English.

Interview: sang-hun choe, journalist for new york times & international herald tribute

My favorite had been a certain while-haired fellow on a cable news station until I meet Mr. Sang-Hun Choe of the new York time and international Herald Tribune at a lecture about North Korean issues in the media at Wellesley College this past spring. Thoughtful and soft-spoken, Mr. Choe was too polite and humble for my presumptions of what a New York Times Asia Correspondent with a Pulitzer Prize winning book, The Bridge At No Gun Ri, co-authored with Charles Hanley and Martha Mendoza under his belt would could be like. I had been a fan of his New York Times pieces on North Korea in the past because his articles were comprenshive and clearly revealed that he did his research. Judging from his writing, I assumed that he crafted his English-speaking country, but much to my surprise, and probably to many Korean parents eager to send children abroad, he had never studied outside South Korea until his recent stay as a koret Fellow at the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia –Pacific Research Center at Stanford University. Meeting him in person not only bumped the Silver Fox down my fan list, but also reminded me of the dedication that some journalists put into investigating topics and publishing their work for the world to read. The following interview shows a glimpse of journalism, North Korea issues in the media, and of the man behind the text.

1. What made you want to become a journalist,especially an asia correspondent? Have you had other career in the past ?

Journalism has been my only career. But I was not one of those who wanted to become a journalist from an early age. I sort of stumbled into it. I followed a friend in my graduate school to take an take an exam for an English-language newspaper.( in south korea,newspapers select their reporters through written exams,supplemented by interviews) both of us were accepted. My friend quit aftera month or so. I stayed, partly because I had no other job lined up. But I grew to like journalism. Observing whats happening in a society and writing it down as a news story fast, accuratel and thoughtfully in competition with other practitioners is a work both challenging and exhilarating.

2. As a south Korean working for an American publication, what pressures do you liberties do you have?

Except three years, I worked for an English language newspaper in seoul. I have spent my career writing for American news media, first the associated press and the international herald tribune and the new York time. I cover my home country, korea, for a foreign newspaper. The meaning of ‘foreign correspondent’, as it´s used in describing what I do, is not the same as it applies to journalists dispatched,say, from the US and japan to report on korea. I try to see things I consider important in explaining korea to foreign readers that are missed by these correspondents. But since I never´came to´korea, I lack a newcomer´s fresh eye. A typical foreign correspondent arrives in seoul, spends three or four years and leaves for another posting. To their fresh eyes, certain themes stand out. They eagerly pound out stories, whith different´angles´but very often repeating and reconfirming what their previous colleaques had already written. Partly because of that, news in korea comes in circles and stereotypes. There are honorable exceptions, but every couple or few years, you see certain stories about korea reappearing in American news media.

Though often hung on a different ´´peg´´ each time, it´s basically the same dress_the same theme with the same messages. I try to see news with foreign readers in mind but also with my own native Korean eye and sensitivity. It´s a skill you learn if you spend enough time in the line of work I do. But you get to ask yourself questions like: who am I? What is news? And is news in korea?

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