The Marmot’s Hole

South Korean Unification Minister Jeong Se-hyun — the man requires his own blog. I’ve bashed him here, here, here, and probably many other places. He’s the ass who told the WSJ’s Melanie Kirkpatrick that for North Koreans, “political freedom is a luxury, like pearls for a pig.” Now, we have this:

Minister of Unification Jeong Se-hyun said Wednesday that a certain aspect of the Ryonchon train disaster was “romantic,” stunning those around him. On this day, Jeong went to the National Assembly to meet GNP chairwoman Park Geun-hye; ahead of his meeting with Park, he engaged in some conversation with GNP general secretary Kim Hyeong-oh, during which he made the problematic statement.

Kim asked Jeong of the actual circumstances at the disaster site, saying, “Seeing the satellite images on TV, it seemed that the damage [at Ryongchon] wasn’t that serious.” Jeong answered, “For the North, which doesn’t have recovery capabilities, even if the damage wouldn’t be a lot for us, it’s much greater for them.” After this, Kim said, “[Seeing] the oxcarts and the children in the [poor] hospital beds, it was really miserable.” Jeong responded right then and there, “Why, it’s romantic, no?”

In some quarters, they are saying the Jeong’s unreasonable statement was intentional, meant to disparage Kim’s statement that “the damage [at Ryongchon] didn’t seem serious.” About this, Jeong explained, “I said it because in [South Korean] farming regions, an oxcart would be romantic.“

Granted, the government is trying as hard as it can not to offend Pyongyang, lest Kim Jong-il refuse to bestow honor upon the South by taking its aid, but this… this is too much, even by Jeong’s lofty standards.