Day 8: South Korea and the Rotary Club

We began the morning with a briefing by the American Embassy. We learned that there are 3 things that the country is focusing on: external issues, domestic politics, and representation of Korean/US Forces.

The external issues continue to be the relationship between North and South Korea. The Six Party Talks continue with the U.S., North Korea, Japan, Russia, China and South Korea. These have been focused on trade and political strategies.

Regarding domestic politics, the most recent election left the ruling party with almost a 4000 seat loss which is foreboding of things to come for the presidential election later next year. The opposition party is being run by a woman and there is also a former prime minister who is thinking of starting a 3rd party.

South Korea continues to have a significant number of U.S. troops in the country. There are currently 25,000 but they hope to continue to reduce this number.

South Korea has the 10th largest economy in the world and is the 7th largest trading partner of the U.S. They have been called "the shrimp between two whales" with the whales being China and Japan. They continue to have free trade talks with the U.S. Another one is scheduled to take place in Washington, D.C. in July. They believe that reaching a free trade agreement would be good for both the U.S. and South Korea.

The top three products imported from the U.S. are corn, pork, and hard woods.

The country is very media intensive and has rapid news cycles. They have six newspapers that are equivalent to the Wall Street Journal and three television news sources that are similar to CNN. As a result there is great pressure to "get the news" and sometimes accuracy takes a back seat to being first. Most large companies had what they call a media advisor who is responsible for sorting out the facts from what is being reported.

South Koreans are very entrenched in the U.S. educational system. They have more students in the U.S. than any other country in the world. Student visas are very important to them, and they encourage U.S. educations because to get to the highest levels in Korean businesses a person must speak English.

South Korea is looking to expand research and development and manufacturing in the U.S. They currently have a significant presence in North Carolina and Texas, but were attracted to Indiana because of the close proximity to Chicago.

Our lunch meeting was at the Rotary Club. It has a rich history of over 100 years in Seoul. Their youngest member is 46 years old. I was fortunate to meet a Four-Star General and a former speaker of the National Assembly. The membership is comprised of incredible men of an older generation many who were schooled in the U.S. and some in Indiana. One of the members recited the Gettysburg Address before we had our lunch. It was fascinating to learn that such an organization exists and thrives in Seoul.