For better or for worse, Rex Tillerson is out of a job as Secretary of State of the United States of America, extinguished by a Tweet as unexpected as the meteor from the heavens that wiped out the T. Rex.

Although personally never a great fan, I feel a special affinity towards Rex T. ever since our distant meeting at the Panmumjom Truce Village, facing across the demarcation line dividing North and South Korea, on a cold day in March of last year within the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ). This was my first direct encounter with Trump’s America, having last been at home in the US for the November election, and it was both chilling and sobering. It is not everyday that you find yourself standing across a militarized border from the No.3 man of your own government.

At the time, I must admit that I saw Rex only in terms of Donald Trump and Mike Pence. In my highly partisan mind Tillerson was only a crony and tool of unwelcome guests in the White House.* Yet overtime the man grew on me, perhaps due to our fateful meeting at the DMZ. ‘At least we have Rex’, I would say, despite stories emerging about the state of the US State Department. And now with a potential presidential summit to perhaps take place where Rex and I first met, part of me is sad to see him gone.

And with Rex gone, all I can say is ‘Hold onto your butts.’

*The opinions expressed in this blog are my own and not those of Koryo Tours.