The Korea Times has published an interview from one of my all time useful idiots of Korea, Chung Dong-young.  The Marmot has passed on a challenge for anyone to read this without laughing.  Good luck with that:

Presidential candidate Chung Dong-young of the United New Democratic Party (UNDP) said a strengthened Korea-U.S. alliance would be the focus of his foreign policy if he wins the election on Dec.19.

In an exclusive interview with The Korea Times on the occasion of its 57th anniversary Sunday, the anchor-turned-candidate advocated the U.S.-centered foreign policy. He said a more dynamic Seoul-Washington alliance was necessary to promote peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula and to help improve the U.S.-North Korea relations.

He said in an unwavering tone that the U.S. troops in Korea should remain stationed here as a stabilizing influence in Northeast Asia.   [Korea Times]

It seems a bit ironic that Chung wants US troops to stay in Korea, but just last week called Korean soldiers conducting plumbing operations in Kurdistan American "mercenaries".    Wouldn’t such logic make US soldiers serving in USFK Korean "mercenaries"? 

Chung said the time has come for the two countries to chart a more future-oriented dynamic alliance. He added that the alliance was not maintained only by rhetoric, saying it will be maintained and strengthened only when the two sides have mutual trust and confidence and transparency in sharing information.

I guess throwing around the term "mercenaries" is not considered "rhetoric" by Chung.  I suppose he also considers these comments where Chung blames the US for the Japanese colonization of Korea, the Korean War, and the Gwangju Uprising, are not "rhetoric" as well.  Chung might as well blame America for Dokdo too while he is at it because it is as equally ridiculous, yet he expects voters to think the US is going to have "mutual trust and confidence" in a person that makes such comments?

Here is the most laughable part of the interview:

“I can dare to say that I commanded trust from Washington when I was the unification minister in 2005. As the minister, I shared all core information on North Korea with the United States in a frank way. This led to the upgrading of our mutual confidence,” said the liberal candidate.

I have to wonder how much "mutual confidence" was built when Chung sent this letter during the Korean hostage crisis blaming the US for the situation. 

Chung continues:

But “my U.S.-oriented foreign policy does not mean that my administration, if elected, will belittle the influence of China, Japan and Russia surrounding the Korean Peninsula. As members of the six-party talks, they are quite important for Korea,” he added.

Despite his unwavering pro-U.S. stance, he said he rejects the idea of “blind worship of or servile attitude to the United States” often called flunkeyism.

With his "unwavering pro-US stance" over the past few years I just have to wonder where Chung’s statesmanship was when the South Korean fifth column was attempting to stop the biggest US-ROK transformation project in decades, the Camp Humphreys expansion?  Chung was too busy hanging out on Dokdo bashing the Japanese while young South Korean conscripts were having their faces bashed and their bodies speared by Chung’s leftist allies. 

As far as "flunkeyism" isn’t that what the current Korean government’s policies toward North Korea represent?

Chung goes on:

`I don’t think Washington will expect toadyism or one-sided concessions from Korea. When we are straightforward and frank in our position, Washington will respect us,” he said in a firm tone.

So by straight forward and frank does he mean by making comments like this about a high level US official:

Lefkowitz reportedly requested a meeting with Unification Minister Chung Dong-young on Thursday. But Chung dodged it, saying that he is “not in the same league,” a source in the government said.

The laughable nature of this interview continues:

“If elected, I will inherit and develop the positive legacy of the two previous liberal administrations but I will also seek ways of retooling their trials and errors,” he said.

“If elected, my administration will be different from the two predecessors.”

"Positive Legacy"?  Kim Dae-jung had some positive legacies such as getting the country through the Asian Financial Crisis but he will forever be tarnished by the Nobel Peace Prize he bought by giving Kim Jong-il a $500 million dollar bribe.  Roh Moo-hyung has had no positive legacy in nearly five years in power.  Roh is going to be remembered as the person who created the beginning of the end of the US-ROK Alliance, the man who allowed Kim Jong-il to get the nuclear bomb, sluggish economic growth, and generally being the most incompetent president in Korean history.  This is the positive legacy that Chung Dong-young wants to continue? 

“If we win the election, we will build up the Republic of Korea which combines the minds of the people into one,” he said, saying his administration will be the “Government of Unity,” embracing industrialists, as well as pro-democracy fighters.

Note that "pro-democracy fighters" is code word for the anti-US groups that attack US soldiers and installations along with young South Korean conscript policemen.  The only unity these people want is not with Korean business leaders, but with Kim Jong-il.  If Chung was so concerned about democracy why is he intent on denying it to North Korean defectors, which during his time as anti-Unification Minister he implemented policies that ensured defectors were sent back to North Korea where they were guaranteed to face life in a North Korean gulag. 

This is what he had to say about his presidential rival Lee Myung-bak:

He said he was fundamentally different in his roots and philosophy from the Grand national Party’s presidential candidate Lee. He described Lee as a pro-chaebol, pro-rich, advocate of outdated “hardpower” like building canals and was a proponent of brutal jungle capitalism. No country in the world including Thailand has been successful by having a profit-seeking business CEO as head of state, he said.

Chung’s attempt to differentiate himself from Lee by declaring him a pro-chaebol president that intends to use tax payer dollars for large public works projects to spur the economy will not work.  As stupid as Lee’s canal may be most Koreans would prefer Lee’s canal where South Korean tax payer’s money stays in South Korea instead of Chung’s plans to send even more tax payer money to Kim Jong-il. 

Make sure to read the whole thing because it is a hoot but I have to agree with Nomad; it must be election time. 

Popularity: 5%