hankyoreh

dressed in traditional hanbok

By Choi Won-hyung, staff reporter

Press coverage of President Park Geun-hye’s European tour is turning into a lovefest.

With Park recently touring Western Europe to follow her recent visits to the US and China, South Korean news outlets have been following a rigid formula of fawning over Park’s traditional hanbok outfits, command of local languages, and cordial reception.

Indeed, the three issues came up over and over in local reports on the European tour last week. The Dong-A Ilbo, which dedicated a four-page spread to Park’s hanbok outfits ahead of a September summit with the Vietnamese president, tackled the issue once again for the Europe trip, praising her fashion sense as “politics of color” in a Nov. 7 story on her dinner as a guest of the British state. An unnamed source was quoted as saying, “She demonstrated both dignity and warmth in orange, which Europeans love.”

JTVC, a TV network affiliated with the Joong-Ang Ilbo, also highlighted Park’s “hanbok democracy” in a Nov. 11 show featuring hanbok designers and fashion reporters as panelists.

Another running theme in the reports was the cordial reception Park was greeted with overseas. Many newspapers ran Park’s ride in a golden coach with the Queen of England as a front-page story, with accompanying pictures. The online newspaper Edaily printed a story on Park’s state dinner in Great Britain that read, “A sky that had been pouring rain since morning began to clear around the time the welcome ceremony started, and the sun was shining by the time the royal carriage pulled up to Buckingham Palace with Park inside.”

The description had many netizens scoffing at the “over the top” language.

A third focus of Korean media reports has been Park’s command of local languages, a topic that also came up during her recent US and China visits. Reporting on a 20-minute speech delivered by Park in French at a meeting of local businesspeople on its Nov. 4 episode of “News 9,” the KBS network described businesspeople from both sides giving “a standing ovation to the French-language speech by the South Korean president, whose exchange study experience affords her a special tie to France.”

The Chosun Ilbo printed a story titled “Pres. Park’s 20-minute French speech earns standing ovation” in its Nov. 5 edition, reporting local Koreans as being “astonished at her facility with the difficult pronunciation of French ‘r’s and her elision.”

The report also said Park “has often captured hearts in the countries she visits with speeches in the local language” - an angle repeated in many other news outlets.

In contrast, few if any local outlets reported on the speeches’ content, which included such subjects as opening up public sector markets.

In its April 4 edition, France’s Le Monde newspaper wrote, “The French audience was especially happy to hear President Park announce that she would shortly be opening South Korea’s public sector markets to foreign businesses.”

“In particular, Park stated that a presidential decree would be coming in the next few days that would eliminate a series of non-tariff barriers that have been hampering trade between the two countries,” it continued.

Indeed, an amendment to the protocol for the World Trade Organization Government Procurement Agreement was unexpectedly passed at a Cabinet meeting just after the speech on Nov. 5. The decision, which came after the protocol had been on ice for over a year, opened the way for foreign capital to enter all areas of South Korea’s railway backbone network.

The news, which was reported after the fact in the Hankyoreh on Nov. 13, had many critics blasting the local media for focusing too much on fawning - and not enough on the important details.

In addition to praising Park, conservative newspapers also served to publicize her programs, littering their reports with Blue House PR terms such as “creative economy” and “cultural diplomacy.” The title of a Nov. 4 Yonhap News report on Park’s visit to Paris’s Musee d’Orsay - “Inspiration for the creative economy” - was taken verbatim from a statement by a Blue House official.

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]