S. Korea : Ambassador to Paris to Protest Roh-Bashing Column

PARIS - The Korean Embassy in France, miffed by an editorial in the local paper Le Figaro that criticized President Roh Moo-hyun, said Thursday that it would write a letter of protest to the writer.

The column, titled "A Chess Game Called North Korea" and written by a member of the newspaper's editorial staff, Alexander Adler, described Roh as a “self-learned lawyer, U.S. hater and coward.”

“He is the Asian version of Oscar La Fontaine (former president of an Austrian political party), who was ready to betray the Western countries that showed benevolence to Central and Eastern European countries, and looks like he is ready to star in a Texas television movie," the column said.

“As the hysteric Korean leftists continued to attack everything about the U.S. in a reckless and wrongful manner, the U.S. threatened that it would not intervene with its military anymore, and used as a countermeasure the withdrawal of U.S. forces in Korea so that Koreans would be left to deal with their Northern brothers on their own. This threat was enough to bring President Roh to his senses.”

As far as I am concerned, there is nothing to protest. Mr. Adler is right about his assessment. Le Figaro is reported to be a center-right newspaper in France. However, I am curious about his assessment on French president Chirac. Does he approve of Chirac's recent behaviors or not ?

I would greatly appreciate if any Freeper can translate Adler's original article in Le Figaro and post it in this thread or in a separate one, although I assume that it may be a lengthy essay.

Follow up -- surprisingly, even an opposition party member condemened the article, though qualifying...: "Kim, on the other hand, didn’t forget to advise Roh to cautiously check himself in order not to be humiliated internationally." On the whole, it's a disturbing trend in the ROK -- going after the press. Obviously, this thing was some kind of editorial, against a public figure -- this wasn't a mistatement of facts, it was a matter of opinion; though it was strong, it's not like he called the guy a 'weed' or something... GNP Shields Roh From Le Figaro’s Attack By Ryu Jin Staff Reporter In a rare display of amity by the usually hostile opposition, the Grand National Party (GNP) yesterday shielded President Roh Moo-hyun from a recent editorial in the French daily Le Figaro, which criticized the president with scathing words. Rep. Kim Yong-iel, GNP secretary general who is famous for his bitter criticism on the government and the president, called on Le Figaro to apologize for the column, saying it was equivalent to ``profanity against the nation.’’ ``It is problematic that the French daily delivered an editorial debasing the dignity of the president of a country,’’ Kim said in a meeting of the party’s key post-holders. ``There should be an appropriate explanation and a certain level of apology.’’ The column ``A Chess Game Called North Korea,’’ written by Alexander Adler, a member of the newspaper’s editorial staff, described President Roh as a ``self-taught lawyer, U.S. hater and coward.’’ ``He is the Asian version of Oscar La Fontaine (former president of an Austrian political party), who was ready to betray Western countries that showed benevolence to central and eastern European countries, and looks like he is ready to star in a Texas television movie,’’ Adler wrote. The editorial claimed the United States threatened that it would not intervene with its military any more as hysterical Korean leftists continued to attack everything about the U.S. in a reckless manner. ``The U.S. used the withdrawal of U.S. Forces Korea as a countermeasure so that Koreans would be left to deal with their Northern brothers on their own. This threat was enough to bring President Roh to his senses,’’ the column claimed. Rep. Kim pointed out that the editorial lacked precise and detailed knowledge, and mobilized rude expressions for a head of state. Kim, on the other hand, didn’t forget to advise Roh to cautiously check himself in order not to be humiliated internationally. In the meantime, the Korean Embassy in Paris said Thursday that it would write a letter of protest to the writer of the column. http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/nation/200305/kt2003050917542711990.htm

RE #3

I can't imagine how Roh reacted if Mr. Adler called him "weed" which is the word Roh used to called his opponents. Apparently, Roh has a strong victimization complex. It is creepy to watch him lash out at some media outlets recently. His fixation on media control is really disturbing, as you said.

The guy is all riled up. He appears to define his politics as a holy war against his preceived evils while, in reality, his opponents are garden-variety folks. None of them fit the profile of real evil such as Kim Jong-Il or Saddam Hussein. I believe that this is more than the case of overblown rhetoric.

Roh seems to be stylizing himself as the "party center"....

All good flows from him; you can do whatever you want, as long as it's not objectionable. What is good for Roh, is good for the society as a whole (hmmmm... now where have I heard that before?).

Actually, he's selling himself as Lincoln on his trip to the States (Lincoln Memorial is one of his first stops). Somehow he thinks he's the sixteenth president of the ROK (actually, I only count eight, but what do I know, I'm just a waygookin), as Lincoln was the sixteenth of the US. One of the papers said, "any quick-witted American would quickly notice the similiarities...". Personally, it had never occurred to me; and even when they lay it out before me like that, I think it's a stretch. 'Has something to do with them both being of humble origins and self-educated (are we really still supposing this guy actually passed his bar exam and didn't pay someone to take it for him???). He's going to "persuade" Bush to do all kinds of wonderful things like not worrying about the madman to the north with the nucs killing his people by the millions (Roh's new Hakunamatata policy), to keep the alliance strong (for the time being -- until he can get through his crisis then stab us in the back again); but the main focus of his trip is to reassure American investor confidence and "persuade" the credit rating agencies that everything's R-O.K. -- not realizing his own character is probably the foremost factor in the loss of confidence in the ROK.

Supposedly he's taken out full page ads in the big US papers and will have 60 second spots on CNN a few times a day throughout the visit. This ought to be really entertaining.

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