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WASHINGTON (AP) _ First came an intimate dinner at a suburban Korean restaurant. Next, the all-out opulence of a White House state dinner in the East Room.
In between, it was lunch on the State Department's fine china.
President Barack Obama deployed maximum culinary diplomacy this week to signal his high regard for South Korean President Lee Myung-bak.
Thursday's state visit by the South Korean leader got off to a soggy start under umbrellas at a pared-down morning official arrival ceremony on the South Lawn. The usual 21-gun salute fell victim to the weather.
But inside the White House, it was full speed ahead with preparations for an East Room dinner adorned in deep autumn colors and chrysanthemums and hydrangeas mixed with fresh apples.
A four-course, fall harvest dinner was being whipped up using vegetables and herbs from the White House garden. Guests were dining on butternut squash bisque, a salad featuring daikon sheets and masago rice pearl crispies in a nod to Korean traditions, wagyu beef from Texas and chocolate cake served with a blend of Korean and American pears.
There were Korean elements in the decor too, including Korean knotting on the menu cards, deep red bamboo vases on some tables and chrysanthemums in the autumn-colored floral arrangements. In Korea, bamboo represents integrity, and chrysanthemums are a sign of a productive and fruitful life, the White House said.
The Obamas welcomed Lee and his wife on a rainy evening. Mrs. Obama wore a striking purple, one-shouldered dress by designer Doo-Ri Chung, while the South Korean first lady, Kim Yoon-ok, wore a traditional hanbok in pink and white.
The entertainment lineup mixed East and West: The Ahn trio features three sisters born in Seoul and reared in New York who play piano, violin and cello. Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter Janelle Monae, from Kansas City, Kansas, also was performing.
The rain _ and a tornado watch by early evening _ was not going to scare off dinner guests lucky enough to snag a ticket for Washington's most sought-after A-list event.
The guest list was an eclectic assortment. Tennis star Billie Jean King made the cut. So did Ford Motors CEO Alan Mullaly. Trauma surgeon Peter Rhee, a member of the medical team that treated Rep. Gabrielle Giffords after she was shot in January, came in from Arizona. San Antonio, Texas, Mayor Julian Castro cut short a trade mission to _ where else? _ South Korea.
Obama has developed a special rapport with Lee: The two clicked during Obama's first trip to Asia in 2009, and the signs of friendship were manifold during his visit to Washington.
Obama and Lee hopped into a limo and headed to a Korean restaurant in a Virginia suburb for dinner Wednesday night. And during dinner, Obama shared the long-awaited news _ hot off his BlackBerry _ that Congress had finished work on a free-trade agreement with South Korea.
Vice President Joe Biden got in on the charm offensive at a Thursday luncheon of lemongrass sesame chicken in the State Department's opulent Ben Franklin Room. He took note of Lee's nickname ``Bulldozer'' and said Lee, slight of build, doesn't look anything like a National Football League linebacker, but had earned his nickname by taking apart and reassembling a bulldozer to figure out how to make it work better.
Biden called that a testament to Lee's perseverance and patience in pursuit of practical solutions.
Lee, for his part, made sure to point out that the bulldozer had been made by Caterpillar, an American company.
Michelle Obama got in on the diplomatic outreach too, taking South Korean first lady Kim Yoon-ok on a morning field trip to a high school in Annandale, Virginia, that has a large bloc of Korean-American students.
This was the first White House state visit to include a ``tweetup,'' offering a few hundred Americans the chance to attend the morning arrival ceremony and send live tweets about it. The tweetup was in peril when heavy rain threatened to turn the arrival ceremony into a smaller, indoor event that could not accommodate the ``tweeps.'' But at the last minute, the rain eased enough to allow the event to go forward outside.
``Yup. Totally shook hands with the President. Nbd,'' (no big deal), tweeted 23-year-old Alex Nagler, who came down from New York. Afterward, sitting at a nearby Starbucks in soaking shoes, Nagler reported, ``It was nice to see what's purely a diplomatic event turned into something for the general populace.''
Dub Pool, a 53-year-old church administrator from Annapolis, Maryland, chimed in with this tweet: ``Stood in the rain 3 hrs at South Lawn of the White House. Soaked to the skin. Totally worth it.''
Yup, Pool got to shake the president's hand too. But he said it was a little tricky to fire off tweets in the rain.
<관련한글기사>
오바마, MB통해 '한국의 情 느꼈다'
이명박 대통령과 버락 오마바 미국 대 통령이 13일(현지시간) 서로를 향한 각별한 우정을 솔직하게 표현해 눈길을 끌었다.
오바마 대통령은 이날 이 대통령과 김윤옥 여사를 백악관으로 초청해 국빈 만 찬을 베풀면서 "이 대통령과의 관계에서 정을 느낀다"고 말했다.
그는 특히 `정(情)'이란 단어를 영어가 아닌 한국어로 여러 차례 언급함으로써 한국에 대한 평소 관심을 드러냈다.
이에 대해 이 대통령도 "매우 존경하고 좋아하고 친구와 같은 (오바마 대통령과의) 관계에서 특별한 느낌을 받고 있다"고 화답했다.
이와 함께 오바마 대통령은 "(이 대통령은) 이 대통령과 한국의 성공은 교육과 근면이면 무엇이든 가능한 것이라고 했다"면서 "이 대통령은 한국어로 표현했지만 영어로 하면 'Yes, we can'이 될 것"이라고 말했다.
그는 "한미 동맹의 핵심은 아주 한국적 개념으로 표현할 수 있을 것 같다"면서 "이 개념은 시간일 갈수록 깊어지는 `정'"이라고 말했다. 그러면서 "나는 이 정을 지난번 참전용사의 날에, 한국전쟁 60주년을 기념하는 날에, 한국을 방문하는 날에 느꼈다"고 덧붙였다.
이 대통령도 "오바마 대통령을 보면 동양적인 좋은 `정'을 함께 갖고 있다. 어 찌 보면 겸손해 보이고 속은 매우 강하다"라면서 "나는 매우 정직하므로 정직한 얘 기를 하고 있는 것"이라고 말해 좌중에 웃음이 터졌다.
이 대통령은 또 오바마 대통령이 한국의 교육을 미국 교육의 지향점으로 자주 드는 점을 언급, "우리 한국 교사들이 오바마 대통령을 아주 좋아한다. 한국 대통령 보다 자기들을 알아주는 대통령이라고 여긴다"고 말해 폭소가 다시 터지기도 했다.
이 대통령과 오바마 대통령은 건배 제의도 상대국의 언어로 하는 배려를 보였다.
이 대통령은 영어로 "I'd like to propose to toast(건배를 제의한다)"고 했고 , 오바마 대통령도 한국어로 "건배"라고 말했다.
이밖에 오바마 대통령은 "이 대통령과 나는 운이 좋아서 배우자를 아주 잘 만났다. 우리 아내들은 각자의 리더로서 여성과 젊은이의 모범"이라고 김 여사와 미셸 여사를 치켜세우는 등 만찬은 시종 화기애애한 분위기 속에서 진행됐다.
이 대통령은 이날 참석한 미국자동차노조의 로버트 킹 위원장을 보면서 "이 자리에 오신 걸 보니 한미 FTA가 도움이 될 것이라는 점을 잘 이해하는 것 같다"고 말 해 또 한 번 참석자들을 웃게 했다.
만찬에는 반기문 유엔 사무총장 내외와 낸시 펠로시 민주당 하원대표, 한국계 배우 존 조 등이 참석했다.
(연합)
