Anyway, if you look at him as a strong (South) Korean patriot, I think what can appear wishy-washy or contradictory make sense. Kim has always shown a very stong committment to the US-SK alliance, and has used things like "blood ties" to defend it, because he sees it as protecting Korea, but, his strong tie is to the protection, not the two nations as a partnership. He has shown frequently enough that if the US were not defending Korea, he'd be more than happy to kick Uncle Sam in the balls just as hard as a left-leaning Korean patriot.

He wrote an editorial for the 2nd anniversary of the 9/11 attacks that I'd still like to kick him in the balls for.

I can remember him writing a nationalistic-based post on how the US is anti-Korean using references to movies like Falling Down.

This article from him today is not outside his norm.

lived lives without pride or community consciousness

And that is the key to it.

By "ruined" he actually means "Americanized." It isn't their actual community consciousness he sees as missing, but their awareness of the Korean community and pride in it.

Just as Kim sees the value of the US relationship in narrowly defined terms of protecting the South from the North (and perhaps China), he describes the reason for coming to the US in narrow terms – education – not for American cultural values and whatnot.

And ending up on the wrong side of the tracks doesn't just mean turning to criminals, it means moving to far away from the culture of the motherland.

" The children led their lives apart from their parents and roamed the streets."

This suggests a failure on the part of the parents to change their parenting behaviour to suit a new environment.

Firstly, kids in Korea are on the street in groups till all hours of the night, supposedly due to their 'educational needs.' Not knowing exactly where their kids are seems to be the norm for many families in Korea. It is from these groups that most of the loud and rude 'miguk' comments come. Even elementary school kids. This behaviour can/may provide a negative basis for future socialisation patterning. As an extension of this, without a doubt one of the (if not 'the') biggest issue Korean kids have with homestay parents when studying overseas is the problem of not coming home at a resonable hour. Not calling to say where they are or why they will be late. Just treating home as a filling station between social engagements. I have also seen, in Korea and overseas, many instances of parents leaving young to very young children at home alone or in the care of another minor. Sometimes for more than one day. I would suggest that the issue mentioned by KDJ is not one that is created by living abroard – but one that has followed from Korea.

How many is "many"? He could basically say anything without quantifying it. "Many" is meaningless in the way he uses it.

I was referring to all of the "many Koreans who went to America" that had their childrens lives "ruined" according to Kim Dae-joong.

As CPT Kim pointed out many Korean-Americans including himself have been very successful.