[KS] Walker's Professorial Memoirs of Korea (long finale)

Frank M. Tedesco tedesco at uriel.net
Tue Jul 14 23:53:00 EDT 1998


>               [Walker's Memoirs] Korea and
>               Opportunities for Enrichment in Life 
>               07/12

>               For more than half a century, as a university professor I
>               have urged my students to immerse themselves in another
>               culture in order to better to appreciate their own and to
>               gain some perspective on how they fit into a shrinking world.
>               I know that my own life has been abundantly enriched by
>               having lived in countries of East Asia which have been part
>               of Confucian tradition.
> 
>               For the past year _ every week for fifty-two weeks _ I have
>               been recalling my experiences with Korea since the start of
>               the Korean War in 1950. I have been grateful to the editors
>               and staff of the Hankook Ilbo and The Korea Times for their
>               thoughtful and accurate handling of my weekly
>               ``Remembrances.''
> 
>               Certainly I have been gratified by the many letters and
>               comments from friends in Korea and in the United States who
>               have found my writings of value for them. For some of them a
>               vignette which I have written recalls a vivid memory; for
>               others there have been occasions when I have been able to
>               supply background material about events which at the time of
>               my service were not discussed openly in the press. A few have
>               thanked me for providing some insights into an important era
>               in Korean-American relations.
> 
>               Those who have been reading this series over the past year
>               will have gathered that in the Confucian tradition I have
>               learned to set great store in the international equation.
>               This is, in the long run, I feel, more important than legal
>               documents or contracts. And as I bring my ``Korean
>               Remembrances'' to a final set of observations, there are, I
>               believe, a few important points worth making.
> 
>               First, in giving attention to some of the movers and shakers,
>               I have been privileged to encounter on my Korean journey, I
>               have hardly scratched the surface and may have neglected so
>               many friends who have been so close. For example, I should
>               have given attention to our wonderful Embassy Driver, Kim
>               Seung-youn, with whom my wife Ceny and I developed bonds of
>               respect and affection. He was a part of our family throughout
>               my tenure as ambassador, with a kinship-type relation. Driver
>               Kim had an unsurpassed dignity and was always checking into
>               aspects of our security and comfort. I should mention that
>               although he was not a rich man, when my wife tragically died
>               in February of 1990, it was Kim who led embassy employees in
>               making a large memorial gift in her memory.I was saddened to
>               learn of his death only a couple of years ago. There were so
>               many Koreans, at all levels, with whom I interacted and who
>               became an essential part of Korea's role in enriching my
>               life.
> 
>               Second, I have, as an outside observer moving in and out of
>               the Korean environment, been able to appreciate the strength
>               of the Korean culture. Koreans are acutely aware that their
>               history has been studded all to often by difficult encounters
>               with foreigners. The Korean people have suffered great losses
>               of life and at times deprivations of elements essential to
>               their national dignity. But all of us have known and admired their
>               capacities for overcoming hardships. I am one of the
>               commentators in the United States who is urging that the
>               financial crisis of 1998 be put into long-range perspective.
>               It is something which the Korean national character will
>               surmount. The blitz of world-wide media hype tends to
>               overplay this crisis, which though obviously serious, may in
>               a few years time be but an unpleasant memory.
> 
>               How can I make such a statement? I draw on decades of
>               watching Koreans surmount graver situations. In the Republic
>               of Korea today there is an unmatched level of education, a
>               solid structure of one of the world's most sophisticated
>               industrial establishments, an infrastructure of energy and
>               transportation which has knit the country tightly together,
>               and most of all, there is the ``can do'' attitude of the
>               Korean people which will not accept defeat. The financial
>               difficulties of 1998 tend to bring out what I have, along
>               with a number of others, called the ``uri syndrome.''
> 
>               Koreans, conscious of their own unique long individual
>               historical tradition, pull together. ``It is `uri' (our) duty
>               to give up personal gold across the land for the national
>               cause.'' This was the initial response to the financial
>               crisis. The ``uri syndrome'' has helped the Koreans to join
>               and work together in times of difficulty.
