Please don't equate South Korea with France
Tuesday, April 29, 2003

SEOUL.
The growing crisis on the Korean peninsula has many Americans confused and some thinking that South Korea might not be all that much better than France. After all, U.S. forces saved both nations and now both seem to be turning against us.

But, like most things in life, it isn't that simple. The French are, well, the French, but the Koreans are something else entirely. They are a proud people, grateful for what we've done for them in the past and hoping that we'll be there for them in the future but hoping also that they'll have some say about what's going on in their neighborhood.

I was in Seoul in the mid-'60s when President Johnson dropped in to acknowledge the help they were giving us in Vietnam at the time. They had sent several thousand of their best troops to Vietnam and were proud of their ability to help. They saw it as a chance to say thank you for our sacrifices during the Korean War.

The Seoul of the 1960s was far different from the Seoul of today. In those days, there was a lot of open space, and they were still rebuilding. Johnson spoke from the steps of City Hall to a crowd of somewhere between 3 and 4 million people who cheered his every word.

I was in that crowd among farmers and peasants who had in many cases walked for days to say thanks to a faraway nation that had come to their aid when all seemed lost. A man who had walked for three days with his grandson in tow asked me in barely understandable English if I would let the boy sit on my shoulders so he might at least get a glance at the American president. I was no Johnson admirer, but I was happy to oblige and damned proud to be an American.

But things have changed since the '60s. South Korea has not just rebuilt but taken off. Seoul is today a modern city of some 12 million people and is more noted for its traffic jams than open spaces. The old City Hall no longer looks out on the open vistas that held that crowd; it's surrounded by skyscrapers. Korea is a nation that has grown up and it's managed it in a region that is one of the worst neighborhoods imaginable.

The 22 million Koreans who live in an unimaginable hell north of the 38th parallel are being starved by a lunatic dictator who has forced many of them into one of the largest armies in the world.

What's more, he swears that one day he'll unleash that army on the people of South Korea. He can't feed his own people but has thousands of artillery pieces and missiles pointed at Seoul, and there are people in that city and here who fear that he's unbalanced enough to use them if he wakes up one morning in a bad mood.

As if that's not bad enough, he's thumbed his nose at us and the world and is hell bent on putting together a deliverable nuclear weapon that he can use to blackmail or destroy his "enemies" to the South while forcing the civilized world to look on lest he lob one its way.

To say all that makes South Koreans a little nervous is to understate the obvious. It scares the hell out of them because, you see, they know for a fact that their neighbor is as crazy as they come and they don't know what to do about it. They've built themselves a pretty good life and don't want to lose it.

They're afraid they won't have much to say about what happens. They seem to think that since it's their lives that are at stake they ought to have a place at the table and want us to know that they are a serious, mature nation with a right to a voice in what goes on in their neighborhood.

All of that has led to a great deal of frustration and hard feelings. There have been demonstrations that we view as anti-American and they see as simply pro-Korean. Their politicians haven't helped either. Many of them, including current President Roh Moo-hyun, have exploited those frustrations openly and often flagrantly.

As a result, many Americans concluded that Roh is anti-American. That turns out to be dead wrong; He's no more anti-American than the people he leads are. He's coming to Washington in a couple of weeks after taking steps to damp down the frustration of his own people and convincing his legislature to send troops to help us once again -- this time in Iraq.

What's more, he's made it clear that he wants us to stick around just in case and he seems as proud of the fact that he was able to help us as that crowd that gathered to greet Lyndon Johnson was nearly a half-century ago.