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Council Corner: City considers the sharing economy ... Ticket availability ... Guest Opinion: Ashland is asking for trouble with new room rental rules ... Council Corner: City considers the sharing economy ... Ticket availability ... Arthur I. Cyr: South Korea represents long-term triumph – for them and for US Comment By Arthur I. Cyr More Content Now DailyTidings.com By Arthur I. Cyr More Content Now Posted Mar. 12, 2015 at 12:21 PM By Arthur I. Cyr More Content Now Posted Mar. 12, 2015 at 12:21 PM » Social News The shocking physical attack on U.S. Ambassador Mark Lippert in Seoul may appear just the latest negative news from the Korean peninsula. On March 10 he left the hospital, five days after being slashed in a knife attack by a deranged fanatical nationalist. Predictably, the North Korean government immediately praised the assault. Later, that government denied any tie to the attacker. Periodic bellicose threats from Pyongyang receive emphasis from news media worldwide. That is understandable, but it also can distract attention from the long-term positive evolution of South Korea. As recently as the early 1960s, South Korea was one of the poorest economies in the world. Still a peasant society, the entire Korean peninsula was terribly devastated by the Korean War of 1950-53. Today, the Republic of Korea ranks among the top economies in the world, holding leadership roles in the automobile, advanced electronics, shipbuilding and other industries. Rapid industrialization and economic modernization has been complemented by striking transition from dictatorship to democracy. President Park Geun-hye’s father, Gen. Park Chung-hee, stifled incipient democracy and imposed extremely harsh military authoritarianism for nearly two decades. He was assassinated in 1979 by the head of the KCIA, the national intelligence agency. In Korean memory, he remains a respected symbol of strength and effectiveness for many, doubtless a factor in his daughter’s notable political success. While this family history is important, the background of now-stable representative government in South Korea is a more important story. Gen. Park was succeeded as chief executive by two more generals, but growing pressure for true democratic representation proved insurmountable. The capstone of transition to democracy was the election of Kim Dae-jung as president in 1998. He completed his five-year term without interruption, and in 2000 received the Nobel Peace Prize. A principal symbol of opposition to Park dictatorship, he was imprisoned for several years. On another occasion, KCIA agents kidnapped him and planned to kill him. Only the intervention of senior U.S. CIA official Don Gregg saved his life. South Korea’s remarkable domestic accomplishments have unfolded while the country becomes increasingly influential in global arenas. The President of the World Bank is Korean-American Jim Yong Kim, previously President of Dartmouth College. Ban Ki-moon, current Secretary-General of the United Nations, is a career South Korean diplomat. Despite challenges, the UN has expanded international cooperation since the end of the Cold War era. Market economies and reasonably representative governments now characterize a steadily increasing share of the world’s developing nations. In consequence, South Korea is ideally positioned to lead populations from poverty toward prosperity. In June 1950, President Harry Truman made the crucial strategic decision to defend South Korea from invasion by the North. President Dwight Eisenhower in early 1953 achieved an armistice in the brutal war, and proceeded to initiate comprehensive cooperative institutional and infrastructure development in South Korea. During the Vietnam War, South Korea provided a vitally important ally of the U.S., directly committing approximately fifty thousand troops. Park Geun-hye personifies this extraordinary national political economic and political progress. In addressing North Korea, she has combined disciplined restraint with interest in pursuing positive cooperation. Americans should be justifiably proud of vital assistance we have provided to South Korea for more than 60 years. We should also be mindful of their support for our alliance, well reflected by tremendous spontaneous public sympathy for Ambassador Lippert. Arthur I. Cyr is Clausen Distinguished Professor at Carthage College in Wisconsin and author of “After the Cold War.” He can be reached at [email protected]. By Arthur I. Cyr More Content Now DailyTidings.com By Arthur I. 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