Chirps vs Tweets

'Chirps vs tweets - Inter Korean Summit' (20180428 - twitter.com/theseoulvillage/status/990027815734013952)

What a week... a long expected reunion, waves of relief, hope, doubts, cautious euphoria, speeches, informal chats, laughs, tweets, and actual bird chirps.

I'm of course referring to the 2018 Asan Plenum, kicked off by a surreal Trumpian gospel according to Edwin J. Fuller, and wrapped up by a stimulating manel on North Korea. As the theme 'Illiberal International Order' suggests, it's a tad early to wear rose-colored glasses, and a 'red nose' still remains possible (even if Victor CHA joked that he'd 'never heard of it'). When Paul Wolfowitz passes for a dove heralding liberal democracies, you want to be cautious. Once more, kudos to HAHM Chaibong and the Asan Institute, it was great to see familiar and new faces speaking their minds out at such a defining moment.

And what moment. Not that handshake, not that bear hug, not even that Clinton-Yeltsin-ish burst of laughter after a few drinks (see below). But the moment when a North Korean leader left his mob to walk alone across the demarcation line. If we'd been there before, we'd never seen that.

So whom to credit most for this breakthrough? Donald TRUMP certainly served as a catalyst, and XI Jinping as an enabler, but nothing could have happened without MOON Jae-in, and the man who's seen it all, SEO Hoon.

Can we trust DPRK when they say they will give up nukes? Not really - exhibit A Inter Korean Summit I, exhibit B Inter Korean Summit II.

Can DPRK trust us? Not really - exhibit A Gaddafi, exhibit B Iran Deal.

Anyway, as someone uses to say: 'let's see what happens'.
 

ICYMI, Asan Plenum Day 1 in tweets: in tweets
#AsanPlenum 2018 Day 1 

ICYMI - - the DMZ strut, KIM Yo-jong's choregraphy, RI Sol-ju's dash, and that other Panmunjom Declaration carved on the trunk of the tree planted by both leaders: 'J hearts J'
When Jong-un met Jae-in

CVID?

Complete.
Verifiable.
Irreversible. #Denuclearization.#MissionAccomplished.

(inspectors were vetted by the Trump campaign)#AsanPlenum pic.twitter.com/mLrt6vAULN

— Seoul Village (@theseoulvillage) April 25, 2018

- 'Complete...'
- 'Verifiable...'
- 'Irreversible...'
- 'Detoxification!'
- 'Sorry, I can't give that one up'
#cvid #InterKoreanSummit (20180428 - twitter.com/theseoulvillage/status/990167682904350720)*

Seoul Village 2018
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* Michael wondered what was so funny about that $ 100 bill, and the answer is of course that it was old counterfeit money from North Korea, the $ 300 bill with Kim Jong-un's face, and Uncle Jang at the Treasury (twitter.com/theseoulvillage/status/990165973658255360) 

KORUS chorus

The official launch of "Korea matters for America / America matters for Korea", a East West Center - ASAN Institute co-production, was the perfect occasion to celebrate 60+ years of friendship between Korea and the US.

Actually, an earlier launch event titled "Korea and the United States: 60 Years of Partnership Going Forward" took place on the other side of the big pond on December 11th last year, at the Capitol Visitor Center.

Along with the Ambassador of the ROK to the US AHN Ho-young, five Congresspeople attended the Washington, DC launch: Colleen HANABUSA (R-HI), Mike HONDA (D-CA - we already mentioned this great man in "Silver lining, darker clouds"), Mike KELLY (R-PA), David REICHERT (R-WA), Peter ROSKAM (R-IL). East Coast, West Coast, Midwest, Hawaii... you name it!

This morning at the ASAN Institute Seoul HQ, Dr. HAHM Chaibong* welcomed among other dignitaries the US Ambassador to Korea Sung KIM, and two influent members of the National Assembly: HWANG Jin-ha (Vice-Chairman of the Korea-US Inter-Parliamentary Council), and KIM Jong-hoon (Mr KORUS FTA in the eyes of many Koreans - whatever love/hatred they put in the label).

