Korean ambassador to the U.S. Hong Seok-hyun is reportedly surprised by some of the “misunderstandings” of Korea that are apparently rife within the U.S.:
In an address at the Rotary Club in Washington, D.C., Hong said despite evidence that the alliance between the two countries has been a success, some people cast doubt on the soundness of the two allies’ relationship. What emerged from them was a “surprising” depth of misunderstanding by intellectuals and the media, Hong said, and correcting them was one of his most important duties as ambassador.
The five are:???? anti-American sentiment is rife in Korea; ???? Koreans no longer want U.S. troops in their country; ???? Koreans place greater importance on their ethnic unity with North Korea than their alliance with the U.S.; ???? President Roh Moo-hyun is overly progressive; ???? Korea is leaning toward China and away from the U.S.
I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry reading that. First off, there are “misunderstandings,” but a lot of those misunderstandings are due to what some may argue to be intentional distortions in the Korean press — including the newspaper formally owned by Hong himself — distortions whose aim is to use problems in the Korea-U.S. relationship — both real and otherwise — to attack the incumbent president. And it’s not like the incumbent president and his party are doing themselves any favors with some of their foreign policy pronouncements. I mean, it’s been, what now, three months since President Roh announced his “Northeast Asian balancer” initiative, and I still can’t tell you what the hell he meant. That kind of thing breeds misunderstandings. Then there are the kind of misunderstandings that arise when 63 percent of the ruling party says they believe China will be Korea’s most important diplomatic and economic partner. As for the anti-Americanism, well, gee, between the opinion polls that say 39 percent of Koreans believe the U.S. to be the biggest threat to Korean security (over 50 percent for those in their 20s) and pitched battles outside U.S. military bases — not to mention the “Fuckin’ USA”/BBQ a U.S. Flag Fun Fest of 2002 — I wonder what would give Americans such ludicrous ideas?
You want to help clear up the misunderstandings, Ambassador Hong? Well, you can start by calling up your buddies at the JoongAng to tell them to start reporting seriously about the Korea-U.S. alliance, and perhaps ask them to tell their reporter friends at other newspapers to do the same, because a lot of the doubts being raised about the alliance are coming from Korean sources. You might also want to ask your boss to actually think about the implications of some of his foreign policy initiatives before he announces them, or at the very least put them in a way that you don’t need a Ouija board to interpret. And most importantly, you may wish to tell your bosses that rather than focusing their energies on trying to combat “misunderstandings” in the U.S. media and academia, they should concentrate their energies on explaining to the Korean public WHY the Korea-U.S. alliance is necessary. It’s not enough to repeat over and over again “blood alliance” — questions are being raised because no one is telling the public why the maintanence of a Cold War alliance will serve Korea’s interests both now and in the years to come.
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I am reminded of Michael Horowitz’s speech at the Hudson entitled: It Ain?t Christmas in Pyongyang: Will the Kim Jong-Il Regime Last?
He made several of those same claims following No Mu-hyeons tour across Europe and America. The representative from the Korean embassy tried to deny that the relationships were strained and paint everything as being okay. It’s a vicious cycle.
I thought the same as kimbob on each point. I would add that the vast majority of Koreans agree they want the (bastard) GIs out, they just disagree widely on the time frame - with most opting for when North Korea is no longer a threat.
I haven’t gotten the page that covered this story, but here are links to the series of special reports the JAD did for the 1 year anniversary of 9/11 - whose stated purpose was to inform its readers what Americans and others thought of the United States in the post terror attack world. It was mostly a hatchet job…
….well, check out my blog for the list since I can put the links up better there…
http://www.koreasojourner.blog-city.com
Mr. Hong has an uncanny flair for slap-stick comedy. He should consider a run of stand-up gigs on the Cat-skils circuit doing his “Oh-My-balancer of Asia!” shtick or that “Take my American threat, please!” I laughed so hard I had to take a liver pill and I absolutely *hate* liver.
Mr. Hong should lay part of the blame on his own paper, since at least before that Hong/Roh interview while back the Joongang played up those reports of anti-Americanism to the max for extra punch when trying to make Roh look bad.
Pls note I’m not saying the reports were baseless. They never are. I worked at Chosun for four years and saw the phenomenon weekly; distorting the truth without telling lies.
Something else they do is spin comments by US officials to their own taste. So for example, if someone is quoted by someone who maybe heard Rumsfeld say something that through the grapevine sounds like Rumsfeld really pissed at SK, those papers blow that out of proportion and give it more coverage than it deserves given it’s rumor or hearsay or private comment. One of the effects of that is that it actually furthers anti-American sentiment in SK since the feeling you get is that American officials think they can still boss SK around. Instead of “this isn’t wise international relations” it’s “the Americans are displeased with us.”
A very good point, oranckay.
those papers blow that out of proportion and give it more coverage than it deserves given it?s rumor or hearsay or private comment.
Reminds me the “Elle me casse les couilles” private comment by Chirac to an aide ? when he was PM ? during a France-England summit in Paris. Overheard by a French-speaking member of Team Thatcher, and immediately translated and forwarded to the press, it was blown out of proportion alright…
For the poor souls who don’t speak French, what Chirac said means, literally, She’s breaking my balls, which is not to be interpreted as Ma’am Thatcher having a vise-like, er, ????, but being extremely irritating [like, d'uh].
Of course, if Chirac spoke the language of his [supposed] ancestors, Occitan, he wouldn’t have been caught…
surprised by some of the ?misunderstandings?? of Korea
hahaha
I have seen Koreans attitude like that on many other forums.