> 
>               Third, Korea remains set in a crucial geostrategic position
>               in a part of the world which is gaining in strength and
>               importance. Increasingly, Seoul is regarded as a critical
>               player in the game of great power relations. An active role
>               for modern Korea is preferred by China in any potential
>               rivalries with Japan or Russia. Russians would rather have
>               Koreans in joint undertakings related to Siberian mineral and
>               energy resources than Japanese or Chinese. Japanese regard a
>               strong Korea as a buffer or safeguard in its relations with
>               continental powers. And the United States has had its close
>               alliance with Korea viewed as a stabilizing factor by other
>               three powers in the area. All of this argues that in the
>               great power equation all four of the great powers involved
>               are interested in insuring a stable future in Korea.
> 
>               Of particular importance for Korea's future are its relations
>               with China. Korea was a former ``tribute bearer'' to the
>               Middle Kingdom, and the Chinese have long regarded Korea as
>               an area over which they exercise``suasion.'' The current line
>               from Beijing is that while the alliance with the United
>               States is all right for Korea, in the long run America will
>               not be involved; Korea's ultimate future lies in an
>               accommodating relationship with Beijing.
> 
>               Korea's return to normal relations with the PRC may be one of
>               Seoul's most significant moves in the final years of the
>               twentieth century. It indicated that Seoul would be striking
>               out on its own when it came to making long-term strategic
>               policies. I do not believe this is anything that should alarm
>               Washington. Rather, it can be viewed as an indication of our
>               understanding that it is in our long-range interest to
>               encourage peoples in that area of the world to have open and
>               cooperative relations with each other. The U.S. will continue
>               to play an important role in the region, but Korea's
>               relationship with China marks a significant shift in Seoul's
>               perception of Korean future, and it provided a first step in
>               new methods of exerting pressure on Pyongyang.
> 
>               It is necessary to bring up a fourth point, though I do this
>               with some trepidation. Korea's history, which has helped to
>               create the ``uri'' syndrome, has also led to a pattern of
>               behavior and thought which can prove troubling to its allies.
>               Some Americans characterize this as the Korean
>               ``zero-sum-game'
> 
>               approach. Dealing with invaders and oppressors has tended to
>               make our Korean allies unwilling to work toward middle
>               ground. A good Korean friend of mine frequently says, ``There
>               is no real term in Korean for `compromise.' `Compromise'
>               means surrender.'' Editorials in the Korean press frequently
>               comment on this aspect of the Korean character, and that is
>               deemed all right for them, but if an outsider makes the
>               point, then the ``uri'' syndrome spins into effect, and there
>               can be flashes of resentment. Well, we all tend to pull
>               together against critics from outside the family, but Koreans
>               will admit that the reaction is more intense in their
>               culture.
> 
>               The Korean novelist, Lee Chang-rae, author of ``Native
>               Speaker,'' writing in``The New York Times'' early in 1998
>               expressed some concern that the patriotism which came in the
>               initial phases of the crisis that year might turn sour. He
>               noted, ``One wonders how long this sense of national unity
>               can last. After all, the next stage of reckoning is only
>               beginning...the hope is that immediate and sufficient world
>               support will allow the nation to right itself again. But the
>               dark wonder is there as well: whether any solidarity can hold
>               if the splendid ship sinks, if the same glittering South
>               Korea is no longer here to return to.''
> 
>               Of course, I have argued that it is of primary interest for
>               the United States that the Korean ship of state return to
>               positive patterns of development. I share with that wonderful
>               economist and former prime minister, Nam Duck-woo. The view
>               that the crisis of 1998 for Seoul will prove a healthy
>               encounter for straightening out a financial system which had
>               become skewed, for bringing about the necessary openness to
>               banking practices, and for helping Korea to continue to be an
>               effective player in the world trade system.
