Pages 29-33 – Michael Pike – ‘Korea in the Late 1950s, A Personal View’

When Personnel Department of the then Foreign Office asked me to call in early April 1957 I had no idea of where they intended my first posting to be. “Korea” they said, “the Embassy in Seoul, as our first language student.” My mind spun for a long moment. Could I cope? What kind of country was it? Where could I begin to make sense of such a completely new and unexpected chapter in my life? Who we...