The Price of Bigotry

Of course, it isn’t just North Koreans who find some South Koreans to be less than welcoming, and South Koreans are realizing that it’s costing them money. The hordes of foreigners who never came back to Korea after the Olympics, the World Cup, or their military service might have had a number of reasons for that, but this appears to be one of them:

Some other experts point to the problem of Korea’s tendency to be a closed society against other nationalities. “Opinion leaders who have resided in Korea for a significant period say the most uncomfortable factor from living in Korea has been Korea’s closely-knit society,” said professor Choi Jung-wha, president of Corea Image Communication Institute. A survey by the Korean Educational Development Institute of 644 expatriates living in Korea showed that 62 percent of the respondents felt Koreans treated foreigners differently based on their race.

You don’t say. Still, I give the Herald credit for actually publishing this piece, given Koreans’ famous aversion to national introspection. It will take many more moments of lucidity than this for Korea to start winning friends rather than losing them.