> 
>               Within this framework, all of us watched Korea's new
>               President Kim Dae-jung's visit the United States in June
>               1998. It was an occasion for a leader whom many in the world
>               regard as heroic and who has endured personal crisis in the
>               land which he leads, to provide the mature interaction with
>               Korea's most important ally. Kim will try to persuade those
>               who have the power to join in a financial rescue of Korea.
>               Kim's goal has been a potential new policy which can help to
>               bring down the last significant Cold War wall which
>               bifurcates the Korean peninsula.
> 
>               President Kim's important trip to the United States
>               constituted yet another reminder that life with the Koreans
>               will never be dull. But it can prove remarkably rewarding.
>               President Kim Dae-jung over the years had experience around
>               the world which was broader and more intense than any of his
>               predecessor . Although he came to Chong Wa Dae facing as
>               serious a situation as could be imagined, his initial moves
>               indicated that he indeed had the necessary intellectual
>               acumen and enough of the Korean ``can do'' spirit to tackle
>               it. In the United States he had built a number of foundations
>               for support. But he was also carrying through the global
>               engagement which had been so effectively pursued by some of
>               the predecessors with whom he contested.
> 
>               One of my successors, Ambassador Donald P. Gregg, commented
>               frequently during his tenure that American knowledge and
>               appreciation of Korea was inadequate and frequently skewed.
>               He has devoted much of his energy after leaving Korea to
>               helping change that. Gregg, much appreciate by Koreans, heads
>               up the Korea Society in the United States, and I have been
>               happy to work with him as a member of the Board.
> 
>               We have found that American interest in Korea, its arts, its
>               products, as well as its problems, has been growing apace.
>               With the inauguration of the Korean War Memorial in
>               Washington that is no longer the ``forgotten war,'' with the
>               expansion of Korean language and area programs at campuses
>               across the United States, we have been able to witness
>               significant academic interest in Korea and its culture. At
>               our Institute of International Studies at the University of
>               South Carolina, over recent years we have been holding annual
>               conferences on Korea which bring together outstanding
>               leaders, writers and thinkers who deal with Korea. I would
>               not have been devoting energy and time to these gatherings if
>               I did not share a belief in the importance of Korea in global
>               affairs and, as the title of this final essay indicates, for
>               enrichment in life.
> 
>               When my wife and I left Korea at the end of October 1986, Dr.
>               Nam Duck-woo hosted a farewell dinner for us. It was probably
>               the most moving moment in my long series of farewell
>               functions, at which Koreans can be so warm, hospitable, and
>               sometimes emotional. I treasure Dr. Nam's speech on that
>               occasion as one of the most moving moments for me and my
>               wife. He said,``I have no doubt that Professor Walker will
>               continue his efforts in behalf of better understanding
>               between America and Korea, though in the scholarly rather
>               than diplomatic arena. Thus, as a forceful and articulate
>               advocate of U.S.-Korea partnership, Dr. Walker is by no means
>               lost to us. He has simply been transferred to a different
>               theater of action.''
> 
>               In the dozen years since then, I have tried to live up to
>               Prime Minister Nam's expectations. The Korean entry ad exit
>               stamps in my passport, my work with the Korea Society, my
>               activities on behalf of the Council on Korea-U.S. Securities
>               Studies for their annual conferences, speaking and writing
>               commitments including these ``Korean Remembrances,'' and
>               other activities have indeed indicated that Korea is of
>               critical importance in my life, a life immeasurably enriched
>               by that connection.
> 
>               In my ``Korean Remembrances'' it is my hope that I have been
>               able to demonstrate: (1) my deep affection for Korea and its
>               talented people, (2) the vast variety of opportunities which
>               are there to be discovered in the land and its culture, (3)
>               the intensity of a commitment to co-equal partnership between
>               our countries which I feel is so necessary, and (4) the
>               significance of the changes in the past four decades and how
>               remarkably Korean culture has persisted in this age of
>               cyberspace and radical world implosion. I suspect readers
>               have grasped the depth of the attachment my wife Ceny and I
>               feel for Hankuk.
> 
>               * * *
> 
>               This concludes the series ``Walker's Remembrances.''
>


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