March 27, 2008 – 12:24 pm
It’s not particularly surprising that the plans exist, but it’s certainly new to hear them mentioned in public:
The South Korean military is prepared to launch a pre-emptive attack on North Korea’s nuclear installations if they become a military threat, Gen. Kim Tae-young, the newly designated chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in a [...]
March 26, 2008 – 11:34 pm
How is it that Korean jurisprudence has a very poor record of awarding damages in civil lawsuits, yet Dong-guk University wants to sue Yale University for fifty-million dollars because they mistakenly sent a fax that verified Shin Jeong-ah’s bogus degree ?
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March 26, 2008 – 10:06 pm
The Korea Federation for Environmental Movements (KFEM) is organizing another large demonstration against President Lee’s grand Canal project, and international residents in Korea are particularly invited to participate in this one. A group of us are going to march in it under the banner of the excellent Korean Mountaineering League, and any of you who wish [...]
In the Grey Lady, Paul Boutin talks with bloggers with day jobs to get tips on how to run a successful blog.
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Something that my friend passed on to me today.
Be sure to check out the comment section after you check out the hot models.
March 26, 2008 – 12:42 pm
This is beyond words — beating your family to death with a fucking baseball bat before offing yourself:
A former bank executive facing trial for embezzlement beat to death his wife and the couple’s four adopted children before killing himself by ramming his car into a highway sign post, police said on Tuesday.
Investigators in Iowa City [...]
Re-education for monks.
Public Security Minister Meng Jianzhu led the first high-level central government visit to Tibet since the riots broke out this month. In the face of international criticism of China’s crackdown, he stressed that the government would “fight an active publicity battle” and solicit the help of Communist Party cadres.
His call for broader “patriotic [...]
If you ever needed proof that great minds think alike, Joshua at One Free Korea and I both used Monty Python references in pieces published yesterday about the ongoing (and ongoing and….) talks on NK nukes.
Joshua invokes the Dead Parrot Sketch when pointing out part of the problem with the six party talks and the Geneva sideshow in [...]
This is the kind of sentiment Newsis warned us about last week. In the stridently right-wing Free Zone News, reporter Jeon Gyeong-woong — whose email appropriately enough is enoch@freezonenews.com — gives readers the “Rivers of Blood” treatment in a piece lambasting left-wingers, including the previous administration, for turning a blind eye to the problem of [...]
March 24, 2008 – 11:54 am
A piece that may be of interest to some people:
The Supreme Court acquitted the 34-year-old man identified as Ahn, who had taken pictures of the bare legs of a woman in a miniskirt in December 2006. Current law provides no basis for punishing a person who photographs parts of another body without permission. A victim [...]
March 24, 2008 – 11:40 am
Seoul Metropolitan Government plans to ask the government to include dog meat in the national livestock rules:
The Seoul metropolitan government will ask the central government to include dogs in the legal definition of livestock, in a bid to ensure hygienic butchery and processing of what some Koreans regard as a delicacy. A Seoul official said [...]
I don’t want to talk about it.
March 24, 2008 – 12:10 am
The South Korean Foreign Affairs and Trade Minister, Yu Myung Hwan encouraged his Chinese counterpart Yang Jiechi on Friday to seek a peaceful solution to the deadly rioting in Tibet. Yu asked China to allow South Koreans traveling to the country for the Summer Games to enter the nation without visas.
Meanwhile the Chinese Government claims [...]
James Palmer has apparently written a book on one of my favorite historical figures, Baron Robert Nickolaus Maximillian von Ungern-Sternberg a.k.a. the Mad Baron, the White Russian warlord who actually ruled Mongolia for part of 1921.
Now, when I say “favorite,” this is not because Ungern von Sternberg had any admirable qualities — he was batshit [...]
March 22, 2008 – 12:25 pm
OK, it’s not much — two pages of pure fluff, and poorly written fluff at that — but it is the first published piece I’ve written in Korean.
It’s part of a larger section with contributions from architect Clark E. Llewellyn, writer Michael Fitzpatrick and photographer Lee Jongkeun (who did the amazing work in Korea Style).
To [...]
March 22, 2008 – 12:12 pm
There is nothing wrong with a little beef and potatoes after sex. Or sending 200 text messages to a topless dancer.
Who’d have thought Finnish politics was so damn fun?
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Sun March 23rd: Juwang-san National Park and Jusan Reservoir Hike — A special treat for movie fans — the Jusan Reservoir is the scenic location for the movie “Spring, Summer Fall Winter and…Spring.” 30 willow trees more than a century old decorate this ancient reservoir, giving it a mysterious vibe. We’ll also tour other parts [...]
The border between China and North Korea has all but disappeared, reports the Chosun Ilbo. Very disturbing stuff:
Torrential rains had been falling for a week when a Chosun Ilbo news team arrived in Dandong. It was Aug. 9, 2007, on a special tour program called “human safari.” The program provided a rare chance for the [...]
