Rodman, once again

            A day or two after I posted the piece here on Dennis Rodman and his North Korean visit, it was reported that the American visitor told his hosts that he wanted to meet “Psy,” the South Korean rock star, who has become a worldwide sensation with his “Gangnam Style” video.

But wanting to meet Psy in Pyongyang? Despite his friendship with the North Korean dictator, Kim Jong Un, Rodman apparently didn’t know the first thing about two Koreas. He was not aware obviously that Psy simply couldn’t be in North Korea to accommodate his wishes. Asking to meet Psy in North Korea is like wanting to eat a McDonald’s hamburger at a Chinese restaurant.

            Rodman has probably heard about the Korean War, recalling vaguely perhaps the facts that the North Koreans invaded the South in 1950 and that the United States and other allied forces fought, under the United Nations flag, with the South Korean Army to repel the Communist invaders.

Sure, the Korean War ended in truce in 1953. What Rodman probably didn’t know is that two Koreas are still technical at war as they have not signed a peace treaty. And under the hostile circumstances, no South Koreans are allowed to visit Pyongyang unless the North Korean dictator invites them as he did for Rodman and his friends.

The various remarks Rodman made in Pyongyang and in the United States after his return betrayed his ignorance of the situations in Koreas. But I am not surprised because I have run into many Americans who, like Rodman, were unable to distinguish between the two Koreas and say which side is America’s ally and which one is developing long-range missiles and nuclear bombs to fight the United States.

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