Dear editor,

I couldn't help but laugh after having read an April 30 front page article, ``Roh Scandal Hurts National Image." Not because Koreans are worried that the scandal will negatively affect Korea's image, because it most certainly will.

To even remotely believe that such a scandal wouldn't negatively affect a foreigner's impression of the nation is supreme naivete at best.

But the laughable part of the article lies in the fact that Korea, regardless of whether the Roh probe was politically motivated or not, is more concerned about its meager national image rather than whether or not the prosecution will deal with the scandal in a fair and just manner, as they are supposed to when dealing with any offender, or will they just decide to end the episode with a so-called ``slap on the wrist" because of some silly notion that Roh has been disgraced enough.

When considering national image and when looking at the big picture, the reality is that Korea doesn't have much of a national image as far as the rest of the world is concerned.

The majority of the people in the world most likely can't tell you where Korea is located, much less what is going on there. To add insult, there are probably millions of people who don't even know Korea exists.

Go ahead and ask as many foreigners living in Korea what they think of Korea, and no matter how much praise is being heaped upon by such people, it's just a false sense of security.

Some 100 foreigners living in Korea can testify that Korea may or may not be a paradise but that wouldn't make any difference to the reality that Korea, to the rest of the world, is nothing more than a ``blip."

I think Korea and Koreans would be better served if they spent their time and energy on important things like how to better educate its citizens, and how to enrich the lives, both financially and emotionally of its hard-working people, rather than worry about what foreigners have to say about Korea, because in the final analysis, it is a whole lot more important what Koreans think about Korea rather than the opinions of foreigners who may or may not care about the daily welfare and life in Korea.

Lee Cheun-heui
Financial consultant
Yongsan-gu, Seoul
bogartyankee@yahoo.com