Topic: The Mission

Today the Korea Times, the oldest English-language daily in Korea, published an editorial by Ambassador Choi Young-jin on the 2005 World Summit at the UN, which begins today. I'm excited because I played a significant role in the composition of the article. Of course, the ideas are fundamentally those of the ambassador and his diplomatic team, but I had a hand in formulating the language and even some of the substantive ideas.

Interesting editorial note: while our draft referred exclusively to "the Republic of Korea," this was changed to "South Korea" in nearly every instance, the one exception being a reference to the founding of the government of the Republic of Korea. Apparently "South Korea" is the preferred formulation of the Korea Times. The significance of this is that the Republic of Korea was founded as the one legitimate government for all of Korea, though its de facto power was only over the southern half. So while "Republic of Korea" and "South Korea" are often used interchangeably, the latter suggests implicitly that there is an equally legitimate North Korea, and as such tends to be avoided by ROK diplomats.

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