The Marmot’s Hole

By ANDY JACKSON
Marmot?????s Hole Guest Blogger

The Kang Chol-hwan event went pretty smoothly… well not too smoothly but we were able to fix the problems that came up pretty well so things turn out as good as we could expect. By my count we had 136 people there, which is just about the capacity of the room.

As I mentioned before, I was the MC at the event. I was a little unsteady at first and I butchered the Czech ambassador’s name (Really, is Tomas Smetanka that hard to pronounce?). But I settled down and did all right for most of the program.

One surprise was Kang’s speaking skill. While I new he had an important story to tell, I wasn’t aware of his skill in telling it. I was expecting a pretty flat description of his life in North Korea with a few extra comments on his views of policies towards the North. What we got was a presentation so strong that it kept much of its power even through the translation, although some of the humor didn’t quite get through (yes, there was some funny stuff). He touched on his life in North Korea, his experiences as a college student in South Korea and his views of the policies of Seoul towards Pyongyang. I would certainly recommend him to anyone interested in a speaker on North Korea.

Its well after midnight and I have work tomorrow. I’ll have a more detailed report at the Republicans Abroad blog (with a pic or two) tomorrow and perhaps some background over at my place when I get back from a business trip I am taking to Guam and Saipan this week.

In the meantime, you can check out Cathartidae’s take on the event.

UPDATE: Here is Juggertha’s take on it.

UPDATE: My somewhat fuller report at the Republicans Abroad blog. You may notice a slight difference in writing style (aside from referring to myself in the third person).