The New York Times has an inglorious tradition of glorifying communists, and the latest installment in this regrettable ritual came on Wednesday from Seoul bureau chief Choe Sang-Hun. Choe penned an uncritical profile of former North Korean soldier-turned South Korean resident Ahn Hak-sop, who has the dual life goal of removing American troops from the country and returning to the North to die and be buried.
Choe began by describing Ahn as a “husk of a man…worn down by life in South Korea, an enemy nation that locked him up for more than four decades.”
Next came the anti-Americanism:
His speech was slow and slurred because of his dentures, but Mr. Ahn was eager to explain why he so hated the United States. From the words he used — 'comrades,' 'struggle,' 'imperialism,' 'colony' and 'independence'— there was no mistaking the former North Korean soldier’s devotion to communism.
‘I am still trying to figure out this thing called capitalism,’ said Mr. Ahn, 95. Along the walls around him were papier-mâché figures mocking Uncle Sam and the Statue of Liberty as money-loving, machine gun-toting, bloodthirsty warmongers. ‘People in South Korea don’t realize that they are slaves in a colony and their leaders can’t do anything without American approval.’
At this point, you would think Choe would point out it was Ahn’s beloved North Korea that started the Korean War, but you would be wrong. Instead, Choe reported that Ahn “was captured by the South during the conflict and then survived 42 years and four months in prison on espionage charges, mostly in solitary confinement. Released in the mid ’90s, he stayed on in the South to continue to campaign for his life’s mission: the removal of U.S. military from the Korean Peninsula.”
Then Ahn’s final wish:
These days, Mr. Ahn is waging the last battle of his life: He wants to return to North Korea to die in his political and ideological home.
…
‘I don’t want to be buried in the American colony that South Korea is,’ Mr. Ahn said. ‘I want to spend what little is left of my life in the North, the only free and independent Korea there is, and want to be buried there beside my old comrades.’
Before anyone could object to North Korea being called "free," Choe gave an inside look at Ahn’s home:
Inside his living room was a riot of anti-American slogans and art works made by his daughter, Jeong Mi-sook, whom he adopted after he was released from prison.
His doormat is the likeness of an American flag bearing the words, ‘Yankees, move out!’ Ms. Jeong, a papier-mâché artist, has recreated a scene of U.S. troops massacring Korean women and children during the war — a favorite theme in North Korean propaganda. Framed on the wall are quotes from Jimmy Carter (who once called the United States ‘the most warlike nation in the history of the world’) and Martin Luther King Jr. (who said the U.S. government was ‘the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today’).
Choe then allowed Ahn to claim, “‘South Korean people may claim they live well, but how do you define ‘living well’?’ he said, as he spoke about his preference of the North Korean political system and his own eventful life.’”
After recalling Japan's defeat, Choe added, “To many nationalists like Mr. Ahn, colonial rule never ended; it just changed hands from the Japanese to the Americans.”
Choe then got in his own historical revisionism, suggesting the Korean War just happened, “Korea soon plunged into an internecine war. While Chinese troops streamed across the border to help North Korea, the U.S. military maintained its air superiority with a horrific bombing campaign. Mr. Ahn was about 20 at the time.”
Recalling how Ahn was tortured in prison, eventually released, and recognized as a victim of torture when South Korea became a democracy, Choe asserted “but to his dismay, tens of thousands of U.S. troops were still stationed there.”
Choe then got in some final anti-American propaganda:
Mr. Ahn blames the Korean divide squarely on the Americans.
'The U.S. troops will never leave until you force them out,' he said. 'A feudal lord will set slaves free only when they rise up to make him fear for his life.'
The only time Choe got anywhere close to criticizing Ahn was when he portrayed him as simply naïve, "His slogans sound hopelessly out of place in today’s South Korea, where most citizens want the U.S. troops to stay on their soil to help guard against North Korea and China. Korean reunification, the ideal Mr. Ahn has cherished for so long, looks more distant than ever, as even North Korea says it no longer considers South Korea a partner for reconciliation."
If you are a 95-year old man who would rather live in North Korea than South Korea in 2025 and thinks North Korea is a more moral country than the U.S., you are not some anti-colonial resistance fighter. You’re a morally upside-down individual. Ever since the advent of democracy, Ahn has lived as a free man, free to talk with Choe and criticize his government and its main ally. A right no one in North Korea has ever had.
