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Feb 18, 2005

SPEAKING FREELY
Mr Kim goes to Hollywood?
By John Scherb

Speaking Freely is an Asia Times Online feature that allows guest writers to have their say. Please click here if you are interested in contributing.

In 1959, if memory serves, Soviet Leader Nikita Khrushchev went to New York to the United Nations and told the United States that the Soviet Union would "bury" the US. This was also accompanied by the famous UN "shoe-pounding" incident, which displayed comrade Khrushchev's humble, earthy roots. What is often less remembered about that trip was the last leg of the journey during which Khrushchev visited Disneyland, after much

back and forth with the State Department under president Dwight D Eisenhower.

I am told by those who were there that Khrushchev immensely enjoyed his visit to Los Angeles, Hollywood and Disneyland, which then was only five years old. At least he departed a very happy man, even if the first business part of his trip was a little emotional.

Kim Jong-il supposedly is a movie fanatic with a private library of over 3,000 films, many of them Hollywood classics. I wonder if he would turn down an invitation by California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger as a peace gesture in these bellicose times, to come as a private citizen of North Korea to visit Hollywood and schmooze with the stars.

The US administration could steadfastly maintain its distance and remain suitably frosty. California could play the peacemaker led by Hollywood. There simply is no other place on earth like Hollywood. Even hardened politicos often melt under the tender mercies of the Hollywood elite who know how to show a visiting VIP (and his retinue) a real good time. A glance behind the curtain at how movie magic is actually made has impressed many a grizzled veteran of foreign affairs.

The publicity machine would of course have a field day. Everyone could maintain his or her steadfast positions on the right-wing talk shows, Oprah, The Tonight Show, etc, etc, (as Yul Brynner used to say). A tour of Bel Air is often included for VIPs and the largest Korea town in the US is a mere stone's throw away, while the second-biggest Korea town is right in Orange County.

Now security might be an issue, so the US State Department would really have to rev up its diplomatic protection unit supplemented by the Los Angeles Police Department. Those details could be worked out by the pros. My point is that this current state of tension is really a tremendous opportunity in disguise.

Did I mention the Los Alamos side trip for the working nuke scientists from North Korea? Oh well.

John Scherb is a consultant in Irvine, California. He worked in Asia from 1982-1995 in Tokyo, Bangkok and Yangon.

Speaking Freely is an Asia Times Online feature that allows guest writers to have their say. Please click here if you are interested in contributing.

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