Officials from the US and the ROK will meet on Oct. 29th ~ 30th to work out the technical aspects of the ROK joining the Visa Waiver Program.
The ROK will present its latest regarding the introduction of electronic passports (a requirement if a ROK citizen is to enter the US without a visa) while the US [...]
In the Daily Mail, Peter Hitchens (a.k.a. Christopher’s Brother) visits everybody’s favorite Stalinist state, North Korea.
Ordinarily, I have little patience for travelogues to the North — I’d much rather read about Catherine Zeta-Jones, even if she’s grown disappointingly thin — but this one is kinda fun to read, and the photos are cool.
(HT to Coming [...]
Well, I hear that the RAS tour to Seorak-san National Park this weekend was very successful and good fun for the 27 guests who enjoyed the crisp blue skies. I myself Sobaek-san for the Baekdu-daegan Buseok-sa Temple-Stay Event, and it was stunning weather, Korea’s best… Anyway, here are some upcoming Royal Asiatic Society - Korea [...]
If you subscribe to the Korea Economic Reader (subscribe at Tom Coyner’s homepage), you will have seen the Oct 6 piece in the WSJ by Nick Eberstadt, Aaron Friedberg and Christopher Griffin discussing a Yankee-free Korea. It’s a goodie, so if you haven’t read it, please do.
The WaPo reports that under skipper Ban Ki-moon, Koreans have dramatically raised their profile at the UN, apparently much to the chagrin of some UN staff and delegates:
South Korea’s former ambassador to the United Nations, Choi Young-jin, will travel to Ivory Coast in the coming weeks to run the world body’s peacekeeping efforts, making him [...]
One part of entertainment that most people do not get to see in Korea is the making of a musical show. Since the mid-1990’s Koreans have taken an interest in musical shows, which has grown with time. Though many Broadway shows were simply imported whole or licensed, more and more original shows are [...]
The crack Samsung PR department strikes again. They give us another delicious juxtaposition, this time in the Chosun Ilbo, and it includes the obligatory comment from Samsung CEO Lee “Sandwich” Kun-hee:
Corporate Culture at Samsung Is Changing
…The Samsung Group is leading the way in improving corporate culture because of a realization that the “creative management” stressed [...]
President Roh said today that he has no intention to ask North Korea for an apology for invading the South in 1950, since such a demand would be “unrealistic.”
From Yonhap:
Roh said inter-Korean relations should now change, and a South Korean request for an apology from the North would hinder the two countries’ efforts to establish [...]
What is fun to do on a cold and windy October day at 3 in the afternoon? Fogging for mosquitoes — even when there are children outside. I suppose that someone in the Gwanack-gu office is trying to impress people by doing this!?
CNN is reporting that Thai police have arrested the Canadian English teacher wanted for abusing young Southeast Asian boys and posting the photos on the Internet.
A scene from Jun Ji-hyun’s Hollywood bound flick “Blood the Last Vampire.”
Not much info about the movie other than that it is based on a Japanese anime and scheduled to be released next year. One newspaper, however, has likened the scene below to Jun facing down Hollywood, which makes me wonder whether we will again see [...]
Funny, nasty? Take your pick. Top is the Korean musical JUMP, which is now on Broadway. Bottom is Margaret Cho in “The Sensuous Woman”, which features everything from strippers to Richard Wagner’s music, also on Broadway.
As it would turn out, the 32-year-old Canadian suspected of molesting young boys in Southeast Asia taught in Korea for four and a half years, teaching in the Seoul and Gyeonggi-do area on and off since 2000. Since August, he’d been teaching at a foreign school in Gwangju, Gyeonggi-do. Before that, he taught at a [...]
Saw this last night on “America’s Got Talent.” Freakin’ amazing:
A Japanese plastic kit manufacturer has caused a stir in Korea, by releasing a 1/35 scale Japanese WW2 tank kit that has a 1/35 scale doll of a jeongsindae*(forced laborer) woman(pic below) included as a bonus item.
This has attracted the attention of Korean netizens who are alleging that the doll represents a Korean jeongsindae woman. They [...]
