Anxiety, hope fill island Koreans

Calls to Honolulu’s Korean-language radio station KHRA/AM 1460 continued to pour in on Monday from people worried about whether they should pull investments out of South Korea — and from those hoping that the death of Kim Jong Il means they will finally be reunited with relatives in North Korea.

"There was a lot of mixed emotions," said David Lim, chief executive officer of KHRA and AM 1460. "There’s some relief that the North Korean president is gone. And there’s concern whether it’s safe to travel to South Korea and whether or not the investments they made in South Korea are something they should pull out.

"Some of the older people in the community want to see if unification can come. That is the hope of a lot of the elderly community."

Hawaii is home to about 28,000 residents of Korean ancestry, and Lim estimates that half of them speak Korean.

As news of Kim Jong Il’s death spread on Sunday, Koreans in Hawaii began expressing decades-long anxieties over the future of the two Koreas — and what it might mean for Hawaii.

"Most of us, including me, have relatives in South Korea," Lim said. "A few I know have relatives in North Korea."

Michael Green, who teaches security and international polices at Georgetown University and serves as a fellow at the East-West Center, believes that Kim Jong Il’s son and apparent successor, Kim Jong Un, most likely will follow his father’s policies after a mourning period.

"None of this is imminent," Green said Monday. "North Korea is now like a plane that’s old and rusty and now has an inexperienced pilot at the controls. It’s still flying. So the safe bet is that we’ll see more of what we’ve already seen with North Korea."

There are hopes for reunification between North and South Koreans — but only if North Korea suffers some kind of economic or political turmoil, Green said.

"It’s unlikely that Kim Jong Un will have enough power and will to become a Gorbachev and open up reunification," Green said, referring to Mikhail Gorbachev, the last leader of the Soviet Union. "But reunification could come from the regime collapsing or from instability from the military leaders. It would bring about instability, and the possibility of danger would also go up."

The future of North Korea undoubtedly was discussed in Honolulu during November’s Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, where President Barack Obama met with Chinese President Hu Jintao and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, Green said.

"The focus of APEC is on the economy," said Green, who has attended five APEC summits. "Privately the president can use these meetings to start building a common front on problems like North Korea. We’re better off now in terms of working with other countries because APEC just happened. Whether or not it solves the problem, we don’t know. But leaders talking about these problems in person rather than through ambassadors on the phone really makes a difference."

Denny Roy, a Northeast Asian security analyst at the East-West Center, said the power shift in North Korea is unlikely to have any direct affect on Hawaii’s businesses, tourism or military interests.

"With all of the talk of new, North Korean missiles, from Hawaii’s point of view I can think of no reason why the North Koreans would want to explode a missile in Hawaii," Roy said. "The U.S. military has to be a little more attentive than before, but I don’t see a need to go beyond the usual increased attention and readiness."

But Roy said it’s possible the new North Korean leadership might see economic advantages in allowing reunification between South and North Koreans because of a potential economic influx for North Korea.

"It might be extremely wise on their part, with little risk," Roy said. "In effect, they’d be saying that ‘we are now going to magnanimously allow people to come in and drop off wads of cash.’ There are some sectors among people of Korean ancestry that are ready and willing to deliver on that largesse and help out their relatives — or maybe even set up a company."