New Prez in South Korea

[Sierra Mike]

...amidst all the anti-American rhetoric and demonstrations, meet newly-installed Roh Moo Hyun...

Taking Charge (http://www.time.com/time/asia/magazine/article/0,13673,501021230-402037,00.html)

SM

[jamming]

I think it is time for 37, 000 Troops to come home unconditionally, and then lets see if South Korea is comfortable with the North?

[Sierra Mike]

Well, that would be my first reaction too, but the fact of the matter is, even the Chinese want the US troops there. So what the south's political leaders say during election frenzy and what they do during their terms are oftentimes two separate things.

There have been anti-American protests across the south since I can remember, usually every fall and spring. I don't think the idealistic youth of South Korea have a good idea of what really occurs up north, across the DMZ. No one does really, but I think we can judge the students' view to be the most erroneous.

SM

[jamming]

Hey we could use those troops in Iraq and reduce the American requirements overseas. Then we let the Japanese re-arm as they face a real threat from Korea. Either that or we tell the Chinese you clean house in NK and we will pull or troops out.

[Copzilla]

Well, that just makes it easy on the South Korean politicians, doesn't it? Can have their cake and eat it too.

Demonize the U.S., and say they won't kowtow to the U.S. The people they're kowtowing to is the student population.

I guess politicians are politicians, whether they're Korean or American.

Me, I'd bring 'em home anyway. Screw 'em, we have our hands in too many pies right now. It would be like Somalia, and now we're asked to return and straighten out the mess by those very people that shot at us. No thanks.

[jamming]

Why do I think "Germany" right now?

[Swamp Fox]

I don't think the idealistic youth of South Korea have a good idea of what really occurs up north, across the DMZ.

Steve,

I'm not up on the mood of the South Koreans, but I think that there has been a consensus for many years that their country had to develop along the lines of a neo-conservative, capitalistic model, and that they had to westernize, and the more liberal-minded especially wanted the liberties enjoyed by North American and Western Europe. I think those protestors were making cheap shots, when they really wanted the freedoms of the West.

[Sierra Mike]

Stanley,

It's prety clear from reading the article that our protesting ROK friends are a little unclear as to what's going on only kilometers from the DMZ:

But during a noisy Seoul street party celebrating Roh's cliff-hanger Dec. 19 victory, Kim, a 26-year-old publishing company employee, says he's not worried about the North—he's worried about his nation's longtime ally America. "The U.S. is oppressing North Korea," says Kim, adding that only Roh's brand of nonconfrontational diplomacy "can guarantee peace on the Korean peninsula."and:

But more than half of South Koreans, particularly younger voters, don't see the Stalinist North as a menace, according to a recent poll by Gallup and the South's Chosun Ilbo newspaper. They view the impoverished country as they might an aggressive panhandler who, through assistance and negotiation, can be coaxed into becoming a good citizen; and they see America's hard-line policy as a needless provocation of unpredictable dictator Kim Jong Il. "There is a totally different threat perception between South Koreans and Americans," says Balbina Hwang, a Korea expert at the Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C.Clearly, a lot of South Korean youth are viewing the world through rose colored glasses; not that this has ever been any different, but I do find this rather misplaced rhetoric irritating.

Fact: A condition of war still exists between North and South Korea.

Fact: American military presence, while token in true nature, has been the only stabilizing force on the peninsula.

Fact: North Korea has taken great advantage of the so-called "Sunshine Policy" of Kim Dae Jung, using it as a cover for its own ongoing weapons programs.

Fact: The North's Shinjuku free-trade zone is hardly successful, and the monies received from it go straight in weaponization programs.

Fact: Military clashes between the DPRK and ROK occure with some degree of regularity and lethality, the last being when five South Koreans and as many as 30 North Koreans died during a deadly naval exchange in the Yellow Sea in June 2002. The exchange began when patrol boats from the North, reportedly in South Korean waters, fired on South Korean vessels. The US has never, to my knowledge, been involved in such an operation; only Korean forces have gone to guns on each other.

Fact: DPRK operatives have instigated acts of terrorism against the ROK and other objectives, including US targets. While there is no evidence to substantiate these terrorist operations are continuing, it is worthy of some notice that the DPRK does not play fair.

I could go on and on, but to hell with it. The South Koreans will believe what they want to believe, and if the US 8th Army were to pull up stakes and come home, then the ROK would be the first to scream and cry how the US "isn't honoring its commitments." As if 50 years isn't enough.

SM

[wafen]

My brother is living in South Korea right now and the average Korean doesn't want the US to leave. This is just a small, but very vocal minority controlling the political process.
My brother and family feel safer there than they do here. If it was so hostile I don't think they would have stayed there when they could have come home.
My brother isn't one to jeopardize his family.

[Sierra Mike]

I would submit then that the ROK government recall who is manning the battlements on their behalf. It's not the ROK's 630,000 light infantry forces which hold the DPRK in check; it's about 42,000 US soldiers, sailors, Marines, and airmen.

SM

[wafen]

Originally posted by Steve Moore
I would submit then that the ROK government recall who is manning the battlements on their behalf. It's not the ROK's 630,000 light infantry forces which hold the DPRK in check; it's about 42,000 US soldiers, sailors, Marines, and airmen.

SM


Maybe it is the Katusas. :haha: