October 31, 2006 – 10:59 pm
Several weeks ago someone posed the question - what is a Kyopo? It took me sometime to remember where I had heard this questions before - it was posed by Mary Yu Danico in her article “Korean Identies: What Does It Mean to be Korean American in Korea,” Transactions, Royal Asiatic Society - Vol. 80 [...]
October 31, 2006 – 4:55 pm
Well, Halloween is actually upon us, but the memory of Saturday night is overshadowing today’s glorious holiday. I will update this post some ASAP and post a Halloween Extravaganza over at ROKon’s blog tonight.
Update #1 Here is a set of pictures of Kali in Seoul.
Update #2: Yet more pictures from the weekend are here.
Two of [...]
October 31, 2006 – 11:09 am
Vaclav Havel, Elie Wiesel and Kjell Bondevik (former PM of Norway) have jointly made a public appeal for refocusing on NK’s human-rights crisis, in the NYT. Worth reading, but nothing new.
Seems to me that global opinion-leaders are stuck in a sortta cycle — some will say “we just can’t do anything about NK’s human-rights problems, the regime just [...]
October 31, 2006 – 3:12 am
Just finished watching Kang Woo-suk’s “Hanbando,” and all I can say is that it was the most atrocious Korean film I’d seen since “A Night on the Water.”
And “A Night on the Water” at least had the lone redeeming quality of Lee Sung Hi getting naked.
Sphere: Related Content
October 30, 2006 – 11:33 pm
With the weather as nice as it was on Sunday, I popped by the Gyeongbokgung Palace to stroll around and snap a few photos. The area around the Gyeongbokgung Palace and Samcheongdong-gil is wonderful in the autumn as the ginkgo trees turn color.
(For 1,200 px version, click here)
(For 1,000 px version, click here)
In [...]
October 30, 2006 – 2:08 pm
ROKon Magazine’s blog is looking for any party pictures you may have taken this weekend. Please send them to rokon.megazine(at)gmail.com. A few are already up, but more are probably going to pop up soon.The staff of ROKon managed to shake our booties at B1 in Itaewon. I went to Sinchon and hung out a bit [...]
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October 30, 2006 – 12:30 pm
Some lucky dude down in Busan got a chance to write something for Slate about being an expat writer. Yes, I’m green with envy. Essentially, he states the obvious:
So, expat scenes invariably have plenty of writers and artists but a curiously scant quantity of writing and art. This isn’t a new phenomenon: Ernest Hemingway alluded [...]
October 29, 2006 – 9:51 am
I was about to translate this piece by Yonhap, but thankfully, One Free Korea has already done that for us.
The general secretary of the Democratic Labor Party (DLP) and a former DLP central committee member have been placed in detention on charges of spying for North Korea.
The two are accused of being part of a [...]
October 28, 2006 – 11:17 am
The Dong-A Ilbo is suggesting that U.S officials are openly expressing their hope that South Korean presidential adviser Song Min-soon is NOT named to replace Ban Ki-moon as foreign minister.
As exhibit A, the Dong-A cites State Department spokesman Sean McCormack’s briefing from Oct. 26:
QUESTION: That same minister [Unification Minister Lee Jong-seok] yesterday announced he was [...]
October 28, 2006 – 10:19 am
George Washington University’s National Security Archive has posted several recently declassified documents—including CIA and State Department intelligence reports—on the viability of the North Korean regime:
A CIA panel of experts concluded in 1997 that North Korea was likely to collapse within five years, according to declassified documents posted today on the Web by the National Security [...]
October 27, 2006 – 6:12 pm
Another by-election, another set of losses for Uri (The Hankyoreh):
In Incheon’s Namdong-eul district, Lee Weon-bok of the main opposition Grand national Party was elected by receiving 57.7 percent of the votes counted, defeating candidates from the Democratic Labor Party and Uri Party, who gathered only 18.5 percent and 12.2 percent, respectively.
Chae Il-byung of the minor [...]
October 27, 2006 – 2:04 pm
The JoongAng Ilbo, citing a Hong Kong paper which in turn cites a Russian one (ain’t the Internet grand?), is reporting that China has decided to purchase from Russia 50 brand-spanking new Su-33 fighters. This would mark Russia’s second-biggest arms sale ever.
China plans to put her new Su-33s on the formerly Russian aircraft carrier [...]
October 27, 2006 – 1:52 pm
Being as jaded as I am, I thought no act of appeasement by Seoul would surprise me.
Then I read the story of the good ship Chuxing in Mike Breen’s latest column in the Korea Times.
That’s just wack. And the guy who raised the allegations yesterday was none other than Democratic Party lawmaker (and former [...]
October 27, 2006 – 1:30 pm
Korea’s chief spook, National Intelligence Service director Kim Seung-kyu, has offered to resign.
Yoon Kwang-ung, who recently resigned as defense minister, is looking like a strong candidate to replace him.
Whoever takes over the NIS couldn’t have picked a worst time with what some are saying could be the biggest spy busts since DJ took office (see [...]
October 27, 2006 – 12:20 pm
OK, you’ve all read the SF Chronicle’s four-part series on human trafficking and the Korean sex trade both in California and Korea.
Well, a whole lot of Korean-American organizations have slammed the series as “misleading” and “sexploitative.” They say:
Instead of educating Chronicle readers about the cultural background of South Korea, the world’s 10th largest economy, the [...]
October 27, 2006 – 9:33 am
Back in the U.S., more specifically, back in my hometown in Tennessee, there is an on-going senate race and the Republicans (they are honorable men) have been up to their race-baiting tactics, as usual, and this time not only have they enlisted the aid of a real loser of a politician from Chattanooga, but they [...]
October 26, 2006 – 6:23 pm
Hey, this is probably a more productive response to the North Korean nukes test than pushing sanctions that nobody will enforce.
(HT to readers)
October 26, 2006 – 6:04 pm
Well, you have to give this to U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld—he doesn’t mince words. The JoongAng Ilbo, citing a Pentagon source, reports that when Rummy met with Korean Defense Minister Yoon Kwang-ung for the start of the Security Consultative Meeting in Washington on Oct. 20, he told the Korean that he’d heard presidential [...]
October 26, 2006 – 5:35 pm
Apparently so—1,022 did over the last three years, with 80 percent of such crimes being committed against civilians.
October 26, 2006 – 2:14 pm
While we’re discussing film today, let me say that Ryoo Seung-wan’s “City of Violence” (”Jjakpae”) rocks.
No real plot. Just two guys kicking a whole lot of ass from start to finish. And I liked the grainy cinematography and the beautifully directed final sequence—feel free to make your “Kill Bill” comparisons in the comment section.
Definitely worth [...]
