Cultural Differences?

Wall Street journal about President Moon

I understand the newspaper’s concern.

President Moon is well respected leader in South Korea; in terms of that, he may work for South Korea’s interest.

However, he would be always with us and our interest, as long as he knows Kim Jong Un may not give up his ideology and hostility toward South Korea.

Nonetheless, President Moon’s ultimate goal is “no more war” in the Korean peninsula, at all cost; even if both Koreas cannot be reunified.
This means he may not necessarily support us, if President Trump decides to start the war, if and when the current deal with North Korea does not go well.
In the worst scenario, South Korea under President Moon may not choose to keep the US alliance, especially if President Trump unreasonably keeps pressuring his way, e.g. only to invade North Korea. Then, President Moon may even stick with China as long as he can prevent another war in Korea.

As a mediator, in my view, President Moon may personally lack some understanding of western culture and logic, (although some of his cabinet members know and have much about it); which may tend to make him understand Kim Jong Un better, although he prefers not to help Kim over us (US).

This is one reason why I am not a big fan of President Moon; but not because I don’t respect his honesty and sincerity.
But, I feel he could have dealt the current situation better by making both US and North Korea get to a fine agreeable medium at the negotiating table, had he had personally and equally understood the both sides (North Korea and US) culturally?.

But, at the same token, President Trump and his advisers might have not understood President Moon well enough either, even though he might have had good numbers of his advisors with Korean background; therefore, President Trump might have lost confidence or trust in President Moon, without fully understanding him at the personal level.

Somehow, I feel like the best way to resolve misunderstanding of each other (Presidents Trump and Moon) is that they become both bilingual and bicultural like I am…lol.

Aloha.

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