Pres. Bush and Pres.-elect Lee had a 7 minute chat over the phone yesterday. During the conversation both sides stated that they will work together for strengthened ROK-U.S. relations and denuking the North.
I have to admit, nothing new here. The above conversation was expected considering LMB is leaning toward more friendly relations with the U.S. compared [...]
The Japanese ambassador to Korea also visited LMB to congratulate him. In perhaps a sign of how things will go with Tokyo, Lee expressed hope that Japan would boost investment in Korea.
While we are waiting for the Marmot’s next post-election piece, here are some thoughts I shared with The Korea Times readers:
The election of Lee Myung-bak (assuming it survives the ongoing BBK investigation) is break from the ideologically-driven politics of Korea’s past. His campaign has explicitly said that “economic considerations must receive higher priority than political [...]
US Ambassador Alexander Vershbow met Korean president-elect Lee Myung-bak at the GNP headquarters in Yeoui-do today.
Ordinarily, I’d prefer to first submit a whole lot of links to local news reactions. However, I don’t have the time to process and translate them all until later this evening, so I’ll just jot down a couple of personal observations, many if not all of which are probably ill-informed.
Firstly, as the numbers would seem [...]
It appears Lee Myung-bak won’t get 50% of the vote. He does have 48.61%, however, and with Chung Dong-young drawing only 26.21%, the 22.4% difference marks the largest landslide in a Korean presidential election.
Lee Hoi-chang did OK for himself with 15%.
Big post-election wrap up here at the blog later today.
The UN adopted a resolution expressing “very serious concern” over the notable human rights violations in North Korea. The politics of it stink . . .
I hope y’all like the official sounding name I chose for the post. There will be no links on this one since I am getting my information from YTN TV.
5:19 YTN has started the count down tracker in the upper-left corner of my TV screen. Just 41 minutes until we can see the exit polls. Official results [...]
Despite being a national holiday (”Festival of Democracy” and all that), I’m actually quite busy today, so I won’t be posting as much as you’d expect. I do expect, however, that Andy one of our other bloggers will take up the slack.
Anyway, to start the links:
As expected, voter turnout has been piss poor. How poor? [...]
Update: I know this thing is already buried, but I figured I sould post an update to see how I did.
Here are the top five candidates. The first number is the actual result, rounded to the nearest whole number, the second is my prediction and the third is the difference between the two.
Lee Myung-bak 49%/45%/4
Chung Dong-young 26%/26%/0
Lee Hoi-chang 15%/13%/2
Moon Kook-hyun [...]
Considering the apparent lack professionalism at the Federal Reserve in the U.S., Korean “progressives” and their housing price bubble have a doppelganger.
Well, if you can’t beat the Wall of Jews ™, join ‘em! And just for reference, does this mean her kids have both the Ivy League AND Berkeley markets cornered? (BTW, she’ll be appearing at the New Asia Restaurant in San Francisco on Christmas — HT to reader)
I interviewed Adrian Hong, executive director of Liberty in North Korea for my last pre-election piece at The Korea Times. One of LiNK’s missions is to get North Korean human rights on the front burner when the US, South Korea and other nations deal with Pyongyang.
As you might expect, he is not happy with the candidates:
One [...]
There is an interesting article at the JoongAng Ilbo about how blogging — along with online speech — has been restricted by the authorities in South Korea in an attempt to control stifle discussion regarding the 2007 presidential campaign. Per one blogger:
. . . I was trying to analyze who Lee Myung-bak is. What I [...]
In the Dong-A Ilbo, Kim Dong-suk of the New York-New Jersey Korean-American Voters Council New York correspondent Gong Jong-sik writes how “the Jews control the United States” (to quote the headline), even making Washington act contrary to US national interests. Nice image, too. Maybe Kong is just upset about the Wall of Jews ™? (HT [...]
Been sitting through the first several episodes of the SBS series “The Lobbyist” (ain’t Hana TV grand?). If you’re an American of non-Korean descent, you’ll no doubt love it for its sensitive depictions of US society, uplifting portrayals of Korean-American loyalty to the United States, and positive depiction of the Korea-US relationship. My wife found [...]
President Roh has ordered prosecutors to reinvestigate the BBK scandal following the release of video footage of GNP presidential candidate Lee Myung-bak claiming that he founded the BBK asset management company.
Which video, you ask? Well, children, this video:
This certainly doesn’t look good for Mr. Lee. The Hankyoreh has more for your viewing pleasure.
Will any of [...]
Meanwhile, in the United States, an Indiana woman has been arrested for killing her 13-month-old adopted Korean daughter. Terrible. BTW, just in case you didn’t know the woman was white, Newsis helps with its headline, “White Adopted Mother Arrested on Murder Charges in Death of Adopted Korean Child.”
Yonhap reports that there has been a flood of people from Korea, the United States and Thailand, applying to adopt the 7-year-old Korean girl abandoned by her adoptive parents — Dutch diplomats — in Hong Kong. Hong Kong social services is also talking with Korean couples in Hong Kong, who have apparently been granted priority. [...]
Korea News via Google