However, since you brought it up, it is in no way, shape, or form an established “fact” that Mongolians and Koreans are related, either ethnically or linguistically. Frankly, I believe they are, but for the NYT to report it like its common knowledge is simply misleading. Yes, Koreans and Mongolians “look alike” - or so I’m told by many Koreans - but so do Koreans and Northern Chinese, or Koreans and Japanese (yes, change their hairdos and give’em proper dental care, and Japanese look astonishingly similar to the Koreans). Certainly, Northern Chinese descended from Tungustic language speakers are as closely related to Koreans as are Mongolians. And as far as language is concerned, well, we run into more problems. Yes, sentence structures are similar, but then again, so are those of Korean and Japanese. Heck, Farsi and Hindi have similar sentence structures to that of Korean, and I hope you don’t intent to argue that Persians and Koreans are ethno-linguistically related. Korean and Mongolian, for two languages that are supposedly so “closely” related, are surprisingly devoid of cognates, and if the two are related (and I do think they are, mind you), they are so only distantly. Mongolians are MUCH (and I do mean MUCH) more closely related to other Central Asian peoples such as the Kazakhs and Uzbeks than they are to Koreans (heck, they’re more closely related to Turks living in Turkey than they are to Koreans, at least linguistically). If there’s an ethnic group Koreans are closely related to, it’s the Japanese - it’s fairly accepted that the current occupants of the Japanese islands are descended from immigrants / invaders from the Peninsula, they also speak a language that may or may not by a member of the Altaic language family, historically speaking, Korea and Japan are linked much more closely than are Korea and Mongolia, and the two share a great deal of cultural similarities (not including Confucianism, a late import to both), no matter how much both of them claim they don’t.

So in point of fact, you’re right - the fact that my Mongolian “babe” has a difficult time at Inchon does not prove the NYT piece untrue, but a lot of other questions prove it to be quite misleading.

If you’re looking at Korea and Mongolia from a historical and genetic context, the article is true: Mongolians and Koreans are more related to each other than any other ethnic groups on earth. Because your Mongolian babe has a difficult time at Inchon does not prove this is untrue.