According to the Chosun, Seoul City is to restrict building in Bukchon for at least a year to building only hanok. Considering the shenanigans of Seoul City and various local developers, I wonder if there is a catch to this . . .
The Chosun Ilbo’s online edition is featuring stories on the lack of respect for the authority of the police in Korea. The main story details examples of people assaulting the police and not being arrested and teenagers sniggering at the police on the internet. A related story compares how the police deal with [...]
A friend of mine reminded me that today is the second anniversary of the death of long-time Korea blogger Shawn Matthews, who tragically took his own life in China in 2006.
Those of you new to Korea or new to the world of blogging may not remember Shawn, but for many of us “veteran” Korea bloggers, [...]
President Lee Myung-bak has apologized for his government’s “lack in efforts to sound out public opinion” and “negligence in carefully reading the public’s mind” concerning US beef.
He also noted, however, his disappointment concerning the rumor-mongering that took place:
But, to be honest, the Government was baffled by the spread of unfounded rumors about mad cow disease. [...]
In a great editorial in yesterday’s Chosun Ilbo, MBC and their PD Notebook was roundly criticized for basing their findings on false information for purely sensationalistic purposes.
Per the editorial:
The images broadcast by the program were fresh in the minds of people across the country who came out into the streets to take part in candlelight vigils. Now [...]
Recently, a world-renowned brain surgeon — Dr. Vini Khurana — declared that cell phones pose a potential greater risk of “certain brain tumors”, effectively doubling the risk of such. Per one article and another one:
. . . reviewed more than 100 studies on the effects of mobile phones (and) there is a significant and [...]
An email from a reader:
[W]hich newspaper would you recommend as being the most “impartial” in Korea (in English language) ? Korea Times? Any other? I would like to subscribe to a good one, but not sure which is more “reliable”.
Good question.
Well, I prefer the Korea Times, but that’s not necessarily because it’s more reliable. I [...]
UPDATE 2 (by Robert J. Koehler): Yonhap News is also on the story.
UPDATE: There is an hour-long interview with Stephannie White at SeoulPodcast. It’s well worth a listen. Stephannie provides a very detailed and disturbing account of the whole evening, including concerns about the medical treatment administered to Michael by the responding EMTs and at [...]
Per today’s Los Angeles Times commodity traders may be artificially driving up the price of the everything from the gas in your car to the breakfast on your table. Consumers are piping mad and politicians are listening.
Excerpts:
The record-shattering run-up in energy and food prices has put investors who buy and sell such things on the hot [...]
The trailer for Kim Jee-woon’s Western is out, and damn, it looks good.
At any rate, who wouldn’t want to see a Western set in 1930s Manchuria?
In his whirlwind trip to Korea two weeks ago, Bill Gates came bearing gifts. He presented an XBox 360 to president Lee Myung-bak custom-covered in mother-of-pearl!
Bill out-Koreaned Koreans by presenting modern gifts that can be accepted from a cultural standpoint (a tradition perhaps started here?). Kim Young-jun, the Korean artist who was commissioned by Microsoft [...]
In my latest KT piece, I talk about why I think relations between the US and Korea were not as bad in recent past as some of us think they were (and not as good decades ago as some of us think they were ).
The bottom line:
The alliance survived those crises, as well as the [...]
If the michincow idiots ever get one of these cheap remote drones that invaded Gary Kasparov’s press conference, LMB might have a real PR problem since I do not think Han-nara knows how to handle such a weapon (NSFW - not safe for women).
According to Yonhap News, multiple sources have confirmed that construction work has restarted on Pyongyang’s Ryugyong Hotel, quite possibly the world’s creepiest piece of architecture.
Recent visitors to Pyongyang have witnessed work ongoing at the site.
Construction on the 105-story hotel began in 1989 using French capital, but as North Korea’s economic situation took a turn for [...]
Economically. How so?
South Korea has a perpetual trade deficit with Japan. To be sure, Korea has had a trade deficit with Japan for pretty much most (if not all) of the 20th and 21st centuries. As of April 20th, Korea’s trade deficit with Japan stands at about $10.3 billion, a billion more vs. the same [...]
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