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THE EVOLUTION OF KOREAN PRESS WAR COVERAGE
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the Dong-a Ilbo and the Kyunghyang Shinmun

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5108 KIProj/AocEPres/ClRC/DateDue.indd

_‘.— _b___.

THE EVOLUTION OF KOREAN PRESS WAR COVERAGE
DURING AUTHORITARIAN AND DEMOCRATIC REGIMES:
the Dong-a Ilbo and the Kyunghyang Shinmun

By

Hyo 100 Lee

A THESIS
Submitted to
Michigan State University
in partial fulﬁllment of the requirements
for the degree of
MASTER OF ARTS

Journalism

2010

ABSTRACT

THE EVOLUTION OF KOREAN PRESS WAR COVERAGE
DURING AUTHORITARIAN AND DEMOCRATIC REGIMES:
the Dong-a Ilbo and the Kyunghyang Shinmun

By
Hyo J 00 Lee

Korea changed its political system from authoritarian to a democracy. Under
different political regimes, the media role is altered. In other words, ideology level affects
the content of media. Also, depending on the regime type, a leader of a country may
consider domestic audience costs differently when the leader makes a decision. This study
examines how the two Korean newspapers, the Dong-a Ilbo and the Kyunghyang
Shinmun, performed differently under authoritarian and democratic regimes especially
during the Vletnam War, the Afghanistan War and the Iraq War using qualitative thematic
content analysis. This study shows that the two newspaper changed coverage tendency.
Under the authoritarian regime during the Vietnam War period in 1973, the two
newspapers hold a more favorable View of the government and its policy and did not pose
any negative opinions on government decisions although several articles revealed the
critical analysis of the Vietnam War. On the other hand, during the Afghanistan War and
the Iraq War era in 2007, the two newspapers clearly presented what they approved or

opposed on government war policy with audiences reactions.

COPYright by
Hyo .100 Lee
201 O

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I ﬁnally ﬁnished my M.A. thesis. During the research procedure, my adviser, Dr.
Folu F. Ogundimu, guided me to complete my master’s thesis. I deeply appreciate
Professor Ogundimu’s support. Also, I would like to thank my thesis committee members,
Professor Eric Freedman and Professor Manuel Chavez, who advised me to improve my
thesis content. I also want to state my appreciation to Professor Jo Dong-joon at the
University of Seoul whose insight led to me developing this thesis topic.

I have spent the last two years here in Michigan. During this time, I have met nice
people, all the while remembering my family and friends in my home country, Korea.
First of all, I am deeply grateful to my parents, who gave me the opportunity to study in
the United States. They never said “no” when any one of their three children asked about
future education. Also, I want to say thank you to my sister, SongJoo, and cousin,
Susannah. SongJoo gave me crucial and appropriate advice to deal with my troubles.
Susannah helped and encouraged me to ﬁnish up my thesis. Furthermore, I also
appreciate my brother, Sehee, cousins, Hannah and Joannah, and my family in Maryland
and Korea. They always cheer me up. I am so happy to have completed my thesis paper
and would like to say thank you to all of my friends and everyone who help me on my

path.

iv

TABLE OF CONTENTS

LIST OF TABLES .............................................................................................................. vi
LIST OF FIGURES ........................................................................................................... vii
CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................... 1
CHAPTER II. THE BACKGROUND KNOWLEDGE OF KOREA ................................. 6
1. Modern History ................................................................................................... 6
2. Korean Media ..................................................................................................... 7
3. Korea and Three Wars in Two Eras .................................................................... 9
CHAPTER III. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK ........................................................... 11
l. Ideological Inﬂuence on Media Content and Domestic Audiences Costs ........ 11
2. Qualitative Thematic Content Analysis ............................................................ 13
CHAPTER IV. RESEARCH METHOD AND DESIGN ................................................. l6
1. Research Questions ................................................. V .......................................... l6
2. Sampling ........................................................................................................... 18
3. Data Collection ............................................................... -. ................................. 20
CHAPTER V. QUALITATIVE THEMATIC CONTENT ANALYSIS ........................... 26
1 . War Analysis ..................................................................................................... 27
2. Government Policy and Statement ................................................................... 37
3. Public Opinions and Reactions about War and Government Policy ................ 54
4. Party’s Opinions and Reactions about War and Government Policy ................ 57
5. Other Articles .................................................................................................... 60
CHAPTER VI. RESULTS ................................................................................................ 64
CHAPTER VII. CONCLUSION ..................................................................................... 73
APPENDIX ...................................................................................................................... 76
REFERENCES ................................................................................................................. 78

LIST OF TABLES

[Table l] The Total Number of Articles ............................................................................. 20
[Table 2] Original Story Sources ....................................................................................... 21
[Table 3-1] The Number of Articles after Eliminating articles under the Criteria ............. 24
[Table 3-2] The Number of Articles after Eliminating articles under the Criteria ............. 24
[Table 4] The Number of Sampled Articles ....................................................................... 25
[Table 5] Thematic Categories .......................................................................................... 26
[Table 6] The List of 30 Selected Articles ................................................................... 76-77

vi

LIST OF FIGURES

[Figure 1] Article #1 .......................................................................................................... 28
[Figure 2] Article #11 ........................................................................................................ 41
[Figure 3] Article #5 ......................................................................................................... 45

vii

I. INTRODUCTION

The media in a democracy give people opportunities to make their decisions
through information acquired from the media. In contrast, authoritarian governments want
to implant their regimes in people, so they use the media for the maintenance of the
regime (Gunther & Mughan, 2000). During political transition from dictatorship or
totalitarianism to democracy, the media experience new circumstances of media coverage
pertaining to government policies. Changes in media performance during periods of
political transitions cannot be understood “without reference to the broader socio-political
context in which they occur” (Vadié, 2004, p.32). Also, the media can be an important
method to reﬂect socio-political context.

The purpose of this study is to examine how South Korean1 media war coverage
has evolved under different political regimes. Korea was under authoritarian rule during
the 19603, 19703, and 19805 and has had democratic regimes since 1987 (Marshall &
Jaggers, 2008). The study is a qualitative analysis of articles related to war policies and
participation from two Korean newspapers, the Dong-a Ilbo and the Kyunghyang
Shinmun, during the Vietnam War era of December 1972 - May 197 3 and the Afghanistan
War and the Iraq War era of July - December 2007.2 For this study, the Vietnam War will
represent a period when government-press relations were under a non-democratic form of
government, in other words, an authoritarian government. The Afghanistan War and the

Iraq War period will be used to study government-press relations during a period when

 

' Official name of South Korea is the Republic of Korea (ROK), but ‘South Korea’ and ‘Korea’ are also
officially used oﬁen in newspapers and books.

2 Shinmun and Ilbo both mean a newspaper in Korean.

Korea was a democracy.

The press ﬁeedom status of the Korean media is free, according to the recent
ﬁndings in 2010 by Freedom House, which is a New York-based nongovernmental
organization that has done annual surveys of press freedom since 1980. The results of the
Freedom House surveys during last 10 years say that the Korean media enjoy press
freedom.3 Also, the annual Press Freedom Index of Reporters Without Borders, which is a
Paris-based international nongovernmental organization for freedom of the press founded
in 1985, reported in 2009 that press freedom in Korea is satisfactory.4

Contemporary Korean history reveals that the Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq Wars
were the biggest wars in which Korea participated. For example, the Vietnam War was the
ﬁrst war in which Korea dispatched troops to other countries. As for the Afghanistan War
and the Iraq War periods, the Korean government mounted a major public diplomacy
campaign to inform the people of the reasons why troops needed to be deployed and
redeployed into the wars during 2007. Considering the extensive efforts of the Korean
government in promoting the deployment and redeployment of troops into these wars, this
suggests that the government may have had to overcome public opposition to the policy.
Therefore, it is important to see if the press reﬂected some of this opposition discourse in
its coverage of the wars during the selected period.

However, analyzing the entire period of the selected wars is impossible due to the

limitation of time for this study and the absence of a complete index of the newspapers.

 

3 According to Vultee and the data from Freedom House, economic, political, and legal dimensions of press
freedom are important to uphold successful transitions and maintain democracy.

4 “The Reporters Without Borders index measures the state of press freedom in the world. It reﬂects the
degree of freedom that journalists and news organisations enjoy in each country, and the efforts made by the

authorities to respect and ensure respect for this freedom.” WW

Thus, this study will analyze the six-month period leading to the withdrawal of troops
from the wars by the Korean government. When a government makes a decision to
withdraw its units from a war, the government seriously considers the exit strategies of its
army and how it evaluates achievements and failures. Thus, analyzing press coverage near
the end of the country’s participation in wars will provide a good picture of how media
covered governmental decisions of war and how the government responded to press
coverage.

The theoretical conceptual frameworks utilized for this study are the inﬂuence of
ideology on media content by Shoemaker & Reese and the theory of domestic audience
costs, which is mostly used in the ﬁeld of international relations. According to Shoemaker
and Reese, “one of the key functions performed by media is to maintain boundaries in a
culture” (1996, p.225). In other words, media content can be affected by regime types and
cultural and social atmosphere. Another conceptual framework is domestic audience
costs. In the ﬁeld of international relations, “domestic audience costs” theory is used to
make assumptions about interactions among countries (Slantchev, 2006). This theoretical
view examines how a government acts in international relations under different regime
types (Fearon, 1994).

Analyzing Korean newspaper coverage in the study will provide insight into how
media coverage changed under different regime types. By this, we are interested in
knowing whether press coverage differed under authoritarian regime types from
democratic regimes types. Furthermore, comparing media coverage during periods of

different political regimes may reveal how government systems affect the media and how

the media covered government policies and the reaction of audiences to government
policies. The result of the study may provide instructive knowledge on how media
coverage can be understood under different regime types.

The Dong-a Ilbo and the Kyunghyang Shinmun will be used to study the evolution
of Korean media war coverage during the two eras. The Chosun Ilbo, the JoongAng Ilbo,
and the Dong-a Ilbo are the top three newspapers in Korea with high popularity and
circulation. Many Koreans call the three newspapers together as “Cho-Joong—Dong”
because they are major newspapers in Korea and also are similarly conservative in
outlook toward the right. The Chosun Ilbo and the Dong-a Ilbo have been run on a
nepotistic system since their establishment in 1920. The JoongAng Ilbo was established in
1965 and has been owned by the Samsung Group. The Dong-a Ilbo is selected for the
study because the Naver digital Archive, which is an online newspaper search index,
carries the Dong-a Ilbo as the only one of the three newspapers.

The Hankyoreh Shinmun5 and the Kyunghyang Shinmun, which are also major
newspapers in Korea, have more progressive ideas toward the left than the other three
major newspapers, the Chosun Ilbo, the JoongAng Ilbo, and the Dong-a Ilbo. The
Hankyoreh Shinmun and the Kyunghyang Shinmun are owned by public citizens and their
own journalists who have company stock (Lee, 2007). The Hankyoreh Shinmun was
established in 1988, putting itself in editorial opposition to the “Cho-Joong-Dong” (Lee,
2007, p.333). However, since the Hankyoreh Shinmun was not published during the

Vietnam War period in the 19703, the Kyunghyang Shinmun was chosen for the study.

 

5 The Hankyoreh Shinmun was the ﬁrst newspaper in Korea to be printed horizontally with pure Korean
characters. For a long time, every newspaper in Korea was printed vertically and used mixed Korean and
Chinese characters.

The Kyunghyang Shinmun, founded in 1946 by the Archdiocese of Seoul, initially
posed a conservative outlook toward the right. The Kyunghyang Shinmun was critical of
the dictatorship of President Rhee Syng-man"; as a result, it was discontinued. After
President Rhee’s resignation, the newspaper was reissued in 1960. In 1962, the
Archdiocese of Seoul sold the Kyunghyang Shinmun to Lee Jun—goo and the newspaper
was continuously critical of the government during President Park Chung-hee’s
dictatorship. Finally, the government forcefully sold the Kyunghyang Shinmun to a
government-backed foundation, Kia motors, in 1966. The owner changed ﬁve times in
about 30 years, and since 1998 all employees have been shareholders in the company

(Kim, 2005).

 

6 Rhee is the family name. As a family name precedes a given name in Korea, this study follows the Korean
name style.

II. THE BACKGROUND KNOWLEDGE OF KOREA
1. Modern History

On August 15, 1945, after Japan’s 35-year colonial occupation, Korea declared
independence. However, right after the end of colonial rule, the Soviet Union occupied
the north of Korea and the US. military occupied the south (Seth, 2010). Three years
later, the Republic of Korea was established in the south and the Democratic Peoples
Republic of Korea was founded in the north with the regime of Kim Il-sung.

As a result of ideological divisions, the Korean peninsula underwent severe
ideological strife that caused the Korean War which began on June 25, 1950. The war
ended on July 27, 1953, with a truce that resulted in the division of North and South
Korea. The Korean peninsula has been divided into two governments ever since. The war
left almost three million Koreans dead or wounded and devastated almost every
infrastructure in Korea (U .S. Department of State, 2010).

For about 40 years after the Korean War, South Korea experienced autocratic
leadership with three authoritarian regimes ruling between 1948 and 1987 (Seth, 2010).
The transition to civilian government was initiated in the late 19803 and consolidated by
the early 19903 (Marshall & Jaggers, 2008). In 1987 with continuous pro-democracy
protests by students and citizens, South Korea transformed its political system to a
democracy and the constitution was revised. The presidential term was ﬁxed to a ﬁve-
year single term.

Not more than 40 years ago, South Korea suffered severely from poverty and

famine and depended on only the agricultural industry (Seth, 2010). In the 19603 and

19703, the government directed economic development and took the lead in ﬁnancial and
industrial reform. Manufacturing continued to grow rapidly in the 19803 and early 19903.
In recent years, the economy has been more market-oriented rather than government-
directed. Although the Asian ﬁnancial crisis in 1997 severely hit the Korean economy, the
government reformed its ﬁnancial system and economy with International Monetary Fund
(IMF) assistance. The economy is now the lSth-largest economy in the world (US.

Department of State, 2010).

