Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Real Reality]

A recent poll showing that our people consider the United States more of a threat to our security than North Korea is troubling.

To be expected, the respondents in their 20s named the U.S. over the North in a 3 to 1 ratio and those in their 30s in a 2 to 1 proportion, demonstrating higher anti-American sentiments among our youth.

In contrast, those in their 50s or above, typically regarded as conservatives, chose by a three to one margin North Korea over the U.S. as our chief security threat.

39 percent of respondents said that the United States poses a threat to South Korea, compared with only 33 percent who said the same about North Korea.

http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/opinion/200401/kt2004011217163111300.htm

[nolin nae]

i wish they made the respondants elaborate on what threat exactly, they thought america posed. again, koreans in their 20s and 30s without even the slightest clue of world affairs spewing racist hatred over a friggin' car accident. utter nonsense! get over it!

[Butterfly]

[tsgarp]

A lot of people talk about how Koreans are irrational, illogical, or overly emotional but take a look at nolin nae. Whew!
As an American I would objectively view America as a potential security threat to Korea. This is because of the Bush administration's confrontational, no-compromise attitude in foreign policy. I could see him deciding to pre-emptively strike North Korea resulting in a devastating counter attack on, not Washington, but Seoul. While it would be the North Korean army retaliating, I don't see Kim Jong Il being suicidal enough to attack the South without provocation. He knows he'd wind up in a spiderhole.

[nolin nae]

[Gwangjuboy]

[Butterfly]

I think we have to separate the President Bush administration from the great nation of which you speak. People aren't necessarily rubbishing America; I'm not certainly, and agree that we have much to thank America for historically, socially, culturally. The Bush Administration has acted unilaterally over the last year and waged war on a small nation because of all kinds of other agenda than the one set, WMD's, of which it turns out there weren't any. In addition the war was quickly and badly planned with very little action plan for what would happen in the aftermath. It is irrational, underhand, and more to the point, frightening. I'm frightened of what will happen next regardless of how I feel about America the country, which like you I love because of its diversity, creativity, and cultural freedom.

The point is, is that if America remains on the highest perch and makes decisions that effect all of us the world over, then we have a right to make comments and fear America when the man at the helm makes beligerant AND irrational decisions.

I love America like you. But I'm frightened the Bush administration will lead the world into oblivion, and thus see 'America' as a threat, but its not America, it's that son of b*tch President George W. Bush and his fascist cronies. That isn't a contradiction in my eyes, and likely the eyes of many of the Korean people that contributed to the poll. Many of my American friends feel the same way.

[tsgarp]

Where does it say they believe America will attack S Korea? America posing doesn't mean America has to attack S Korea at all. You can't deny that Bush would consider attacking the North if he only had the troops and resources.
What N Korean actions are being swept under the rug?

[Real Reality]

U.S. Is Korea's Adversary?
Among people in their twenties, 58 percent said the U.S. was the bigger threat, while only 20 percent cited the North. If we were to act upon the results of that survey, then the U.S. should be considered the Republic of Korea's main adversary, instead of North Korea.
http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200401/200401120029.html

tsgarp wrote,
"What N Korean actions are being swept under the rug?"

The North Korean Workers' Party platform supersedes the North's constitution, and it calls for the communization of the South. Of the North's more than one million regular forces, two thirds are forward deployed in an attack posture. The North is developing nuclear arms.

Analysis: Korea's unresolved conflict
In June 1999, northern fishermen entered the territory and were pushed back by the southern navy. Tensions rose when the northern navy arrived, and shots were fired. Within a matter of minutes two northern vessels were destroyed and at least 30 northern troops were killed. This was marked down as the worst naval engagement between the two sides since the war.

Then, the southern navy was already nervous, since two submarines from the North had been discovered in southern waters on the eastern coast a few months earlier. In those incursions, North Korean "spies" had come ashore, and there had been skirmishes leaving several dozen dead. In June 2002, another naval clash left five South Korean soldiers dead and an unknown number of casualties on the North Korean side.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/2074452.stm

'Millions could starve' in N Korea
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/2671191.stm

Analysis: Pyongyang's U-turn on abductions
For years, North Korea refused even to discuss the allegations that its agents had kidnapped Japanese citizens. The charges were condemned as a malicious fabrication.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/2264461.stm

[tsgarp]

And which of that was swept under the rug?

[ryleeys]

I'm gonna make some assumptions here so get your flame throwers ready:

1) I don't think that the average respondant to those polls would differentiate between the technicalities involved with the question. In other words, they don't conciously think about the differences between threat to security and threat to South Korea... in fact, they are even similar in terms of international relations speak, so the "average" Korean not pulling out the dictionary before responding doesn't imply they think the US is going to attack the South.

2) I think the last 3 years have been really damaging PR for American foreign policy. The younger you are, the fewer years you've been actively paying attention to the news and when things were mostly "good" during the '90's, the news wasn't thrown in your face the way it was now.



If this trend was to continue for another 5 years though, I'd like to see the United States pull out its troops and move on with the matter of being the nation expected to protect everyone and ignore the slander (some deserved, some undeserved)

[wylde]

good stuff ryleeys. but the world would go to the crapper if the US left its posts

[Juggertha]

Universtiy students rarely have a house, morgage or dependants.

ADULTs have those things.. and thus are forced to look at issues from a more practical perspective.

[nolin nae]

first off tsgarp, it is extremely difficult to argue with you after looking at your avatar...but i'll try.

what is your interpretation of the results of this survey? if south koreans don't fear a US attack (and i agree they shouldn't) what threat exactly does the US pose. if the US doesn't give north korea what it wants and north korea decides, in a desperation move, to attack south korea, this should be viewed as the US's fault? why are there US troops in s. korea in the first place? if the US is the bigger threat why do we have troops here protecting s. korea? what are we protecting them from? north korea is a country that south korea is technically still at war with, and the US poses a bigger threat? is there something in the water?

[ryleeys]

Maybe the world needs a little potty training... maybe they forget how nasty a world war can be. I mean, people say Americans have short attention spans, but at least we remember what a war on that scale was like. Maybe because unlike the Asian countries or alot of the European countries (no, the Brits aren't included), they didn't fight a world war, they fought a regional war. I'm gonna try and do some math here:

Before US = World War + massive deaths

With US = tension + lack of world war x lives not lost in combat


And before I get yelled at for the US causing deaths in Iraq, I'll say that I approved of removing Soddomite from power, just not in the way we did it... And whether we had the reasons or not, it stands that:

Before US = Iraqi dictator invading neighbors + millions of deaths

With US = potential for Iraqi freedom + thousands of deaths


Eh... people are gonna die in the Middle East anyway, may as well make that trade if we can.