No need to convince Seoul-born US Ambassador to Korea Sung KIM that Korea matters for America and vice versa
twitter.com/theseoulvillage/status/446110479497195520

General KIM Jae-chang (Ret. ROKA, Chairman of the Council on ROK-US Security Studies), Ambassador KIM in the foreground. Among the other speakers, AMCHAM President Amy Jackson.

KIM Jong-hoon (here at the roundtable with Dr. CHOI Kang, Ambassador CHUN Yung-woo, and Dr. Satu LIMAYE) lamented over free trade's loss of momentum globally, and more locally for the Korea-Japan-China FTA (particularly thanks to Shinzo ABE**)
twitter.com/theseoulvillage/status/446139588919033856

Congratulatory speeches set aside, what's "Korea matters for America / America matters for Korea"? A brochure and a platform, part of the "Asia matters for America" initiative created by Dr. Satu LIMAYE, the Director of the East-West Center in Washington. Note that EWC's HQ are truly between continental US and Asia, in the very Korean friendly State of Hawaii.

The bilingual, 34-page brochure co-produced by the two think tanks is a perfect tool to convince any reader of the trueness of its title. Yes, Korea matters for America and America matters for Korea, and at all levels - particularly the four that matter to Ambassador KIM: security, politics and diplomacy, personal and cultural relations, economy.

As a bonus to a brochure mixing perfectly graphics, maps, and statistics, we received a map of the US exports to Korea at the US congressional district level, which is much more precise than the State level. For instance, you can spot Mike HONDA's District, CA-17, the biggest exporter to Korea with $892M in 2012, and a key part of the Sillicon Valley (any famous company from Cupertino in mind, starting with App and ending in le(gal)?).

Beyond the brochure, the platform (where, of course, you can download the brochure). AsiaMattersForAmerica.org/korea is the US-Korea part of the Asia matters for America portal that also covers bilateral relations with China, Japan, India & Co:

In this trove of knowledge, any representative, constituent, businessman or decision maker can measure the value of Asian countries in each congressional district. 

Take for instance Texas 32, another key exporter to Korea - that's NE Dallas around Highland Park, Mesquite, University Park, Garland... and of course Richardson's telecom corridor, home to Samsung Telecommunications America, Inc. You learn that semiconductors and components represent half of the exports to Asia, but also that Asian Americans make up 6% of the population (with more Vietnamese than Koreans), that visitors from Asia bring $120 M to the travel and tourism industry, that Dallas has sister city relationships with Tianjin....

AsiaMattersForAmerica.org/korea

Today, we heard a lot about security, politics, and economy, but of course, it's always about the people. At the top leadership as well as the citizens level, what matters most is the people, and it's no wonder these two think tanks collaborated on this project.


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* whom we last saw chatting on stage with a POTUS (see "W. at The Shilla for Chosun")

** BTW Leif-Eric, I might eat my hat after all: a PARK Geun-hye - ABE Shinzo does seem more likely than I thought in the short term!

W. at The Shilla for Chosun

You know you're entering POTUS territory when your mobile phone plays dead. Even when said POTUS is, in his own terms, "retired" and "out of the loop". For good measure, George W. Bush started oil painting a couple of years ago, but so far, his teacher has failed to bring out the "Rembrandt trapped in (his) body". Laura convinced him to expose at his Presidential Library the portraits of 27 heads of state, and I really wonder if Jacques Chirac is a member of this new "Axis of Easel".

When it comes to collecting former heads of state, you can trust Chosun Ilbo's prestigious Asian Leadership Conference. If we solely consider the host nation and the US of A, the conference started last year* with the Prime Minister and a former Secretary of State, and for this 5th edition, with President Park Geun-hye and "43". Whom do they have in store for 2015? 