2. Korean Media

Korea transformed its political system to democracy after the 1987
democratization movement (Marshall & Jaggers, 2008). Korea achieved a successful
political transition to democracy and press freedom (Karatnycky & Ackerman, 2005, p.
41). Before the democratic era, the Korean media suffered from government restrictions
and censorship for about 40 years. Under the dictatorships, the media did not cover and
serve the interests of citizens (Kim, 2003).

President Park Chung-bee held ofﬁce for 19 years from 1961 to 1979. The Park
administration achieved great economic development but President Park was also
notorious for human rights abuses. The military government prohibited media from
criticizing his government (Kim, 2003). Under Park’s regime, “a new Korean concept of
responsible press which is claimed to be best suited to the Korean situation was
introduced and advocated by the government” (Kang, 1991, p.160). Also, every piece of

news coverage was scrutinized and censored under strict guidelines (Kim, 2003). In

addition, one of the most oppressive press laws in modern Korean history was imposed by
President Chun Doo-hwan’s military government (Nam, 2008). Through the law, the
government censored politically oriented and democracy-inspired ﬁlms and other related
content (Nam, 2008).

Aﬁer the 1987 democratization movement, television and cable became important
in the diversity of media coverage (Nam, 2008). The media industry has seen multiple
expansion in numbers and the media have been diversifying their form and content as a
result of democratic reforms and deregulation policies (Kim, 2003). As public demand for
democracy grew, people started to realize the importance of media that is free of the
government (Kim, 2001). Korea now has vibrant and diverse media that are both public
and private. They include numerous cable, terrestrial, satellite television stations and more
than 100 daily newspapers in Korean and English (Freedom House). Recently, Internet
media have been thriving, and approximately 37.5 million people access the Internet,
according to Internet World Stats (2010). Freedom House states that a signiﬁcant number
of young people get their news exclusively from online sources.

For the past 10 years, Korea has regularly been rated as a country with press
freedom, according to the annual report of Freedom House and Reporters \Vrthout
Borders. However, the recent report of Reporters Without Borders (2010) shows that the
press freedom ranking of Korea dropped sharply in 2009. The ranking of 2009 is 69 out
of 175 and of 2008 is 47 out of 173. It describes the current Korean media situation:

“The conservative government has stepped up pressure on some TV
channels that are seen as over critical and the authorities have also

tightened control of the Internet, going so far as to arrest Internet users for

their posts, even though the country is in the forefront of Internet access.
While the opposition has condemned it as a return to the authoritarianism
of the 19803, it is more a case of government interventionism in media so

as to limit criticism of its actions. ” Reporters Without Borders (2010)

3. Korea and three wars in two eras

The Vietnam War, which is known by the Vietnamese as the “American War,”
began in 1960 and lasted until North Vretnam occupied South Vietnam in 1975
(Lawrence, 2008). The Vietnam War occurred during the Park administration, a period of
bureaucratic authoritarianism (Yoon, 2001). The Kennedy administration decided to send
US troops to Vietnam in 1961 to help South Vietnam, beginning with the dispatch of
troops in 1962. The Korean govermnent under President Park entered the war on the
American side and decided to send troops to Vietnam in 1964. President Park sent more
combat troops to South Vietnam than any other American ally (Olson, 1988, p.243). The
Park administration concentrated heavily on economic development projects (Yoon,
2001), and the Vietnam War represented one element of his economic development plans
(Korean Ministry of National Defense).

The Afghanistan War represented in this study refers to the war that began on
October 7, 2001, when the United States and an international coalition that included Great
Britain, Canada, Australia, Germany and France went to war in the aftermath of the
September 11 attacks on the United States by Al Qaeda (GlobalSecurity.org). It was called
Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF). The Kim Dae-jung administration decided to

participate in OEF as an ally of the US. at the end of 2001. And President Roh Moo-hyun

continued to dispatch Korean troops into Afghanistan after he took over from President
Kim.

The Roh administration withdrew troops from Afghanistan at the end of 2007, but
in 2007 President Roh also faced intense debates over a decision to extend the
deployment of troops in the Iraq War because many Koreans opposed the government
decision. The US. and other allies attacked Iraq in 2003 purportedly to remove weapons
of mass destruction (WMD) and Saddam Hussein’s regime (DeFronzo, 2010, p.130).
Also, some US. officials suspected that Saddam helped Al Qaeda and was involved in the
September 11 attacks toward the US. (DeFronzo, 2010, p.130). By this, the US. justiﬁed
the invasion of Iraq (DeFronzo, 2010, p.130). Korea supported the US. and sent troops to
the Iraq War as one of the countries in the coalition for Operation Iraqi Freedom

(DeFronzo, 2010, p.153).

10

111. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
l. Ideological Inﬂuence on Media Content and Domestic Audiences Costs

The media can depict how a government performs its role in a country and in
international relations by covering stories. Even though there are limitations to covering
the whole world, the media have played an active role in sketching our daily versions of
reality. This is labeled agenda-setting (Weaver et al., 1981). Consequently, media
inﬂuence people and society through their day-by-day selection of news. People learn
factual information from mass media and realize which one is important among various
events and issues in a day.

The ideological level of inﬂuence on media content and the theory of domestic
audience costs are the overarching conceptual theoretical frameworks for this study.
According to the theory of inﬂuence on media content, Shoemaker and Reese (1996) say
that there are ﬁve hierarchical levels of inﬂuence on media content. The levels exist at the
individual, media routine, organizational, extra-media, and ideological levels with the
individual level being the lowest level. According to this model, a higher level usually
affects a lower level set of factors (Shoemaker & Reese, 1996). Through the ideological
level we can perceive relationships between media and political structures. Shoemaker
and Reese (1996, p.221) deﬁne ideology as “a symbolic mechanism that serves as a
cohesive and integrating force in society.” They add that “ideology is not an individual
belief system and represents a societal-level phenomenon” (Shoemaker & Reese, 1996, p.
222). 7

Another conceptual framework used for this study is the theory of domestic

audience costs. The domestic audience costs theory indicates that generally domestic
audiences in a democracy can be an important factor in making foreign policy and can
enhance a leader’s credibility to get a better reputation in international relations (F earon,
1997). In the 19903, the concept of economics regarding the costly signaling theory was
proposed by international political scientists. Scholars sought to explain international
conﬂicts, especially war and the relationship between the establishment of democracy and
peace (Jo, 2007). They used costly signaling theory and domestic audience costs theory to
explain the phenomena.

Fearon (1994) says that depending on the regime type, a leader may consider
audience costs differently. In a democracy, foreign policies are made by “an agent on
behalf of voters who have the power to sanction the agent electorally or through the
workings of public opinion” (Fearon, 1994, p.581). On the other hand, the leaders in
authoritarian regimes often conduct foreign policy themselves without any regard for
public opinion (Fearon, 1994). In short, domestic audience costs are higher in
democracies than in autocracies. Fearon (1994) says that “domestic political structure
may powerfully inﬂuence a state’s ability to signal its intentions and to make credible
commitments regarding foreign policy.” Clare (2007) argues that sometimes a leader’s
action in foreign policy is much like a bluff and does not generate domestic costs. In other
words, as the need arises, domestic audiences can agree with a leader’s bluff action in a
foreign policy. Thus, if domestic audiences in a democracy do not punish their leader for
failing to carry out their threats, policies, or promises every time, an adversary may think

that threats, policies, or promises do not have “informational value as signals of resolve

because of the lack of credibility” (Clare, 2007). This concept can generate various
predictions about crisis behaviors. Thus, to increase accurate predictions about “the
conﬂict behavior of democratic states,” Clare (2007) insists that domestic audience costs
and strategic interests should be considered together. And Tomz (2007) states that in some
cases a president who issues an empty threat can be signiﬁcantly less popular than a
president who never gets involved. Also, he says that the population, especially politically
active citizens, react against empty commitments. He argues that domestic audiences are
one of the important factors that “motivate leaders to protect their international
reputations, even at great cost to themselves and others” (Tomz, 2007).

Some studies of domestic audience costs show that the media are important
mediators that connect the government and citizens and that inform people of government
policies. According to Slantchev (2006), audiences need information to assess policies
and get information from two potential mechanisms: one is “politically motivated
strategic behavior of better-infonned actors like the government and the opposition,” and
another is “a non-political but potentially biased and exogenously noisy signaling
mechanism like the media.” He ﬁnds that the later mechanism is more important to

audiences in disciplining a leader for unsuccessful bluff and dishonesty.

2. Qualitative Thematic Content Analysis
Any form of communication may be subjected to content analysis for research
(Babbie, 1998). It can be books, magazines, poems, newspapers, songs, paintings,

speeches, letters, laws or constitutions (Babbie, 1998). One of the deﬁnitions of

traditional content analysis is that “content analysis is a method of studying and analyzing
communication in a systematic objective, and quantitative manner for the purpose of
measuring variables” (Wimmer & Dominick, 1994, pp.163-164). However, for this study
qualitative thematic content analysis is utilized. Bauer states that “qualitative content
analysis is one of the classical procedures for analyzing textual materials no matter where
this material comes from” (Flick, 2006, p.312).

The nature of qualitative content analysis differs from traditional content analysis.
There are three main differences between qualitative research and quantitative research,
according to Wimmer and Dominick (1994, p.140). 1) A qualitative researcher tries to be
part of a study because data cannot be yielded without a researcher’s active interpretation
and gathers reality through the research process. But reality for a quantitative researcher
is objective and wants to be separated from the data. 2) For a qualitative researcher each
person has different characteristics and researching each person can generate different
results. But a quantitative researcher tries to ﬁnd general categories which can explain
human behaviors, and this concept is derived from that all human beings have similar
characteristics and aspects. 3) A qualitative researcher generates unique explanations from
individuals and given situations. But the goal of a quantitative researcher is to create
general explanations to understand people and society (Wimmer & Dominick, 1994, p.
140)

In qualitative research, analysis depends on stated research questions and stated
methods for the purpose of a study (Hesse-Biber & Leavy, 2004, p.411). According to

Hesse-Biber & Leavy, “coding” is “the central part of qualitative data analysis,” and “it

involves extracting meaning from collected textual materials and usually consists of
describing “themes” or “ideas” in “chunks” of segments of text in the data and labeling
them with a short name or sometimes even a number” (2004, p.411). “Coding is the
analytic strategy many qualitative researchers employ in order to locate key themes,
patterns, ideas, and concepts within their data” (Hesse-Biber & Leavy, 2004, p.411).

A qualitative thematic content analysis procedure was used for this study to
examine the govemment—press relations under an authoritarian regime and a democratic
political system in Korea with the Dong—a ilbo and the Kyunghyang Shinmun as media
whose content was observed. Using qualitative content analysis adopts some of the
procedure of traditional content analysis in making inferences about the nature of
communication content (Holsti, 1969). But the qualitative nature of the study puts
emphasis on the interpretive nature of media content focusing on how published media
told the story of Korea’s experience under both authoritarian and democratic
governments. This is the part of the procedure of discourse analysis. Discourse analysis is
the medium of ﬁnding interactions in text and talk to understand what people do and think
(Silvennan, 2004, p.203). It focuses “not on language as an abstract entity such as a
lexicon and set of grammatical rules, a system of differences, or a set of rules for
transforming statements” (Silverrnan, 2004, p.203) but on details in text and talk to ﬁnd

meaning and clear cognitive reduction (p.216).

15

IV. RESEARCH METHOD AND DESIGN
1. Research Questions

In line with the theories of agenda setting, ideologic inﬂuences on media and the
domestic audience cost theory, media coverage will be prominent when a country
withdraws the army from the wars in Vretnam, Afghanistan, and Iraq because government
and the people will assess their achievements, trials and errors.

This study poses a number of research questions that speak to press coverage of
the wars in Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iraq by two newspapers in Korea. By analyzing the
coverage of the policies and war participation in two newspapers that have different
political orientations, the study seeks to clarify how the theories of ideological inﬂuences
on press content and domestic audience cost theory shed light on press coverage and the
Korean govemment’s involvement in the wars.

RQl. Policy coverage: What kind of inferences about Korean policies can be
found from observing the coverage of Korea’s participation in the wars of Vietnam,
Afghanistan, and Iraq?

RQ2. Public opinion about wars in the two newspapers: How prominent is the
public’s view in press coverage of Korea’s involvement in the wars of Vietnam,
Afghanistan, and Iraq?

Before moving to the next research questions, the concept of the public should be
deﬁned. In the theory of domestic audiences, domestic audiences are deﬁned as “all
people in a nation especially among politically active citizens who have the greatest

potential to shape government policy” (Fearon, 1994). In this study, the meaning of the

16

pubic will be same as the meaning of domestic audiences with following traditional
deﬁnitions of the public.

In the traditions of democratic theory, the public refers in a broad
sense to the people. The public is the electorate and the bearer of public
opinion, the ultimate source of legitimate governing power (Mayhew,
1997, p.137).

(In true democratic sense) The public is never the government,
although the public does influence, approach, or even control the
government, or the makers of decisions. But however close the opinion of
the inﬂuencing groups many come to controlling the government, it is still
not the government. Opinion as a process operating within the public is by
definition to be distinguished form those who rule (Wilson, 1962, p.8).

Water Lippmann deﬁned the public as those who are spectators to
the context of power and the public has been related to the fact of political
participation (Wilson, 1962, p.83).

Political parties or any other form of “self-created societies ” come
under the heading of faction, and factions prevent the people ﬁ'om direct
sovereignty over their government and encourage the capture of that
government by groups that represent special rather than truly public
interests (Mayhew, 1997, p.137).

With the above traditional deﬁnitions of public, in this study the public is domestic
audiences in a nation who can affect government policy, but it is different from political
parties.

RQ3. Political orientation of coverage: In what ways did press coverage of

Korea’s participation in the wars of Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iraq differ when examined

in two newspapers with different political orientation?

RQ4. Press performances under different regime types: What differences can be

found in press coverage of wars under different regime types in Korea?

