A vote on the proposed construction of a ROK Navy base in the village of Gangjeong on Jeju Island was canceled after things got ugly, with villagers on both sides of the issue brawling in the village meeting hall [MBC TV, Korean].
For what it’s worth, it was supporters of the base who destroyed the ballot [...]
According to about 100 Japanese governing party lawmakers, the Nanjing Massacre never happened. (!?)
The Chosun Ilbo (English) gloats over the impending death of Chongryon, the pro-Pyongyang association of Koreans in Japan. Joshua at OFK has more commentary, while Ampontan examines why Japan was in a position to put the “full-court press” on the North Koreans.
This is a post that is probably way overdue, given how I work in the lovely Bukchon area.
Bukchon: Traditional or Modern?
Bukchon — “North Village” — is the neighborhood of Seoul on the lower slopes of Mt. Bugaksan between the Gyeongbokgung and Changdeokgung palaces. Owing to its location between the palaces and its outstanding natural [...]
The Sports Chosun (Korean) reports that with Korean international marriage brokers experiencing a shortage of Vietnamese and Malaysian women, a few firms specializing in arranging marriages with North Korean women have resorted to rather questionable marketing techniques that have earned public ire.
One North Korean human rights group said that while marriage information services specializing in [...]
The latest results from Mercer (A global human resource consultant) places Seoul as the third most expensive city in the world, yet Seoul does not place in their top 50 best cities in terms of quality of life. Nor does Seoul place in the top 50 of “Mercer Human Resource Consulting Worldwide Health and Sanitation [...]
From the Hee Won garden of Samsung’s Ho-Am Art Museum in Yongin:
Hey, it ’s a peacock!
The Hee Won, built in 1997, may be one of the best examples of Korean traditional garden design anywhere. Coincidentally, to mark the garden’s 10th anniversary, the Ho-Am Art Museum is holding a special exhibit on the traditional garden [...]
Since some of the commentors have asked, I’ve quickly jotted down some commentary as to why I find the WaPo ad on the comfort women offensive.
From Fact 1:
No historical document has ever been found my historians or research organizations that positively demonstrate that women were forced against their will into prostitution by the Japanese [...]
Once again, someone did a drive-by pesticide fogging for mosquitoes in broad daylight, here in Gwanack-gu, this morning (Monday). Naturally, they used an unmarked, white truck.
I could quote from several sources as to why general fogging is almost useless to perform — especially during daytime — but not only is the unregulated fogging of [...]
Maybe the title is a little too much, but Rudy Ronald Sianturi wrote an excellent article on Japan’s largest English school busted for cheating its customers. Fortunately something like that would never happen in Korea (wink wink), but it is nice to compare the two countries for similarities and differences.
According to the article and links, there are even [...]
Korean businessmen lured to the Philippines and then kidnapped by, amongst others, fellow Koreans:
“Song was lured into going to the Philippines by the two Korean suspects reportedly to engage in a business transaction,” said Lavin.
The kidnappers used “torture methods like beating their victim with a nightstick and mark the victim’s skin with a lighted [...]
It seems that South Koreans have another layer of censorship other than the Ministry of Communication (MIC). Flickr has just created a new “Safesearch” policy that “prohibits users in these places from turning off content filters” thus censoring what one may see on flickr sites from South Korea. Apparently this idea was from Yahoo.com, which [...]
Our man, Choe Sang-Hun, has done it again, writing a nice article about replacement drivers and why they will not soon be replaced in Seoul. I really enjoyed the quote:
You can struggle with a drunken man for half an hour, pleading and shaking him, but he wouldn’t stir, and you are stuck with him in [...]
A group of Japanese lawmakers took out a full-paid ad in the WaPo [the Australian] yesterday to present, ahem, “the facts” about the comfort women, namely, that “no historical document has ever been found by historians or research organisations that positively demonstrates that women were forced against their will into prostitution by the Japanese army,” [...]
Golf.com has picked the eight sexiest lady golfers, and rounding out the group at No. 8 is Korea’s “voluptuous” Grace Park.
And she didn’t even have to release a nude calendar like Sophie Sandolo (NWS) to do it!
Coincidentally, the website made the mistake of conducting an online readers’ poll with a Korean in it. When [...]
Very, very cool photo essay — “What the World Eats” — in TIME. (HT to reader)
The Chosun fails to grasp the concept of a beta release, not to mention the fact Korea is only 50 million people so tied to IE with Active-X its almost not worth it.
Korea News via Google