Lee, Bush Commemorate 60th Anniversary of the Korean War
Golly, this was a nice thing of President Lee to say:
As we commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Korean War, I offer our deepest, most sincere gratitude to all the American veterans and their families for what they did. The friendship and bond that we share is reinforced by the strong and robust military alliance, which in turn was the basis for the Republic of Korea’s remarkable twin achievements of the past six decades, namely achieving economic growth and becoming a true liberal democracy. [President Lee Myung-Bak, Atlanta Journal-Constitution]
If only President Lee’s own constituents actually believed this. I was ready to suggest that it’s them President Lee should be addressing until I saw that George W. Bush had emerged as our newest global goodwill ambassador. The former president, who is best known and loved by Koreans everywhere as the man who removed North Korea from the list of state sponsors of terrorism on October 11, 2008, was in Seoul the other day, also commemorating the anniversary, where he addressed a crowd of 60,000 (!) at a prayer meeting in a stadium:
“While South Korea prospers, the people of North Korea have suffered profoundly,” he said, adding communism had resulted in “dire poverty, mass starvation and brutal suppression”. “In recent years the suffering has been compounded by the leader who wasted North Korea’s precious few resources on personal luxuries and nuclear weapons programmes.” [….]
Bush, a devout Christian, described the 1950-53 conflict as an unforgotten war, saying “an act of unprovoked aggression” had led to an unnatural division in Northeast Asia. “It will never be forgotten by those who served and by those who were saved, and it must not be forgotten by the world,” he said.
The presence of US troops in South Korea showed Washington’s strong commitment to defending its ally, he said, adding the South’s prosperity is “a shining example of the power of freedom and faith”. [AFP]
As all 60,000 of those in attendance thought, as if with one mind: Just as long as our daughters stay out of Hongdae at night. Oddly enough, not all Koreans truly appreciate President Bush for his conciliatory outreach toward Kim Jong Il or his aid for the North Korean people, at least before he was ousted by a cabal of neocon hard-liners in 2009:
“It is just nonsense to bring to the Korean War prayer meeting the former US President Bush, who started the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and have him give testimony,” they said in a joint statement.
Funny how these people never seem to hold grudges against those who start wars in Korea. But then, they’re not really anti-war. They’re just on the other side.
And in related news, Foreign Policy Magazine has voted Kim Jong Il the world’s worst dictator this year, easily edging out Robert Mugabe.
I’m not overly literate when it comes to South Korean politics or culture, but what do they really think of the US? I’ve gotten a lot of what I’d call, “contradictory thoughts.” Do they hate us, like us, or just tolerate us? At times I get the impression they like the North more than the US. At other times, the opposite. I would guess they identify with the north racially, and probably culturally, though I would think living in NK the culture would be ratherd borked due the engineered nature of the society. Do they actually appreciate what the US tries to do?
By they way, any one know a Dr. Swartout?
Your problem is that the question itself is flawed, therefore the conclusion is suspect. In a nutshell, there is no uniform “they” when it comes to South Korean politics or culture. There are a number of factions, each with similar- (but not identical-) thinking members, and many of these groups have quite opposite opinions, which goes a long way toward explaining the “contradictory thoughts.”
The Daily NK’s interviews with North Koreans in China:
Kang added, “Among traders in China, there is the concern that if the succession fails, North Korea will face chaos and might be absorbed into China or South Korea. North Korean internal organs say that the current atmosphere does not come close to that of the past, when the General (Kim Jong Il) was succeeding his father.”
“In some agencies, they are even concerned about the possibility of a revolution by powerful military elements. General Kim and Captain Kim are excessively empowering the military, and the General Bureau of Reconnaissance is dominant within the military as well.”
He commented, “The policy of excessively emphasizing the military could come back to haunt them in the future. Currently, the military authorities have sworn loyalty to Captain Kim due to Kim Jong Il, but that could change at any time.”
Kang also recounted the words of his daughter, who is a university student in Pyongyang, saying, “Some of the younger generation in Pyongyang suggest that either moderate military authorities or Jang Sung Taek, who has a rich experience in administration, should seize power.”
Did North Korea just demand $64 trillion in compensation from the US for damage done during and after the war (BBC source)? Supposedly they went around and added up all the damage on a case by case basis (supposedly) but via the magic of numerology they could just have well figured if it hadn’t been for the war all North Koreans would have been living like Americans live now for the past 60 years.
GDP per capita of US in 2008 roughly $45,000
times population of North Korea, allegedly 24,000,000
times 60 years
equals roughly $64,000,000,000,000
Either they’re living in a fantasy world or I am. I wonder which one it is.
We should offer to pay them in old NK won.