Landslide Vote! S. Korea Parliament Votes To Send 700 Military/Medics To Help USA In Iraq (Breaking)

Chosun Ilbo Daily News-Seoul (English Version) ^ | 2 April 2003 | Chosun Ilbo Daily News (English Version)

[Grampa Dave]

Yes, we have a wonderful president, and you are right re Turkey, and the fence setters and potential back stabbers.

I see the S. Korea episode as a complete reversal in just a few months.

[Grampa Dave]

I find it inconceivable that two harsh dictatorships under communists still exist, N. Korea and Cuba.

I hold our media responsible for not blasting them 24/7 for human right abuses and crimes against their own people.

[Spirited]

"I still believe the Koreans are a good and happy people despite..."

We have a great many of them in the DC area and they are diligent, industrious people.

South Korea is (numberically) the only Christian nation we have.

[Centurion2000]

BUMP !!!!

[Lake]

>>They even bought hard to find female products.

What products? Please be specific.......

[truth_seeker]

Smart fellows. Thanks for the help.

They will be in position for Iraq reconstruction work, for which they have well qualified companies.

And they can count on us, if N. Korea acts up, too much.

Contrast this behavior, with France (who has started whining they want in, on Iraq reconstruction work).

Let France donate free cheese and froglegs to Iraq. Otherwise, stfu.

[TigerLikesRooster]

Thanks for your post. Somebody spooked Mr. Roh real good. He was all over the place pushing for this troop deployment as if his life had depended on it.

I think that international credit rating agencies(especially Moody's) and foreign investors were spooked by constant discords between Mr. Roh and American gov. Wealthy people in S. Korea got spooked, too. Such a scare created many disturbing phenomena. The sudden popularity of dollar-denominated bank accounts among well-to-do folks. Talks of emigration via investment visas. People buying up gold. Foreign business execs bailing out, with two years still left in their leases, even though their lease agreement has no provision for any kind of refund. All these things must have made Mr. Roh really scared.

It was fun to watch some of his erstwhile die-hard constituency turning on him, basically branding him as a traitor over this flap.

[TigerLikesRooster]

RE #67

It is clear that Mr. Roh saw this troop deployment as a sure way of redeeming his previous blunders, defusing the discord between two governments and apprehension among business folks. The big stick of Rummy, Safire, and Novak produced the intended results by spooking business atmosphere in S. Korea. Of course, it would also help to secure contracts for Iraqi reconstruction projects. But that is a minor consideration, though.

He is way behind the learning curve when it comes to international economy and national security.

[AmericanInTokyo]

Yeah, and it goes both ways, don't you know?

A number of American names sound funny to Asians as well.

For example, to the Japanese, "Baca" (a common last name in New Mexico) means "jackass" and "Gary" means "diarreah". The Arizona town of "Ajo" is "idiot" in Japanese.

There are many, many of these.

[AmericanInTokyo]

I'd much rather reconstruction projects in Iraq go to S. Korean firms like Hyundai Construction, Daewoo, Samsung and what not, than to go the frogs and the nazis.

It will serve as notice to countries far and wide to line up with the US on these issues in the future, or risk being isolated not only diplomatically and militarily, but economically.

[SarahW]

I hold our media responsible for not blasting them 24/7 for human right abuses and crimes against their own people. Not to mention their ridiculous websites. :)

[Grampa Dave]

You and the CIA are probably the only ones who got to the N Korea web sites. I would never visit them. The cookies implanted by them during a visit might be really bad for my computer.

[SarahW]

You're missing out!

It's truly hilarious. (I keep my security warnings turned on.)

[Grampa Dave]

You need to post some of those funny things on the next N. Korea thread.

[Alissa]

I still believe the Koreans are a good and happy people despite what we get on the news over here covering demonstrators in the streets.

I agree. I was in Korea many times in the 80's. Those rioters are mostly college students who are slightly more leftist than our own. They would riot at the drop of a hat even back then. I think the North Koreans infiltrate the universities with their communist propaganda. However, the average Mr/Mrs Lee are usually very nice.

[SarahW]

The contrast with the ultra-wired, prosperous and westernized South Korea is mind boggling.

DH told me something interesting (based on some expert punditry he'd heard on the subject)... He said that if North Korea ever invaded South Korea, the soldiers would get one good look at their neat, affluent suburbs and go boggle-eyed, slack-jawed, dropping their weapons in shock.
Everything they've been told, everthing they know about SK is the complete opposite. The cognizant dissonance would just be too much -

So much for being "under the imperialist thumb of the west!"

[Mamzelle]

I appreciate the gesture, but it is grudging at best. Roh is under pressure because the US has taken him up on Roh's campaign pledge to put the US in its place. Roh wants more "equal" partnership with the US, and even said in a conflict with NK, SK should be neutral. What Roh means by "equal" is for the US to take orders from a leftist Roh.

We have 37,000 troops standing between Roh and NK, and Roh only has energy to criticize us. And these aren't "engineers" and "medical personnel", but combat-ready.

Time to bring these troops home, redeploy in a place more in the interests of the US.