Michael Breen's 'The Koreans' introduces overlooked people

By Edward Neilan

TOKYO (JP): Many economic experts have been predicting that the first of the Asian Tigers to regain its pattern of growth toward prosperity after the Asian financial crisis will be South Korea.

Among the theories advanced by economists and other seers is that Korea has the advantage of being in the midst of political reform (personalized by President Kim Dae-jung) just as the demands of economic reform by the International Monetary Fund, World Bank and others, including the U.S. Treasury Department, reach crescendo, not to mention internal demands for realism.

The point being that the timing and circumstances will be better for economic recovery with a more democratized administration calling the shots politically.

But things are not always what they seem for Korea and Koreans, as veteran foreign correspondent Michael Breen reports in his new book (The Koreans, by Michael Breen, Orion Business Books, London, which is the most refreshing literary wind by a foreigner to sweep the Korea Peninsula in many a year.

Breen's thesis is that Korea's future could go either way -- success or failure or somewhere in between -- given the idiosyncrasies of the Koreans' personal and national character.

While other authors have been illuminating U.S.-Korean diplomatic relations, chaebol chieftains, revisionist Korean history, and a whole series of variations on "how-to-make-a-buck- in-Seoul," Breen checks in with a personal portrait of the Koreans themselves and what makes them tick.

How devilishly clever: a book about the people of a country and their aspirations rather than another academic tome about Gross National Product or the effect of hedge funds on the local stock market.

Early in the book the author confesses "I have grown to love this (Korean) food so much and the socializing that goes with it that in Britain I have withdrawal symptoms....for me it's the best food in the world, after fish and chips."

Breen likes Koreans immensely and revels in their two "miracles" so far--democratization and economic achievement--and is waiting for the third, unification.

But just when there is rejoicing that Korean politics have changed from the old days comes an invitation to my desk from former Japanese Prime Ministers Yasuhiro Nakasone and Noboru Takeshita and Ryuzo Seijima, adviser to Itochu trading house. They are hosting a speech in Tokyo Feb. 3 by former South Korean President Chun Doo-hwan, "Reflecting on Korea-Japan Relations and Expectations for the 21st Century." An accompanying flyer from the host think tank says "We are expecting him to speak candidly."

Chun, facing the death penalty was amnestied by Kim Dae-jung on his election. Chun had earlier spared Kim on a deal with the Ronald Reagan White House.

Chun supposedly gave back most of the massive amount of money he swiped and has now made a pact with President Kim, apparently to become a sort of roving ambassador.

Is part of the deal to undermine or to boost Premier Kim Jong- pil who was supposed to take the reins under a new constitution, as part of a trade-off that got Kim elected? Nakasone and Takeshita were confidants of the late Japanese political guru Shin Kanemaru, whose surprise trip to North Korea to visit Kim Il-sung a few years ago peeved Washington.

Is a grand unification scheme afoot? Korean politics never fails to surprise.

There are many books by foreigners on Japan and Japanese from every perspective but few on Korea. The writings of Richard Rutt in the 1960s have been the most sensitive until Breen's arrival.

Breen is not yet Korea's Lafcadio Hearn, who is Japan's greatest interpreter with a very personal style, but the potential is there. Let's all urge Breen to write next something like The Barber Shops of Korea rather than giving us the inside of chaebols (Korean conglomerates), North-South politics and nuclear negotiations, another "contemporary history" or trade opportunities in North Korea's Rajin-Sonbong zone that his work as a business consultant might lead him to do.

Breen misses a couple of nuances on the relationship between Koreans and Japanese because his deeper impressions on that subject are one sided, but that is understandable and perhaps preferable for this book. The ramifications and psychological pirouettes of that love-hate match defy objective analysis.

Some may criticize Breen for being too simplistic and indeed this book is not for everyone. But from where he is sitting, his marksmanship is superb. In its deceptive succinctness and personal presentation, it is the epitome of the "less is more" syndrome.

The book will be appreciated by anyone who admits to fascination or curiosity about this charmingly intense and stubborn country and people.

For old hands, the book will help put you in touch with yourself on your own impressions, biases and assumptions about the Koreans.

The writer is a Tokyo-based analyst of Northeast Asian affairs and a media fellow at Hoover Institution, Stanford University.