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Newspaper Features Self-Congratulatory Pieces on 50 Years as Reporters

Kang Cheon-seok in particular rose to prominence through 'Honam Opportunity'... His columns are also second-rate.

Great is the original sin of awarding the Manhae Grand Prize to spy Shin Young-bok.

Chosun Ilbo, which has turned its back on the free right, will only survive by removing these two people.

Jo Woo-seok, Political Commentator The first thought that came to mind was, "Have I ever seen such a mediocre newspaper section?" It's impossible to avoid the judgment, "Chosun Ilbo is ultimately heading towards self-destruction." This is the impression I got after reading the November 10th edition of the newspaper, which dedicated an entire page to an interview with Kang Cheon-seok (77), an advisor at Chosun Ilbo, who claims to have been a reporter for 50 years.

Why is it mediocre? Kang Cheon-seok joined Chosun Ilbo in 1975, but is this all that someone who has been a reporter for half a century has to say? There is no insight or vision to be found. Look at the headline: "Politics Becomes a Prisoner of YouTube... Public Sentiment That 'Crosses the Line' Builds Up, and Even Iron Regimes Collapse." It's all pointless rambling and vague criticism of power. Will the Lee Jae-myung administration even flinch? That is the level of Chosun Ilbo.

The lack of substance was the same as in the interview with Kim Dae-jung, who was also an advisor at the time, a decade ago. Looking back at the pages from that time, Chosun Ilbo published Kim Dae-jung's half-century retrospective across two pages. At that time, a female reporter from Chosun Ilbo served as the interviewer, but for the current interview with Kang Cheon-seok on his 50 years as a reporter, they enlisted Jung Jin-seok, an emeritus professor of foreign languages and literature and a media scholar. However, the conversation between Kang Cheon-seok and Jung Jin-seok is empty throughout.

For instance, Professor Jung Jin-seok lavishes praise on Kang Cheon-seok with the following lip service: "The strength of Chosun Ilbo lies in its tradition, which continues from Choi Seok-chae, Sunwoo Hwi, Kim Dae-jung, and Kang Cheon-seok's columns." Who would nod in agreement with that statement? The hasty praise feels simply embarrassing. Kang Cheon-seok himself knows this well. That's why he hastily dismisses it, saying, "These are seniors too weighty and burdensome for me to claim to inherit that tradition."

It's simple. From a reader's perspective, even if one acknowledges Choi Seok-chae and Sunwoo Hwi, they would tilt their heads at Kim Dae-jung and Kang Cheon-seok. Today's column explains why, and questions the unprecedented looseness of Chosun Ilbo's limitations. In Kim Dae-jung's case, there might be some false fame since he ranked first in a past survey of 'influential journalists,' but Kang Cheon-seok is different. Despite being a man of Chosun Ilbo, he is unknown to the public and has zero presence in the intellectual community.

Shall I be more precise? As I revealed in my column last week, Kang Cheon-seok is merely a reporter who rose to prominence through the 'Honam Opportunity' during the era of left-wing president Kim Dae-jung. At the time of the regime change, Chosun Ilbo made a misstep by making deals behind the scenes with the Kim Dae-jung camp to appoint individuals from the Honam region to key editorial positions. Consequently, Kang Cheon-seok and Song Hee-young, both from Gwangju High School, were successively appointed as managing editors, and they later rose to the position of chief editor, wielding considerable influence over the newspaper's production.

Subsequently, Chosun Ilbo inevitably saw changes with a large number of people from the Honam faction, including them, taking key positions, and this led to the newspaper's decline and downfall. The Honam connections did not end with Kang Cheon-seok and Song Hee-young. Kim Min-bae, a former TV Chosun CEO and Chosun Ilbo alumnus, and Reporter O from Jindo, who also worked at TV Chosun, are all part of the Honam line. Reporter O, in particular, was known to be close friends with Park Jie-won of the Democratic Party.

And there's word that there was talk of a 'Gwangju High School Trio' within and outside the editorial department. Could the newspaper pages still turn out well after that? In fact, there are suspicions that the owner family of Chosun Ilbo, the Bangs, were also manipulated by them. "Honam natives, while working as reporters covering the Blue House, played a role as messengers between Kim Dae-jung and Chosun Ilbo, including leading a rescue campaign for then-imprisoned President Bang Sang-hoon."