2. Sampling

There are two types of samples: a probability sample and a non-probability sample
(Wimmer & Dominick, 1994). A random sample which was used for sampling in this
study is the basic type of probability sample. Random sampling is “an intelligent
sampling strategy enables that researchers to make systematic contact with
communicative phenomena with a minimum of wasted effort” (Lindolf & Taylor, 2002).
By deﬁnition, each random sample in the population has an equal chance of being
selected in the sample (Babbie, 1998). Researchers who use a probability sample can
calculate sampling errors, but researchers who use a non-probability sample cannot
(Wimmer & Dominick, 1994). Even though a random sample was utilized for sampling in
this study, selected samples were organized by criteria. Thus, a purposive sample which is
a type of non-probability sample was also used. “A purposive sample includes subjects
selected on the basis of speciﬁc characteristics or qualities and eliminates those who fail
to meet speciﬁed criteria” (Wimmer & Dominick, 1994). As a result of using a purposive
sample for the study, sampling errors cannot be calculated.

The Naver Digital News Archives and the MediaGaon were used to identify media
content for the study. The Naver Digital News Archives provides whole articles between
1965 and 1991 from three newspapers; the Dong-A Ilbo, the Kyunghyang Shinmun, and

the Maeil Business Newspaper. The entire newspapers in the Naver Digital News

18

Archives were scanned and digitalized, reproducing them as the actual newspapers. The
MediaGaon, which is a kind of Web search engine, provides articles from more than 20
Korean newspapers since 1990.

The Vietnam cease-ﬁre agreement was signed on January 27, 1973. The Korean
government officially ﬁnished withdrawing troops from the Vietnam war on March 23,
1973. In Afghanistan, Korea withdrew its 200 troops at the end of 2007. In 2007, the
Korean government faced intense debate on the redeployment of troops to Iraq, so articles
about the redeployment issues from Iraq were also included in the Afghanistan era.

The population for this study consists of entire articles related to troop withdrawal
from the Vretnam War, the Afghanistan War, and the Iraq War in the Kyunghyang
Shinmun and the Dong-a Ilbo. Articles for the six-month period prior to the end of
Korea’s war participation were chosen for the Vietnam War from December 1972 to May
1973, and for the Afghanistan War from July to December 2007. A random week was
chosen from each month from these periods. Every article related to the Vietnam War, the
Afghanistan War, and the Iraq War published in the selected weeks was analyzed for a
thematic frame of how the media covered Korean war policies and participation during
the selected periods.

All articles from the selected periods were numbered, and a Random Number
Table in Mass Media Research: an Introduction (Wimmer & Dominick, 1994) was used
to randomly select a total of 30 articles for in-depth thematic and textual analysis. The use
of only 30 of the 489 articles was dictated by the limitation of time and cost. But

providing in-depth narrative discourse of 30 articles can yield insight about the nature of

19

press coverage of Korea’s involvement in these wars especially regarding its’ foreign
policy, the pressure endured by the government from the domestic front, and press

support to, or opposition to government.

3. Data Collection

For the Vietnam War, a total of 369 articles related to the war was collected,
including cartoons. For the Afghanistan War and the Iraq War, 120 articles were collected,
but the sample did not contain pictures and cartoons because the MediaGaon database
only provides textual information. Table 1 provides a breakdown of the articles by
newspapers and periods of selection.

[Table l] The Total Number of Articles

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Vietnam War Era The Afghanistan War and the Iraq War Era
(Dec I972-May 1973) (July 2007-Dec 2007)
Number of articles Number of articles
Week the Kyunghyang the Dong-a Ilbo Week the Kyunghyang the Dong-a Ilbo
Shinmun Shinmun
Dec 04-09 1972 33 42 July 15- 21 2007 13 10
Jan 22-27 1973 60 76 Aug 19-25 2007 ‘ I3 10
Feb 05-10 1973 39 43 Sep 02-08 2007 I6 10
Mar12-l7 1973 13 15 Oct21-27 2007 20 13
Apr 02-07 1973 15 18 Nov 11-17 2007 7 3
May 21-26 1973 7 8 Dec 09-15 2007 I 4
I67 202 70 50
Mean 28 34 Mean 12 8
369 120
Total 489

 

 

 

 

For the two periods, the total number of selected articles is 489. See [Tablel].
Although the average pages of newspapers in 19703 were eight and in the 20003 were

over 40, the number of articles during the Vietnam War are three times more than the

20

Afghanistan War and the Iraq War era. During the Vietnam War era, the Dong-a Ilbo
published 35 articles more than the Kyunghyang Shinmun, but in the Afghanistan War and
the Iraq War era, the Kyunghyang Shinmun published 20 articles more than the Dong-a
Ilbo.

Also, articles from the two newspapers on January 22 to 27 in 1973 during the
Vietnam War period and on October 21 to 27 in 2007 during the Afghanistan War and the
Iraq War era were issued more than other selected months. The Vietnam cease-ﬁre
agreement was signed on January 23, 1973. Many people expected the Vietnam War
would be ﬁnished soon thereafter. In October 2007, the Korean government made a
decision to withdraw its army from Afghanistan, but the government was unsure about
whether to extend the Iraq deployment or withdraw from Iraq as it had planned.

[Table 2] Original Story Sources

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Vietnam War Era The Afghanistan War and the Iraq War Era
(Dec l972-May 1973) (July 2007-Dec 2007)
the Kyunghyang the Dong-a Ilbo the Kyunghyang the Dong-a Ilbo
Shinmun Shinmun
Cartoon 5 5 - -
50 81 61 42
Own Article bylined 8 bylined 10 bylined 57 bylined 32
correspondent 16 correspondent 51 correspondent 4 correspondent 10
No name 26 No name 20 No name NONE No name NONE
Opinion 3 4 5 4
Opinion from
specialists l 0 2 2
Foreign Press
Agencies
(AP, AFP, 106 102 0 1
Reuters, UPI)
Translated Article 2 10 2 I
167 202 70 50
Total 369 120
489

 

 

 

 

21

For the content analysis, 489 articles were ﬁrstly selected, examined, and
organized into a number of categories: date, section, length, title, and original story
sources. The number of collected articles between the Vietnam War era and the
Afghanistan War and the Iraq War era is signiﬁcantly different because of articles from
foreign press agencies. Foreign press agencies during the Vietnam War era provided 208
stories, but only one article during the Afghanistan War and the Iraq War era in the
sample. According to the sample, during Afghanistan War and the Iraq War era reporters
from the two newspapers use articles written by foreign press agencies as their story
sources, but during the Vietnam War era the two newspapers carried many translated
articles which were originally written by foreign press agencies. Both newspapers heavily
relied on foreign press agencies for their pages in order to describe the status on progress
of the Vietnam War during the selected periods.

An article will be included in the study as a sample if an article meets one of
following criteria. 1) An article is written by an own correspondent. 2) An article carries
opinions and the analysis of wars, war policies, or the Korean relationship with other
countries whether it is translated or not. 3) An article carries facts and presents Korean
participation in war, war policies or the Korean relationships with other countries. In
addition, an article will be excluded as a sample if it only carries fact without any
valuable information for the study. Examples of eliminated articles are following.
[Example 1 of eliminated articles. Translated]

AFP. (1973, January 26). The Delegation of the Vietcong in Saigon on the 28th of the
month. The Dong-a Ilbo, p. 1 . (Length: 180 characters in Korean)

22

The military delegation of the Vietcong and the National Liberation
Front, which consist of 59 members and whose chief delegate is general-
level, will arrive in Saigon on the 28th of the month to have talks about
cease-fire application with the Vietnamese government; and the ﬁrst group
of Indonesian members of the ICC (International Cease-ﬁre Council) is

known to arrive at Tanson-nute Airport on the 27th or 28th of the month.

END
[Example 2 of eliminated articles. Translated]

Park, Ji-hee. (2007, November 16). Pakistan Dilemma for the United States - Shutout of
Supply Routes for the Afghan War or Concern about Nuclear Proliferation. The
Kyunghyang Shinmun, p.14. (Length: 1347 characters in Korean)

As an incidence of death takes place for the ﬁrst time since the state
of emergency was declared, confusion of political situation deepens
worries of the US. That is because chaos of political situation in Pakistan,
which is a key ally for "War against Terrorism" and a nuclear power; might
threaten even the security of the US. The US. is recently showing various
movements including collecting information within Pakistan,

reconsideration of military supply routes, etc.

###
[Example 3 of eliminated articles. Translated]

Lee, Jung-eun. (2007, July 16). Appearance of a New Video of Bin Laden. The

Dong-a Ilbo, p.16. (Length: 625 characters in Korean)

A new video was made public where Osama Bin Laden, leader of a
terrorist organization Al-Qaeda, appears. According to the Associated
Press, this video on the website of Al-Qaeda is part of a 40 minute video
which covers Al-Qaeda leaders encouraging their forces working overseas.
Bin Laden appears for 50 seconds at the end of this video.

###

23

 

[Table 3-1] The Number of Articles after Eliminating Articles under the Criteria

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Vietnam War Era The Afghanistan War and the Iraq War Era
(Dec l972-May 1973) (July 2007-Jan 2008)
Number of articles Number of articles
Week the Kyunghyang the Dong-a Ilbo Week ' the Ky unghyang the Dong-a Ilbo
Shinmun Shinmun
Dec 04-09 1972 6 5 July 15- 21 2007 8 7
Jan 22-27 1973 - 25 32 Aug 19-25 2007 10 9
Feb 05-10 1973 9 17 Sep 02-08 2007 12 7
Mar 12-17 1973 Oct21-27 2007 18 13
Apr 02-07 1973 Nov ll-17 2007 4 3
May 21-26 1973 2 I Dec 09-15 2007 l 3
52 66 53 42
Total 118 95

 

 

 

 

213

 

[Table 3-2] The Number of Articles after Eliminating Articles under the Criteria

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Vietnam War Era The Afghanistan War and the Iraq War Era
(Dec l972-May 1973) (July 2007-Jan 2008)
the Ky unghy ang the Dong-a Ilbo the Kyunghyang the Dong-a Ilbo
Shinmun Shinmun
42 52 44 36
Own Article bylined 8 bylined 8 bylined 40 bylined 26
correspondent ll correspondent 26 correspondent 4 correspondent 10
No name 23 No name 18 No name NONE No name NONE
Cartoon 5 5 - -
Opinion 3 4 5 3
Opinion from 1 O 2 2
specralrsts
Foreign Press
Agencies
(Reuters, AP, 0 2 0 0
AFP, UPI)
Translated Article I 3 2 I
52 66 53 42
Total 118 95
213

 

24

 

 

In particular, many articles from foreign press agencies such as Reuters, AP, AFP,
and UPI and some of translated articles from the New York Times, the Washington Post,
and Le Monde were excluded. Although the process of selecting articles from foreign
press agencies can be part of editorial judgement, articles from foreign press agencies
carried news that did not have any valuable information for evaluating Korean
government-press relations. The themes of excluded articles were usually about the U.S.-
Vietnam relations, the U.S.-Vietcong, the U.S.-Afghanistan, the U.S.-Iraq, the war
participation of other nations, and the status of wars. However, some articles which
provided the analysis of wars were included.

[Table 4] The Number of Sampled Articles

 

The Vietnam War Era The Afghanistan War and the Iraq War Era
Dec 1972-May 1973 July 2007-Jan 2008

 

the Kyunghyang Shinmun the Dong-a Ilbo the Kyunghyang Shinmun the Dong-a Ilbo

 

 

 

7 10 7 6
30

 

 

 

 

 

25

V. QUALITATIVE THEMATIC CONTENT ANALYSIS

For the qualitative thematic content analysis, thirty articles were divided into the

following four thematic categories to answer research questions: the coverage of 1) war

analysis, 2) government policy and statement, 3) public opinions and reactions about wars

and government policy, and 4) party’s opinions and reactions about wars and government

policy. An article which did not directly address any of the themes was identiﬁed as

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“others.”
[Table 5] Thematic Categories
The Vietnam War The Afghanistan War and the Iraq War
h K h K ma]
the Dong-a Ilbo t e yunghyang the Dong-a Ilbo t e yunghyang
Shinmun Shinmun
War Analysis . 3 2 - l 6
Article #I , #3, #13 Article #6, #12 Article #24
Government 7 4 2 3
policy and Article #8, #9, #10, Article #4, #5, #7, . Article #19, #22, 16
statement #11, #14, #15, #17 #16 Amc'e #18, #23 #28
Public opinions
and reactions 3
about wars and - - - Article #21, #27, 3
government #29
policy
Party’ opinions
and reactions 3
about wars and - - Article #25, #26, - 3
govemment #30
policy
Other - l 1 - 2
Article #2 Article #20
Total 10 7 6 7 3O

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

26

 

1. War Analysis

Six articles out of thirty were examined in this study. The selected articles
provided an analysis of war progress, or the causes and results of war. In this study, there
were no articles from the Dong-a Ilbo during the Afghanistan War. One article out of six
which did not identify the writer was Article #7. It was an editorial article. A writer of an
editorial page in Korean newspapers is usually not identiﬁed; nevertheless, an editorial

article carries the opinion and voice of a newspaper.

1-1) The Dong-a Ilbo during the Vietnam War

There were three articles published by the Dong-a Ilbo during the Vietnam War
era (Article #1, #3, and #13). All three articles had negative nuances about the Vietnam
War. I

A political cartoon drawn by Paek In-soo was published on December 08, 1972, in
the editorial cartoon section on the ﬁrst page of the Dong-a Ilbo (Article #1). The cartoon
describes the Paris Peace Accords of 1973. In this cartoon, there are two people who sit
across a table from each other on the edge of a cliff which is above the cloud. The two
people look precarious. On the table is a ﬂag ﬂying from a small Eifel Tower which bears
a written message: “the Paris Peace Accords.” One person represents a Vietnamese and
the other one is an American. One person wears a ‘non’ which is a Vietnamese traditional
hat made of a coconut palm, and the other wears a top hat with stars and stripes which is
often called an Uncle Sam hat. The view of the cartoonist was sarcastic about the

negotiation. Under the cartoon, the cartoonist commented “went all the way to the end...”

27

It can be understood that there was no place to step back from the negotiations between
North Vietnam and the US. during the Vietnam War. Through this cartoon, we can
assume how a cartoonist evaluates the Paris Peace Accords. The cartoonist seemed to
think that the negotiation was the last chance to make a decision to end the Vietnam War.

