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Donald Kirk | |
|---|---|
| Education | (Bachelor's degree), (Master's degree inInternational relations) DoctorateHonorary |
| Alma mater | Princeton University, University of Chicago & University of Maryland University College |
| Occupation(s) | Correspondent,Journalist &Author |
| Organization(s) | National Press Club (Washington),Foreign Correspondents' Club (Hong Kong), Institute for Corean-American Studies, Seoul Foreign Correspondents’ Club,Overseas Press Club of America, International House of Japan,Authors Guild of America,Society of Professional Journalists,American Society of Journalists and Authors |
| Awards | Overseas Press Club of America Award (1974) George Polk Awards (1975) Edward Scott Beck award (1974) Chicago Newspaper Guild Page-One Award (1962) |
| Website | www.donaldkirk.com |
Donald Kirk is a veteran correspondent and author on conflict and crisis from Southeast Asia to the Middle East to Northeast Asia. Kirk has covered wars from Vietnam to Iraq, focusing on political, diplomatic, economic and social as well as military issues. He is also known for his reporting on North Korea, including the nuclear crisis, human rights and payoffs from South to North Korea preceding the June 2000 inter-Korean summit.[1]
After several years as ametroreporter for theChicago Sun-Times and theNew York Post, 1960-1964, Kirk free-lanced fromIndonesia in “The Year of Living Dangerously,” 1965–1966, writing about the fall ofSukarno and mass killings inJava andBali. He covered Vietnam,Cambodia andLaos in the late 1960s and early 1970s for the oldWashington (DC) Star and then for theChicago Tribune, reporting on the1968 Tet Offensive, the 1970 downfall of PrinceSihanouk and the U.S. incursion into Cambodia and the 1972Easter Offensive in Vietnam. He also wrote articles forThe New York Times Magazine andThe New Leader and two books before gravitating to northeast Asia.
Kirk was correspondent forThe Observer (London) in Japan and Korea from the late 1970s to 1982, covering the assassination of PresidentPark Chung-hee of Korea in 1979, the 1980Gwangju revolt, and financial, diplomatic and political issues in Japan forThe Observer and newspapers in the U.S. and Canada. After covering the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982 from Beirut and Tel Aviv, he joinedUSA Today in August 1982 as the paper's first world editor. ForUSA Today, he ranged from Europe to Asia, reporting on war in Lebanon, revolt in El Salvador and Nicaragua, the 1985-1986 People Power revolution in the Philippines, the democracy revolt in Korea, the 1988 Seoul Olympics, the 1989Tiananmen Square uprising, the 1989 fall of Ceausescu, and the Gulf War from Baghdad, including the U.S. bombing, 1990-91.
After publishing anunauthorized biography ofChung Ju-yung, founder of theHyundai empire, in 1994, Kirk served in Korea as correspondent for theInternational Herald Tribune, 1997–2003, and theChristian Science Monitor and CBS Radio, 2004-2020, covering the sinking of the South Korean navy shipCheonan and the shelling of Yeonpyeong Island in 2010, North Korean nuclear and missile tests, anti-American protests, U.S.-Korea trade disputes and Korean politics. He has visited North Korea eight times, writing forForbes Asia and others, and reported forInstitutional Investor and CBS from Baghdad in 2004. He writes columns forThe Korea Times andFuture Korea and has reported forThe Daily Beast since the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics and the June 2018 Singapore summit between President Donald Trump and North Korea’s Kim Jong-un.
Kirk holds a bachelor's degree from Princeton, a master's in international relations from the University of Chicago and an honorary doctorate from the University of Maryland Global Campus. He was a Fulbright scholar, New Delhi, 1962–1963; a Ford fellow in Columbia University's advanced international reporting program, 1964–1965; Edward R. Murrow fellow, the Council on Foreign Relations, 1974–1975, visiting fellow, Cornell's Southeast Asia program, 1986-1988; Fulbright senior research scholar, Manila, 1994–1995, Abe fellow, Social Science Research Council, Japan and Korea, 2012; Fulbright-Nehru senior scholar, New Delhi, 2013.
Kirk won the Overseas Press Club of America Award, 1974, Asia reporting, for articles in theChicago Tribune on the grim future for South Vietnam after the signing of the Paris Peace Agreement in 1973; the George Polk Award, foreign reporting, 1975, for exposing corruption in Vietnam and Cambodia; theChicago Tribune’s Edward Scott Beck award, 1974; three Overseas Press Club citations, and the Chicago Newspaper Guild Page-One Award, feature-writing, 1962.
Kirk is a Silver Owl member of the National Press Club, Washington, a life member of the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Hong Kong, a fellow of the Institute for Corean-American Studies, and served six terms on the board of the Seoul Foreign Correspondents’ Club. He also belongs to the Overseas Press Club of America, International House of Japan, the Authors Guild of America, the Society of Professional Journalists and the American Society of Journalists and Authors.
1.^ Donald Kirk (2011-04-30). Time to wise up on North Korea.The Asia Times, retrieved August 25, 2011
2.^"Former Edward R. Murrow Press Fellows - Council on Foreign Relations". Cfr.org. Archived from the original on 2010-08-31. Retrieved 2012-02-26.
3.^"The Year of Living Dangerously". Peterweircave.com. Retrieved 2012-02-26.
4.^ Donald Kirk (2010-03-23). Donald Kirk: Vanished in a time of killing.The Projo Website, retrieved June 6, 2010
5.^ Reporting Vietnam: American Journalism 1959 - 1975 Reporting Vietnam: Paperback Edition Archived July 10, 2010, at theWayback Machine.The Library of America, retrieved June 6, 2010
6.^ Donald Kirk KJ Special On-line Features: Looking Back at the Tet Offensive Archived August 2, 2009, at theWayback Machine.The Kyoto Journal, retrieved June 6, 2010
7.^MacArthur, John R. (2004), Second Front: Censorship and Propaganda in the 1991 Gulf War (1st ed.), California: University of California Press
8.^ Susan Jeffords, Lauren Rabinovitz, “Seeing Through the Media: The Persian Gulf War,” p. 127
9.^"A Conversation with Writer and Journalist Donald Kirk on his book, Korea Betrayed: Kim Dae Jung and Sunshine |Center for Strategic and International Studies". Csis.org. Retrieved 2012-02-26.
10.^"Home | Asia-Pacific Business and Technology Report". Biztechreport.com. Retrieved 2012-02-26.
11.^"OPC Awards Past Recipients | Overseas Press Club of America". Opcofamerica.org. 2010-01-12. Archived from the original on 2012-07-17. Retrieved 2012-02-26.
12.^"Search - Long Island University". Liu.edu. Retrieved 2012-02-26.
13.^ [1] Archived June 20, 2010, at theWayback Machine
14.^"ICAS Fellow Roster". Icasinc.org. 2011-12-12. Retrieved 2012-02-26.
15.^"AuthorsGuild.org Home". The Authors Guild. Archived from the original on 2012-02-29. Retrieved 2012-02-26.
16.^"President's Letter 2008-04". ASJA. Retrieved 2012-02-26.
