By Yi Jung-jae*

October 11, 2006
South Korea - JoongAng Ilbo - Original Article (English)    

Patty Hearst: The classic case of a victim
empathizing with her kidnapper. Is South
Korea a 'Patty Hearst' nation?

BBC Article About the Case

Cover of Time Magazine after Patty,
alias 'Tania,' was finally arrested.



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If one is taken hostage without reason, it is only natural to detest the kidnappers. However, some people end up defending and siding with their kidnappers, which is a tendency called "Hearst syndrome."

In February of 1974, Patty Hearst , the 19-year-old heiress to the Hearst publishing empire, was kidnapped from her apartment in Berkeley, California. The kidnappers [the Symbionese Liberation Army ] demanded that the Hearst family donate $6 million to help the poor. Although the Hearsts were struggling with financial difficulties, they distributed $2 million worth of food around the California slums.

While the kidnapping surprised many Americans, the country was completely shocked two months later, when a tape of Miss Hearst's voice was delivered to a radio station. She called the Hearst family "capitalists who exploit the people." Three days after the tape was broadcast, she was videotaped on a closed-circuit camera wielding an M1 automatic rifle and robbing a bank. She was arrested in September 1975 after 16 months on the run. While her defense attorney argued she had been brainwashed, the jury didn't accept the claim, and Miss Hearst received the maximum sentence of 25 years in prison for Bank robbery, plus an additional 10 years for the use of a firearm.

North Korean strongman Kim Jong-il has taking Korea hostage and demanded food and money, and often threatens to use missiles and nuclear weapons. He's as evil as a hostage-taker can get.

Yet President Roh Moo-hyun has acceded to most of Pyongyang's demands. His Administration  and that of his predecessor, Kim Dae-jung, have handed Kim Jong-il over 7.3 trillion won, or about $7.6 billion in aid so far. The United States, who plays the role of the global police, has said that North Korea deserved to disciplined. But Seoul refused to listen and instead reproached the United States, or in other words the police, and sided with hostage-taker North Korea.

In 2004, the government said that North Korean possession of nuclear weapons was reasonable, and when Pyongyang launched missiles in July, Seoul mislabeled the missiles as "satellites" and said the "weren't a threat but rather a negotiating tool." It would be hard to find a hostage more docile and compliant than South Korea.

North Korea carried out a nuclear test in the morning of October 9, and later that evening, at the port of Ulsan a cargo ship was loaded with 4,500 tons of rice to be sent to North Korea. One radio show host said that we must continue to help the North because we are brothers. An increasing number of Koreans now suffer from Hearst syndrome. Perhaps they are imitating the president.

jjyee@joongang.co.kr

*The writer is a deputy business news editor at the JoongAng Ilbo.