PING:
TITLE: More Horror From North Korean
BLOG NAME: The Gweilo Diaries
The Marmot shares more North Korean awfulness….

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TITLE: SUPER TUESDAY RESULTS
BLOG NAME: JunkYardBlog
Dean gets a win!–in the People’s Republic of Vermont. Edwards almost gets a win!–and drops out of the race. And the man who wants to be America’s second black president (we had a first? Oh yeah, some white southern dude…

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TITLE: Brutalism In North Korea
BLOG NAME: See Lai
During 1988 and 1989, I was engaged in business deals with people from North Korea. At the time, I had just established my “Representative Company” in China and since North Koreans could only visit China (not Hong Kong), I was

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TITLE: A quick check around the perimeter…
BLOG NAME: Spartacus
Michael Ledeen speculates that the Iranian mullahs may have had a hand in yesterday’s bloody terrorist attacks against Shiite worshippers in Iraq. I know, it seems odd that a regime run by Shia clerics would attack the faithful at the Shiite’s h…

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TITLE: Horror in North Korea
BLOG NAME: Interested-Participant
Read the experiences of the defectors. They are only snapshots of the inhumanity that currently exists in North Korea, but they add to the already large and growing body of evidence against the criminal communist regime of Kim Jong-il.

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TITLE: More on North Korea
BLOG NAME: c0llision.org
Winds of Change has an excellent - if chilling - round up of the current events happening in North Korea by The Marmot’s Hole’s Robert Koehler. An excerpt: ‘I witnessed a whole family being tested on suffocating gas and dying…

Though I can understand where you’re coming from (because calling someone a foreigner whilst in their country isn’t exactly the most tactful or intelligent conclusion one can make), I don’t think it was an issue of arrogance.

Generally speaking, Koreans are xenophobic. This attitude is, naturally, reflected in the language. The term “wegugin” (and yeah, I probably romanized that incorrectly, go me) is the term used for people who are not ethnically and culturally Korean.

My point: It is most likely that she used the word “Wegugin” not out of deliberate arrogance, but because that’s just how the language works. With her use of the word “wegugin”, I think it’s most probable that she was indicating all non-Korean people (as she mentions the international community just afterwards), not just Polish people.

Generally: non-korean=foreigner (to them, they are foreign, hence foreigner)=wegugin. So really, I suppose it is a kind of arrogance in that all the words are created in relation to themselves (Korean people), but that’s the way the language has been for centuries, and it’s the local lingo. They probably don’t even recognize it as offensive - if you’re familiar with Japan, it’s similiar to the whole ‘gaijin’ thing.

They say “foreigner” because they are speaking of people who are foreign in relation to themselves.

But yeah, it is not a system of speaking that would garner them a lot of love from non-koreans.

And yes, I realize this topic was in April, but on the off-chance that someone might read this, I figured I’d just throw in my own 2 cents.

P.S. - tmc1233 - are you sure they didn’t call you “migugin” (american)? To my experience, most Korean people I meet ask whether I’m wegugin initially (when they hear me speak terribly accented Korean, haha), but when I speak english, they all switch to, “Oh, sorry, are you migugin?” Not that I it isn’t within the realm of possibility that they’d call you migugin, but the above is usually my experience.

Whether State A’s politcal system threatens State B or not is irrelevant when it comes down to Human rights issues. I’m not talking about human rights as in a States legal system but in the social system. When it is documented fact that people are dying of starvation, malnutrition, lack of medical care, etc… while the powers that run the country, and their cronies, are living it up then surely it is the best interests of the people of that state that the leadership be forced to rethink or ‘retire’. Anybody that sits back and says ‘it is not our problem’ when confronted with political abuses of people of another state may as well condone genocide in the Balkans, mass extermination of the Jews (ok, that one is a bit ‘out there’ since the Nazis were doing it outside their own boundaries but it’s still relevant), Stalins purges, the Red Army reforms, the war in Rwanda,… In N. Korea, the major explosion of a train the other day followed by the international communities offer of aid shows this for what it is. If the country was run properly, economically and politically then 1. This disaster would probably never have happened and 2. N. Korea would not have needed aid to deal with something, which on a disaster scale, is quite small really. If we are prepared to accept N. Koreas (mis)treatment of it’s people then we should cancel all aid and let them fend for themselves and see how long they last. Is that what some voices here are suggesting? Maybe it would be a good thing because if left to go it’s own way then the majority of the people would probably die from starvation or, they would rise up against the dictators where a lot of them would probably be killed by the army and the rest would go home and die of starvation. If Dictators have nobody to Dictate to then they are out of a job and have nobody to steal from. You know what? Some of you guys think too much but you don’t think enough. You read too much, but you don’t read enough!

Finally, I have no desire to see military action against N. Korea and I do not think it is required. However, it was needed in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as in the Balkans, all for similar reasons.

TMC1233, please excuse the spelling, grammar and vocabulary. I am merely an engineer.

As for linking it to my blog, well, look, I thought it was a worthwhile piece for people to read. I do not favor military action against the North Koreans, least of all for its human rights record, as I generally feel that as long as a state A’s political system doesn’t gravely threaten state B, B has no real reason to try to impose political change in A. My very stark (and if I may say so, frank) view of international relations can be easily seen in the comments section of this post. And yes, I can probably accompany my blog post with links to atrocities committed by American forces or regimes supported by the Americans in an effort to “be fair,” although I’m not sure what that would do, precisely, except to water down what is transpiring in the North so those who favor “engagement” (i.e. pumping money in the North and enabling what you read to continue) feel better about themselves. Now, to be fair, we on the right do the same thing when we ignore some of the more unpleasant aspects of our partners in the War on Terror (or some of the more unpleasant aspects of the war itself). And, I guess, I can translate and link to articles like this to perhaps take the edge off a little (besides, she’s kinda cute in a tough sort of way). But then, wouldn’t that also be trying to manipulate facts and emotions in a politically manipulative sort of way? Hmmm….

Chubbybee, instead of picking on the Marmot, you should be telling this to the New York Times - or here in Korea, KBS.

Secondly, Arty, whoever you are, lose the attitude buddy. If you know anything about Korea and Koreans, you would realise that this is not an uncommon thing for SOUTH Koreans to do. I was a bit taken aback that NORTH Koreans also go to other countries and call the locals foreigners. I don’t see how that makes me a mental “midgit” [sic] or a liberal. Maybe the next time you want to call somebody a mental “midgit” you should look in the mirror and then fire away with your lame attempts at insulting, poor spelling and all.