| View previous topic :: View next topic |
| Author |
Message |
mindmetoo
Joined: 02 Feb 2004
|
 Posted: Mon Oct 09, 2006 10:18 pm Post subject: How will the Norks vote for Ban Ki Moon? |
 |
|
I wonder if the Norks are going to vote for or against the South Korean nominee for Secretary General. It's got to be eating them alive in terms of pride. Aren't they the ones with the leader who was born on the same sacred mountain as Tangun or something?
Voting against him would seem like sour grapes but then voting for him would say "yeah, we want South Korea to lead us." |
|
| Back to top |
|
 |
On the other hand
Joined: 19 Apr 2003
Location: I walk along the avenue
|
| Posted: Mon Oct 09, 2006 10:58 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| Quote: |
It's got to be eating them alive in terms of pride. Aren't they the ones with the leader who was born on the same sacred mountain as Tangun or something?
Voting against him would seem like sour grapes but then voting for him would say "yeah, we want South Korea to lead us."
|
At the end of the day, I don't think the Norks will share the pride of the South Koreans over Ban. There tends to be a bit of asymmetry between what the North and the South regard as matters of intrapeninsular pride. For example, most ex-pats probably regard the 2002 World Cup as the zenith of Korean nationalism, closely linked with the wave of pro-unification sentiment that followed. But I don't think the Norks viewed it that way at all. If I recall correctly, that gymnastics festival they held at the same time was intended to upstage the World Cup. Same with the Communist Youth Festival that they held at the same time as the Seoul Olympics.
Romantic nationalism aside, I think the North would very much view Mr. Ban as an official of an antagonistic regime. Also, they probably know that as a trained and experienced diplomat, he'd be a bit more hardnosed than a gushing sentimentalist like Roh Moo Hyun. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Ya-ta Boy
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Location: Established in 1994
|
| Posted: Tue Oct 10, 2006 4:29 am Post subject: |
|
|
| Quote: |
| the 2002 World Cup |
In early 2004 I had a student who said he was watching a World Cup game when the call came in that the Norks had attacked ships in the Yellow Sea. He and the other guys had to turn off the TV and go out and fish their dead/wounded friends out of the water.
Ever since, I have been sensitive to the idea that the Norks will do almost anything to distract the world from anything positive that happens in SK. Very much like the chronically insecure younger brother shouting, "Look at me! Look at me!" when Older brother/sister does something of note.
It's a day and a half after the detonation and people are still unsure if it was actually a nuke. I can see how that would fit into KJI's playbook. But I'm left with the sneaking suspicion that the timing of this maybe had at least as much to do with Ban's election by the Security Council, ie, it was an inter-Korean thing more than an international thing. I think what I mean is, KJI wants the world community to think NORTH when they think of Korea, not SOUTH, as a way of imprinting the North's 'legitimacy' on world consciousness. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
mindmetoo
Joined: 02 Feb 2004
|
| Posted: Tue Oct 10, 2006 5:28 am Post subject: |
|
|
| Ya-ta Boy wrote: |
In early 2004 I had a student who said he was watching a World Cup game when the call came in that the Norks had attacked ships in the Yellow Sea. He and the other guys had to turn off the TV and go out and fish their dead/wounded friends out of the water. |
If I recall even the '88 Olympics the North with some bluster insisted the South should host some of the games in North Korea and made threats of war if the South didn't. Hell, even the North's disastrous Ryugyong Hotel project was the North's response to a South Korean company building the world's largest hotel in Singapore or something. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
On the other hand
Joined: 19 Apr 2003
Location: I walk along the avenue
|
| Posted: Tue Oct 10, 2006 3:53 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| Quote: |
| If I recall even the '88 Olympics the North with some bluster insisted the South should host some of the games in North Korea and made threats of war if the South didn't. |
It's also generally accepted that the North blew up that airplane to deter people from attending the Olympics. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
FAQ
Search
Memberlist
Usergroups
Register
Profile
Log in to check your private messages
Log in
