1. The U.S. has provided a crucial nuclear umbrella and big military
presence since WW2 and fought with So. Korea in the Korean War. We’re
strong allies.
2. The U.S., not Europe, is deeply involved in the N. Korea nuclear
negotiations.
3. Wall Street has a huge impact on the Korean capital markets.
4. The U.S. is a major market for Korean products.
5. Tens of thousands of Korean students and business people have
studied and moved to the U.S., where they are more welcome than in
Europe.
6. Silicon Valley is still the #1 destination for Korean tech people.
7. American pop culture, like Japanese pop culture, is big among young
Koreans (e.g. blue jeans, Nikes, Hollywood, etc.)
8. U.S. companies are more dynamic than most European companies, esp.
in high tech.

As for Korea’s fascination with the US — well, the Korean War was only 60 years ago, and Korea wouldn’t be divided into South and North if it wasn’t for the US and the former USSR. Not everyone looks at things through the the lens of economics.

So do I get this right? The unity of Europe would help increase visibility in the Korean (and global) press (etc), which in turn would increase sales of European products and services? I think it might, but is it really worth it? I’m not sure. Trade is entirely based on visibility and images.

I think the diversity of Europe is its asset too. Countries have very strong individual country images (Italy for wines, Germany for engineering, French cuisine etc., you got the point). What would we then have? European clogs? No, it wouldn’t work at all.

Sorry I think I lost the point somewhere along the lines. Was it about WHY Europe isn’t presented in Korea (I think that question has been answered) or why it would be important that we had a stronger European image? Sorry, I’m confused! :)

As for the financial crisis, I agree cooperation is needed but I’m quite happy our economy isn’t directly linked to that of Romania!

The problem with newspapers and stocks in particular the advent of the internet and near real-time stock tracking has put a lot of pressure on finance sections of newspapers to shed a lot of pages. In the 80 or early 90s you probably would have found that stock on there but not anymore.

I think the problem with EU not getting much attention twofold. One is that it doesn’t have the power of a nation’s government and as such many of the important decisions take place in the parliaments of the respective countries. To a lesser extent secondly it’s all a tad bit confusing to an outsider. Having this government, that really isn’t government over, but not really, the member countries government, which are relatively autonomous maintaining their own budgets, military and etc, and all built upon a bunch of treaties.

When this Dutch guy moved to Spain and later Sweden, I realized that the AEX (Dutch stock) wasn’t in their newspaper. I found it interesting because I was used of the daily rating, on a prominent location in my own newspaper. In one year time, I read about my home country only two times in that particular ‘global’ news paper. At that point I realized that The Netherlands is a rather small country, and that we need the EU.

Then I came to Asia, I noticed that the EU isn’t as prominent as I thought. cognitive dissonance, created by local news and strategy? Maybe! I realized that the EU could be better advocated, that’s why I wrote this down initially.

I am not really getting what you are throwing out. Are you asking why the exports of the EU countries aren’t counted as a whole and thus be more of a player relative to bigger players such as the US and China?

Thanks for your reflection, I agree that the US is very important to Korea. Your notion of the US being the biggest Korean import and export partner takes the discussion back to the initial point. Europe is not represented on the global play-field; I don’t hear about them on the news at all! How could that be? I think unity has a awful lot to do with it!

The US is a far older union and has benefited from people moving around it, sharing a common set of laws, currency and language for 200 years. The EU is just over 10 years old, it is hard to take pride in something that really hasn’t truly been tested.

“We are no under-performer on the global market! I think its a question of unity, something the US has, and the EU lacks.”

The fact of the matter is it doesn’t matter to Koreans if Germany is the top exporter to Austria or whatever it doesn’t relate to their country. The US happens to be both their second biggest importer and exporter. When your economy is based on exports as most Asian countries (including Korea) are they become VERY important and are going to get a heck of a lot more airtime then the 12th largest (the UK).

When a professor cites an example he is trying to make things easier to understand, and as such he will use examples the audience is most comfortable with.

When you add everything together it’s pretty clear, unity really has very little to do with it.