What do they think of us in South Korea?

[Fixated]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?g=events/iraq/082701iraqplane&a=&tmpl=sl&ns=&l=1&e=22&a=

This could be a problem if we ever need to confront North Korea...

[Snow]

1. Mixed emotions re the US - although Bush is widely detested.

You still find older Koreans who will talk about gratitude for the rescue in the Korean war. I'd say the predominant current feeling is one of being fed-up with the colony role, and having the US hold so much power in the country. There's a strong sense that the US, apart from bushco even, is mainly interested in Korea for economic/political gain - not for the good of Korea. These are simply reflections of sentiments that have been around for decades - people are just more open about expressing them. For example, I used to play Korean chess with a couple of buddhist monks who lived in a mountain temple near my town. We were talking politics once (this was in 1972), when one of them made the remark that "we koreans have a great deal of sympathy for vietnam, since we are also occupied by the american army". That dropped my jaw a bit, I'll tell you. Quite a change from the "we're so thankful to our big brother" line.