[Figure 1] Article #1

 

 

tom nnuuuuumr
u n .-

 

ﬁlﬂlﬁlxl $5121

 

 

 

 

 

 

On January 23, 1974, Jang Haeng-hoon, the Dong-a Ilbo correspondent, reported
the pessimistic opinions concerning the result of the Vietnam cease-ﬁre agreement for
peace in Vietnam (Article #3). The article was titled “Hectic Night Before Cease-ﬁre in
Vietnam.” According to the article, the Vietnam cease-ﬁre agreement would be reached
soon in Paris although no one was able to predict when the agreement would be signed.
The story sources of this article were political observers in Paris and articles from Le

Monde, and Le Figaro. Selected sources in the article provided why the agreement could

28

not establish peace in Vietnam. In particular, the correspondent largely used a report in Le
Monde written by Jacque De Cornoi7, who was a Vietnam specialist, as follow:

The Communist Vietcong is expected to avoid disturbances for the
time being, urging national reconciliation not to be criticized as a
peacebreaker by the Vietnamese people and world opinions, but it is
certain that its ultimate goal is to get rid of the Thieu government, anti-
communist forces. As president Thieu knows well that what they call
national reconciliation is merely reconciliation through removal of the
Saigon government, they are arresting potential Vietcong sympathizers
indiscriminately, insisting on arresting all communists and even the last
one. Coexistence of the Saigon government and the Vietcong under these
conditions will be nothing but a myth, forecasts Jacque De Cornoi (Article

#3).

On the whole, the correspondent did not reveal his own analysis about the cease-
ﬁre agreement. However, the correspondent used others’ opinions for his article and he
seemed to agree with the pessimistic opinions on peace in Vietnam. The writer concluded
that the Vietnam War would end but still had many unsolved problems after listing the
pessimistic opinions.

Park Heung-won, a correspondent, reported the South Vietnam-Vietcong talks for
the political stability in South Vietnam on February 08, 1973, on the third page of the
Dong-a Ilbo (Article #13). The headline of the article was “Political War in Vietnam,
Meetings Behind the Scenes.” According to the article, the Paris Peace Accords required

the South Vietnamese government and the Vietcong to organize a committee together and

 

7 The speling of this name may not be acculate because it was translated from Korean. In Korean
newspapers, foreign language is written in Korean according to the loanword orthography.

29

join an agreement to stabilize South Vietnam’s internal affairs right after signing the
Vietnam cease-ﬁre agreement. As a result, South Vietnam and the Vietcong held two
meetings and would have plans to hold another meeting. The committee was not a
political system but a group to control the general election in South Vretnam. The
correspondent explained the importance of preparing the meeting as follows:

It is up to the neutralists participating the National Unity
Committee, that is to say, whether neutralists will support the Saigon
administration or procommunist faction will have a psychological impact
on voters and the outcomes of elections, and accordingly it will be a vital
factor which determines the result of political campaigns to seize political

power of the Saigon government (Article #13).

Like the above explanation, seizing power in South Vietnam might depend on who
would be on the committee according to the reporter. Thus, the reporter said that the
South Vietnamese government and the Vietcong thought carefully to choose committee
members. However, some Vietnam specialists doubted Vietcong’s victory in the general
election in South Vietnam based on their long time observations. Also, the reporter was
skeptical about ideological issues in the general election.

Ideology is now no more than rusty tools to Vietnamese people and
farmers, so the elections will depend upon which is the stronger of the two,
the Saigon government and the Vietcong. Meanwhile, the Vietcong is
expected to make use of tactics like propaganda and terrorist

assassinations in order to expand their inﬂuence and forces (Article #13).
The above paragraph can be interpreted as meaning that although there were many

issues to select a committee for the meeting, only one who had strongest power could win

30

the election. Through this article, we know that there were many unsolved problems in

Vietnam after the Vietnam cease-ﬁre agreement.

1-2) The Kyunghyang Shinmun during the Vietnam War

There were two articles (Article #6 and #12) that covered the analysis of the
Vietnam War in the Kyunghyang Shinmun. Article #6 provided not only an analysis of the
war but also the assessment of the Korean govemment’s deployment plan to Vietnam.
This article could be part of the coverage of ‘Government Policy and Statement’ category,
but overall the article explained the origin of the Vietnam War and the possible results of
the end of the war. Thus, the article was identiﬁed in the ‘War Analysis’ category. Two
articles showed that there were many problems and unsolved issues in Vietnam after the
cessation of the war.

On January 25, 1973, an article was written by the Kyunghyang Shinmun in the
editorial section on the second page (Article #6). It was titled “Oh that War disasters
would not take place again - the Vietnam War end report.” As the United States, North
and South Vietnam, and the Vietcong would ofﬁcially sign an armistice on January 27,
1973, the writer analyzed the Vietnam War and the armistice with three main points: 1)
ideology and the politics of strong states, 2) peace guarantee in South Vietnam, and 3)
Korean troop withdrawal and participation into the Vietnam recovery plan after the war.

At ﬁrst, the writer explained why the Vietnam War occurred as follows:

The national tragedy in Vietnam is attributed to aftermath of
colonialism, ideological conﬂict and political power struggle. Vietnam

which had suﬂered under the colonial rule of France since 1884 became

31

the scene of ideological conﬁontation and cold war between Communism
and Democracy aﬁer the second World War. The Vietnam War was
essentially characteristic of ideological war and came to an end under the
inﬂuence of changes in international circumstances entering into a post-
ideological era. However; it is regrettable that cease-ﬁre was declared with
its territory divided into two as a result of big deals by super powers

(Article #6).

In the above paragraph, he said that because major global powers wanted to

colonize and extend their powers and ideologies to small and weak countries, the Vretnam
War occurred. The writer sympathized with the Vretnamese that the Vretnam War ended

with political horse-trading and resulted in the division of Vietnam: North Vietnam and

South Vietnam.

Secondly, the writer pointed that an armistice could not guarantee the endless

peace in Vietnam as follows:

Though Article I of Truce Agreement recognizes the sovereignty of
the Saigon government, the sovereignty will be faltering if the government
does not secure political stability. The Vietnamese government will
undergo another trials especially because the agreement stipulates the
withdrawal of the United States forces no later than 60 days, but it does
not stipulate specifically regarding the Vietcong troops. The war came to
an end, but it is no doubt that the National Liberation Front will stimulate

another political struggle (Article #6).

In the above paragraph, the writer demanded from South Vietnam that a stable

political system in South Vietnam be settled in order to prevent another war. However, he

added that the International Control Commission (ICC) would not function well after the

32

Vietnam cease-ﬁre agreement because North Vietnam and the Vietcong might ignore the
agreement. By this, South Vietnam could be affected in bad ways. Also, he stated that the
unstable political situations in South Vietnam could cause political collapse when North
Vietnam and the Vietcong attack. The writer’s opinion strongly doubted that North
Vietnam and the Vietcong would maintain the agreement for peace.

Lastly, the reporter stated that although there was no reason for Korean troops to
stay in Vietnam as an armistice was signed, the Korean government should maintain
strong and amicable relations with South Vietnam after the troops withdrawal from
Vietnam. See the below.

As a truce agreement was signed in Vietnam, Korean military forces
have no reason to stay in Vietnam. They are expected to withdraw
immediately under the order of President Park. Korean military forces will
return home with honor aﬁer participating in the Vietnam War in order to
maintain the independence and peace of Vietnam. The government is
considered to fully review the withdrawal of Korean military forces
dispatched to Vietnam. Although the government pulls out our troops, we
should continue to maintain blood alliance with Vietnam. The bond
between two countries will become stronger as Korea will participate in
postwar restoration and economic revival projects of Vietnam. We will
strengthen the meaning of the Vietnam War the way we continue to
contribute to economic reconstruction projects in Vietnam which is shiﬁing

from war state to peace regime (Article #6).
Like the above, the writer explained that the Korean troops deployment in
Vietnam was successful and South Vietnam achieved the return of peace. Also, he

emphasized Korea should join the Vietnam recovery plan because participation in postwar

33

reconstruction would affect Korea-South Vietnam relations. Thus, the writer said that the
Korean government should use intense diplomacy to strengthen Korea-South Vietnam
relations.

In this article, the writer seemed to analyze that the end of war meant the
restoration of peace and Korean troops contributed to peace in Vietnam. Thus, he
concluded that the government’s troops deployment was successful. However, the writer
mentioned several issues in Vietnam that the Vietnam War resulted in the division of two
Vietnams and there were many unsolved political problems. In other words, the Paris
Peace Accords did not bring complete peace in Vietnam. Although Korea troops achieved
brilliant success on the battleﬁelds, the military gains did not have the same meaning of
the restoration of peace in Vietnam.

On February 07, 1973, the Kyunghyang Shinmun provided a translated and edited
article which was originally written by Jack Anderson, who was an American newspaper
columnist (Article #12). The title of an article was “The Future of Thieu Government
based on Conﬁdential Documents of the US. JCS.” Jack Anderson exposed a secret
document written by the Joint Chiefs of Staff as follows.

Though truce agreement was signed, a conﬁdential assessment of
the US Joint Chiefs of Staff forecasts that the communist forces will hold
control of the entire Vietnamese territory in the long run. If this assessment
is right, there is nothing that the United States obtains from the Vietnam
War during which a large number of American young soldiers have been
sacrificed for the past ten years. The United States sacriﬁced 56, 000 young
people and spent more than 150 billion dollars of resources to prevent

communization of Vietnam. An information analysis forecasts that partial

34

warfares will continue for several months. This analysis shows that there is
sufficient evidence that the Hanoi side is preparing political struggle to
collapse the Saigon government by obtaining support of Vietnamese people
(Article #12).

Like the above excerpt, Anderson revealed that all of the US. efforts in the

Vietnam War to prevent North Vietnam from establishing communism in South Vietnam
would end in vain. According to this article, although the Vietnam cease-ﬁre agreement
joined in Paris, the JCS were skeptical about maintaining the peace agreement as follow:

It seems that to postpone the signing of truce agreement by three
months not only provided the Thieu government with enough time to fully
prepare for communist attacks but also allowed drastic measures to
maintain the Saigon regime. However; it is strange that the US Joint Chiefs
of Staff is skeptical of the possibility that the Thieu government will

continue to subsist (Article #12).

The above excerpt was the last paragraph in this article. The excerpt shows that
there was an ironic situation that the US. had doubts about the retention of the Thieu
administration in South Vietnam even though the US. helped and supported the Thieu
administration. This article presented a brief idea about the result of the Vietnam War, that
the end of the Vietnam War would not bring political stability in South Vietnam and there

were intense conﬂicts which were not physically visible in Vietnam.

1-3) the Kyunghyang Shinmun during the Afghanistan War and the Iraq War

There was one article, Article #24, published by the Kyunghyang Shinmun. It did

not have any negative or positive tone about an issue.

35

According to an article written by Kim Ju-hyun, the Kyunghyang Shinmun
reporter, on October 23, 2007, many countries which sent troops to Iraq were planning to
withdraw troops, and the number of countries to deploy troops to Iraq was decreasing
(Article #24). This article was titled “\Vrthdrawal Dominoes, countries sending troops
decreased from 34 to 21.” The reporter stated that British Prime Minister Gordon Brown
took the leading role to withdraw troops from Iraq although in 2003 the UK. had the
second-largest contingent in Iraq after the United States. This article discussed other
countries’ withdrawal plan. See below.

Denmark pulled out 460 troops stationed in Basra and replaced
them with a small scale helicopter unit. 125 troops of Latvia leﬁ Iraq with
only 15 troops deployed there. Lithuania decided to stay till next March. El
Salvador reduced corps stationed in Iraq ﬁom 360 troops to 300 troops
and mentioned the possibility of additional reduction according to the
conditions in Iraq. Georgia is planning to downsize 2,000 troops to 300 by
next summer: The Czech Republic announced a plan of reducing the
present I 00 troops deployed in Iraq step by step. Japan pulled out ground
self-defence forces completely, and only 200 maritime self-defence troops
are currently stationed in Iraq. It is known that Australia is reviewing the
existing plan of maintaining 1,500 troops till 2008 and is preparing a
withdrawal plan conﬁdentially. Thus, multinational coalition forces except
American military forces will be decrease drastically to 7, 000 troops by
next year (Article #24).

In this article, the writer did not pose any opinion about the government policy, the
eXtension of troops deployment to Iraq. However, this article can make a reader question

why other countries withdrew troops from Iraq while Korea was deploying.

36

2. Government Policy and Statement
There were sixteen articles in this category. Those articles provided the president’s
statement, the report of government policy, the analysis of the president’s statement or

government policy, and the political development about government policy.

2-1) The Dong-a Ilbo during the Vietnam War

There were seven articles published by the Dong-a Ilbo during the Vietnam War
era (Article #8, #9, #10, #11, #14, #15, and #17). Six articles were related to the return of
Korean troops from Vietnam, and it said that troop deployment was successful. One
article was about the Korean reconstruction plan in Vietnam. Five articles out of seven
were written anonymously.

An article, by an unnamed writer, titled “Government, active participation in
restoration projects of Vietnam,” was published on January 25, 1973, on the front page of
the Dong-a Ilbo (Article #8). According to the article, as the Vietnam War ended, the
Korean government changed its foreign policies toward South Vietnam from diplomatic
and military aspects to economic cooperations. The Korean government was formulating
comprehensive plans to participate in the South Vietnam recovery project. The writer used
government sources for the article. An anonymous official in the article emphasized that
the US. would be a key country to help in the reconstruction of South Vietnam, and
Korea should have priority to participate into the recovery project of South Vietnam over
other countries which had not deployed troops to the Vietnam War. The reporter described

brief plans for the Vietnam reconstruction from the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of

37

Commerce and Industry, the Korea Trade Promotion Corporation, and the construction
industry. See below:

The government foresees that dynamics of drastic reduction of
foreign currency revenue arising ﬁ'om Vietnam will become intensified
further; and it is planning to accomplish more foreign currency revenue
than planned through active participation in restoration projects. The
ministry of commerce and industry is trying to turn military supplies
companies into exporting companies as a part of preparing for decrease in
military supplies, whereas it is planning to develop providing military
supplies to the US military forces in Guam and Micronesia. Construction
companies are reviewing plans of participating in restoration projects in
Vietnam and are requesting active measures and support of the
government. The Korea Trade Promotion Corporation has also made a
research report called "A dvance Conditions and Participation Plans for

Postwar Restoration Projects of Vietnam" (Article #8).

