In a contribution to the Korean Overseas Information Service’s English-language monthly Korea Policy Review, the Center for International Policy’s Selig Harrison unsurprisingly gives the Roh administration two thumbs up for its handling of the Korea-U.S. alliance. Ordinarily, I need to have a bottle of Pepto-Bismol ready any time I read Harrison’s work, but in [...]
The Ministry of Unification has analyzed North Korean leader Kim Jong-il’s public activities in 2005.
I’m happy to announce that Andy the Flying Yangban is a daddy now, Mrs. Yangban having given birth to a daughter yesterday.
Korean and U.S. officials announced yesterday that talks would begin to establish a free trade agreement (FTA) between the two countries by June of 2007. Talks are expected to begin in May, in accordance with U.S. law. The potential benefits to both sides are enormous, reports the Chosun Ilbo:
Free access to the U.S. [...]
By Haisan
FNY Guest Blogger
There are so many misconceptions and half-baked ideas about the screen quota and what it means for Korea, I find it really depressing. After reading a lot of myths and conjecture and silliness, I thought I would add my 20 won.
Some points:
1) The “real” screen quota was 106 days, not 146. You [...]
Korea’s ever-vigilent Netizens were surprised to find Korean actress Song Hye-gyo’s picture being used in an advertisement for a Chinese “massage” service run in a U.S. newspaper. See below:
Dude, that’s sooo wrong. Song’s agent, however, is taking it all in stride, saying that the ad wasn’t worth responding to.
Pittsburgh Steelers wideout Hines Ward will visit Korea for two weeks in April. For Ward, of course, this is much more than just a post-Super Bowl vacation. As AP put it:
To the 29-year-old Ward, traveling to a country where the NFL is barely known represents much more than a chance to do some [...]
A Seoul court convicted a man of purveying porn online, despite his videos having been approved by the Korea Media Rating Board. He was fined, along with portal sites Naver.com and Yahoo! Korea. What was funny was the judgment the court handed down:
“The 12 videos that the accused made were on average 30 [...]
That, and gaming and homework. Or so said the KT’s Kim Tae-gyu, recollecting those heady days of Oh Hyun-kyung.
A couple of geek notes:
An update to Wordpress 2.0 is available for download.
This blog uses as its basic theme Michael Heilemann’s and Chris J. Davis’s “K2″ theme. Beta 2 looks a little better on Firefox than on IE, but then again, what doesn’t? Anyway, it’s a great theme coded to support a lot [...]
Korean-American Sonya Thomas won a New York grilled cheese eating contest by downing 26 sandwiches in 10 minutes, early doubling the second-place finisher and earning 8,000 U.S. dollars for her efforts. The 38-year-old, 45-kilo Ms. Thomas (Korean name: Lee Seon-gyeong) immigrated to the U.S. in 1997. The secret to her success?
Water. She says [...]
Time reports that North Korea may be in the counterfeit cigarette business (well, at least they’re not pirating DVDs), leaving Mingi to wonder whether he has been inadvertently bankrolling Kim Jong-il.
If you read Korean and are into blogging, check out ZDNet Korea’s interview with former hacker and now Tatter Tools president Roh Jung-seok–it’s a good one. BTW, if you’re a new blogger and you’d like to go with a Korean-made system, I’d highly recommend Tatter. It’s a snap to install, has tons of [...]
Dolly creature Prof. Ian Wilmut thinks Prof. Hwang Woo-suk shouldn’t get a second chance.
The Chosun Ilbo reports that the ROK Navy’s KDX-III Aegis destroyers, which the service plans to acquire by 2008, will come equipped with 30 Korean-made sea-to-surface cruise missiles.
Businessweek looks at why Naver.com (my search engine of choice ) is trouncing Google in Korea.
Why, oh why, do Muslim extremists hate Norway so? First there was al-Qaeda’s inclusion of the Scandinavian state on its hit-list in 2003. Now, you have insurgent groups in Iraq calling for reprisals against the land of the frozen pizza and Palestinians burning Norwegian flags for something the Danes did.
Korea News via Google