SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Police say the body of the missing mayor of South Korea’s capital, Seoul, has been found. They say Park Won-soon’s body was located in hills in northern Seoul early Friday, more than seven hours after they launched a massive search for him. Park’s daughter had called police on Thursday afternoon to report him missing, saying he had given her a “will-like” message before leaving home. A police officer said Park’s body was found near a traditional restaurant and banquet hall located in the hills. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to speak publicly on the matter. News reports say one of Park’s secretaries had lodged a complaint with police on Wednesday night over alleged sexual harassment. Kim Ji-hyeong, a Seoul Metropolitan Government official, said Park did not come to work on Thursday for unspecified reasons and had canceled all of his schedule, including a meeting with a presidential official at his Seoul City Hall office.
Certainly seems that way and it does highlight the difference between a culture where it matters that you’ve done a shameful thing and a culture where you elect that person to the presidency.
One thing about the founders, they talked about honor a lot. It was a very familiar concept. Of course it exists today as well, and we have different names for it; “authenticity” comes to mind. But honor was strict, it mattered more than life sometimes, it required a lot to maintain. It does seem like there’s a subculture of gleeful, smirking dishonor rampant now. If we can force them back in the gutter of at least having to pretend to meet minimal standards that would be a job well done.
I didn’t know that Korean culture is similar to Japanese culture in this respect, nor will I ever be able or probably want to understand why suicide is seen as the correct solution to such scandals. My view is you don’t learn and cannot teach anything if you’re dead, and suicide is the easy and cowardly way out.
Transliterally, “Na do” (나도), pronounced “nah doe”, or “cheo do” (저도) in a more polite form. But in Korea they likely just say “me too” (미투). Koreans adopt many English words and phrases; it used to be seen as somewhat hip to use English here and there. I’m not sure that cultural trend will continue given how fucked up the USA has been lately. They do still drop English in recent K-dramas, so hopefully our image over there (generally pretty good) survives Mango Mussolini.
I was watching a K-drama (Vagabond on Netflix; very good) with my native Korean girlfriend and at one point one of the Bad Guys - a high-ranking politician - gets in his car and on the seat is a gift box. Inside it was a bottle of alcohol and a coiled circle of charcoal. I had never seen that abstraction before, but to her (and to all Koreans) it was an obvious command to kill himself, or else someone else would take care of it. Idea being, get nice and drunk and then light charcoal inside the car and asphyxiate. I don’t know how common that actual method of suicide is (neither did she, really), but “charcoal in a car” is instantly recognizable in Korean culture. Like “gun on a table with a single bullet” would be here, I guess.
I’m familiar with it and have about as much tolerance for that kind of shit as I do “trigger words,” “safe space,” “cultural appropriation” and being “woke.”