Like the above excerpt, the article provided what the government would do for the
postwar reconstruction effort in Vietnam. According to the article, the purpose of the
Korean government’s participation in the Vretnam recovery plan was to increase foreign
currency earnings. Thus, the government made an effort to support Korean industrial
engagement in Vietnam in order to achieve its plan. Through this article, we see that
economic aspects were important factors in government policy in Korea-South Vietnam
relations.

On January 26, 1973, the Dong-a Ilbo reported Korean troops in Vietnam would
be discharged from their military service in Vietnam (Article #9). The headline of an

article was “After the withdrawal from Vietnam an excessive number of soldiers will be

38

discharged.” The newspaper did not identify the writer of the article. The article delivered
the summary of the press interview with Yoo Jae—heung, the Minister of National
Defense. The article only presented what the Minister of National Defense had said
during his press interview. It offered an idea that Korea-the U.S. relations were signiﬁcant
for Korean national security.

The Dong-a Ilbo published an editorial article titled “Withdrawal of ROK Troops
dispatched to Vietnam” on January 26, 1973 (Article #10). The writer emphasized the
great achievements of Korean troops and hoped their participation in the Vietnam War
could strengthen national defenses as follows:

We believe that the national history will remember forever that
Korean military forces completed their duties and missions successfully in
limited conditions and circumstances and attained illustrious
accomplishments in the foreign battle ﬁelds far away ﬁom home. We
cannot control tears in recalling many heroic soldiers sacrificed during
battles far away from home. However, at the same time we cannot but
believe that our military forces surviving the war will make great
contributions to national defense by using their sufﬁcient battle

experiences (Article #10).

Also, the article stated that reasons for sending troops to Vietnam as an ally of the
US. was not only to ﬁnd peace in South Vietnam again but also to repay the US. efforts
during the Korean War in 19503. The writer was pleased that Korean troops was able to
help the US. in the Vietnam War. See below.

We should not forget that the cause of our participation in Vietnam
war is to repay the United States for participation in the Korean War: Of

course, As we know, the Vietnam government made an earnest request

39

earlier; and the United States expected assistance of Korean military
forces, but we believe it a consolation that Korean people repaid some of
the big assistance ﬁom our ally, the United States during the Korean War

through our participation in the Vietnam War (Article #10).

The writer said that it was important not to assess the Vietnam War and the
Vietnam cease-ﬁre agreement but to celebrate the glorious return of Korean troops to their
home country from Vietnam as follows:

Now that we mention glorious withdrawal of our military forces
dispatched to Vietnam, we think it meaningful to refer to traces and
military achievements our troops leﬁ and attained in the foreign land far
away ﬁom the nation before talking about the current situations of the

Vietnam War and justification of truce agreement (Article #10).

The above paragraph shows that the writer dissociated two results, the Korean
troop deployment to Vietnam and the result of the Vietnam War. The overal theme of this
article was that the government policy of troop deployment to Vietnam was successful.
However, the writer hesitated to say that the end result of the Vietnam War and the
Vietnam cease-ﬁre agreement were honorable.

On February 5, 1973, the Dong-a Ilbo published an editorial cartoon on the first
page of the newspaper (Article #11). Peak In-soo, a cartoonist, commented on the cartoon
as “a triumphal return.” A tiger wears a cap with a written message translating as “a ﬁerce
tiger.” A ﬁerce tiger is one of Korean division names, and it is called “the Tiger Division.”
The Tiger Division was one of the divisions that was sent to the Vietnam War. The tiger in

the cartoon is smiling and watching a ﬂying bird which has just broken an egg named

40

“peace.” The cartoonist tries to present that Korean troops contributed to peace in
Vietnam. This editorial cartoon is favorable to the result of troops deployment to Vietnam.

[Figure 2] Article #11

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On March 13, 1973, Park In-sup and Song Ho-chang wrote “8 Years of
Humanitarian Medical Service Given to Vretnam” featured on page 6 of the Dong-a Ilbo
(Article #14). Correspondents reported the achievement of government projects of
sending the 201 Korean medical unit to South Vietnam. According to the article, the 201
shifting surgical hospital was to provide free medical treatment to the general population
in South Vietnam. The shifting surgical hospital unit was sent to South Vietnam as the
ﬁrst expeditionary force in Korea. The writers stated the medical team felt a sense of
satisfaction and pride in their services in South Vietnam. Also, the reporters presented

several cases which the units had saved South Vietnamese. There were cases as follow:

41

As Vietnamese people have great trust in Korean medical doctors,
citizens in Boungtau think that critical patients should be taken to Korean
doctors in order to survive. An old man with brain tumor; for instance,
wrote a letter to the mobile surgery hospital that it was his last dream to be
treated by Korean medical doctors after consulting many famous
Vietnamese doctors. Finally the old man gained a complete recovery under
the treatment of Korean doctors and was discharged ﬁom hospital. As the
Vietcong might know that the Korean mobile surgery hospital were giving
medical service to Vietnamese civilians, they did not attack the mobile
hospital and the staff for eight years and four months of station in
Boungtau (Article #14).

In the above paragraph, reporters were proud that South Vietnamese trusted the
Korean medical unit and doctors. However, it seemed like they relied heavily on the
Korean medical staffs for story sources. Patients and South‘Vietnamese as story sources
were nameless, and reporters did not verify the sources of some stories in the article. This
could question the validity of the story. On the whole, the writers reported that the
military medical project was successfully concluded.

A short article titled “Glorious Military Achievements and Promotion of the
National prestige” was published on March 15 , 1973, on the ﬁrst page of the Dong-a Ilbo.
(Article #15). The writer of this article was not identiﬁed. This article described a
welcoming speech from President Park during the triumphal celebration of Korean troops
from Vietnam. See below.

President Park Chung-hee participated in the welcoming ceremony
for returning triumphant ROK military headquarters to Vietnam held here

at the air force base on the 14th day, 3 p. m. and said in a speech that I,

42

with all the people, warm-heartedly welcome all of you who have returned
heroically, praising that you, ROK troops dispatched to Vietnam completed
holy and vital duties in helping our ally, and promoted the national

prestige through glorious military achievements (Article #15).

According to President Park, Korean troops achieved the goal of deployment to
Vietnam to help allies on the battleﬁelds for 8 years with their bravery, and this boosted
national prestige.

Lee Se-ho, the commander of the Republic of Korea troops in Vietnam, gave a
homecoming report to the Assembly plenary session on May 21, 1973 (Article #17). This
was reported on May 21, 1973, on the ﬁrst page of the Dong-a Ilbo. The article was titled
“Shooting about forty thousand enemies dead for 8 years.” According to the commander’s
report, Korean troops killed 41,462 enemies, 3,844 Korean soldiers were dead on the
battleﬁelds, and 8,344 Korean soldiers were injured. The commander said that Korean
troops achieved brilliant success in their battles, but he. mourned the war victims of
Korean military. The commander added that the US. had withdrawn from Vietnam but

still supported South Vietnam.

2-2) The Kyunghyang Shinmun during the Vietnam War

There were four articles in the Kyunghyang Shinmun (Article #4, #5, #7, and #16).
Only one article, Article #6, identiﬁed a reporter. Article #4 reported the President Park’s
statement, Article #5 and #16 were related to a troop returning issue, and Article #6
provided the prediction of government policy after the end of war.

An article headlined “President Park's special statement: Immediate Start of ROK

43

Troops’ Withdrawal” was published on the ﬁrst page of the Kyunghyang Shinmun on
January 24, 1973 (Article #4). The writer was not identiﬁed. This article just delivered
what President Park said in the official statement about the Vietnam armistice. See below.

President Park said afternoon of the 24th in a special statement on
cease-fire of the Vietnam War that I welcome the recovery of peace in the
region from the heart and that I decided to immediately start honorable
withdrawal of all the remaining troops, now that the objectives of sending
ROK troops to Vietnam have been accomplished.

President Park said, "I hope that true peace will be established
permanently in Vietnam and the region after this cease-fire. We will
continue to promote deep ﬁiendly relations and carry on our possible
assistance to help peace reconstruction of the Vietnam government.

In a special statement, President Park recalled that the Korean
government decided to send Korean military forces by the request of the
Vietnamese government to help Vietnamese people protect their liberty and
independence and decide their own fate for themselves, and added that
distinguished merits of our peace crusaders will be shining in the name of

peace and justice forever in world history (Article #4).

According to President Park’s statement, the South Vietnamese government asked
the Korean government to send troops in 1965 and Korea sent troops to help South
Vietnamese for peace and independence. He added that the purpose of ROK troops
deployment was fulﬁlled when the Vietnam War ended and Vietnam regained peace.
Therefore, he decided to withdraw troops soon and help the recovery projects of South
Vietnam. President Park proudly stated what troops had achieved in the Vietnam War.

An editorial cartoon commented “do you guys take off your clothes? (leave the

army?)” was published on January 24, 1973, in the Kyunghyang Shinmun (Article #5). In

the cartoon, there are three people wearing military uniforms. The tallest character
resembling President Nixon had already undressed his top with a written message “US.”
He has also taken off his military helmet on which there is a written message “the
Vietnam War” with a smile. The smallest man who is wearing the ROK military helmet is
pointing at himself in front a man who looks like Henry Kissinger. It seems that he is
asking Kissinger what he could do while the US. is evacuating from the Vietnam War.
The US. tries to ﬁnish up the war participation in Vietnam, but Korea did not yet have
any plans for withdrawing. This cartoon satirizes the current troop withdrawal situation in
Korea. Also, this cartoon provided a brief idea that Korea relied on the US. when they
made a war policy.

[Figure 3] Article #5

 

 

 

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Hwang Byung-ryul reported possible Korean government’s diplomatic policies
toward South Vietnam after the end of the Vietnam War on page 4 of the Kyunghyang

Shinmun on January 25, 1973 (Article #7). The article was titled “End of the War and

45

Korean Diplomacy.” The reporter’s predictions about government policies were based on
opinions of ofﬁcers in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It is as follows:

"Though the Vietnam war came to an end, the honeymoon period of
the two countries, Korea and Vietnam, did not come to an end. " The
opinion of our government officials is considered to result ﬁom a long-
term analysis under the following prospect: "In time cease-fire will come
true in Vietnam." That's why rumors about cease-fire of the Vietnam War
have been going around since last October; and the government oﬂicials
might have earnestly discussed countermeasures on bilateral relations
between Korea and Vietnam after the end of the war. At the present stage,
there are no detailed implications other than what high oﬂicials at the
ministry of foreign aﬂairs expressed However; from the short phrase "the
honeymoon period of the two countries did not come to an end. " we can
fully foresee the direction of the diplomacy toward Vietnam the government
will employ in the future (Article #7).

The reporter said that the opinions of ofﬁcers in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
were derived from the belief that Korea and South Vietnam had been strong allies.
However, the US. had an important role in shaping the strong relationship between
Korea and South Vietnam. Therefore, relations with the US. and South Vietnam would
affect Korean government diplomatic policies toward Vietnam. The cornerstones of
Korean policy on South Vietnam were that 1) South Vietnam was the only legitimate
government in Vietnam; 2) Korea would support South Vietnam under a cease-ﬁre
agreement; 3) Korea strived for everlasting peace in South Vietnam. The reporter said that
based on the above three points the Korean government would participate in the recovery

plan of Vietnam and they had already made organizations for these plans. He added that

46

Korean’s recovery participation in Vietnam would be differentiated from other countries
which did not join the Vietnam War because Korea played an important role during the
Vietnam War. Korea and the US. stayed in Vietnam until the very end of the battle when
other participating countries left. He expected that Korean government policy on Vietnam
would be considered as the extension of the strong Korea-South Vietnam relationship.

In this article, the Korean government seemed to emphasize the close relation with
South Vietnam because it wanted to have a signiﬁcant role in the Vietnam reconstruction
plan. However, the Korean government did not propose any plans for the peace efforts in
Vietnam. Although the Korean government would help South Vietnam to settle peace in
Vietnam, the government policies in this article were focused on economic aspects.

On March 16, 1973, an article on page 7 of the Kyunghyang Shinmun covered a
welcome-home press conference of Yoo, Jae-heung, the Minister of National Defense.
(Article #16). The article was titled “remaining ROK troops in Vretnam will be
discharged soon.” According to the Minister of National Defense, he was proud of their
achievements in Vietnam. He said that the troop withdrawal from Vietnam was apparently
ﬁnished, and about 120 people remaining in Vietnam would return home shortly. He
added that adversaries were afraid of Korean troops, so there was not any Korean military

prisoner.

2-3) The Dong-a Ilbo during the Afghanistan War and the Iraq War
There were two articles, Article #18 and #23, in this study. Article #18 reported

that the Koreans kidnapped by the Taliban could affect the Korean government troop

47

deployment plan to Afghanistan. Article #23 described the government policy that the
Korean government would extend troop deployment to Iraq.

On July 21, 2007, on the third page of the Dong-a Ilbo, titled “Government is
embarrassed by the threat for withdrawal though humanitarian activities are recognized”
was reported by Lee Sang-rok and Yoon Sang-ho, who were the Dong-a Ilbo reporters
(Article #18). According to a telephone interview of Taliban’s spokesman Kari Yusuf
Ahmadi with the AP in this article, the Taliban threatened that if the Korean government
did not withdraw the Da-san division and the Dong-eui division that were deployed in
Afghanistan, the Taliban would kill eighteen Korean hostages. According to the reporters,
because suicide bombing and kidnapping of foreigners by Islamic militant groups
randomly occurred often in Afghanistan for political purposes, the Taliban’s kidnapping
seemed not on purpose to target Korean people. The government tried to ﬁnd that the
Taliban’ threat was true and to develop measures. The reporter added that the ofﬁcer of
the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was verifying the truth of the Taliban’s threat reported by
foreign news, and the government was embarrassed by the Taliban’s enforcement because
they sent divisions for reconstruction projects in Afghanistan and medical treatment

support.

