Chung Dong-young: America’s Man in Seoul?

by Robert Koehler on October 29, 2007

in Asides, ROK-US Issues, South Korean Politics

I dare you to read this without laughing.

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Chung Dong-young's "Unwavering Pro-US Stance" at ROK Drop: October 30, 2007 at 10:34 am

{ 30 comments… read them below or add one }

1 snow October 30, 2007 at 3:28 am: Wow, sounds like this fool will say anything to get elected. If anything, the alliance would be in much much worse shape if Chung ever, by a fluke of history, got elected. If he got in, I would be worried about Korea’s future. They can’t afford another incompetent fool at the helm. With the Chinese nipping at Korea’s heels, Chung adding a few more nails in the coffin of the alliance, and foreign direct investment already plunging, he would be a disaster for Korea if he became president.
2 GI Korea October 30, 2007 at 4:49 am: No I could not finish reading it without laughing.

I will need to go check my blog archives for some of his all time greatest US-ROK alliance statements.
3 user-81 October 30, 2007 at 4:58 am: Roh gave similar assurances before taking office:

http://english.mofe.go.kr/news.....;SW=amcham

Next, I would like to make a few remarks regarding South-North cooperation and the North Koreannuclear issue. What is important for me in this matter is continued conciliatory and cooperative efforts, the establishment of a peace structure on the Korean Peninsula through firm ROK-U.S. coordination, and on the basis of that, the construction of a cooperative economic system in Northeast Asia. We have to induce Pyongyang to reform and open up. Neither war nor collapse helps the peninsula. We should resolve the North Korean nuclearissue through dialogue, and I think it is possible. I firmly believe that the issue will be solved in that manner.

At the earliest date after my inauguration, I plan to visit the United States and consult with President George W. Bush on the matter. I will closely consult with Japan, China, Russia, the EU and other countries while continuing to persuade Pyongyang to give up its nuclear project.

I am aware that there has been much worry in connection with the candle vigils staged over the death of the middle school girls. When the Korean War broke out, the United States and many EU countries dispatched young people to help us. Many of them lost their lives in defense of Korea. We cannot forget that even for a moment. However, there have been some instancesof misunderstanding over the candle vigils. The main focus of the mass gatherings was the need to revise the Status of Forces Agreement, but, of course, the demonstrations were staged on the premise that the U.S. troops would continue to stay in Korea. These were voices aspiring for a more mature relationship between Korea and the United States. ROK-U.S. relations have been, are, and will continue to be treasured, and I certainly hope that America will remain our ally in the years to come.
4 Breaktrack October 30, 2007 at 7:05 am: Noh achieved something!?
5 Breaktrack October 30, 2007 at 7:05 am: I meant ?!
6 gbnhj October 30, 2007 at 7:38 am: I couldn’t do it.

I managed to keep from laughing until the part where Chung said ‘I can dare to say that I commanded trust from Washington when I was the unification minister in 2005′, and then I just couldn’t hold back any more. What can I say? Chung’s naturally funny – I laugh every time he opens his mouth.

GI Korea, please follow post any quotes you find in the comments section here. I’m sure folks would love to see the contrast.
7 globalvillageidiot October 30, 2007 at 8:12 am: The guy is pretty slick. After getting he gets worked on December 19, he should think about selling used cars.

Not really an alliance-related statement, but does anybody have the quote of him blaming FDR – not Teddy Roosevelt – for selling out Korea to the Japanese in 1905? (FDR would have been a student at Columbia University at the time.) Wonder if he missed that lecture while majoring in history at SNU…
8 globalvillageidiot October 30, 2007 at 8:15 am: #7. Minus the “getting.” Not enough coffee and mind on fantasy football.
9 Sperwer October 30, 2007 at 8:36 am: A lot of “code” in Chung Dumb Young’s statement; but not too difficult to decipher. Consider this one, e.g.,

