It might be surprising considering my usual opinions and the level at which I express them that an article like that just has me shrugging my shoulders.

What can you do? Or expect?

Societies have a tendancy to swing like a pendulum.

To me, Roh putting former civil rights lawyers/activists in charge of the spy agency is measurable in proportion to how far the agency went under the authoritarian regimes.

And…..at least today……I can’t give a thumbs down to Roh’s choice.

My hope would be the swing of the pendulum would end up with the agency meeting somewhere in the middle.

I don’t have much hope for it. I’m a pessimist by nature (or was it nurture???). But, when you have a powerful agency that has been so far to one side, it probably takes a massive shove in the other direction to make certain gains.

That is why I’m happy to see that President Bush’s nominee for the UN job is such a dissappointment ot the Democrats. I don’t know much about the guy, but I believe the UN needs a major work over (kick in the pants), and if the level of criticism by the Dems is saying his elbows are too rough……..it seems like a great choice to me….

That doesn’t mean I don’t believe Seoul is currently going out of its way to support Kim Jong Il’s regime. It clearly is. And, it doesn’t mean that I don’t believe a good bit of South Korean society does want the US to step in and support Pyongyang too — they do because they fear the economic effects of collapse more than they care about North Korea (overall).

This poll reminds me once of one done by some group in Chicago asking Americans if they would support South Korea in a 2nd Korean War. (This was before the hate-fest of 2002 and before the US media gave the people much of a clue about how South Korena society feels about the US military in Korea) —-

a very significant percentage of the Americans said they would NOT support Korean War II - even if the North attacked.

It was a better poll, perhaps, in showing where America’s head is at than this Korean poll.

But, the poll was ultimately flawed and showed more how much Americans had their heads up their butt.

If the question had been worded in a way that included knowledge that a lot of American soldiers would die in any invasion by NK of the South, the poll would have been very different. But, since most Americans have very little sense at all of the type of committment we have in South Korea, they can ignorantly say things like they wouldn’t support a US effort in Korean War II….

http://www.time.com/time/asia/.....04,00.html

Sad to have to ask, but if you were Uncle Same, would you share sensitive security info with the likes of Chung Dong-young and (NSC’s) Lee Jung-sok? Didn’t think so.

This is a very hazy statement. I believe it doesn’t mean start shooting at US soldiers but to basically tell the North “We didn’t do it so please don’t attack us”

Nice to see Mingi tracking down the Hyundai connection. You are better than 99.999% of Korean reporters.

The alliance is in trouble. The South Koreans are afraid that a US strike will result in the North bombing the South and ending peace and prosperity in the South. The US is afraid that if it does confer with the South about a military strike, Roh will let the cat out of the bag (again) and the US would lose the advantage of surprise. We have two allies that don’t trust each other and are afraid of what the other might do.

I suspect, but will have no easy way to prove, government-media collusion here, with a poll put out to highlight South Korea’s obvious fears of a unilateral attack (and curry more favor with Norh Korea). Mingi’s point on the Hyundai connection is interesting, too.

When and if the U.S. bomb Youngbyen or PyongYang, SK people will just sit tight and do nothing. Newspapers will print articles justifying the U.S. attack, namely the NK’s threat on the U.S. national security. SKs will pray NK will not retaliate. Some SK commies may try to attack the U.S. bases but base employees(Koreans) and the local Korean police will shoot and kill these asshos.

Everybody will just wait and wait. The military will be mobilized and wait for “go” signal.

When the NK shoots cannons or missiles to the South(a big mistake!!!), SK people will be united as they have never been united before. There will be no more commies standing in SK then. Everyone will be so anti-communist that they will start naming and killing commies or anyone who has sent anything to the North.

Then, SKs will start all-out attack on NK. This attack will proceed both through the air, the land and the sea. After all, SKs have to pay back for the 1950 Korean War, started by KJI’s father.(Like father, like son)

If you read the Korean newspaper as I do, there are many Koreans postings encouraging the U.S. to bomb PyongYang and kill KJI.

Just get the Americans out. Then ROK can take the lead, do what they like, I don’t really care I just want us out of other.

This whole idea of “carrot and stick” so beloved of political analysts is so sophomoric anyway, we’re dealing with very intelligent and sophisticated (though dangerously erratic) adversaries, not mules or dogs. They can see instantly right through this kind of thing.

As with so many things in life (and politics) the “compromise” solution ends up combining the worst of both approaches, not the best. The problem is one for the citizens of the ROK, not for the US anymore; if they want “sunshine” let them bear all the risks and/or reap all the rewards.

So pull out the troops and back whatever play the ROK wants to make. If they want Santa Claus ships to the north fine by me, try it for a while, when it doesn’t work they can figure out their next move on their own.

The ROK-US alliance is an alliance. South Korea and the US need to consult each other. If one of those allies would unilaterally do something like that which would so endanger the other, then of course there would be major reluctance about supporting that ally who unilaterally attacked. I’m surprised that the Hannara party members would still be willing to support a unilaterally acting U.S. in as high numbers as they did (must all be in Pusan in Taegu, away from the action and the fallout).

This underscores exactly why Bush (I’m not talking about the U.S., USFK, Republicans, etc., but Bush) is so unpopular here and why he inspires such fear. Many people here fear that, with his “Axis of Evil” and “Outpost of tyranny” comments and his nearly unilateral action against Iraq, he really would do something rash in regards to North Korea.

I could (and have) make a whole argument to concerned Koreans why that is extremely unlikely, but it’s still something that hangs over their heads. This is our ‘hood. This is something would literally hit close to home. It is the very lives of the people of Seoul, Inch??n, Ky??nggi-do, and Kangwon-do that would be on the line. It would be imprudent not to be concerned.

Another thing that should be mentioned is that it is surveys like this in the Munhwa Ilbo that help to fuel this fear. It’s easy to see that surveys are becoming proxy for opinions in the press, both from the left and the right. They are useful, but only under special circumstances are they news; not enough to be used as much as they are. I just hope at least some in the Korean press dealt with this “news” as critically as it should be regarded.

The question is too loaded. Think about it? How positive can we expect people to be about the idea of the United States unilaterally bombing their armed-to-the-teeth totalitarian-state neighbours? Guess where any retaliatory strikes are going to be landing? Overall, not a very realistic scenario.