As it became known that Afghan rebel forces demanded the
withdrawal of the Dong-eui Division and the Da-san Division within 24
hours, the ministry of national defense could not hide embarrassment.
Military chief oﬂicials including national defense minister Kim Jang-soo
held emergent countermeasure conferences and devoted themselves to
ﬁguring out exact requirements of the armed forces and current local

conditions with the help of a task force team. The Korean military is

48

reported to be preparing various countermeasures in case the requirements
of Afghan armed forces might include the withdrawal of ROK military
forces. That is why in this case, some of the political community is feared
to ignite public opinion about earlier withdrawal of the Dong-eui and the

Da-san Divisions (Article #18).

The above article showed that the ofﬁcer of the Ministry of National Defense was
worried that many other politicians and NGOs would ask them to withdraw troops earlier
than their expected deployment plan. In other words, the government considered the
public’s reaction and opinions when it made a policy.

On October 22, 2007, an article titled “Reducing the number of soldiers in the
Zaytun Division to 600 and extend Dispatching Troops to Iraq to next year” was
published in the Dong-a Ilbo (Article #23). The reporter of this article was Yoon Sang-ho.
According to a well-informed military source in the article, the Roh government would
extend the troop deployment to Iraq but reduce the number of soldiers from about 1,200
to about 600. The reporter said that the government made this decision with a view to
Korea-US relations. The spokesman for President Roh said in the article that when the
extension plan of troops deployment to Iraq was settled, President Roh would release the

President’s statement to explain his plan to the public.

2—4) The Kyunghyang Shinmun during the Afghanistan War and the Iraq War

There were three articles, Article #19, #22, and #28. Article #19 described the
government’s plan to deal with the Korean kidnapping situation in Afghanistan which

occurred due to the troop deployment, according to the reporter. Article #22 and #28 were

49

about a troop deployment issue to Iraq, and two articles presented negative opinions on
the government decision.

Park J i-hee, reporter of the Kyunghyang Shinmun, wrote an article headlined “the
Purpose of Kidnapping is Extreme Hostility against 200 Dispatched Troops” on July 21,
2007 (Article #19). According to the reporter, Taliban's spokesman Kari Yusuf Ahmadi
called the AP to explain their purpose of kidnapping. Kari Yusuf Ahmadi said that unless
the Korean government withdrew its troops from Afghanistan, the Taliban would kill
eighteen Korean hostages, and if the German government withdrew its troops, the Taliban
would release two Germans. The reporter believed that the Taliban intended to kill
hostages because Taliban’s spokesman Kari Yusquhmadi directly called the AP.

The reporter stated that the Taliban’s kidnapping was happend because the Taliban
had an aversion to Korean deployment. According to the article, even though Korea did
not send combat troops to Afghanistan, still it sent about 200 soldiers of the military
engineer unit and the medical treatment unit. However, the reporter added that because
the Taliban did not give enough time to withdraw troops from Afghanistan to the Korean
government, it could be explained that there was the intention of having an advantage
over negotiating with the Korean government to release members captured by the
Afghanistan government. The reporter described various kidnapping cases which
occurred in Afghanistan and how other countries handled the crisis. See below.

The Taliban kidnapped Daniel Mastrojacomo, an Italian reporter to

Afghanistan of 'the Daily La Lepublika' last March and demanded the

withdrawal of Italian troops stationed there. Afghan President Hamid

50

Karzai succeeded in a deal of setting Daniel Mastrojacomo ﬁee in return
for releasing ﬁve Taliban prisoners.

There is an incidence where a foreign government announced the
will of withdrawal and hostages were released. Last April, two French
members of a civilian relief organization with thirteen Afghans were
abducted by Talibans, but they were set free one aﬁer another: At that
moment the Taliban announced that they decided to release hostages
because President Nicolas Sarkozy said he would consider the withdrawal
of French troops.

However; as there are previous incidents where hostages were
executed when negotiations were not satisfactory to them, prudent
approaches are required. Talibans kidnapped and executed two Indians
last April of this year and in November; 2005. Talibans demanded that 200
Indians participating in Afghan reconstruction projects be pulled out
home, but India rejected the demand and they did an extreme choice. 0n
the 11th, March, last year four Albanians were kidnapped and executed
while moving in a car in the Helmand Province in southern Afghanistan

(Article #19).

Like the above excerpt, the reporter showed various kidnapping cases. Based on
past cases, the reporter asked about the Korean government’s wise decision and expected
that the Korean government would decide and solve this issue carefully.

On September 08, 2007, an article titled “Bush, requesting the extension of Troop
Dispatch; President Roh, expressing the will of consideration - Zaytun Dispatch into
another controversy” was written by Park Sung-jin, the Kyunghyang Shinmun reporter
(Article #22). The article stated that President Roh would positively consider a request

from President Bush to extend the Korean troop deployment to Iraq at the Korea-US.

51

summit talks in Sydney, Australia, President Roh’s decision to send troops to Iraq would
be controversial, according to Park. As other countries already had left Iraq and Great
Britain, which led the Iraq War with the US, was planning to leave Iraq, Korean troops
and civilians could be targets of terror if they still remained in Iraq. It seems that many
Korean were anxious that the kidnapping and other crisis that could occur to Koreans.
They clearly remembered that 23 Koreans who were captured by the Taliban and two
people out of 23 were killed in Afghanistan due to the troop deployment to Afghanistan.
Also, when the government had extended the troop deployment to Iraq in 2006, it
said that troops would return home in 2007. Thus, the reporter said that many citizens
might intensely resist the extension of troop deployment to Iraq because President Roh
did not keep the promise. He foresaw that this issue would affect the 2007 presidential
election. According to the article, the government insisted that the extension of the troop
deployment was necessary to support Korean companies in Iraq and to help the US,
which would not change their Iraq War policy shortly. However, the reporter described a
press interview which was held by the Korean Action against Dispatch of Troops to Iraq
in front of the American Embassy in Seoul and ended the article with a sentence that “It is
the same as they foretell how civic societies will respond when the government decides to
extend dispatching troops to Iraq.” In other words, the reporter thought that the issue
would cause intense debates within society if President Roh decided to send troops to Iraq
again. In this article, he offered not only a new government troop deployment plan and

but also a possible reaction to the plan from the public.

52

On October 24, 2007, an article on the editorial page was titled “13 Progress in
Inter-Korean Relations attributed to Dispatching Troops to Iraq?” in 31 page of the
Kyunghyang Shinmun (Article #28). The main point of this article was that the
government decision on the extension of troop deployment to Iraq should be retracted as
follows:

President Roh argued that progress in Inter-Korean relations and
nuclear negotiations was attributable to dispatching troops to Iraq. It is an
excessive logical leap and self-justification. Progress in Inter-Korean
relations these days is the outcome of the changing circumstance on the
Korean peninsula and eﬂorts of the South and the North. In fact, the
change of United States policy toward North Korea contributed to progress
in nuclear talks, but that is because the Bush administration is hungry for
diplomatic achievements to make up for mistakes in the Gulf War.

The president pointed to political stability in the Middle East.
However; unlike his explanation, political circumstances in the Middle East
including Iraq are never stable. He mentioned economic eﬂects but the
government bans businessmen ﬁ'om entering Iraq. His logic is self-
contradictory. While closing the special statement, President Roh
requested the people to support the extension of sending troops to Iraq in
order to open a peaceful and prosperous era in Northeast Asia, which
seems even weird.

President Roh argued that if we decide to pull out the troops from
Iraq at the moment, it might make the eﬂorts of Korean troops in Iraq so
far ﬁuitless. 1 am not sure what fruits the president is thinking of but
according to the statement, ﬁuits seem to have already been obtained.
What the president should do right now is to tell to the United States what

we want to say and to pull out our troops ﬁom Iraq (Article #28).

53

The above excerpt shows that the writer of the article made sharp criticisms of
President Roh’s decision. The writer said that the progress in the relationship between
South Korea and North Korea was not derived from the US. Thus, he said that South
Korea’s relationship with North Korea could not be a supporting argument to send troops
again to Iraq in oder to help the US. The newspaper wanted President Roh to speak out
toward the US. regarding what he really wanted and what Korea really needed. This can
be interpreted as the newspaper’s demands that President Rob and the government would

not be pulled by the US.

3. Public Opinions and Reactions about War and Government Policy

In this category, there were three articles which were published by the
Kyunghyang Shinmun during the Afghanistan War and the Iraq War era (Article #21, #27,
and #29). No article was found in the Dong-a Ilbo during the Afghanistan War and the
Iraq War era in both newspapers, the Dong-a Ilbo and the Kyunghyang Shinmun, during
the Vietnam War era.

An article was written by Jang Kwang-soon, the Kyunghyang Shinmun reporter,
on September 03, 2007 (Article #21). It was titled “Inundated Cause and Guilt Theories;
Reckless Missionary Work Guilt Theories; Man-made Disaster caused by Reckless
Dispatching Troops.” Jang reported many opinions about why the kidnapping occurred
and who would take responsibility of this issue. See below.

On the 2nd of the month, the Religion Criticism Civic Solidarity
announced a statement entitled "F or true cure of the Afghan Incident " and

charged the missionary delegation with a man-made disaster caused by

54

reckless missionary work disregarding safety. They argued that the
government should thoroughly clarify cause and blame of this incident
which resulted in falling national prestige and divided public opinions; and
denounced that it was an indirect assistance to Taliban 's terrorism if the
government paid ransom.

Liberalism Solidarity, a conservative civic group, said in a
statement, "It is illogical to place blame on the government, not on the
Taliban who are essentially to blame. " and "as liberty is accompanied by a
degree of responsibility, it is required to ask the church for right to
indemnity. "

0n the other hand, progressive groups like 'Korean Action against
Dispatch of Troops to Iraq' and 'Peace and Disarmament C enter' aﬁiliated
by 'People's Solidarity for Participatory Democracy', urged a complete
reconsideration over the policy of dispatching troops, saying that the
fundamental blame is on the government which decided to dispatch troops
on the request of the United States.

Mr. Chung Dae-yeon, chairman of Policy at 'Korean Action against
Dispatch of Troops to Iraq', said, "It is problematic to propaganda
Christianity aggressively disregarding other religions and cultures.
However, an underlying cause of this incident is in "War against
Terrorism " which does not recognize the sovereignty and invades foreign
countries. He expressed his views about alleged ransom, "Even if it is
found to be true, it is just that an abnormal cause resulted in an abnormal
outcome. We should denounce the policy of the government that
participated in an unjustiﬁed war rather than negotiations surrounding

ransom (Article #21).

Like the above excerpt, each organization indicated different positions. It shows

that there were various debates about government policy on this issue.

55

On October 24, 2007, “DJ ‘well... Extend Dispatching?”’ was written by Lee
Young-wook, a reporter of the Kyunghyang Shinmun (Article #27). According to the
article, Son Hak-kyu, the former governor of Gyeonggido, made an official call on former
President Kim Dae-jung. The writer reported what they discussed at the meeting. In
particular, the article provided former President Kim Dae-jung’s opinion about President
Roh’s deployment policy on Iraq. Former President Kim said in this article that he would
judge after listening to President Roh’s statement and arguments. The reporter analyzed
and assumed that former President Kim Dae-jung took a prudent attitude to reveal his
opinion. This article presented former President Kim Dae-jung’s thoughts about
government’s troop deployment plan to Iraq not as a policymaker.

Park Tae-kyun, who is a professor at Seoul National University, wrote a column in
the Kyunghyang Shinmun on October 26, 2007 (Article #29). This column was titled
“Regretful Decision to Extend Dispatching Troops to Iraq.” The column was Professor
Park’s opinion about government policy. Professor Park criticized President Roh’s
statement to extend troop deployment to Iraq with three arguments. First, Arville became
the most dangerous place in Iraq. According to the professor, the Roh government sent
troops to Arville because they thought Arville was the safest place in Iraq and they would
only participate in reconstruction projects. Second, the right to various privileges in Iraq
cannot be the reason for deployment to Iraq. See below.

China and Japan, which fought each other to seize hegemony on
the Korean peninsula in the 19th century, intended to grow imperialist
countries by holding rights and interests on the peninsula by force. Some

people at that time and at present say that it was an inevitable choice to

56

colonize Korea so that they might not be colonized. How about us? Do we
intend to grow a small but strong country by obtaining rights and
interests? Many independentistas and intellectuals criticized Japan that it
managed to become an imperialist nation through occupying the Korean
peninsula, and succeeded in economic revival by accumulating immense
economic wealth ﬁ'om the Korean War. Were their eﬂorts and cause

meaningless? (Article #29).

Like the above reasons in the excerpt, he criticized economic beneﬁts which was
one reason for the troop deployment extension pr0posed by President Roh. Lastly, he
stated that considering the current situation that nobody could predict the future of Iraq,
and the US. did not have any clear ideas to solve problems in Iraq. Thus, he said that ‘our
young men’ would be in danger. In this column, our young men refers to the Korean
soldiers who were sent to Iraq. The column provided an opinion posed by one member of

the public in Korean society.

4. Party’s Opinions and Reactions about War and Government Policy

There were three articles, Article #25, #26 and #30, published by the Dong-a Ilbo
during the Afghanistan War and the Iraq War era. No article was found in the Kyunghyang
Shinmun during the Afghanistan War and the Iraq War era in both newspapers during the
Vietnam War era. Article #26 provided President Roh’s statement about the troop
deployment issue with political parties’ opinion. Two articles, Article #25 and #30,
reported the United New Democracy Party’s platform and Chung Dong-young’s opinion

about government policy.

57

An article titled “Zaytun Division is not a political football” was published in the
editorial page of the Dong-a Ilbo on October 23, 2007 (Article #25). The editorial article
criticized the party platform of the United New Democratic Party, which posed an
opposite opinion toward President Roh’s decision about the extension of deployment to
Iraq. See the below excerpt.

