to play in this communist country.North Korea is one of the most secretive societies in the world, and going there for me is a huge professional and personal accomplishment. I was born and raised in the United States, but I am of Korean descent. My parents were born in South Korea and both fled the North Korean army during the Korean War. My dad’s two uncles disappeared during the war and part of my reporting will include the search for my relatives who I believe may be living in Pyongyang.

That’s the personal part of my journey. I’ll have more on that in my next posting.

But first I’ll be reporting on the Philharmonic and how they feel about going to North Korea. I spoke with several members of the orchestra, including violinist Michelle Kim, whose parents were born in North Korea and who — like me — has a personal stake in this trip.

Right now I’m in Seoul, South Korea — in part to interview my own family — including my 90-year old grandmother and my parents, who came all the way here from the States to help me with this story. I’m off to interview them right now, and I’ll tell you more about my family’s story later. Stay tuned.

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Filed under: General


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ray martinez   February 20th, 2008 1932 GMT

Awhile back Gen Powell was a guest on Wolf’s Sunday’s program.
I was not impressed. He told Wolf to call him General,
however, he was quick to call McCain, Senator McCain,
and Clinton and Obama, Mrs Clinton, Mr. Obama,
hey Colin, why not Senator Clinton and Senator Obama.
I rest my case.

Dr. Sam   February 20th, 2008 1942 GMT

THE CLINTONS ARE MORALLY BANKRUPT–NOT JUST ABOUT SEX, FAMILY VALUES AND MONICA, BUT ABOUT LIFE ETHICS!!!

Hillary forgot her husband’s advice during the Gore-Bush campaign: “never underestimate your opponent.” Both Bill and Hillary under pressure from political opponents and Keneth Starr always use to tell us that their opponents were only about insults. And in one of CNN’s debate, Hillary talked about something “right out of the Republican play book.” NOW, what do you think the Clintons are doing now: insults, negative attacks, women card, race card, Latino-Black card, plagiarisn card (does any one in the media know that Hillary stole the title of her book, “It takes a Village” from an old African proverbs? See google search on that),slash and burn, all for Hillary’s ambition! Though disclaiming it, the Clintons have even encouraged the setting up of attack organizations to attack Sen. Obama, and another one to make the case for claiming Michigan and Florida. You can’t fool us this time! Voters have been saying so very loudly throughout this month–in ten contests across America.

Kaitlin   February 21st, 2008 341 GMT

Alina Cho,
I am fascinated by your career, but I am particularly fascinated by your North Korea bit. As a senior in highschool, I’m applying to college to become what you are: an asian reporter traveling and presenting news. I am of Filipino descent and there is nothing more that I would love than to be able to provide my immigrant family with the pride (as well as some financial benefits) of seeing their daughter, a first- generation born American citizen on television reporting the latest news from around the world.
I guess what I am trying to say is I entirely relate to your piece and I am very interested to see how your interview goes. If you’d like to contact me with any advice or tips pertaining to how I can, basically, reach my goal of becoming a general assignment correspondent like yourself, feel free to email me.
Again, I think your piece is absolutely wonderful and I am very excited to see how your trip goes.
Kaitlin

Mitch   February 25th, 2008 439 GMT

I can imagine that the process of travelling to North Korea must be exciting and a little frightening at the same time; for someone with ties to the Korean penninsula even more so. I planned to go to North Korea last year for the Mass Games but cancelled due to the rising nuclear tensions at the time. The Korean people share a common language and common culture, but the societies have developed under very different environments over the last 50 years. This change has made them different in many ways, but I don’t believe that these differences are irreconcilable. The most difficult issue to resolve if or when Korea is unified is the issue of their economies. When East and West Germany reunified, their economies were only slightly different, but it caused a huge recession in Germany at the time. South Korea is the worlds 13th largest economy; North Korea is one of the worlds poorest countries, if they were to combine now, it would be disastrous to the Korean people, this is one of the reasons why the South Korean government is worried about the possible collapse of the North Korean government at the present time. The general plan is to help build North Korea’s economy to the point where the two could realistically unify without huge economic repercussions. But that still leaves the problem of two governments, one people. I wish you luck on your journey in the North, and I hope that the concert by the New York Philharmonic will be sucessful from a musical standpoint, and a diplomatic one as well.

Christina   March 4th, 2008 1210 GMT

Oh,cool!!
You know ..I`m half Korean and half Chinese and I `m born in South Korea .I was wishing to know more about North Korea and I hope you can bring lots of imformation~
If you can…..haha….
Any way good luck with your trip!!

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