"What's missed in Washington is that many South Koreans are more afraid of the Bush Administration than Pyongyang."

An administration that has been truly misunderestimated! An article from my journalist friend from Bloomberg. Very good.

Kids Are Alright in Korea -- the Economy Too: William Pesek Jr.
2002-12-26 00:47 (New York)

Kids Are Alright in Korea -- the Economy Too: William Pesek Jr.

(Commentary. William Pesek Jr. is a columnist for Bloomberg
News. The opinions expressed are his own.)

Seoul, Dec. 26 (Bloomberg) -- Dressed in trendy black duds
and puffing on a cigarette in a downtown pub, Kim Jae Young hardly
seems like a force in South Korean politics. But Korea Inc.
received a thunderous wake-up call from the 34-year-old and people
just like him.
``It's my generation, people my age, who are shaking up
Korea,'' explains the nightclub promoter.
Kim's generation is known as 386. They're in their 30s, went
to college in the 1980s and were born in the 1960s. Korea's answer
to Generation X sent a resounding signal in last week's election
to the older generation of men who run South Korea. It was that
the old ways of doing things are finished and the country needs to
look forward, not backward.
This point has been missed by much of the foreign media. The
impression overseas is that Roh Moo Hyun rode a wave of anti-
American sentiment to victory. That the acquittal of two U.S.
servicemen in the deaths of two Korean girls decided a national
election. In reality, Roh won because his pledge to ``break the
old political paradigm'' resonated with thirty-something Koreans.
The power shift from older Koreans to younger ones has never
been more apparent. It used to be that South Korean elections were
decided by region; the south would support certain candidates,
while the north might favor others, and so on. Last week, though,
it was the under-40 crowd that delivered liberal Roh, while those
over 40 tended to favor conservative Lee Hoi Chang.

Roh's Appeal

Roh appeals to younger Koreans because he wants (a) to
continue reforming Asia's fourth biggest economy (b) to put their
nation on more equal footing with others, and (c) favors engaging
North Korea, rather than isolating it further. In short, Roh
personified the break with tradition many young Koreans desire.
More than anything else, last week's election seemed a
referendum on the North Korea question. Older Koreans gravitated
toward Lee's harder line on Pyongyang, which put Seoul and
Washington on the same diplomatic page. Large blocks of the under-
40 crowd favors engagement with the north. And here, younger
Koreans seem to be thinking more realistically.
There are basically three ways to deal with North Korea, none
particularly appealing: Negotiate with Pyongyang, ignore it, or
launch military strikes at its nuclear reactors. The latter two,
let's face it, are losing strategies. Ignoring North Korea at one
moment and provoking it the next have only escalated the crisis in
North Asia.

Three Options

Dealing with Pyongyang may be unpalatable, but it's the least
worst of the three options. Younger Koreans understand that, even
if older ones see things differently. The recent rise in anti-
American sentiment reflects the Bush Administration's clumsy
forays onto the Korean Peninsula. Two girls accidentally killed by
an armored U.S. vehicle may have boosted Koreans' anger toward
Washington, but hardly caused it.
Koreans still fume over President George W. Bush's ``axis of
evil'' comment and how his administration's Cold Warriors set back
years of progress on diplomatic and economic ties between north
and south. What's missed in Washington is that many South Koreans
are more afraid of the Bush Administration than Pyongyang.
Older voters are understandably reluctant to trust the
instincts of a generation some see as na‹ve and too idealistic.
After all, 386ers learned about hardships like the Korean War in
classrooms. They also know less about poverty than the over-50
crowd. Sure, the 1997-1998 Asian financial crisis hit Korea hard,
but the economy recovered within a few years.

Less Confucian

The credit-card culture of younger Koreans also irks their
parents and grandparents. The younger generation is far less
Confucian about economic and social decisions than older ones. The
386ers are active consumers and decidedly hip to the latest
fashions and trends flowing from New York, Paris and Tokyo.
They're enthusiastic world travelers.
Last week's election also took place in a vastly different
environment than 1997. That contest came at a time of desperation,
hardship and disillusionment. The latest one arrived at a time
when South Korea's economy is growing faster than 6 percent.
Economists also are calling on Japan, South Korea's traditional
rival, to restructure its economy to look more like South Korea's.
Younger South Koreans feel empowered by their nation's
economic successes in recent years. And in a sense, that's what
the country needs. South Korea's is a tale of three economies: the
macro-economy, the micro-economy and the one that consumers feel
in their gut. Outgoing President Kim Dae Jung's economic team did
much soul-searching about the third level, the Korean mindset.

Pessimism

South Koreans, some senior policy makers believe, remain more
pessimistic about their prospects than perhaps they should.
Spending time chatting up shop owners, business people, economists
and random people on the street corroborates this view. Folks here
have fewer nice things to say about their economy than you'd
expect given that it's one of the world's strongest.
Uncertainty surrounding North Korea feeds into all this.
Concerns that Roh will be too accommodating toward Pyongyang
shouldn't be ignored, but they also shouldn't stop Seoul from
favoring diplomacy over isolation. Ignoring North Korea and
halting financial assistance will only provoke Pyongyang further.
Finding a more realistic path will be good for South Korea's
economy, and the nation's future.

--William Pesek Jr. in Seoul at wpesek@bloomberg.net, or through
the Tokyo newsroom at (813) 3201-7570. Editor: Olsen, *Tan.