In Looted, veteran correspondent Donald Kirk cuts through the mystique of democracy that has shrouded the Philippines since the American withdrawal from its military bases there in 1991 and 1992, revealing the corruption that exists beneath the surface. Making use of his extensive firsthand knowledge of the region, Kirk recounts the drama of one of history's greatest volcanic eruptions as just the beginning of a period of looting and exploitation. He provides details and revelations of the Philippine role in the stripdown of Clark Air Base and the subversion of Subic Bay to serve the purposes of one ambitious politician, and he offers a disturbing analysis of the efforts to resolve Muslim and Communist revolt.
Donald Kirk, from Washington, D.C., travels to South Korea, with stops in London, the middle east, Japan, Hong Kong and the Philippines, among other places, writing on the confrontation of forces in the post-9/11 era.
From 1997 through 2003, Don was Seoul correspondent for the International Herald Tribune, also filing for The New York Times and CBS, covering nuclear and economic crises. In addition, he has written articles for such diverse magazines as Institutional Investor, Far Eastern Economic Review, The New Leader, Future Korea Journal, National Review, Kyoto Journal and Hemispheres and commentaries for newspapers ranging from The Wall Street Journal Asia and South China Morning Post in Hong Kong to the Los Angeles Times, Providence Journal, Washington Examiner and Newsday.
Don first visited Seoul in 1972 as Far East correspondent for the Chicago Tribune and has covered major events in Korea from the assassination of President Park Chung Hee in 1979 and the Kwangju revolt in 1980 to every presidential election since adoption of the "democracy constitution" in 1987.
From 1988 to 1994, he focused on economics and labor, writing Korean Dynasty: Hyundai and Chung Ju Yung, a critical study of Hyundai, Korea's largest chaebol, and its founder. Again in Seoul, he wrote Korean Crisis: Unraveling of the Miracle in the IMF Era, published in 2000, and, most recently, Korea Betrayed: Kim Dae Jung and Sunshine, a critical biography of the former South Korean president who passed away in August 2009.
He continues to write commentaries and file for CBS and The Christian Science Monitor. The University of Maryland University College in 2004 awarded him an honorary doctorate as "one of the United States' most knowledgeable observers and commentators on Asia."
