Odds and Ends 17/11/09

by Robert Koehler on November 17, 2009

The Democratic Party has decided to oppose the upcoming re-deployment of Korean troops to Afghanistan. No surprise there. President Lee seems rather keen on the deployment, though.
President Lee Myung-bak has expressed regret over the death of seven Japanese tourists at an indoor shooting range in Busan. Brian has a lot more about this tragedy at his blog.
Westerns seem to find Koreans friendly, but Asian travelers have a different impression.
The JoongAng Ilbo walks around Seoul’s old fortress walls.
The KT reports that ethnic-based discrimination and poverty make life difficulty for foreign spouses.
Sex and violence on TV? What is this world coming to? “‘A husband and his mistress lying on the bed together while the wife watches, an indication of spousal rape, a name-calling quarrel between a husband and a wife – I thought all of these scenes were crazy,’ Choi Gu-sik, a ruling Grand National Party lawmaker, said last week during a parliamentary questioning of the government’s education, social and cultural policies.”

{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }

1 Sperwer November 17, 2009 at 4:30 pm: Andrei Lankov’s latest piece on how if you can’t beat the NORKS, might as well coddle them:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/17/opinion/17iht-edlankov.html?scp=1&sq=Andrei%20Lankov&st=cse

fit for fisking.
2 Wedge November 17, 2009 at 5:53 pm: I think I speak for a few others when I say: “Sperwer, please fisk away.”
3 SomeguyinKorea November 18, 2009 at 4:14 pm: “‘A husband and his mistress lying on the bed together while the wife watches, an indication of spousal rape, a name-calling quarrel between a husband and a wife – I thought all of these scenes were crazy,’ Choi Gu-sik, a ruling Grand National Party lawmaker, said last week during a parliamentary questioning of the government’s education, social and cultural policies.”

I get he doesn’t watch a lot of late night TV if he’s so easily offended.