Korean writers of Japanese poetry

Over at the New York Times is a fascinating article about Korean writers and enthusiasts of Japanese poetry - and the negative response their work often receives.

The best known of the obscure group of Korean writers of Japanese poetry was Son Ho-yun, who died in 2003 at the age of 80. She had published six volumes of tanka, Japanese poems of 31 syllables, in Japan and had been invited to a New Year’s poetry reading at the Imperial Palace in Tokyo.

Despite this, in 2005, when Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi of Japan recited one of her poems during a news conference with Roh Moo-hyun, then South Korea’s president, most Koreans were baffled as to who she was. In the poem, Ms. Son dreamed of better relations between the countries.

The article provides an example of the responses she received:

Once, a Korean editor who was invited to speak at one of her book parties humiliated Ms. Son by reproaching her for writing Japanese poetry.

Now that's how to behave when you get invited to speak at someone's party! Where do people learn such behavior? It's not like they're reminded of the history between the two countries every day, is it?

On an unrelated note, I had to both chuckle and shake my head in hopelessness when I saw the weather update on the Joongang Ilbo's website (in both English and Korean). It posts temperatures and weather for Korea's 6 largest cities... and one other place: