Kansas City Star: Korea Journal

Photos from Korea

Fri, 16 Nov 2007 12:44 CST

Here are pictures from Randy Smith's visit to South Korea and North Korea as part of the Gatekeeper Editor's program with the International Reporting Project at the Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies.

Day 8: Living with Buddhist Monks

Fri, 16 Nov 2007 11:08 CST

The setting here is stunning. A dozen wooden structures, looking like they probably did 1,400 years ago, are nestled into this pine forest that is far away from the rest of the world.

Day 1: Off to Korea

Wed, 07 Nov 2007 18:45 CST

Our 13-hour flight took off at 1:10 a.m. Saturday out of Los Angeles, and we flew the whole way to Korea in darkness, landing at 6 a.m. local time in Inchon just as the sun began to peek over the Yellow Sea. Ten years ago, Incheon was better known for its place in Korean War history. But it's now the site of an international airport, and major development is creeping like kudzu along the specially built highway that links the airport and Seoul, about an hour to the east.

Sunday: Yoido Full Gospel Church

Wed, 07 Nov 2007 18:47 CST

Sunday: We crossed over the Hangan River, the giant body of water that divides Seoul, to head to the Yoido Full Gospel Church, which claims to be the biggest Protestant church in the world with 750,000 members.

Day 3: North Korean defectors

Wed, 07 Nov 2007 18:50 CST

One went to China to seek a better life. One lost faith in his government's leadership. Another saw his entire family harshly punished because of his father's misstep with authorities. On Monday afternoon, our editors group had lunch with a group of North Korean defectors, among the roughly 10,000 who now call South Korea home. Later, we had the opportunity to meet with Lee Jae-jung, who is South Korea's minister of unification, to hear his sense of what is happening in the North. The story of the defectors had common threads.

Day 4: The Arts and Samsung

Wed, 07 Nov 2007 19:03 CST

The day was saved by a luncheon with three well-known women artists. And, later in the afternoon, we toured Samsung's massive facilities here. Part of the Samsung tour, which was through its highly protected research facilities, was supposed to be off-the-record. But we were able to get company officials, as we were leaving the facilities, to change their minds. Quickly, let me introduce you to the three women artists.

Day 5: Fighting tuberculosis in North Korea

Wed, 07 Nov 2007 19:07 CST

Tucked away atop an obscure office building in Seoul, the Eugene Bell Foundation is making a difference in a crisis that much of the world does not know about: the dramatic rise of tuberculosis in North Korea. Dr. Stephen Linton, the foundation chairman and a member of a third-generation American missionary family based in Korea, is quite familiar with the issue. He has twice been infected by the disease.

Day 6: A Nobel winner and a squatter's camp

Sat, 10 Nov 2007 07:14 CST

I spent the afternoon with Nobel peace prize winner and former Korean president Kim Dae Jung. And in the evening, I ate dinner with a family who was about to become homeless because of a cruel battle to turn a squatter's camp into a multimillion-dollar condominium project.

Day 7: The DMZ

Fri, 16 Nov 2007 10:17 CST

Friday

Day 9: Traveling to North Korea

Fri, 16 Nov 2007 10:41 CST

A resort in southeastern North Korea, the easiest place for foreigners to visit North Korea, is an experiment to see how leader Kim Jong-il will handle the economic reform that has helped transform China and Vietnam.

Day 10: Heading out of North Korea

Wed, 14 Nov 2007 10:02 CST

North Korea is an absolutely gorgeous place when you can't see what's happening on the ground.

Day 11: Answers and observations

Fri, 16 Nov 2007 11:06 CST

For the last ten days, I've been collecting observations, answers to questions and personal thoughts on South Korea.