Friends and frenemies from Asia

Last month’s visit by South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, coming on the heels of congressional passage of the U.S.-South Korea free-trade agreement, seemed to go very well, with Lee and President Obama getting along just splendidly.

Lee even went with Obama to Michigan, where they toured a General Motors plant and Lee, wearing a Detroit Tigers cap, amiably took questions from the audience.

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But we’re hearing — though other sources demur — that some South Korean officials were not completely happy with the way Lee was treated at a few points during the visit.

When the South Korean leader alighted from his plane at Andrews Air Force Base, he was greeted by protocol chief Capricia Marshall, State Department staffers and other folks, which is the customary greeting party for such visits. “We don’t do airports,” a source said, adding that the big thing is the White House portico greeting and the big do on the South Lawn that Lee received.

So when Lee reviewed the military honor guard at Andrews, he walked down the red carpet with his wife, Kim Yoon-ok.

In contrast, when Chinese Prime Minister Hu Jintao, our BFF (best frenemy forever), arrived for his summit meeting with Obama in January, Vice President Biden himself schlepped out to Andrews to do the greeting routine and walk down the red carpet with Hu.

Apparently that was unusual, a State Department official told us, although he said Al Gore also went to meet Hu’s plane as vice president. Well, let’s see. Hu has nukes and is our banker, while Lee is just a big trading partner. So some disparity seems justified. No disrespect intended.

Then at the White House state dinner, where the four-course menu was “conceived by” first lady Michelle Obama and the White House chef, the special main course was Texas Wagyu — richly marbled beef similar to the famed Kobe, as in Japan. Koreans have their own ideas about primo beef, raising the Hanwoo variety. And we know how close the Koreans and Japanese are, especially from World War II days.

But Obama treated Lee to dinner the night before at Woo Lae Oak, an excellent Korean restaurant in Tysons Corner, and you don’t want to do Korean beef two nights in a row.

Those immortal words

Not that we didn’t know this already, but we’re getting reminders that Loop readers are smart and funny folks. We’ve gotten hundreds of responses to our contest, in which we’re asking readers to submit their ideas for what phrase President Obama will be known for (think Reagan’s “Tear down this wall” or JFK’s “Ask not”).

You can find all the rules
on our new blog at wapo.st/loopcontest.

And please don’t forget that this contest is a two-parter: The first part is the question of which phrase that Obama has already said is likely to stick around. The second part asks what he should say that history might remember.

We’ve gotten lots of entries for the first part but fewer for the second, so we’re asking Loop readers to put on their speechwriter hats and dream up some soaring language that will have Obama’s writing team taking notes.