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2 The best thing since packaged
kimchee By Donald Kirk
they seem more than happy to grab
what began under the Roh administration and mold
it into their own vehicle for the expansion of the
Korean economy when they take over the government,
as expected, in December's election.
The
process "was started by the current
administration", said Park, but the next "will be
responsible for shaping the FTA into
another opportunity to soar
once again" with "a new national strategy" for
elevating "all economic, political, social and
cultural institutions and regulations to global
standards".
Lee Myung-bak, who was Korea's
hottest-shot young executive, the chairman of
Hyundai Engineering and Construction Co at its
heyday in the 1970s when he was still in his 30s,
clearly draws on much wider experience than does
Park when he talks about the future of Korea's
economy, but sees eye-to-eye with her when it
comes to the FTA.
Although Lee criticizes
the government for enforcing too many rules and
regulations hampering the chaebol, his
views on the FTA appear in line with the
government. He totally supports the omission of
rice, an explosive, volatile issue that no
politician can think of wanting to include in any
FTA.
And Lee is equally in favor of the
government's effort, suspended but not abandoned,
to categorize products from Gaesong, the special
economic zone across the line in North Korea, as
South Korean. After all, Lee has said, "Ninety
percent of the technology and materials are from
South Korea and only 10% from North Korea," namely
the North Korean workers employed by South Korean
companies in the zone.
There was no way
the US team could accede to South Korea's position
in view of the surefire hostility of Congress, but
the FTA, in its final form, provides for a
conference to consider the issue. That provision
might appear as a face-saving device for the South
Koreans, but South Korean negotiators are sure to
raise the topic whenever the FTA comes up for
review.
South Korean politics, however, is
nothing if not unpredictable.
Roh, whose
popularity had sunk to the single-digit level,
according to some polls a few months ago, now is
riding high on a popularity rating of more than
30% - not exactly an overwhelming show of support
but a vast improvement attributed largely to his
success with the FTA.
If the Grand
National Party splits over which candidate should
carry the banner in the December election, it's
still possible a liberal or somewhat
left-of-center candidate could emerge from nowhere
as a result of Roh's success so far with the FTA.
The FTA, though, remains a ticklish topic.
It's also equally possible that many if not most
members of the National Assembly will want to
postpone a vote on the agreement until after
assembly elections one year from now rather than
risk nasty confrontations on the campaign trail in
their native districts by diehard FTA opponents.
Meanwhile, Roh, whose loquacious nature
never fails to create controversy, has come up
with some words of advice that appear at variance
with his earlier criticism of South Korean
dependence on the US military alliance. Koreans,
he has been saying, have got to get up to speed in
English if the country hopes to compete more
effectively on foreign markets. "International
cooperation and coexistence are essential," he
said on Educational Broadcasting System. "English
skills are a must."
With that, he proposed
setting up English immersion centers at 1,300
schools, all staffed with native English-speaking
teachers, at a cost of more than $250 million, and
the building of an English town on the resort
island of Jeju, off the southern coast.
The question is whether South Koreans who
look with disdain on American troops on the
streets of Seoul and other cities will be more
enthusiastic about an army of foreign teachers
penetrating their entire society. Like a flood of
American imports, their presence may be the price
the country will have to bear for shipping ever
more goods the other way, to the United States.
Journalist Donald Kirk has been
covering Korea - and the confrontation of forces
in Northeast Asia - for more than 30
years.
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