President Roh is said to plan to appeal to the people that it is
inevitable to extend dispatching the Zaytun Division. However; upon
hearing the news of extension, the ﬂoor leader of the United New
Democratic Party asserted; "It is difficult to accept it. " Presidential
candidate Chung Dong-young and the supreme council of the party
decided to object to the planned bill even before hearing the government's
explanation. The government is said to have decided the extension in
consideration of persisting favorable Korea- United States relations,
earnest requests of local residents and the Iraqi government and future
advance of domestic companies into Iraq and investment prospect. This
issue must not be a political football in any case. Political community
should help the Zaytun Division called "Gift from God" by local residents

to complete their duties (article #25).

The .above article presented favorable opinions about troops dispatched to Iraq.
However, this article seemed to focus more on criticism of UNDP and presidential
candidate Chung Dong-young instead of informing party’s platform about government
policy.

An article titled “President Roh, Extend Dispatching Zaytun Division one more
year” was written by the Dong-a Ilbo reporter Cho Soo-jin on October 24, 2007 (Article

#26). This article reported President Roh’s statement on deployment plan to Iraq, parties

58

platforms and politicians’ opinions about the deployment plan. According to the article,
President Roh apologized to the citizens for his decision to break the promise of troop
withdrawal from Iraq in the end of 2007 and asked the public and politicians to
understand his decision on the extension of deployment to Iraq in order to cooperate with
the US. for the six-party talks.

The Grand National Party (Pronounced Hannara-dang in Korean) and the
Democratic Party (Minjoo-dang) supported the president’s decision, but the United New
Democratic Party (Daetonghap—minjoo-sindang) and the Democratic Labor Party
(Minjoo-nodong-dang) opposed the deployment to Iraq. Also, other politicians’ opinions
were mentioned in this article. As each politician had a different opinion about President
Roh’s decision, the reporter said that this issue would be controversial, especially during
the presidential race.

Bang Hyung-nam, an editorial writer, wrote a column titled “Young Blood
Mercenaries” on October 26, 2007, in the Dong-a Ilbo (Article #30). See the below
excerpt.

The view on the Zaytun Division of former minister Chung Dong-
young, nominated as presidential candidate by the Democratic Party,
became completely dt'jjrerent ﬁ'om 2 years and eight months ago. At a
general meeting of the Assembly members the other day, he argued while
expressing his opposition view against the extension bill, "We must not
pursue the values of living better-off by selling overseas blood of young
Koreans. " He asked presidential candidate of the GNP Lee Myoung-bak to
answer his question, "May Korean Troops become supply sources of
foreign mercenaries in the world? " Two years ago, presidential candidate

Chung praised the Zaytun Division as substance of patriotism overcoming

59

challenges, whereas he is now condemning it as mercenaries selling young

blood, which is a thoughtless remark (Article #30).
Overall opinion of this article was critical of presidential candidate Chung Dong-

young, who was the former Uniﬁcation Minister and opposed the government policy.

5. Other Articles
There were two article, Article #2 and #20, which did not ﬁt any theme in the pre-

selected categories.

5-1) The Kyunghyang Shinmun during the Vietnam War

On December 9, 1972, an article titled “Limitations of Kissinger's all-round
Diplomacy” was written by Seo Dong-gu, the Kyunghyang Shinmun correspondent
(Article #2). The reporter stated that the diplomatic situation of the US. in the Vietnam
War was under unforeseeable circumstances and this was related to the diplomatic ability
of Henry Kissinger, who was the US. National Security advisor during the Vietnam War.
The correspondent explained that according to officials and newspapers in Washington
DC, Kissinger had an important role during the Vietnam War period. However, during
the bargaining process in Paris for the Vietnam cease-ﬁre agreement, Kissinger seemed to
have problems with President Nixon. See the below excerpts.

Dark clouds surrounding Kissinger diplomacy also cast the
relationship between Nixon and Kissinger. A political analyst explained the
relation in an amusing manner; "There is a river ﬂowing in the relationship
of the two on the ﬁnal stage of Paris negotiations. As T hieu continues to

oppose Final Vietnamese Peace Agreement, and attitudes of the United

60

States to conclude negotiations hastily result in dissatisfaction, Nixon gives
full authority concerning negotiations intentionally to Kissinger; and he
himself is stressing that he will never give up Thieu to hasten peace
agreement or will never accept dishonorable solutions.

In a press conference on the 26th of October; Kissinger said,
"Peace is around the corner: Peace agreement will be signed upon meeting
the delegates of the VietCong again. " However Kissinger's view proved to
be much too optimistic, and he showed impatient attitudes. Rumors are
going around that when an aﬁermath of peace agreement develops into
political dispute, Nixon might sacrifice Kissinger as a scapegoat (Article

#2).

The correspondent added that Kissinger’s diplomatic achievements during the
Vietnam War were not able to guarantee that he could obtain other diplomatic
achievements for the next several years among other strong power countries. He thought
that Nixon-Kissinger relations would affect the Vietnam War and negotiations with the

Vietrninh. This article described that the US. had diplomatic problems internally.

5-2) the Dong-a Ilbo during the Afghanistan War and the Iraq War

The article, headlined “Bush mentioned again Korea while stressing justiﬁcation
of the Iraq War” was written by Lee Ki-hong, the Dong-a Ilbo correspondent, on August
24, 2007 (Article #20). The reporter summarized President Bush’s speech at the Veterans
of Foreign Wars annual conference in Kansas City, Missouri. According to the article,
President Bush defended his policies on the Iraq War, claiming the experiences in the
Korean War, the Paciﬁc War, and the Vietnam War. However, Democrats and some

political specialists criticized Bush’s speech as follow:

61

"Look at South Korea " is a ﬁgure of speech which President George
W. Bush and high administrative oﬁ‘icials oﬁen cite since the middle of last
year: It is the following logic: Just as the sacrifice of the US. troops
became the foundation of the development of democracy and economy in
Korea, blood which the US. troops shed in Iraq will bring ﬁuits in the long
run. The citation was nothing more than accidentally mentioned phrases in
the recent past. However; it looks like it is one of core logic weapons of the
Bush administration which is developing ideological campaigns against
withdrawal movements from Iraq.

The Experience in Korea - "When the United States decided to
participate in the Korean War; opponents denounced that the government
should not send troops to a useless war as they do now regarding the Gulf
War: " However; we can see a resulting product in marked contrast to one
side of the Korean peninsula which the sacrifice of US troops brought
about. But for participation of US troops in the Korean War; and if the
United States had not maintained a close relations with South Korea,
Korean people might be living under an oppressive system. South Korea is
a strong democratic ally of the United States and is cooperating with the
United States in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Response of the Opposition Parties and the Press - Democratic
Senate John Kerry noted, "More than casualties in the Vietnam War died
aﬁer American politicians realized that the strategies of the United States
were not working properly. A lesson we must learn from history is not to
change rhetoric but to change strategies." A researcher at a think tank
noted, "It is difficult even to compare participation in the Korean War with

invasion into Iraq in terms of cause and morality.

In this article, the writer did not give his analysis of Bush’s speech and did not

provide any opinions of supporters of the speech, but did provide the opinions of

62

opponents. He mentioned Bush’s arguments of using several wars as “ﬁmdamental
theoretical weapons.” Thus, from this article it can be assumed that the correspondent has
a critical attitude of using the Korean War as means to justify the Iraq War. However,

there was not any clue to how Lee thought about the Iraq War and the US.

63

VI. RESULTS

This study examined thirty articles broken into four categories using the
qualitative thematic analysis procedure. The results of the study show several differences
between two eras in the two newspapers selected for the study. The differences will be

highlighted in the context of the four research questions.

RQI. What kind of inferences about Korean policies can be found ﬁom observing
the coverage of Korea s participation in the wars of Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iraq?

According to Shoemaker and Reese (1996), ideology affects media content. RQI
asked how the two newspapers presented Korea’s war participation and its policy under
different political regimes. The articles from the Vietnam War era provided two main
themes concerning government policy. The ﬁrst theme concerned Korean troop
withdrawal from Vietnam (Article #4, #5, #9, #10, #11, #14, #15, #16, and #17). The
other theme involved postwar reconstruction plans (Article #4, #6, #7, and #8). Twelve
articles out of seventeen carried the two main themes, and the remaining ﬁve articles
showed the progress of preparing for the cease-ﬁre agreement as well as an evaluation of
the Vietnam War. In the Afghanistan War and the Iraq War era, the coverage of the
government’s deployment policy was prominent in the two newspapers. Although only
ﬁve articles, Article #18, #19, #22, #23, and #28, covered government war policy directly,
twelve articles out of thirteen were related to the issue of government’s troop deployment
from Afghanistan and Iraq.

There were two similarities in the two eras that the articles provided which

indicated that the relationship with the US. and economic beneﬁts were important factors
for sending troops to Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq. Several articles such as Article #10,
#22, #23, and #28, show that Korea sent troops to Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iraq as an
ally of the US. in support of US. policy. This is related to the national security issues in
Korea, according to government sources in the articles. In Article #9, the Minister of
National Defense said that “regardless of the ROK troop withdrawal ﬂom Vietnam, the
US. forces would stay in Korea for peace on the Korean peninsular: ” This can be
interpreted as Korea relying on the US. forces for national security. In Article #28,
President Roh thought that as Korea sent troops to Iraq to help the US, the US. would
try to better support the South and North Korea relationships. Also, Article #5 shows that
the US. was an important factor when the Korean government determined its war policy.

In the Vietnam War, the Afghanistan War and the Iraq War, economic beneﬁts
were critical issues for making war policy. During the Vietnam War era, the two
newspapers focused on the postwar economic recovery plan in Vietnam, and the
government also mentioned the reconstruction issue actively (Article #4 and #8). Also,
according to Article #28, President Roh said that the extension of troop deployment to
Iraq could provide economic benefits to Korea.

There were two differences in the coverage of the government withdrawal plan.
First, in the Vietnam War era, the two newspapers presented many articles related to the
deployment and withdrawal issues after the end of the Vietnam War; whereas, in the

Afghanistan War and the Iraq War era there were no articles after the two divisions came

65

back to Korea from Afghanistan in December 2007.8 The two newspapers during the
Vietnam War era presented what President Park said in a statement in the troop
welcoming speech, and what the government said about results of troop deployment on
Korean society. Overall newspapers conveyed that the troop deployment was successful
based on government sources. On the other hand, although the government withdrew
Korean troops from Afghanistan in December 2007, there were no articles found in this
study to illustrate the context of their development.

Second, two newspapers in the Vietnam War era were passive in asking the
government when Korean troops could withdraw from Vietnam, but the newspapers
actively provided ample space to the withdrawal issues during the Afghanistan War and
the Iraq War era. After the Vietnam cease-ﬁre agreement was signed in January 1973,
only one cartoon, Article#5, out of seventeen raised an issue when the government would
withdraw troops from Vietnam. However, in the cartoon, Korean troops asked the US.
when they could go home from Vietnam. Even though the cartoonist raised an evacuation
issue of the troops, he posed this issue to the US. not to the government. On the other
hand, there were intense debates about the government’s deployment plan during the
Afghanistan War and the Iraq War era.

The differences observed in coverage by the two newspapers during the Vietnam
War period as opposed to the Afghanistan War and Iraq War period show the likely impact
of government inﬂuence on press coverage. During the Vietnam war period, the

newspapers were more cooperative with the state in delivering government war policy

 

3 To increase the validity of this study, 120 articles which were not selected in the sample were looked
through but only one editorial article in the Dong-a Ilbo covered the troop withdrawal from Afghanistan in
December.

66

and government achievements on the battleﬁelds. This was a period when Korea was
under authoritarian government leadership. During the Afghanistan War and the Iraq War
era, the newspapers were operating under democratic regimes, allowing them greater
freedom to express themselves in either supporting government policy or opposing it.
This ﬁnding is in line with observations made by Kang (1991) who said that Park’s
regime in the 19703 emphasized “a heavy social responsibility policy toward the press
and called for strong cooperation between government and the press.” The ﬁnding about
the greater freedom enjoyed by Korean media after 1987 is supported by studies that
show the press as able to criticize the government and present their opinions without any

restraint (Heuvel & Dennis, 1994).

RQ2. How prominent is the public Is view in press coverage of Korea is involvement
in the wars of Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iraq?

RQ2 asks how public opinion about Korea’s involvement in wars was shown and
how the public exercised its inﬂuence on the government. There were three articles,
Article #21, #27 and #29, that present the public’s view. Article #27 showed former
President Kim’s thoughts about the government’s redeployment plan to Iraq. In this
article, former President Kim revealed his political opinion about government policy not
as a policymaker but as an inﬂuence on public opinion. Article #21 provided how civil
groups analyzed the government troop deployment policy and why they opposed or
applauded the policy. This article shows that civil groups tried to make an effort to deliver

their opinion to government by having their views publicized by newspapers. Professor

67

Park criticized the government’s war participation and its policy in Article #29.

Furthermore, many other articles show that the government considered the public
when making its decision on various aspects of war policy during the Afghanistan War
and the Iraq War period. In Article #18, the Korean government was worried about public
opposition about the deployment issue, especially the occurrence of the kidnapping crisis
in Afghanistan. Article #23 said that President Roh would release a statement to explain
the reason for the extension of troop deployment to the public. Article #22 showed that
the people would open intense debates about the deployment issue. In Article #26,
President Roh apologized to the citizens about extending troop deployment to Iraq.

All articles mentioned above were published during the Afghanistan War and the
Iraq War era. Of the 17 sampled articles, none were from the Vietnam War era.9 This
probably shows that public opinion did not have any power to inﬂuence the government
and its policy during the 19703. This can be explained by the theory of domestic audience
costs. According to this theory domestic audiences can be a signiﬁcant variable in making
government foreign policy but domestic audiences are not inﬂuential on leaders and
governments of authoritarian regimes (Fearon, 1994). The articles during the Vietnam
War period concentrated more on what President Park said instead of covering what
people said about the war and its policy. However, the articles during the Afghanistan War
and the Iraq War show that the Korean government considered public opinion in the

formulation of war policy.

