January 13, 2006 – 10:58 am
The Friday edition of the Dong-A Ilbo has a series of very interesting pieces (1, 2, 3, 4) on mixed-race Koreans and the discrimination they face in Korean society. I see the Dong-A has translated one of them into English, and I’ll summarize the rest later this evening.
January 13, 2006 – 10:33 am
U.S. Ambassador Alexander Vershbow was stopped by KCTU protestors from attending a meeting with the Korean Internet Journalists’ Association, reports the Korea Herald:
The U.S. envoy to Korea was to meet with members of the Korea Internet Journalists’ Association at the office of progressive radio channel, Voice of the People in Yeongdeungpo, western Seoul.
But members of [...]
January 13, 2006 – 8:55 am
World War II and Korean War hero Young O. Kim has passed away.
(Hat tip to Oranckay)
January 12, 2006 – 1:31 pm
UPDATE 3: You don’t say…
A Korean Press Foundation report seems to indicate that Korea’s coverage of science news is too nationalistic:
The report, carried out by the Korean Press Foundation, found that 75.4 percent of news stories on scientific achievements on major television networks were about discoveries by Koreans.
The results were based on an analysis of [...]
January 12, 2006 – 9:01 am
Looks like elementary school kids are going to be learning English.
January 12, 2006 – 8:54 am
UPDATE 1: Here’s the lowdown on the remaining three protesters, from Simon World:
In short, one is the vice president of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions - he is not a farmer. Another belongs to the Korean Peasant’s League, although he only began farming in 2003 and spends at least some of his time working [...]
January 11, 2006 – 3:41 pm
North Korea is asking for a 100 GAZILLION DOLLARS in compensation for a
traffic accident in the North’s Kumgang Mountains last month involving a
Hyundai Asan employee that left one North Korean soldier dead and two
injured.
OK, not really, but they are asking for a cool million, reports the Chosun Ilbo.
A Hyundai Asan official said that while North [...]
January 11, 2006 – 10:49 am
A number of experts who attended a forum at Kyungnam University??s Graduate School of North Korean Studies suggested that like President Roh, North Korean leader Kim Jong-il wants the United States to play a "balancer role" in Northeast Asia:
Tong Kim, who on various occasions attended the U.S.-North Korea meetings accompanying the U.S. delegations, suggested that [...]
January 11, 2006 – 12:43 am
The U.S.-edition of the JoongAng Ilbo (Korean), quoting a U.S. State Department official, is reporting that from next year, Koreans would likely be allowed to visit the United States for up to 90 days without a visa. The paper said bilateral discussions to extend the U.S. visa waiver program to Korea had entered their final [...]
January 11, 2006 – 12:14 am
Rush over to Oranckay.net to get the definitive postmortem on the Dr. Hwang fiasco.
January 10, 2006 – 10:31 pm
The Dong-A Ilbo ran the results of a public opinion poll by the 21st Century Peace Foundation revealing changes in Koreans’ values over the last 10 years. And here they are:
Public trust
Trust in the military and courts has decreased markedly, while faith in TV, the police and major corporations is on the rise.
Environmental groups earned [...]
January 10, 2006 – 9:19 pm
Hong Kong’s Secretary for Commerce, Industry & Technology John Tsang, who chaired the recent WTO ministerial meeting in Hong Kong, went off on both the Korean protesters and the Korean government in a local newspaper, according to the Dongnip Shinmun.
The secretary questioned whether the protesters who came to his city were really farmers. "I understand [...]
January 10, 2006 – 2:21 pm
UPDATE 1: James Na questions the wisdom of South Korea pumping in the money to indigenously develop jet fighters.
ORIGINAL POST: Update on yesterday’s post on the ROKAF’s expansion plans (from the Hanguk Ilbo):
Acquire 40 F-15K "Slam Eagles" by 2008.
Acquire additional "F-15K-level" fighters between 2009 and 2015.
Indigenously develop and mass produce next generation "stealth" fighters–a project [...]
January 10, 2006 – 1:45 pm
Do the Hong Kong police need to play All Look Same? Perhap so:
The protesters, 11 of whom began a hunger strike last Thursday, contend they are innocent and are victims of mistaken identity.
Yang Kyung Kyu, the president of the Korean Federation of Transportation, Public and Social Services Workers’ Unions and one of the 14 protesters [...]
January 10, 2006 – 8:41 am
UPDATE: It appears Edaily has caught on and replaced the graphic. Luckily, Media Daum still has it up–here’ a screenshot:
Link to a screenshot of the entire page.
ORIGINAL POST: Note to Edaily: If you’re going to rip off graphics from the ‘Net, you gotta be careful.
(Hat tip to reader)
January 9, 2006 – 11:05 pm
The ROK Air Force plans to begin work on a 12 trillion won (roughly US$12 billion) project to independently develop and deploy 40 next-generation fighter aircraft by 2018.
The problem is, the nation learned about this when the newly launched Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) mistakenly leaked the information on the Internet.
The DAPA, dispensing with any [...]
January 9, 2006 – 1:16 pm
UPDATE 2: English piece on this travesty, courtesy the Chosun Ilbo.
UPDATE: Simon makes some observations about the hunger-striking Korean protesters.
ORIGINAL POST: According to Yonhap News, the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) threatened Monday to send a 1,000-man protest team to Hong Kong to conduct large-scale demonstrations if Hong Kong authorities do not quickly clear [...]
January 9, 2006 – 12:57 pm
North Korea’s lawsuit against the South for mistreatment of North Korean spies later repatriated to the North has resulted in South Korean victims of North Korean abductions launching a suit of their own against the North, reports the Herald Saengsaeng News. Four kidnap victims later, who managed later to escape back to the South, have [...]
January 9, 2006 – 11:08 am
U.S. Ambassador Vershbow (unitary English spelling, as far as I know) will likely issue an apology–or at least an "explanation"–for calling North Korea a "criminal regime," reports the Hankyoreh Shinmun.
A diplomatic source said the ambassador would issue the explanation is order to create an atmosphere conducive to the prompt reconvening of the six-party talks. The [...]
January 9, 2006 – 10:17 am
More Dr. Hwang crap:
In an exclusive interview with the Gyeonin Ilbo, Prof. Hwang Woo-suk and his researchers reportedly said the team’s 2004 paper in Science was also fake, although one researcher still claims the results were legit. I haven’t seen the interview (I’m just reading about it through NoCut News), but I’m sure there will [...]
