Saturday, March 27, 2004
KIMCHI POLITICS. Budaechigae has an interesting post revealing how kimchi became an issue of some import in ROK-U.S. relations during the Vietnam War.
In the privacy of the Oval Office, Prime Minister Chung soberly informed the Leader of the Free World that the South Korean soldiers who had been dispatched by President Park Chung Hee to help his American ally fight the Vietnam War were miserable because they had been cut off from their beloved kimchi. The prime minister said he had been asked by President Park to bring this very serious morale problem to Johnson’s personal attention. Chung stressed that the kimchi issue was “vitally important.”Of course today's ROK soldiers in Iraq don't have to worry about their kimchi supply but rather about whether there will be enough PS2 games to go around
As South Korea prepares to send 3,000 peacekeeping troops to aid in the reconstruction of postwar Iraq (adding to an existing commitment of 400 medics, engineers, and other noncombatants), they'll be accompanied by 62 PS2s and an assortment of games, including Tekken 4, Soul Calibur II, Winning Eleven, and SOCOM.
