Amidst rising Sino-Korean tensions over ancient Korean history, the Baekdusan border and maritime disputes, the 22-year-old Chinese member of the Sino-Korean girl band B.U.T. has decided to bring both sides back from the brink of war by posing for a nude photo shoot (edited for press release, but probably NOT work safe).
The annual Pusan International Film Festival is fast approaching, once again. And now that organizers have announced their complete lineup of movies, we have a better idea of what kind of fun stuff to expect this year. With 245 films being screened this year over the course of the festival (Oct. 12-20), there is certainly [...]
In the latest issue of the Korean edition of Le Monde Diplomatique, former President Kim Dae-jung bitches up a royal storm about—you guessed it—the United States. By far the best part is this, courtesy the Chosun Ilbo:
Former President Kim said, “We give the United States everything to give, and yet we don’t hear good [...]
A Chinese Foreign Ministry official said today that it could not recognize Ieodo, an underwater rock upon which is built Korea’s Ieodo Ocean Research Station, as Korean territory. The spokesman said that since Ieodo is an underwater rock, the country has never made a decision on jurisdiction.
China had raised objections while the research station [...]
You may recall Eddie Murphy talking about Italian-Americans after they’ve just watched “Rocky.” Uri Party lawmaker Jung Chung-rae apparently had one of those moments after watching director Bong Joon-ho’s “The Host” (Korean title: “The Monster”). But rather than pick a fight with the nearest U.S. serviceman, Jung chose to exercise his heightened sense of national [...]
The Hanmi Museum of Photography in Songpa-gu will be holding an exhibit of photographs capturing Korea’s early modern history from Sep. 23. Included in the collection is a wedding photo of Prince Yi Wu (killed when the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima in 1945) and a photo of a gisaeng.
Welcome to Korea! You just spent millions of dollars to buy a failing Korean firm. It may have been tough, but you bought the thing. Now you own it lock-stock-and-barrel. Or do you?
If all the restrictions in Korea were not enough, there is a growing movement to restrict something else, technology. Over the past few [...]
The Korea Times reports on the growing number of fake cigarettes imported into Korea from “China and South East Asia”
In just a six-month period from February to July, KTRA officials found and reported to police more than 290,000 packs of smuggled cigarettes that were sold at shops in Chongno, downtown Seoul, Ha said.
“About [...]
Despite having the privilege a few times now, I am always genuinely thankful to those who sign me on to the Yongsan US Army Base. It’s always nice to have a bit of home. So when a frequent commenter offered to take me on to base to review the Battleship Burger at the Navy [...]
It’s always an honor when we get linked to Instapundit. We hope all those surfing in from Glenn Reynolds’ blog enjoy what you read here at our humble cyber-abode, where you’ll find more Korea-related political news, tabloid crap and soft-porn than you can shake a bowl of dogmeat soup at.
Not that you’d want to shake [...]
This preview of a piece in the upcoming issue of Atlantic Montly by Robert Kaplan was just featured on Instapundit, which means that our State-side brothers and sisters will be seeing a lot of it over the next few weeks via links and emails.
I think someone else here has already talked about Kaplan’s piece (Yeah, the Hole’s [...]
Over at Psychedelic Kimchi, Sparkles posts an absolutely side-splitting review of Hite’s Prime Max beer. Read the whole thing, but just to some up:
So how is Prime Max? Besides sounding like an Image comic released in the early-nineties, pencilled by Rob Liefeld and inked by Danny Miki, it’s the best So-Ko beer I’ve ever tasted, [...]
In order not to push down Sewing’s interesting post too much, this post is all below the split.
If any readers are interested in a free, two-day trip to Jeonju, Jeollabuk-do to take in some of the Jeonju Sori Festival, we [i.e. Seoul Selection] still have quite a few spaces available. If you’d like to go, send an email to Hank Kim at (IMPORTANT: email change) hankinseoul@hotmail.com. Emails must include your full name, [...]
Put the terms “Korea” and “foreign relations” together, and what comes to mind? The Korean Peninsula itself, where the Cold War has never ended; oscillating and historically complex relationships with China and Japan; six-party talks; ongoing discussions on the future of the USFK. Northeast Asia is the “hot zone” as far as the two Koreas’ relations with [...]
Yesterday could have been a productive blogging day.
Video footage of drunk GIs allegedly behaving very badly on an Uijeongbu city bus. Among the highlights—GIs trying to force open the bus door to leap out of the moving vehicle, GIs escaping through a window and remaining GIs beating bus driver/passengers and using the emergency-use hammer to [...]
According to the Dong-A, we had more than a few prosecutions for election law violations from last spring’s local elections:
Among the 233 prosecuted successful candidates, there is one governor, 39 local chiefs, 43 lawmakers of six largest cities, and 150 local lawmakers. In other words, one out of 16.6 elected candidates is under indictment. Especially, [...]
For those of us interested in the Nork refugee crisis and related political issues, the Royal Asiatic Society - Korea Branch will host Peter M. Beck, Director of the International Crisis Group’s Northeast Asia Project in Seoul, a prof at Ewha and a member of the Ministry of Unification’s Policy Advisory Committee, tonight (Tuesday 9/12) at 7:30 [...]
UPDATE 3: He’s erased the comments again, although he was nice enough to leave those friendly to him. He has also updated his blog so that only registered users of Joins.com can leave comments. Which, of course, you need to a Korean citizen number to do (or jump through the hoops to get membership without). [...]
Think all “Asians get along?” Nuh-uh! Jeff Probst of American TV’s “Survivor” proves yet again that Americans can be mo-rons regarding some pretty basic geo-political information.
Asians, he explained, include Chinese and Japanese and Koreans and “they don’t necessarily get along,” adding, “This is stuff maybe I should know.”
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