This morning at The Shilla, Chosun Media also delivered 4 former Prime Ministers: Yukio HATOYAMA (who strongly condemned Shinzo ABE for his infamous Yasukuni visit), Julia GILLARD (still not much into foreign affairs, I reckon), Lothar de MAIZIÈRE (who signed the reunification treaty for East Germany), and Goh Chok Tong (who succeeded Lee Kuan Yew in Singapore). The first 3 were on stage with Leon PANETTA, the former Secretary of Defense of the United States / Director of the CIA / Chief of Staff, and RYOO Kihl-Jae, South Korea's Minister of Unification... or shall I say "Minister of Bonanza"?

James Pearson (‏@pearswick): "The Blue House says 대박's official translation is now 'bonanza', not 'jackpot'. So roll on the 'unification bonanza'". Seoul Village (‏@theseoulvillage) " @pearswick meet the new Ministry of Unification" twitter.com/theseoulvillage/status/436387918056128514

Note that Chosun Ilbo CEO BANG Sang-hoon used the English word 'jackpot' in his opening remarks. And that both he and PARK Geun-hye elaborated on the satellite night view of North Korea recently published by the ISS (see "Superpower failures").

Difficult to think of a better image to measure the challenge ahead for the theme this year: "One Korea, New Asia". But the two videos aired during the Opening Ceremony were much more positive: spectacular series of pristine DMZ landscapes (okay, a few military here and there), followed by an animated movie showing two railways reach across the Korean peninsula and, beyond, Eurasia: one via Beijing, the other via Moscow.

But so far, we've heard little about Russia, in spite of Vladimir Putin's efforts to steal some of the spotlights a priori devoted to KIM Jong-un.  

"Curious to hear what G. W. Bush will say about "Ukrainia" at ALC Chosun. An "Axis of Anvil" with Russia's resurrected hammer and sickle?"
twitter.com/theseoulvillage/status/440232628977799170

We also owe that to Dr. HAHM Chaibong. The President of ASAN Institute was moderating W's keynote speech, which turned out to be a friendly discussion that did venture into unexpected territories (that's where we learned about Dubya's artistic ambitions), but always remained focused on the topic of the day. 

The cameras focused on various parts of the audience while the two notoriously cool dudes chatted pleasantly on stage: are they talking about human rights in North Korea? here's a close-up of CHUNG Mong-joon on the giant screens; is Bush's recalling how Samsung invested in Texas when he was the Governor? here's LEE Jay-yong's face...

Let's be very clear: I'm not a Bush fan, and that's an outrageous understatement. Typically, I was not so convinced when this man tearfully recalled how "appalled" he was to see a government deny all justice to prisoners kept in the camps depicted in "The Aquariums of Pyongyang" or "Escape from Camp 14"**: Guantanamo or Abu Ghraib were not precisely the finest moments of his own Administration.

But give him that: George W. Bush remains the heckuvan entertainer, and I couldn't repress smiles at his incessant wisecracks, for example when he told the story of that lost phone call to Jiang Zemin. Dubya the pseudo-Texan also remains at his swaggering best: look at him dismiss the risk of seeing China eclipse America ("forget it! it's not gonna happen!"), or the risk of himself coming out of retirement ("I had all the fame and power, I don't want anymore!").

"W" at The Shilla for Chosun - Today, I learned that in the George W. Bush Presidential Library, you're likely to find not only bibles and rare editions of My Pet Goat, but also great books about North Korean prison camps.

The former POTUS gracefully praised all the Chinese and Korean leaders he served with, ROH Moo-hyun as well as his friend LEE Myung-bak (after all, The Attorney was the partner at the origin of the FTA).


And when he left the room, my mobile phone miraculously resurrected.


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* see "Asian Leadership Conference 2013"
** GWB will again meet with KANG Chol-hwan and SHIN Dong-hyuk this afternoon