Monday, May 12, 2003

For Korea wathchers this week is bound to be a treat. Roh's much anticipated visit to the US is finally underway and the speculation, news, views, and reviews are being shot out of printing presses and electronic sources everywhere. It doesn't matter if you read Newsweek, the Washington Times, the New York Times, CNN, the International Herald Tribune, or pretty much any paper you pick up. But the real fun won't start until after the Roh-Bush meeting, which I think is scheduled for tommorrow. Then we can be overloaded with reporters and experts giving us views, criticisms, praise, comments, analysis, reviews and total rubbish to our heart's content with all the fun of having to work out what is total rubbish and what isn't. Fun for the whole family!

New York Times is touting the US's new found credibility to threaten other nations into submission while the IHT gives a more pragmatic view of Roh, portraying him as a more level headed guy than other papers have been wont to do. Will they jointly decide to threaten North Korea and bully them into submission? Will they agree to scale back US forces more concretely? Will Roh and Bush agree of the peace and prosperity policy? Will they disagree over everything and decide to fight it out in the rose garden? So many options!

In other Korean news, looks like diplomatic ties between Australia and North Korea were just what the doctored ordered for North Korea. Australia's drug problem, particularly herion (in Melbourne I believe its a popular seller) was a market niche just begging for North Korean expertise. However, it seems stuffy law enforcers didn't think much of Korea's chosen business.


Currently reading:

"Hell" by Yasutaka Tsutsui