This year's Folklife Festival marks three felicitous occasions of international, national and local importance. One hundred years ago, diplomatic relations were first established between Korea and the United States. In the early years of this relationship its framers, particularly Admiral R.W. Shufeldt, who negotiated the "opening" with the aid of the Chinese, may have been somewhat disappointed at its apparent lack of dramatic results. He probably hoped for the kind of acclaim that Commodore Perry received for his forced opening of Japan in 1854. Although few people in the 19th century recognized the importance that the Korea-U.S. ...