he said history develops under the action and reaction of the so-called thesis, antithesis and synthesis. He said his presidency would be a time of synthesis.
10 Brendon Carr (Korea Law Blog) October 30, 2007 at 8:40 am: I have bad news for you — Chung Dong-young is likely to win the election. This government and its political hit squad of prosecutors is going to neutralize Lee Myung-bak by hammering on his crookedness until he is forced to pull out of the race in mid-November. If he doesn’t resign voluntarily I predict that Roh will order Lee be arrested on television. At the last minute the GNP, in disarray, is going to have to choose between Park Geun-hye and (sigh) Lee Hoi-chang — unless Rhee In-je switches teams again!
11 Brendon Carr (Korea Law Blog) October 30, 2007 at 8:45 am: Sperwer writes:

A lot of “code” in Chung Dumb Young’s statement; but not too difficult to decipher. Consider this one, e.g.,

he said history develops under the action and reaction of the so-called thesis, antithesis and synthesis. He said his presidency would be a time of synthesis.

Yeah, I liked that one too — I wonder who his influences are? My favorite was at the end of that story (talk about burying the lede!):

But if a constitutional revision is made, he wants “the public concept in the ownership of land to be added.” Also the new Constitution should stipulate that people have the “right to make a decent living environment,” meaning that the state should curb property speculation and actively intervene in providing decent homes for the people.

Hmm. Chung views history through a dialectic and wants the State to own all the property. Clearly the man’s a visionary!

It is distressing that Korean politics forces the public to choose between — as one of my partners oberved over lunch the other day — a guaranteed thief and a shameless idiot who will say anything, no matter how ridiculous and patently untrue, to fool the populace. Still, my partner at least intends to vote for the thief. A thief knows the value of not destroying what he intends to steal. On the other hand, a shameless idiot with Chung’s ambition is really dangerous.
12 Sperwer October 30, 2007 at 8:51 am: I didn’t get that far, Brendon; after reading the first excerpt from the Communist manifesto I had to drive the porcelian bus.
13 Robert Koehler October 30, 2007 at 8:58 am: I have bad news for you — Chung Dong-young is likely to win the election. This government and its political hit squad of prosecutors is going to neutralize Lee Myung-bak by hammering on his crookedness until he is forced to pull out of the race in mid-November.

I’m not sure about that. Everyone knows how crooked Lee Myung-bak is. They just don’t care.
14 Andy Jackson October 30, 2007 at 9:15 am: I failed.

That filth paragraph is a killer. It will take a strong will or a heavy dose of Cool Aid to get past it without at least a snort.
15 mateomiguel October 30, 2007 at 10:01 am: “If elected, I will inherit and develop the positive legacy of the two previous liberal administrations but I will also seek ways of retooling their trials and errors,” he said.

retooling their trials and errors. What does this mean? Ok, we have trial and error, which is the hardest way to learn something. And we have retooling, which in this sense probably means revise or reorganize.

So this guy is going to revise and reorganize the blind experimentation method that his predecessors applied to the office of president? I guess his school of hard knocks had harder knocks than his predecessors? That statement does not fill me with confidence.
16 dogbertt October 30, 2007 at 10:05 am: That filth paragraph is a killer.

They’re all filth paragraphs, son.
17 captbbq October 30, 2007 at 10:53 am: Not laughing wasn’t the problem, the hard part is finishing that long diatribe of nonsensical rubbish. He’s just spewing tepid air…
18 abcdefg October 30, 2007 at 11:09 am: Actually anyone echoing reasoning as mathematically goofy as Hegel’s dialectics tends to be funny, Marxist sycophants included.

(Note: If I ever do so, it’s in sarcasm or sly jest.)
19 mins0306 October 30, 2007 at 11:24 am: I got halfway through the article and stopped reading, since I didn’t want to waste my time reading something that was a load of BS. Not because I burst out laughing.

Not that I find CDY’s recent statement to be ridiculous to say the least, but as everyone knows, this guy doesn’t have anything between his ears. He has also constantly proven that he’ll say anything to look good to the audience that he’s aiming for, which now is the U.S. He may think that he’s earning points but in reality it only reinforces the airhead and lightweight aura that surrounds him.
20 wjk October 30, 2007 at 11:53 am: who’s leaving Korea when this guy pulls off the improbable win?

