TKL Exclusive: What Hyde Will Tell Roh
Via a reliable source I can’t name, I now have some specifics on just how pretty this won’t be. Among Hyde’s expected talking points for his visit to Korea this week are the following. Disclaimer — this is a paraphrase of a paraphrase:
* You want operational control of all forces during wartime. How is that going to
work? Will there be a U.S. general and a Korean general commanding the entire force jointly or two forces separately? Either way, aren’t those both recipes for chaos, given that the two generals might not necessarily share the same immediate goals? [Yonhap reports that Hyde has said (Yonhap’s words), “South Korea is now ready to reclaim its wartime operational control from Washington.”]
* Why did you deny the Dalai Lama a visa for the Nobel Peace Prize winners’ meeting in Kwangju?
* How can you, a former human rights lawyer, have said nothing about human rights in North Korea?
* Your own people don’t seem to want a Free Trade Agreement. How are you going to convince them otherwise?
* Why isn’t your government doing more to help refugees in China?
[Post edited per a reader’s request.]
Hyde should be canonized.
When it get’s into refugee issues, no one will say it outright to visiting diplomats (or maybe they would, these days), but the tone will be you-aren’t-Korean-so-you-can’t-understand-this-issue. It’s good to confront Roh, and publicly would be better, but the answers would be more useful/truthful coming from a poop-slinging chimp.
I hope they publicize the weasely answers Roh gives to these.
I know this is a late entry but i’m just finding out about Hyde’s trip.
In catching up, it doesn’t appear he had much to say to Roh, along the lines of what was hoped for.
As much as it might be hoped for those things to be said, Hyde would know better and not convey anything counterproductive, while on his trip.