Podcasts

YR via RSS

For Educators
Teach Youth Radio
Curriculum

Youth Programs
CORE
Outreach

A Korean American War Perspective

"Mom says she doesn’t have time to think about Kim Jong II with everything going on in Iraq."

Listen to this Commentary!

By Lita Cho

My mom works for the Korean Times in Oakland. She does layout. My mom and I have talked a lot about issues in Korea, but we’ve never talked about Iraq. I think it’s about time, don’t you?

Let me take a few moments to describe my mom. She is a very loud person. She always says speaking loudly is in our culture. But I’m not that way at all. We’re so different that it can be really hard to have a real conversation. But I got an exclusive interview anyway.

Lita: How is the Korean Times covering the war?

Mom: First page…(Korean phrase)…one two three four five or six page more…

My mom talks in page numbers because that’s layout lingo. She says when the bombs were dropping, her newspaper had up to seven pages of war coverage. The news in North Korea got totally dumped. Even though the war is winding down, they’re still putting news of Iraq on the front page. I asked her who she thinks is worse now: North Korea’s Kim Jong II, or Saddam Hussein.

Mom: It’s hard to say, but I also think that Suddam Hussein is also a very dangerous person.

My mom is thinking Saddam Hussein is more dangerous than Kim Jong II. She’s obsessed with Iraq now. And so are most of the Korean journalists at her office.

Mom: Right now I am not really worried about Kim Jong II because of the war with Iraq. I really don’t have time to think about Kim Jong II.

Mom says she doesn’t have time to think about Kim Jong II with everything going on in Iraq. The thing is, it didn’t used to be like that. My mom talked about Kim Jong II non stop. But now, the Korean Times is acting just like CNN, ABC, NBC…and every other news outlet: all Iraq, all the time.

For Youth Radio, I’m Lita Cho.