I linked to a summary of House aide Dennis P. Halpin’s comments on the Korea-U.S. alliance in my last post, but Joshua over at One Free Korea was kind enough to post the whole damn statement. Definitely a must read, if for no other reason than the wonderful imagery:
Sometimes viewing inter-Korean dialogue and the effect it has had on the alliance, I feel as if I am back at an Irish wake in the Chicago of my youth. The body, the alliance, is laid out in the front of the room for all to view. The United States, like some old uncle, is snoring in a corner of the room. The conservatives in South Korea kneel, like a group of grieving relatives, praying fervently for the deceased. The rest of the South Korean public stands in the back of the room, listening to the nasty whispers of some disaffected relative, North Korea, who insists that the deceased was nothing but a bum and a drunk anyway. All that remains is for the family to take a final view of the body before the undertaker then seals the coffin.
Read the rest on your own.
2 Comments
The conclusion is as powerful as the Irish wake metaphor:
I hope that I am wrong. And perhaps it is presumptuous of me as a foreigner to make such candid comments on the situation regarding Korea. After all, as a Minister in the South Korean government once famously advised Chairman Hyde, ?€œYou are only allies, but the North Koreans are our brothers.?€? Well, that is true. But I would wish to remind the Minister that the first two brothers on earth were Cain and Abel. In the end, Cain killed his brother. Thank you.
North Korea is Cain and South Korea is Abel? Or vice versa. Hehehe