There were also rumors circulating within the company that they mediated to prevent the additional arrest of then-Chairman Bang Woo-young. The naive might ask, "What does one's region of origin have to do with it? Shouldn't they just do their job as reporters?" That's not the case. 

Kang Cheon-seok is a typical figure within that trend. For example, in 2015, when he was an editorial advisor, he decided to award the Manhae Grand Prize, a prize organized by Chosun Ilbo, to Shin Young-bok, a former member of the Revolutionary Party for National Salvation who had been imprisoned as a spy. It's absurd. What is the purpose of crowning Shin Young-bok, a typical pseudo-intellectual, with a laurel wreath? Is his hope to show leniency to the left and hasten the disarmament of Korean society?

Naturally, none of his hasty columns, which he has written for decades, are sound. It's quite the opposite. During the Moon Jae-in administration, in 2019, we still remember a particularly dreadful column by Kang Cheon-seok. The article titled "Japan, With What Intentions Does It Declare War on the US Ally South Korea?" (August 2, 2019 issue) is utterly yawn-inducing and laughable.

That article was nothing more than an act to aid Moon Jae-in's 'anti-Japan salesmanship' with his 'death stick song.' The problem is that Kang Cheon-seok at the time vehemently condemned Japan's stance as "war tactics" and as "burning their own bridges." A former chief editor of Chosun Ilbo wrote an article that could have appeared in the Hankyoreh, fanning anti-Japanese sentiment and ingratiating himself with the Moon Jae-in administration.

He lacks judgment on national interest, and is merely driven by hasty sympathy and leniency towards leftists who are ruining the country. Is it because he's unintelligent? No. All of this is due to contaminated Honam sentiment. Critically, Kang Cheon-seok is a case of a bizarre husband-and-wife pairing. His wife, Jung Jin-seong (former professor of sociology at Seoul National University), was involved in the early establishment of the Korea Council for Justice and Remembrance for the Japanese Military Sexual Slavery Victims (정대협). In fact, Jung Jin-seong released a rather vicious statement in May 2020 when the issue surrounding Yoon Mi-hyang became prominent.

It was the so-called 'Statement from Senior Members of the Early Jeongdaehyup,' and along with Lee Hyo-jae and Yoon Jeong-ok, she vigorously defended Jeongdaehyup, much to our shock. In other words, his wife Jung Jin-seong has been fueling the 'hidden extremist leftist' women's movement, acting as a behind-the-scenes manipulator of anti-Japan and pro-North Korea sentiment, while her husband Kang Cheon-seok has been fanning anti-Japanese sentiment through the pages of Chosun Ilbo, creating a peculiar joint effort.

My conclusion is clear. Kang Cheon-seok's intellect, the second-rate Chosun Ilbo columns he has written, demonstrate intellectual bankruptcy and are filled with political opportunism. Furthermore, anti-Korean sentiment lurks within. Readers were unaware of this reality. Perhaps they thought he was decent. However, by making the foolish act of celebrating 50 years as a reporter, they were able to grasp the core issue belatedly.

This is also an opportunity to examine the limitations of Kim Dae-jung, the former chief editor of Chosun Ilbo. Early in President Yoon Suk-yeol's term, he was the one who made the absurd claim that "Moon Jae-in should never be prosecuted, as it would lead to a cycle of political revenge." I remember it as the worst article that obstructed the purging of leftists and smeared Kim Dae-jung's own face. In other words, Kim Dae-jung also degenerated into an imbecilic pundit living off the Honam line that has taken over Chosun Ilbo.

This is, of course, the structural limitation of Chosun Ilbo. For the past decade, when the Taegukgi (South Korean flag) movement was protesting in Gwanghwamun, it was never properly reflected in their pages. Regardless, Chosun Ilbo is a symbolic asset, whether one likes it or not. However, the problem is that its current harm to Korean society is too great and structural.

To conclude this article, I ask Chosun Ilbo again: How will the newspaper undertake major innovation? While that is purely the responsibility of management, it is appropriate to first have Kang Cheon-seok and Kim Dae-jung, who become more shameful with every word they write, voluntarily lay down their pens. That is the top priority. We no longer want to see second-rate writing that lacks shame. If they refuse? It is all too clear that Chosun Ilbo will be on the fast track to ruin. 

Jo Woo-seok, Political Commentator