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| U.S. President Donald J. Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, second from left, walk with U.S. detainees that were released by North Korea; Kim Hak-Song, left, and Kim Dong-Chul, right, after greeting them upon their arrival at U.S. Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, Thursday. |
By Oh Young-jin
The return of three Americans taken hostage in North Korea to a U.S. military base in Maryland Thursday made for a peculiar sight.
This was not just because U.S. President Donald Trump acted as he was a director of the emotional scene. The former reality show host actually talked highly about the ratings for the event.
More to the point, the moment is an example of the better side of the U.S. is all about.
Although it was unclear whether he had forgotten how to speak English as a result of the harsh prison life in the North, American-born Kim Dong-chul, one of the three freed hostages, said in Korean, "It is like a dream. We are all very happy. We have been treated differently (in the North). We were forced to work but when we got sick, we received treatment as well."
It was duly translated into English.
What transpired there defied my conventional wisdom of what makes a nation.
To me and most of my compatriots from a homogeneous nation like Korea, our country is often defined by racial uniformity, use of the same language and adhering to basic values.
People on the scene in the U.S. did not share the first two. The stock answer is that the U.S. is comparable to a salad bowl in terms of race and culture. Diversity flourishes.
But we are also aware of many contradictions ― deep-rooted racial discrimination against blacks and minorities and concentration of wealth among smart whites, among others.
Adding to it is a Trump factor. Trump slapped a ban on Muslim immigration, unilaterally abolished international agreements such as the Iran nuclear deal and appears to be willing to pay no attention to basic etiquette under the "make America great again."
Then there was a somewhat cynical theory that Trump stood together with the three in preparation for his meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in Singapore on June 12.
According to that theory, trump helped free the three so he will be credited with ending the Korean War, which has been put on hold since 1953 through a truce. If the North denuclearizes, trump will be credited with preventing a potential nuclear war.
Still, those moments at the Andrews base show the better side of the U.S., which can set aside all differences, however temporarily, to save its people.
For those moments, the three freed men looked proud to be American. They were.
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