One thing that hasn’t changed about Korea, the Korea that I remember is the incumbent President’s party using all the dirty tricks in the book to sway the minds of the mostly stupid public to vote and reinstate the incumbent party.
21 wjk October 30, 2007 at 11:55 am: don’t worry. Chung can’t win. I’ll shave my head if he does.
22 wjk October 30, 2007 at 12:09 pm: Chung doesn’t remind you of Hill Clinton?

Then, you’re a bloody hypocrite. Conservative Republican-like to Korea.

Liberal Democrat-like with your own country.
23 jameslayne October 30, 2007 at 12:20 pm: people, u’z all missing the point. of course the BS CDY is spittin’ is enuf to fertilize all of china, but you gotsta realize that he is talking to the korean peeps. i’m sho’ the crap coming out of his mouth ain’t arbitrary like the air that comes out of his ass; he was probably told to say that by his campaign strategists. the campaign strategists ain’t no fools, they know the korean people…

i mean come on, they are the ones who elected moo-hyuni
24 Wedge October 30, 2007 at 1:15 pm: Is it me, or is this guy’s black shoe polish cheaper than most around here?

I like this one:

“Despite his unwavering pro-U.S. stance, he said he rejects the idea of ‘blind worship of or servile attitude to the United States’ often called flunkeyism.”

Translation: All take and no give.
25 globalvillageidiot October 30, 2007 at 3:19 pm: “Chung doesn’t remind you of Hill Clinton?”

Not all that much. He’s not female. He’s not married to a former president. He’s not a former governor of a state he isn’t from. He’s probably not as smart as Ms. Clinton. He’s less likely (I truly hope!) to win than she is. He may have had as much cosmetic surgery as her, but I don’t claim to be an expert.

“One thing that hasn’t changed about Korea, the Korea that I remember is the incumbent President’s party using all the dirty tricks in the book to sway the minds of the mostly stupid public to vote and reinstate the incumbent party.”

wjk, this is absolutely true, but this elelction strategy is not exactly alien to the United States or other western democracies.
26 peninsular aborigine October 30, 2007 at 6:39 pm: Comparing that clown to Mrs Clinton does her a great disservice. She might have the heart and carriage of a battleship, but she does not deserve to be compared to a perennial Amateur Hour-er.
27 Brendon Carr (Korea Law Blog) October 30, 2007 at 7:05 pm: wjk writes:

don’t worry. Chung can’t win. I’ll shave my head if he does.

I’m in on on the shave-the-head pledge in case Chung Dong-young wins the election. On the other hand, having a completely bald pate instead of a jet-black wig from “Hi-Mo” would make politically-unreliable foreigners easier to round up once the pogroms start.
28 ZZOOzzoo October 30, 2007 at 9:52 pm: Things that are likely to happen in November:

1) Lee Hoe-Chang declares his intention to run, taking a large chunk of Lee MB’s support
2) Park GH throws her weight behind Lee Hoe-Chang
3) BBK scandal involving Lee MB dominates headlines
4) The lefties stage another ‘grand unification’ to throw their support behind one candidate, which will likely be Chung

After all these Lee MB won’t seem as inevitable as he now does.
29 wjk October 31, 2007 at 9:29 am: both Hill Clinton and Chung Dong young are saying whatever people want to hear to get elected. Both are making oxymoron claims on various issues.

Don’t see it?

You’re blinded by the war.
30 SomeguyinKorea October 31, 2007 at 4:18 pm: #3,

Yeah, but Roh also bragged that he had never been to the US.

#19,

Yeah, I also rarely find BS funny at all, especially when a large number of people will eat it up and ask for seconds.

#29,

Yeah, what happened to her plans for universal health-care? If you’re to believe Michael Moore, find who her largest contributors are and you’ll get your answer.