As you may have seen, 2ID assistant commander Brigadier General Joseph E. Martz stopped by Uijeongbu City Hall on Tuesday to offer a solemn apology to Mayor Kim Mun-won for some of his boys’ recent misbehavior in the good mayor’s town.
Or at least that’s the impression you get from both the photo and caption.
The actual event, however, probably could have been orchestrated a little better, as the YTN video would suggest (click on the July 20 film — works best in IE). Jesus. Well, the effort and intention were there. You’d think, though, that USFK, being as it is an army based in Korea, and the City of Uijeongbu, being as it is (for the time being) the home of the U.S. 2nd Infantry Division, would have people on hand — like translators — whose job is to ensure that occasions like this don’t end up looking like a rather goofy social call.
Hope Mayor Kim likes the chocolate, anyway.
One Comment
When Korea was opened up to the West, and especially when the Japanese began to dominate, the issue of “extraterritoriality” for foreigners was a major sore point for Koreans.
As long as USFK behavior and SOFA regulations seemed to include the trappings of extraterritoriality for USFK members (and their families), there was bound to be a lot of animosity.
Now SOFA has changed, there is a lot more access to USFK personnel accused of crimes, and just as importantly there is a great deal of effort on USFK’s part to show contrition. These are all very good signs for future relations.
The anti-USFK groups, especially those with an obvious ideological bent (and their Korean-language rhetoric gives them away), are like a broken record: they will always be stuck complaining about the SOFA and USFK behavior. But the readers/viewers themselves deserve a little more credit to separate rhetoric from reality. They will see efforts like this, and even if they smirk at the awkwardness, they will be satisfied that 2ID isn’t running around arrogantly unconcerned about how its people are behaving up in ??ij??ngbu.