http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Korea/HE17Dg03.html

I give the article a thumbs down though I've found Kirk to have a pretty good read on Korea from time to time.

I give it a thumbs down for two reasons:

It makes the groups and majority of the people supporting The Priest in Pyongtaek look like they are just co-equal partners with the locals who are holding out. That is a distortion.

The article mentions several times that The Priest and his co-workers protest everything to do with the US in Korea, but the way the article unfolds, especially the dramatizing of the first few paragraphs, it does not tell the real story of how these long term anti-US leaders and core followers greatly outnumber the locals they are using.

Which leads to my second complaint -- that he doesn't paint a true picture of how the protests are evolving in Korean society.

Koreans have shown, both in counter-protests, opinion polls, and articles or editorials in the Korean press ---- that they understand the people doing the fighting in Pyongtaek are taking advantage of the locals who will listen to them (which is a minority of the locals to begin with --- most have sold the land and taken the government's compensation package).

The Korean press has done a better job of putting the protests and protesters in their proper context.

Kirk failed to do so.