11 September 2007
At dinner, I was talking to one of my Korean friends, Jisoo about some Korea issues and Korean-related topics. Jisoo is a 23-year-old young guy from Seoul. He has studied English in DC since this spring and he is currently preparing for the English exam, TOEFL. Jisoo is really a nice guy. He told me that he is interested in what I am doing in Institute for Multi-Track Diplomacy after I told him about my internship over there. Jisoo even told me that he wanted to participate in my Asian Dialogues although Sangcheol, another Korean friend from the International Student House, told me that Jisoo is not interested in this kind of dialogues.
Since my Japan-Korea Dialogue will take place on October 12, 2007, I need to start my preparation of the agenda and also make invitations to the guests. I am not an Asian studies major; hence, I have to admit that I am not really familiar with the conflicts and the details of the Japan-Korean relationship. In order to get a firm grip of the topics, I need to read for North Korea, South Korea and Japan relations. Upon my arrival at ISH at dinner time, I sat down by Jisoo and asked him questions about the Kaesong Industrial Park. This is basically an attempt to reach a further economic integration between North and South Korea. There are 26 companies operating in this North Korean industrial park; the park is totally funded by Seoul. This park provides job opportunities for about 15000 North Koreans.
I also asked him whether this park is effective, but Jisoo could not answer me. He mentioned that he would love to join the talk because he lacks the vocabulary for this kind of topics. I am very happy for him. An English learner should never limit himself or herself in a certain field of the language; he or she can actually learn more academic and harder terms by joining any kind of conversation like this. It is challenging. I can feel his pain for sometimes I also lack words to fully describe the international relations.
Then, we changed to the topic to Japan and WWII. Suddenly, he showed an interesting opinion. He shared with me some aspects of his thoughts about the War and about the Pan-Asian Union. He thinks Asian countries should get together like European Union; he thinks this would be good for Asia. For me, it is not so optimistic. The US will not want to see a strong Asia for its strategic interests in the region and its hegemony in the world. Is an Asian Union possible? It is quite impossible. At that time, I have to confess that I was a little believer in realism!
Jisoo walked away. I guess he was discouraged by my coward remarks. Maybe I am the pessimist after all. Pardon me, Professor Rosenau. I finally tagged myself as a realist. Haha.
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