By Kim Heung-sook
A ``wonderful" welcome from Hillary Clinton, a lengthy summit with Barack Obama at the Oval Office, a joint press conference in the Rose Garden, and an honorary doctorate at the George Washington University. Wearing a dark blue suit and a blue necktie just like Obama at the summit and being called ``KOR-U.S. brothers."
It would only be natural if President Lee Myung-bak found the 27-hour round trip between the two capitals justifiable, if not rewarding. It was a timely getaway from the streaming ``shi-guk-seon-eon," or anti-government statements, on current affairs. At home, the campaign continued as people in the health and medical professions, female leaders, Buddhist monks, Catholic priests, Protestant pastors and big-name movie directors like Park Chan-wook and Bong Joon-ho joined college professors who initiated the autographed protests early this month.
The protesters called on the President to ``apologize and stop undemocratic acts that infringe upon the freedom of the press and expression and of assembly." Particularly annoying for the President would be the pastors who claimed, ``No power goes on forever on the earth. When power try to control people against their will, it can't avoid judgment." So far, the pastors have abstained from criticizing the famous Christian for obvious reasons.
While most mass media focused on the Korea-U.S. alliance against North Korea's nuke efforts, some Internet users were quick to mine for what they wanted from the American president's lips and branded it ``an Obama shi-guk-seon-eon." They were referring to remarks he made in the course of answering reporters' shouts demanding comments on the Iranian situation at the end of the press conference on Tuesday.
``What I will repeat and what I said yesterday is that when I see violence directed at peaceful protesters, when I see peaceful dissent being suppressed, wherever that takes place, it is of concern to me and it is of concern to the American people." Obama went on to say that he hopes the Iranian government will take ``the right steps" to allow demonstrators to continue expressing their views.
It is highly likely that Obama was reaffirming his and his government's respect for the ``give me freedom or death" tradition, but his statement sounded especially encouraging to Koreans who have increasingly felt difficulty in holding street demonstrations and seen the freedom of expression that they enjoyed to the fullest during the term of former President Roh Moo-hyun ebbing away since Lee's succession last year.
Most Korean media described Obama's welcome of Lee as ``extremely warm," citing his first Rose Garden press conference and a summit followed by a luncheon, but some observers stressed precaution, reminding of the costly effect of the amicable summit between Lee and President George W. Bush in April last year. At that time, Lee was invited to Camp David for the first time as a Korean president and had a good time driving Bush's golf cart. When Lee returned home, he was faced with nationwide repercussion marked by candlelit vigils for opening the Korean market to American beef almost without limits.
Koreans are expected to draw water to each of their own mills concerning Obama's present to President Lee _ Franklin D. Roosevelt's ``Looking Forward" and ``On Our Way." Lee supporters will say that Obama picked the books because he was in favor of Lee's version of ``New Deal" designed to save the nation from the ongoing economic crisis through huge construction and redevelopment projects.
Lee's opponents will say that Obama wants him to learn something from the 32nd president of the United States, i.e. modern American liberalism that supports free enterprise but values equal distribution of wealth and opposes destruction of the natural environment.
Whatever Obama intended in selecting Roosevelt's books, I am glad he and Lee met for the second time. On a radio broadcast aired shortly before he left for America, Lee said he would come up with ``fundamental prescriptions" for socio-political problems after his U.S. trip. I hope his ``prescriptions" this time will be different from the previous ones.