First, Budaechigae slams OhMyNews and the Hankyoreh for ignoring “North Korea Freedom Day.” To be fair to the two newspapers in question, there were only 200 people at the rally — hardly the Million Man March, and as far as Korean demonstrations are concerned, hardly noteworthy. That being said, if it was 200 demonstrators in from of the U.S. Capitol denouncing the North Korea Freedom Act, OhMyNews would be all over it, I’m sure. On a related note, the Independent (Korean) lashed out a OhMyNews on Wednesday in a piece entitled “Who has Worried about the North Korean People More?” — to briefly summarize, Independent writer Eom Byeong-gil takes OhMyNews to task for criticizing the the GNP’s and the Chosun-Joongang-Dong-A’s “surprising” decision to support sending aid to the Ryongchon disaster victims; OhMy claimed their decision was because the Korean right could no longer deny social trends. The Independent shot back, saying the OhMy and the “so-called progressive press” shouldn’t behave as if they’re the only ones who care about the North Korean people; in fact, media like OhMyNews have been consistently silent about the pain and suffering the North Korean people have suffered at the hands of their own government.
The other Budaechigae feature is a graph of how the Yongsan garrison move will affect Pyongtaek, the city which will host U.S. 8th Army headquarters following the USFK re-alignment on the Peninsula. Something that I noticed yesterday is that base construction in Pyongtaek is apparently driving up apartment values in the town.
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interestingly, everywhere the US military goes it drives up housing prices. when i bought a house in lawton, ok..(population 80,000) the median price/foot was the same as dallas texas (population 2,000,000+). it’s mainly because of the high amount of money the miltary gives us specifically for housing. renters and property managers have a copy of the chart and match their prices accordingly.
Dear Mr. Marmot,
A question.
I don’t read Korean newspapers a lot.
So, Chosun, Joong Ang, the Independent and Dong A are the conservative papers?
And Ohmynews is the liberal paper?
What’s the Independent called in Korean?
Thanks for your help.
Excellent work by Charlie as always. He’s a blogging beast, I tell you. A veritable Large Mammal.
Sorry to barge in with something somewhat unrelated, but check this scoop out. Got it from my friend’s blog, here.
Kevin
Nuts– the first link is bad. Hit the second link and scroll down to the post whose title is, “This Will Warm the Cockles of the Poet Laureate’s Dank, Fetid Heart.”
Kevin
The cost of aprtments down in the Songtan area right outside Osan Air Base almost tripled within a 6 month span of the announced Yongsan move. An apartment that would have cost around 100 million a little over a year ago now lists for around 270 million won. And we’re not talking brand new apartments either, most of these are 10 years old or more. If the trend keeps up, it’ll be cheaper to live in Seoul pretty soon than here among the rice paddies and farms.
What are apartment prices like near Osan? Please email me any info that you may have on costs of living in that area? I have been offered a job at osan airbase to start in june but cant find any real info on apartment prices in that area for a 2 bedroom.
email happydave@comcast.net