photo: Yonhap News Agency
The Olympic torch has come and gone through South Korea but not without surprises. The trip through Japan was marked with some outcry from groups that are critical of China’s policies in Tibet but Seoul was an entirely different matter since the most criticism against China’s human rights violations stems from [...]
Photo: Seokyong Lee for The New York Times
Sam Dillon of the NY Times posts a portrait of two of the most demanding schools in Korea for those students seeking entrance to an Ivy League school in the U.S. and it is all work, with some play. Read the article and see the slide show [...]
April 26, 2008 – 11:00 pm
The S. Korean Defense Ministry has decided to buy “hundreds” of JASSM(Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile) class missiles. These missiles, which have a range of at least 400km, will arm the 21 additional F-15Ks that S. Korea is buying from Boeing.
There is speculation in the local media, that the government is buying these missiles in [...]
Robert wanted to see it on Youtube, well how about Veoh? The video shown to Congress has been made public. Check out the chummy picture in 5:40.
Update
The Washington Post has published an interesting article theorizing why the administration has made public, seven months after Israeli jets destroyed the site, the findings. It also introduces an [...]
Actor Choi Min-soo apologized today for punching an elderly (in his 70s) Itaewon restaurant owner in the face and then trying to flee with the victim still on the hood of his car.
At a press conference yesterday, Choi said that no matter what he said, it wouldn’t be an excuse.
The incident took place on April [...]
April 25, 2008 – 11:19 am
The disgruntled 70-year-old man who burnt down Seoul’s historic Sungnyemun Gate has been sentenced to 10 years in the pen.
I wouldn’t have even bothered to read this story at the Mainichi Shimbun if it weren’t for the silly euphemistic use of “tapping” in the headline:
Japanese man under fire in Philippines for tapping woman’s bottom at airport
The story itself got even sillier. The man and his target were waiting for luggage at the airport [...]
With the sub-prime tremors cooling down and with nothing else better to do on a slow news day, Forbes has compiled a list of Korea’s richest 40 people. I know the gallery is not as interesting as the race girls or Djamilya scrubbing away dirt and body oil, but I sort of think that #4, Lee [...]
When you take out your garbage, be sure to use the correct bag, lest something like this happen to you.
Well, the North Koreans won’t be too happy about this:
After seven months of near-total secrecy, the White House is preparing to make public on Thursday video evidence of North Koreans working at a suspected Syrian nuclear reactor just before it was destroyed in an Israeli airstrike last September.[...] The timing of the administration’s decision to [...]
OK, so you’re sitting in some bank in Namdaemun, a large bag of money with you.
Next to you sits a foreigner. He notes that you’ve dropped some money.
You go to pick it up, but while you’re distracted, the foreigner’s buddies comes and takes your bag of money. When you finally notice, it’s too late.
You are [...]
A Seoul court has found guilty a school headmaster who was caught using his cell phone camera on a bus to take photos of a skirt-wearing high school student’s thighs.
The bench ruled that although the photos were taken in a public place and the girl’s thighs were exposed by her own choice, the photos could [...]
April 24, 2008 – 12:52 pm
Mongolians in search of the Korean Dream are learning Korean by the ger-load:
English may be the most popular foreign language in Korea, but in Mongolia more people take the Test of Proficiency in Korean (TOPIK) than the TOEFL. The TOPIK is a Korean language proficiency test for non-Koreans, supervised by the Korea Institute of Curriculum [...]
April 24, 2008 – 11:00 am
Northport, NY, native Alia Sabur,19, will join the faculty of Konkuk University next month after she finishes a short-term stint teaching math and physics at Southern University in New Orleans.
At Konkuk University, Sabur said she will take part in classroom instruction, but will also focus on research into developing nanotubes for use as cellular probes [...]
April 24, 2008 – 10:58 am
Uwe Boll is now my hero.
This is Uwe Boll’s world. We’re just squatting in it.
From Wired.
Sphere: Related Content
April 24, 2008 – 10:16 am
This one slipped through the cracks, but apparently an 11 man Libyan military delegation came to town on March 20th and inquired about South Korean weaponry. Per a government source:
“The Libyan delegation apparently sought cooperation with Korea in the defense industry. I understand that since it normalized relations with the U.S., Libya has been [...]
Like Brian — who has a full write-up/commentary on the Sexy Mong girls’ battle against evil blue-eyes and interracial relationships (or at least when they involve Korean women and foreign men) — I watched “Sexy Mong” last night. Or at least the end half of it.
But I missed “the scene.” Actually, I didn’t even know [...]
As you may all know, Lee Kun-hee has publicly resigned as Samsung Group’s Chairman. Or has he? According to today’s Washington Post, Lee’s power and influence may stay long after his announced resignation. The tentacle-like arms of the Lee family are long and far reaching and the press conference yesterday may merely be a rehearsal [...]
The Korean government is looking into sending at least 10 policemen to help train the Afghan police, after informing the US that it will be difficult to resend troops to Afghanistan. The cops will be stationed at the Afghan police academy and will not take part in any activities other than the training of Afghan [...]
The Defense Security Command says that it is going to get tough on Nork spies who have been getting a free pass over the past ten years.
However, other intelligence officials say the thing lacking over the last ten years was not arrests of spies but announcements of the arrest of spies (Yonhap link above):
The officials at [...]