 

9 In order to increase the validity, 369 articles which were not selected in the sample during the Vietnam
War era were looked again but still any article which contained public’s view and their activities was not
found.

68

RQ3. In what ways did press coverage of Koreais participation in the wars of
Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iraq differ when examined in two newspapers with diﬂerent
political orientation?

According to Shoemaker and Reese (1996), the characteristics of newspapers
affect media content. RQ3‘ asked whether newspaper’s political orientation affected
content. During the Vietnam War era, the Dong-a Ilbo and the Kyunghyang Shinmun had
a similar war coverage tendency. The two newspapers reﬂected their satisfaction of troop
deployment to Vietnam, especially in Article #6 and #10. It was the same as President
Park’s statement on January 24, 1973 (Article #4). There were no articles which showed a
political party’s platform or public’s reactions about government policy in this period.
Although it is impossible to know with precision what guided the internal newsmaking
decisions at the two newspapers in the absence of ﬁeld interviews, or what the political
orientations of the newspapers were at the time, it appears nevertheless that relations
between government and press were close during President Park’s dictatorship.

However, the Dong-a Ilbo and the Kyunghyang Shinmun revealed their different
political orientation clearly during the Afghanistan War and the Iraq War era. The Dong-a
Ilbo concurred with the government’s troop deployment to Iraq and was favorable to the
relations with the US. The Dong-a Ilbo in Article #25 put high valuation on government
ﬂexibility that the government considered in relations with the US. and the economic
beneﬁts in Iraq when it made a decision to extend troop deployment to Iraq. In the same
article and Article #30, the Dong-a Ilbo sharply criticized UNDP and presidential

candidate Chung Dong-young, who opposed the government’s war policy.

69

On the other hand, the Kyunghyang Shinmun opposed the government’s war
participation and its policy and showed negative opinions of the US. In Article #28, the
writer deﬁned the Iraq War as the mistaken and failed war created by the US. and stated
that the Korean government should withdraw troops as soon as possible. The writer made
harsh criticism of President Roh’s arguments and government policy.

According to their political orientation, the characteristics of coverage tendency
were different between the two newspapers. For example, on July 21, 2007, two
newspapers covered the same topic, which was the kidnapping by the Taliban, but they
presented differing reports. The Kyunghyang Shinmun concluded in Article #19 that the
Taliban’s purpose in kidnapping was because of hostility to Korean troops deployment in
Afghanistan. This article focused on the purpose of kidnapping and the importance of the
government’s measures. However, the Dong-a Ilbo thought in Article #18 that kidnapping
might occur accidentally. This article focused on the fact that the government was
embarrassed because it sent troops for humanitarian reasons. Based on the same sources,
the Taliban spokesman interview with the AP, they approached the issue differently.

The two newspapers during the Afghanistan War and the Iraq War showed
different political orientations. Each newspaper followed its own belief when reporting
government issues. This indicates that the two newspapers had freedom to choose and
develop their own political orientation, and the press did not experience strong restrictions

in criticizing government policy during this period.

70

RQ4. What diﬁkrences can be found in the press coverage of wars under diﬂ'erent
regime types in Korea?

RQ4 asked whether Korean newspapers’ coverage have changed and evolved after
the political transition from authoritarianism to democracy, especially in war periods.
Also, the answer of RQ4 will sum up the previous three research questions. There were
two ﬁndings in this study.

First, the war coverage in the two newspapers during the Vietnam War was ironic
because the articles carried contradicted facts about peace in Vietnam. When articles
reported on Korean troops, these articles stated that Korean soldiers contributed to peace
in Vietnam and troop deployment was proudly successful. As a result of their successful
deployment, the government would actively participate in the postwar recovery project.
The two newspapers largely provided articles related to the dispatch of troops, their
achievements, and the post-war reconstruction plan, using government sources for a story.
These articles offered similar opinions with regards to the government and President
Park’s statement. It seems that the newspapers just followed government policy. However,
the two newspapers conveyed negative analysis articles about the Vietnam War and the
Vietnam cease-ﬁre agreement. The war analysis based on foreign news showed that after
the Vietnam cease-ﬁre agreement there were many unsolved political issues in Vietnam.
And this would affect the South Vietnamese government in negative ways. In other
words, peace was not settled in South Vietnam. ‘0

Second, the newspapers in the Afghanistan War and the Iraq War era presented

 

'0 South Vietnam lost US. support after President Nixon’s resignation in 1974. One year later, Saigon fell to
the communists and the US. totally withdrew its troops from South Vietnam (Lawrence, 2008).

71

their own opinions, political parties’ and public’s views toward the government. There
was not any coverage about the public’s reactions about the war and war policy during the
Vietnam War period. However, during the Afghanistan War and the Iraq War era, the two
newspapers presented opinions from a society with their own voices. The Dong-a Ilbo
and the Kyunghyang Shinmun provided their arguments why they agreed with Korean
government’s war policies or why they opposed and criticized it. In other words, when
they agreed with the government war policy, they supported it, but when they opposed
government war policy, they argued why the policy was inappropriate and published
harsh criticism of the government.

In this study, the articles under Park’s authoritarian regime did not present any
criticism about its war policy although the two newspapers carried negative news reports
on the Vietnam War. During this period, President Park tried to censor all media and to
“exclude people’s criticism toward the political system” (Chung, 1994, p.305). This study
seems to reveal one part of media control by President Park. However, the press role in
Korea changed during the democratic period when the wars of Afghanistan and Iraq were
taking place. The two newspapers showed more active coverage of government issues and
carried several opinions by members of Korean society. Shoemaker and Reese say that
“ideology happens as a natural outgrowth of the way the system operates” (1996, p.251).
The ﬁndings in this study would seem to point out ways by which the two newspapers
studied operated differently under two types of political regimes — a dictatorship and a

democracy.

72

VII. CONCLUSION

Under the theory of domestic audience costs, the media is an important medium
for the dissemination of government policy to audiences for self-goveming. Thus, the
agenda-setting function of the media can be signiﬁcant to audiences for the gathering of
information. However, ideology affects media content. Consequently, the media function
differently under different regimes.

Through thematic qualitative research, this study examined the Dong-a Ilbo and
the Kyunghyang Shinmun under different regime types in Korea, a dictatorship and a
democracy, in order to determine whether Korean press coverage evolved or not. In
particular, this study focused on the war periods of the Vietnam War in 1973, and the
Afghanistan War and the Iraq War in 2007.

The study revealed one big difference between these two eras. According to the
study, most articles in the two newspapers in the Vietnam War period just delivered
Korean government’s war policies without criticism or critical evaluations of government
war policy. However, during the Afghanistan War and the Iraq War era, the newspapers
seemed to provide a place for debates about government policy to the public and political
parties.

During the Vietnam War era, the two newspapers did not display any negative
attitudes toward the government and its war policy. They waited for the government’s
decision concerning the withdrawal of troops from Vietnam and the start of governmental
participation in the reconstruction plan. The articles in this era focused on the troop

withdrawal plan and their achievements and heavily used government sources. This was

73

as expected for a newspaper operating under authoritarian constraints.

However, during the Afghan War and the Iraq War, the articles from the two
newspapers presented active public opinions and their own opinions toward the
government policy on whether the government withdrew troops or redeployed them.
These articles show that the Korean government was also concemed about the public’s
opinion about its decision. In the Afghan War and the Iraq War, an article which offered
the views of those who opposed or consented to the government’s war participation and
its policies was also discussed. It can be interpreted that the two newspapers functioned
not only to provide information regarding government policies but also to discuss and
analyze policies. Through the political transition from a dictatorship to a democracy, the
ideology level in Korea also changed. The two newspapers in a democracy did not ignore
public opinions about government policy, and this means audiences may be able to affect
government decisions as the theory of domestic audience costs suggests.

This study has two limitations. First, the sampling size is small. This study
presented thirty articles during the selected periods. If the sample size were bigger than
the study, it may generate different results or the result will be more accurate. Second, this
study could not examine the government-press relations directly. The study, however,
shows that the press coverage of war and government policy under different regime types
changed from focusing on government and its achievements to the effect of government
policy on a society and its people. However, the study cannot show how the authoritarian
Korean government affected media coverage directly. Further research about the Korean

government's media policy will provide other results that could add to the knowledge of

74

how different regime types affect media coverage.

This study examined the two Korean newspapers, the Dong-a Ilbo and the
Kyunghyang Shinmun. I experienced many trials and errors in learning how to collect
reliable samples of data for the study and redid the same research procedure several times
with the guidance of my supervisor. Like other research studies, the research procedure
was painstaking. However, after collecting and analyzing data, I have learned what
qualitative research is all about. In the process, I now know what it means to model a
research study, collect the data, examine it, make sense of it, and fulﬁll the purpose of
research. The result of the study in many ways bears testimony to many other research
studies that I read in preparing to do work on my own study. As for the outcome of the
research itself, the study shows that the two Korean newspapers that I examined changed
their coverage tendency in relation to changes that took place in the politics of Korea,
with Korea moving from an authoritarian dictatorship to an open democratic regime. This
by itself offers tentative proof for the view that government systems can affect the content
of newspaper publications in important ways. I hope that this research will give some
knowledge to other people who seek to understand the Korean media or media operating

under different political regimes.

75

APPENDIX

[Table 6] The List of 30 Selected Articles“

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

. Pa e/
# Date Title Lenggth Reporter Newspaper
I 12 08 1972 Went all the way of the end.. p.l pgeaj-(tolgifo the Dong-a Ilbo
p.3
Limitations of Kissinger's all-round 1834 Correspondent the Kyunghyang
2 12 09 1972 . .
Diplomacy characters Seo Dong-gu Shinmun
in Korean
Hectic Night Before Ceaseﬁre in p.3 Correspondent
3 01 23 1973 Vietnam 2219 Jang Haeng-hoon the Dong-a Ilbo
President Park's special statement:
4 or 24 1973 Immediate Start of ROK Troops' £617 - the gggzang
Withdrawal
Do you guys take off your clothes the Kyunghyang
5 01 24 1973 (leave the my)? p-l Cartoon Shinmun
Oh that War disasters would not take
6 01 25 1973 place again - the Vietnam War end 21335 Editorial the 3353a“
report
7 01 25 1973 End of the War and Korean Diplomacy 1%;3 wang Byung-ryulﬂ the ggguhzang
Government, active participation in p.1
8 01 25 1973 restoration projects of Vietnam 1146 - the Dong-a ”b0
After the withdrawal from Vietnam an 1
9 01 26 1973 excessive number of soldiers will be 520 - the Dong-a Ilbo
discharged
Withdrawal of ROK Troops dispatched p.3 . .
10 01 26 1973 to Vietnam 1820 Editorial the Dong-a Ilbo
. Cartoonist
11 02 05 1973 A triumphal return p.1 P aek In-soo the Dong-a Ilbo
The Future of Thieu Government based
12 02 07 1973 on Conﬁdential Documents of the US 197'; Jack Anderson the grunghyang
JCS mmun
. . . . . 3
Polrtrcal War in Vietnam, Meetings p. Correspondent
13 02 08 1973 Behind the Scenes gm Park Heung-won the D ong-a Ilbo
. . . Correspondent
8 Years of Humanrtarran Medical p.6
14 03 13 1973 Service Given to Vietnam 1804 Park ln-sup the Dong-a Ilbo
Song Ho—chang

 

 

” The titles were translated from Korean to English.

76

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Glorious Military Achievements and pl
15 03 15 1973 promotion of the national prestige 350 ' the D Ohg'a ”b0
I 6 03 l 6 1973 Remaining ROK troops in Vietnam will p.I _ the Kyunghyang
be discharged soon 543 Shinmun
Shooting about forty thousand enemies pl
17 05 21 1973 dead for 8 years 694 - the Dong-a Ilbo
Government is embarrassed by the 3 L San _ k
18 07 21 2007 threat for withdrawal though 1‘98 6 Yee S g ll: the Dong-a Ilbo
humanitarian activities are recognized 00“ ang O
The Purpose of Kidnapping is Extreme
19 O7 21 2007 Hostility against 200 Dispatched 11239 Park Ji-hee the gmnghyang
Troops I mun
Bush mentioned again Korea while p. 18 Correspondent
20 08 24 2007 stressing justiﬁcation of the Iraq War 2174 Lee Ki-hong the D ong-a Ilbo
Inundated Cause and Guilt Theories;
Reckless Missionary Work Guilt p.10 the Kyunghyang
2] 09 03 2007 Theories; Man-made Disaster caused 997 Jang Kwang-soon Shinmun
by Reckless Dispatching Troops
Bush, requesting the extension of Troop
Dispatch; President Roh, expressing the p.3 the Kyunghyang
22 09 08 2007 will of consideration - Zaytun Dispatch 1364 Park Sung-jm Shinmun
into another controversy
Reducing the number of soldiers in 2
23 IO 22 2007 Zaytun Division to 600 and extend £10 Yoon Sang-ho the Dong-a Ilbo
Dispatching Troops to Iraq
Withdrawal Dominoes, countries p.3 . the Kyunghyang
24 10 23 2007 sending troops decreased from 34 to 21 933 Km Ju-hyun Shinmun
Zaytun Division is not a political p.35 . .
25 IO 23 2007 football 1021 Editorial the Dong-a Ilbo
President Roh, Extend Dispatching p.l .
26 IO 24 2007 Zaytun Division one more year 11 31 Cho Soo—Jrn the Dong-a Ilbo
27 10 24 2007 DJ, Well...Extend Dispatching? 5; Lee Young-wook ”’3 gfﬁgﬂg
ls Progress in lnter—korean Relations p.31 . . the Kyunghyang
28 10 24 2007 attributed to Dispatching Troops to Iraq 981 Editorial Shinmun
29 10 26 2007 Column: Regretful Decision to Extend p.31 Professor the Kyunghyang
Dispatching Troops to Iraq 1705 Park Tae-kyun Shinmun
3o 10 26 2007 Column: Young Blood Mercenaries i363; Biggﬁ'xngﬁzn the Dong-a Ilbo

 

 

77

 

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