Marmot’s workplace a landmark of Korean journalistic history

by Robert Koehler on January 4, 2007

So, yesterday, I head out during lunch, and what do we find in front of our office? This:

And to think none of us knew…

{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }

1 Paul H. January 5, 2007 at 6:07 am: My goodness, am I really going to be first to make a comment?

I hate for this “first-time distinction” to be one which expresses ignorance, but I guess it can’t be helped.

Here it is: “I didn’t follow anything above “Donga Ilbo Building Site”, nor everything after “1920″, ’1917″, and “1926″ “.

Perhaps there’s an unspoken common assumption here, one that I have missed? (“If you have to ask, you don’t need to know — American!”)

In which case, I humbly apologize for my impertinence. If/when I ever make it to the ROK, I promise to report immediately to the nearest local police station, to receive my “bad/ignorant GI” beating.
2 Curzon January 5, 2007 at 8:19 am: Translation please!
3 gbnhj January 5, 2007 at 8:31 am: Basically, it says that the building, which had been occupied by a school, was purchased by the newspaper and has been its place of operations since that time.

Weighty stuff, indeed…
4 Sonagi January 5, 2007 at 8:48 am: The plaque commemorates that building, formerly a school, as the place where the Donga Ilbo was first published by a group of citizens. The newspaper later moved to its present Kwanghwamoon location, and the building then housed another paper with an unfamiliar name (perhaps no longer published).

A Korean woman whose husband was an editor for an economic daily told me that the Donga Ilbo was reputed to be the most independent during the Japanese occupation.

Yes, very weighty stuff. Don’t think this thread will derail the Dokdo gods race to 300 posts.
5 Haisan January 5, 2007 at 9:23 am: You can see a photo of that original building (at least I think it is the same building that once stood where your office is) at the Donga’s website:
http://www.donga.com/docs/ilbo/html/01_company/company_0601.htm
6 oranckay January 6, 2007 at 6:44 am: Isn’t that where we used to extinguish dambae?
7 Sonagi January 6, 2007 at 9:29 am: @Curzon:

dambae means “cigarettes” in Korean.