The Bulldozer Show will be going to Camp David next month for a summit the US President George W. Bush, reports Yonhap News.
Lee will be the first Korean president to visit Camp David since, well, ever.
Lee is also expected to address the US Congress, presumably to beg them to pass the KORUS FTA before Obama becomes president.
From Yonhap:
Officials in Seoul and Washington have cautiously been discussing arrangements for a Camp David summit, which over the years have come to symbolize an especially close relationship between the U.S. and the nation of the invited leader. Foreign leaders invited to the retreat have often been lavished with personal attention by U.S. presidents.
OK, that just sounds creepy.
At any rate, I’m sure the two will hit it off just grand, both being former businessmen who love Jesus and all. Not sure how much help LMB expects from Bush for the FTA, though — there’s only so much political clout a 30% approval rating brings to the table.
8 Comments
. . . talk about a scat fetish.
I only wonder who is smearing the other upon themselves and why.
i just wonder if you see the other side of this. that is, while it seems very apparent that lmb wants to make up with the us, it also seems apparent that the us wants to make up with south korea. i’m a bit surprised he got invited to camp david since, as you have already said, no sk president has ever been there. it’s clear the bush white house wants to send a messege.
i hope the korean people will take note.
moving on, just after lmb won the election, he met some foreign digs who wanted to congrdulate him. i saw a photo of him approaching them with his hand outstretched to shake theirs. i found the picture odd. why? well, first, lmb just had the biggest smile on his face. i’ve never seen another k president smile like that. anybody approached with such a smile will suffer the first stages of being disarmed. and from the looks on the faces of those dignitaries, disarmed they were. you see, they all had beaming smiles on their faces too. it looked genuine. i’ve never seen the same thing happen when other korean presidents met foreign dignitaries. george is going to get along just fine with mb.
folks, is lmb korea’s first international president?
btw, though they won’t say it, i’ll bet japan isn’t happy with this. i don’t even need to say why.
LMB has much more polish and capability than GW, thus I wonder why he is going there now since he does not really need the PR. There must be more to this trip than PR.
Abe went to Camp David in 2007. Koizumi had one or two Crawford trips.
I hope LMB does go to camp David, but I’m not going to pin those hopes on Yonhap. This could still be another case of South Korean officials prematurely announcing a US decision.
‘Abe went to Camp David in 2007. Koizumi had one or two Crawford trips.’
yeah, i know that. if your comment was towards me, then you didn’t understand what i wrote about japan. you see, while you and the expat community tell us ad naseum that koreans are so petty, the japanese are just as petty.
the japanese will be upset to see a korean president go to camp david. why?
cause they’re petty people. that’s why.
I agree with pawi, Japanese are petty people. But then Japan is a super nerdy country with all their anime and video games.
There’s no doubt they will complain just for the mere fact that they aren’t the center of attention.
From the White House website:
The President and Mrs. Bush will host President Lee Myung-bak of the Republic of Korea and his wife, Mrs. Kim Yoon-ok, at Camp David on April 18-19, 2008. The President welcomes this important opportunity to consult with the new President on ways to continue to work together to advance our shared values of freedom, security, and prosperity in the Asia-Pacific region and beyond. The two leaders will also discuss a wide range of common goals, including ratifying the U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement, denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula through the Six-Party Talks, continuing our cooperation in aiding the new democracies in Iraq and Afghanistan, and further strengthening the U.S.-Republic of Korea Alliance. This will be President Lee’s first visit overseas since he took office.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news.....80312.html
This White House announcement could be premature, too, like “Mission Accomplished.”