G-20 Mania Grips Seoul as Kids Add Currencies to Homework

더이상의 논평을 주렁주렁 다는 건 무의미한 노릇, 그냥 오늘 이슈가 되고 있는 블룸버그통신의

G-20에 관한 한국 정부의 자세를 비판하다 못해 빈정거리는 듯하게까지 느껴지는 기사 원문은

대체 어떤가 싶어 따왔다.


(원문)

City officials leave their desks this week to sweep the streets of Seoul while seven-year-old children study economics as South Korea mobilizes its citizens for the Group of 20 meeting.

 

Posters hail the summit and video billboards tower above central Seoul exhorting its 10 million citizens to mind their manners when Barack Obama and Hu Jintao visit on Nov. 11-12.

 

South Korea President Lee Myung Bak, nicknamed “bulldozer” during his days running the nation’s biggest construction company, is deploying up to 60,000 police and troops to avoid the burning cars, smashed windows and 900 arrests that marked the last G-20 meeting in Toronto in June.

 

“I cried tears and Korea’s national anthem echoed in my heart when South Korea was selected to host the G-20 summit,” a fourth-grader wrote in a posting on a children’s website hosted by naver.com, South Korea’s most-visited internet portal.

 

The child, whose name and school are not identified to protect their privacy, is among hundreds who have posted questions on the site asking for help with G-20 homework projects. The Kids Chosun Ilbo, the junior edition of the nation’s highest circulation newspaper, published a page-2 article Oct. 26 explaining the currency market and the contents of the communique issued by G-20 financial chiefs on Oct. 23.

 

Lee hailed the event as a chance for the country to be a “protagonist in world affairs” in an Oct. 18 nationwide radio address. Advertisements on television promote the G-20 as an occasion to celebrate the nation’s rise from the ruins of the 1950-53 Korean War to Asia’s fourth-biggest economy.

 

Korean War

 

Demonstrators in Europe and North America clashed with police at previous G-20 meetings in Pittsburgh and London. The International Monetary Fund’s $57 billion bailout of South Korea during the 1997 Asian financial crisis, which helped avert the economy’s collapse, also triggered protests in Seoul over bank sales and job losses.

 

The city of Gyeongju in the south of the country provided a taste of what’s to come this time when it asked local farmers to grow special apples for the meeting of G-20 finance chiefs last month. The farmers ripened parts of each apple’s skin at varying rates to produce the name of a G-20 country on each fruit.

 

In Seoul, the education ministry postponed college entrance examinations by a week until Nov. 18 so they don’t clash with the summit. Schools in the vicinity of Coex, the meeting’s venue, may change their hours to cut traffic, according to Kim In Jong, chief of the presidential security service.

 

Hyundai Limos

 

Hyundai Motor Co., the nation’s largest automaker, on Oct. 28 delivered 129 vehicles to summit organizers, including Equus limousines to chauffer leaders from Incheon airport and around Seoul. KT Corp., South Korea’s largest provider of phone and Internet services, is providing smartphones and tablet computers for leaders and senior officials.

 

“We’re ready to make it possible for participants from overseas to watch TV channels from back home,” Seok Ho Ik, vice chairman of KT Corp., said last month. “We want to go beyond just providing communication support for the meetings, to promote South Korea as the No. 1 country for IT.”

 

Kim of the presidential security service said 20,000 police officers are being mobilized to keep demonstrators away from the Coex conference site in southern Seoul.

 

“We will deal with violent protests with a level of strictness never before seen,” he said at a briefing on Oct. 8.

 

Protest History

 

Kim also said South Korea is on alert for possible threats from North Korea, including explosions at “major facilities,” suicide bombings, chemical assaults or cyber attacks.

 

North Korea’s state-run Rodong Sinmun newspaper today said the South’s security preparations were “slander.”

 

“All this fuss has an extremely provocative and foul nature,” the newspaper said in an editorial carried by the Korean Central News Agency.

 

South Korea has a history of street protests over labor issues and demonstrations at gatherings of world leaders in the region. At an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Busan in November 2005 attended by then U.S. President George W. Bush., riot police used water cannons and batons to disperse 30,000 protesters, some wielding iron bars.

 

Human Rights

 

In Hong Kong less than a month later, at least 1,500 South Korean farmers rallied outside World Trade Organization talks, many battling with police in the city’s worst violence in a decade.

 

Disruptive demonstrations, often focused on poverty, the environment or human rights, have been a feature of world summits since riots broke out in Seattle at World Trade Organization talks in 1999.

 

Kim said he’s obtained intelligence on 500 people with a history of organizing violent protests, who will be kept out of the country or closely watched. A further 40,000 police and troops will be on hand to guard against attacks by international terrorists or North Korea, Kim said.

 

Heavy-handed tactics may not go down well with visiting dignitaries. Singapore was criticized when it deployed 10,000 security personnel and banned outdoor protests in 2006 during World Bank and International Monetary Fund meetings. Then World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz said the city-state suffered “enormous damage” to its reputation.

‘Divided Nation’

 

South Korea’s $832.5 billion economy grew more than fourfold since the Summer Olympics in 1988, a year after South Korea emerged from almost three decades of military dictatorship.

 

“The event will help raise global awareness of South Korea, whose image has been predominantly that of a divided nation or just another fast-developing economy,” said Lee Dong Hun, a research fellow at Samsung Economic Research Institute. “This is a chance for South Korea to elevate its status as a real contributor and lead player in global affairs.”

 

He estimates South Korea can reap at least 21.6 trillion won ($19.2 billion) from hosting the G-20 meetings as increased global recognition helps boost exports. South Korea’s economy is forecast to grow at 6 percent this year.

 

Still, more than 430 stores inside the Coex site may suffer reduced sales on Nov. 12, when ordinary citizens will be banned from entering the building as security is tightened for leaders including U.S. President Obama.

 

Shuttered Stores

 

Hyundai Department Store Co. said it will close its Coex branch on Nov. 11 and 12. Average weekday sales in November last year were about 1.5 billion won, the Seoul-based company, said in an Oct. 26 e-mail response to questions.

 

South Korean sports personalities and film stars have joined the call to promote the event.

 

Kim Yuna, the Olympic champion figure skater dubbed Queen Yuna by her fans, joined Manchester United soccer player Park Ji Sung as goodwill ambassadors for the summit. A 20 meter high by 100 meter wide poster featuring Kim and actress Han Hyo Joo in front of Seoul City Hall bears the slogan: “The world’s future opens with Korea.”

 

“Girls Generation,” a nine-member pop group famous at home and in Japan for songs including “Kissing You” and “Baby Baby,” joined a team of stars supporting the event.

 

Today, Yeun Jae Han, 48, an assistant director with the Seoul Metropolitan Government’s environment management division, will head out to the conference venue to help volunteers scrape gum from nearby streets.

 

“I’m so proud of being part of this meaningful event for the nation,” he said.

 

To contact the reporters on this story: Bomi Lim in Seoul at blim30@bloomberg.net Jungmin Hong in Seoul at jhong47@bloomberg.net

 

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Bill Austin at billaustin@bloomberg.net Will McSheehy at wmcsheehy@bloomberg.ne

 

By Bomi Lim and Jungmin Hong - Nov 1, 2010