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Jeff Epps
Club President 2002-2003
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Jim Meehan
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Dale Smith |
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President Jeff gaveled the meeting
of February 18th to order, and visitors from Nantucket to Calistoga were introduced by Jerry McQuiddy, Frank Toller, Andy Bartlett, John Sales and Rex Stults. Winter Ball preparations dominated the agenda, with Joel Toller inviting all to get in the mood by donning bead necklaces
on the tables. Then he appealed for volunteers and help in getting everything in place in the days before the event. Frank Toller thanked all members of the Committee and noted how in this
instance the whole really did exceed the sum of its parts. Rob Andreae mentioned some of the big auction items we can expect to see and President Jeff reported his
satisfaction in watching the "New Guard" take over from the old and take ownership of the event.New Member from New
Orleans Jim Meehan extracted fines from carefully selected members, and then cajoled everyone into a conga
line dance around the tables to get us in a party mood. Dale Smith won the raffle. Program
NORTH KOREA – FRIEND OR FOE?Rex Stults
introduced his friend, guest speaker Professor Dae Hyun "Danny" Chung, an internationally acclaimed Scientist-at-Large who retired from Lawrence Livermore
National Laboratory in 1996 after 23 years of service. Dr. Chung came to America from his native Korea as a twenty year old student and stayed for an illustrious career in science,
gaining recognition as one of 2000 Outstanding Scientists of the 20th Century from the International Biographical Centre of Cambridge, England. |
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Dr. Chung
began his presentation saying his message was unfortunately not as cheerful as Rex's
introduction, and that the nuclear weapon threat from North Korea is indeed grave. He told of his attachments to St. Helena and Rotary by introducing his wife, Isook Park, Manager of St.
Helena's Wells Fargo branch, and noting that his Father-in-Law was active in Rotary in Seoul.A six-minute video set the scene for his serious description of North Korea's Kim Jung Il as
unpredictable and therefore very dangerous. What worries him is not that North Korea itself may attack America or anyone else, but that they may sell their atomic weapons to terrorists who may then use
them with impunity. He confirmed that North Korea does indeed possess nuclear weapons and proven delivery capability to reach America's West Coast. He has known of their program since 1989 when
he represented America in Geneva, and participated in successful diplomacy to end nuclear weapons development in France, Israel, South Africa and China. But he said North Korea is different, and their
priority is preservation of the regime, and all other concerns are secondary. Dr. Chung
expressed concern that US diplomatic efforts to dissuade North Korea from developing weapons have failed and that western assumptions that the economy and society would collapse were misguided. North Korea is different, he said, and expectations of what might happen in a western society with millions starving under a despot controlling a million man army just don't apply to North Korea. He is clearly worried about nuclear proliferation of their weapons in the hands of others, and cautioned us not to dismiss the threat.
Dr. Chung closed with a poem he wrote on his native land's concept of Jeong, to him one of the most beautiful words in the Korean language. He explained that Jeong is forever and grows on
people as a powerful presence of love, that he finds no equivalence for in our society. With Jeong, there is no need to wish another a good day, because that wish is implicit in Jeong as part of the
interpersonal relationship developed over time. It was a powerful message that gave us food for thought in our hurried and often fractured lives. During questions Dr. Chung
left us with some signs of hope with Radio Free Europe and the Voice of America working very well and increasing numbers of defectors escaping the country through China. He closed with an upbeat report of the recent crossing of the DMZ by 10 busses of South Koreans traveling to Mount Diamond in North Korea, a beautiful and revered place he compared to our Yosemite. He emphasized that this was the
first time
in 55 years since the DMZ was established in 1953 that South Koreans had been able to make this journey. Perhaps awareness of life outside North Korea's closed society may give hope that one day its people may have some influence in their government, as other people have almost everywhere else in our world.
Poem by Guest Speaker Dae Hyun "Danny" Chung
(Available in PDF) |
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