The Korean government is planning on hiring a US PR firm to help improve the country’s increasingly bad image with Americans:

The Foreign Ministry is hiring an American PR firm to put a positive spin on its U.S. policies in a nation that has been reading them as increasingly hostile.

The Foreign Ministry recently wrote to the parliamentary Unification, Foreign Affairs and Trade Committee asking for an extra budget of W1.2 billion (about US$1.2 million) next year to pay for the plan, which would take PR work off the hands of the Korean Embassy in Washington.

In the notice, the ministry said the plan aimed to improve understanding and correct misconceptions of Korea’s diplomatic and security policies vis-a-vis the U.S among Americans.

This would be the first time Korea has hired a private firm for the urgent task of improving its image in an alliance many Americans perceive as increasingly strained.

I really don’t think it is a bad idea that Korea is hiring a PR firm. However, something I do have problem with; is when the Foreign Ministry releases a statement like this:

“There are limits to what embassy staff can do to deal with U.S. opinion leaders like journalists, academics and lawmakers in a systematic way. Local PR firms know the internal situation in the U.S. best and have the necessary connections,” the ministry said. “We have to turn around U.S. public opinion about Korea’s diplomatic and security policies and relations to the U.S., and we are going to look for ways of countering smears and attacks against Korea.”

I would like the foreign ministry to define what these smears and attacks against Korea are exactly? Is he referring to the US Congressional Letter to President Roh as a smear attack? I would really like to know what all these smear attacks are. Is televising and writing articles about the anti-American protests at Camp Humphreys and the MacArthur statue a smear attack against Korea? Last I checked these were factual events that happened. Reporting the truth is not a smear.

I hope Congressmen Hyde picks up the phone and calls the Korean Embassy in Washington to ask them what all the smear attacks are. That would be an interesting phone call to listen on to.

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