Brian Reynolds Myers - Korea Quotes

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North Korea is a unique socialist country in that its ruling ideology is conveyed through what is written about its leaders, not by them, and the message could hardly be simpler. Foreigners bad, Koreans good, Leader best.

Brian Reynolds Myers
If South Korea's dictatorships were America's running dogs, then North Korea was the Eastern bloc's house cat: intractable, convinced of its superiority, and to some observers a more independent creature, but never much good at feeding itself—even after the can openers started falling silent in 1989.

Brian Reynolds Myers
South Korean nationalism is something quite different from the patriotism toward the state that Americans feel. Identification with the Korean race is strong, while that with the Republic of Korea is weak.

Brian Reynolds Myers
To approach North Korea as if it were the détente-era Soviet Union is asking for trouble.

Brian Reynolds Myers
Korea cannot survive forever on the public perception of state legitimacy alone. The more it loses its economic distinctiveness vis-à-vis the rival state, the more the Kim regime must compensate with triumphs on the military and nuclear fronts. Another act of aggression against the Republic of Korea may well take place in the months ahead, not only to divert North Korean public attention from the failures of the consumer-oriented 'Strong and Prosperous Country' campaign, but also to strengthen the appeasement-minded South Korean opposition in the run-up to the presidential election in 2012.

Brian Reynolds Myers
North Korea is looking more and more like a poor man's version of South Korea.

Brian Reynolds Myers
Seoul doesn't have the will to 'De-Kim Il Sungify' North Korea.

Brian Reynolds Myers
To North Korea, diplomacy is another form of war.

Brian Reynolds Myers
They can't understand why any American in his right mind who's not escaping a jail term or something, would voluntarily want to come to Korea and live here.

Brian Reynolds Myers
In South Korea, which is a much less conservative environment, politicians do not take their wives around with them as much as their American counterparts do. Showing pride in your wife is thought of as juvenile bad form. There's a special pejorative for people who do it.

Brian Reynolds Myers
Throughout the 1950s the regime resorted to crude racism in its anti-American propaganda, often treating inset eyes, big noses, and other Caucasian features as the manifestation of villainy. To the consternation of the diplomatic community, little effort was made to enlighten people about the existence of friendly big-noses, even though—as this spring's Cold War International History Project bulletin makes clear—North Korea's cities were rebuilt and its people fed and cared for with enormous amounts of assistance from Eastern Europe.

Brian Reynolds Myers