K-pop star and Internet sensation Psy has a message to South Korea’s new president:
Heyyyyyy, sexy lady.
Conservative Park Geun-hye (박근혜), the daughter of Park Chun-hee (박정희), the authoritarian leader of South Korea in the 1960s and 1970s widely credited with engineering Korea’s economic growth, was inaugurated on Tuesday as South Korea’s first female president following a convincing victory in the December 2012 presidential election over liberal candidate Moon Jae-in (문재인).
She marked her first day in office with an otherwise somber inaugural address that served mostly as a warning to North Korea to cease its nuclear tests and to dismantle its nuclear weapons program:
“North Korea’s recent nuclear test is a challenge to the survival and future of the Korean people,” Park said outside the national assembly building in the South Korean capital. “Make no mistake, the biggest victim will be North Korea itself.”
Referencing her father’s astoundingly successful economic program, Park also called for a ‘2nd miracle on the Han River’ — Park promised to preside over a happier Korea after a shaking transition period that saw her first choice for prime minister withdraw over a real estate scandal. Park herself has already met sharp criticism over her own apparent backtracking on her campaign commitment to address economic democratization — essentially, income inequality issues in South Korea.
For one day, though, it seems that a happier Korea began with a performance by Psy, who kicked off a decidedly much less somber start to the Park era.