Summit Final Day

Just some observations from the day:

• The two Koreas will be making a “Peace and Prosperity Declaration for the Development of Intra-Korean Relations” at 1:00pm. Be there or be square. Yonhap News, citing a high-ranking South Korean official, said the declaration will include new and specific economic cooperation projects, with analysts believing the declaration will include either the construction of a second industrial park similar to the one in Kaesong (Haeju and Nampo are being bandied about as possible host cities) or renovation of North Korea’s outdated social overhead capital. Of course, we’ll just have to see.
• As mentioned yesterday, President Roh attended an edited version of the Arirang performance last night. Kim Jong-il did not attend, nor did he attend the dinner that followed. Roh did receive a pretty rousing round of applause from the packed stadium. The Hankyoreh has some video footage:

OK, the declaration has been signed. It’s an eight-point document, the translation of which will be up shortly, no doubt. If you read Korean, here’s the Korean original. The point that will raise the most eyebrows, most likely, is the agreement to work together to push a “three or four-party summit,” to meet “in the region of the Korean Peninsula,” that would declare the Korean War officially over and create a permanent peace regime on the Korean Peninsula. As one of those “three or four parties” is most definitely the United States, I hope Roh discussed this with Washington first. A number of intra-Korean economic projects were also listed, including an agreement to push the designation of the West Sea as a joint-fishing area, the opening of the port of Haeju to civilian shipping and joint use of the Han River estuary.

A deal to shut down all nuclear programs in North Korea has been struck. It goes into effect on New Years Eve. (OK I will believe it when I Fracking see it)

• Let nobody ever call President Roh cheap. The South Korean president brought known film buff KJI some 150 DVDs of South Korean dramas and films. At the top of the list, of course, was drama “Dae Jang Geum” (starring the remarkably lovely and articulate but for-reasons-I-can’t-quite-explain annoying as hell Lee Young-ae) and, as mentioned here on this very blog, “D-War” (which should set intra-Korean relations back a decade). Also given were popular drama “Winter Sonata,” “Marathon,” “YMCA Baseball Team,” “Chihwaseon” (a fine film, I should say), “Radio Star,” “Hwang Jinyi,” and Lee Young-ae films “JSA” and “Sympathy for Lady Vengeance.” Kim is reportedly a big Lee Young-ae fan, hence the number of her works included. No word on whether “Tajja” was included in the gift basket. It would be nice for KJI to get some exposure to good Korean films, but the thought of him beating off to Kim Hye-soo is a bit too much for me to handle. Reuters also notes the irony of presenting the North Korean leader with DVDs that are illegal for North Korean citizens to watch. (WHY DID YOU GIVE HIM D-WAR?)
  
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• President Roh sat through the “Arirang” performance, but sadly, Kim Jong-il was unable to attend. Bummer.

Now for something else, (Thanks GI Korea)......

I have looked fully into the whole Rush Limbaugh "phony soldier" controversy today and surprise, surprise it was bogus. Seriously I’m beginning to think Korean journalism standards are becoming higher than American standards considering all the recent bogus media manufactured controversies.

I highly recommend everyone read the Newsbuster link at the bottom of the FD posting that shows the coordinated political strategy that Media Matters has with Hillary Clinton. Media Matters is filled with Clintonites backed with millions of dollars of Soros money.

This is all definitely a coordinated strategy to change the topic after the widespread condemnation of Moveon.org’s attempts to slime Petraeus. Moveon.org will not be able to attack anybody for a while because they have been tainted by the Petraeus slime job. So Soros uses his other entity Media Matters to go on the offensive after Bush, O’reilly, and now Limbaugh in order to change the subject and bash conservatives.

You know the slime job is bad when Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson have both come out to defend Bill O’reilly.

1. usinkorea Oct 3rd, 2007 at 9:57 pm

   I watched a PBS news segment on Iraq that was exactly like that. They were interviewing soldiers in Iraq who were re-uping their contracts with the military….

   They chose two angles - both negative to the soldiers, the military, and the mission in Iraq.

   1. The mercenary angle….They had one soldier say it was all about the money which fit with the stuff just before about how the military was having to hand out big bonuses to keep people or recruit new ones. They talked about how this was big money for most of the soldiers due to where they came from…

   …which fits the overwhelming negative stereotype higher education indoctrinates us with in regards to GIs — that they are a bunch of uneducated, poverty stricken, ghetto thugs or rednecks who couldn’t cut it in the real world…

   2. They then interviewed a soldier who was not staying in the military. He said there was no way he would do it. And he added in negative tones that if someone could explain to him why the hell they were over there, he might consider it.

   Now, perhaps some outfit that actually lived up to the bullshit journalistic code they profess they follow —- would have gone out of their way to find a soldier who would say they support the mission and believe in what they are doing in Iraq —– that would be balance…..

   But, that was all we got from PBS……..mercenaries and disillusioned young men…..

   I guess they couldn’t find anybody in the hall that believed in the mission, no?….