Monthly Archive: October, 2005

How many kids could you feed for one of these? SEOUL, Oct. 29 (Yonhap) — Luxury Swiss watches have recently gone on sale at a new store in North Korea, a pro-Pyongyang newspaper in Japan said Saturday. “Pyongje Co., a dealer for Swiss watch brands Longines and Tissot established in April, is selling their watches at a store in downtown Pyongyang,” Choson Sinbo said in its Internet edition. North Korea had previously purchased watches in Switzerland for use as special...

You’d think most people “open-minded” enough to fork money over to North Korea would be the idea target audience for the regime’s propaganda, but the bad press keeps flowing in, most recently from the superb Yi Sun Shin blog: Now, as for the Mass Games themselves, they were equally impressive and bizarre, spectacular and disturbing. As I watched with rapt attention at the near perfection of movement by hundreds if not thousands of performers on the field and their living...

Welcome to the new, independent South Korea–the one that bravely sets its own policy direction without regard for how Yankee imperialists may view it: The Foreign Ministry is hiring an American PR firm to put a positive spin on its U.S. policies in a nation that has been reading them as increasingly hostile. The Foreign Ministry recently wrote to the parliamentary Unification, Foreign Affairs and Trade Committee asking for an extra budget of W1.2 billion (about US$1.2 million) next year...

The conservative main opposition party on Monday submitted a statement to the National Assembly urging the government not to abstain from voting on a resolution against North Korean human rights violations at the UN General Assembly. South Korea did not vote on three resolutions condemning abuses in the Stalinist country in the UN Human Rights Commission since 2003. Grand National Party deputy floor leader Na Kyong-won told reporters the party’s lawmakers adopted the draft at a general meeting on Monday...

Link. Photo cred: Chosun Ilbo.

First, I read this: BERLIN (Reuters) – Iran is permitting around 25 high-ranking al Qaeda members to roam free in the country’s capital, including three sons of Osama bin Laden, a German monthly magazine reported on Wednesday. Citing information from unnamed Western intelligence sources, the magazine Cicero said in a preview of an article appearing in its November edition that the individuals in question are from Egypt, Uzbekistan, Saudi Arabia and Europe. They are living in houses belonging to Iran’s...

Posted here. Part I, here. Thanks again to Dr. Vollertsen for being so generous with his time.

The conservative main opposition party on Monday submitted a statement to the National Assembly urging the government not to abstain from voting on a resolution against North Korean human rights violations at the UN General Assembly. South Korea did not vote on three resolutions condemning abuses in the Stalinist country in the UN Human Rights Commission since 2003. Grand National Party deputy floor leader Na Kyong-won told reporters the party’s lawmakers adopted the draft at a general meeting on Monday...

Link. Photo cred: Chosun Ilbo.

First, I read this: BERLIN (Reuters) – Iran is permitting around 25 high-ranking al Qaeda members to roam free in the country’s capital, including three sons of Osama bin Laden, a German monthly magazine reported on Wednesday. Citing information from unnamed Western intelligence sources, the magazine Cicero said in a preview of an article appearing in its November edition that the individuals in question are from Egypt, Uzbekistan, Saudi Arabia and Europe. They are living in houses belonging to Iran’s...

Even at the risk of their lives, still they come. Thirteen North Koreans sought refuge in a Korean school in Qingdao, China on Thursday and are asking South Korea for asylum. On Oct. 11, eight North Korean refugees entered the same school and were safely handed over to the South Korean consulate. A Foreign Ministry official said 13 defectors — nine women and four men — entered the Qingdao Ewha International School at around 11:30 a.m. saying they wanted to...

Realignment of U.S. Forces in Japan Proceeds in Relative Calm: The United States and Japan agreed on a plan today to relocate a major American air base on the southern island of Okinawa, removing the biggest obstacle to talks on the redeployment of American troops across the country. According to the plan, the Futenma Marine Corps air base, located in the city of Ginowan, will move to an existing United States base, Camp Schwab, in a less-populated area of the...

Japan to Host U.S. Nuclear Carrier: The United States will base a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier in Japan for the first time starting in 2008, the United States Navy said Thursday, after Japan, the only country ever hit with atomic bombs, dropped long-standing resistance to the move.

First, I strongly recommend Andy Jackson’s district-by-district rundown of this week’s bi-elections at The Marmot’s Hole, although I could summarize by saying that, the Uri and DLP lost everywhere they should have won, and also lost everywhere else. Here’s a breakdown of the composition of the new National Assembly: 144 Uri Party (leftist) 127 Grand National Party (conservative) 11 Democratic Party (fmr. Millenium Democratic Party, center-left) 9 Democratic Labor Party (stark-raving pinkos) 3 United Liberal Democrats 5 Independents ———————————————————————- 150...

If this happened, it will cost people their lives. If it was intentional, the person did it should be shot: The personal information of thousands of North Korean defectors living in South Korea has been revealed, hurting their remaining family members in the North, according to a petition filed at the National Human Rights Commission of South Korea. The commission announced on October 27 that Han Chang Gwon (44), the executive director of the Gyorye Missionary Society (a North Korean...

Donga Ilbo on the American Backlash: You’ve read it all here before, but just in case you’re wondering if anyone in Korea has noticed, here is your answer: There are signs of anti-Korean sentiment among Washington D.C. intellectuals. Unprecedented mockery and criticism against Korea has appeared, and anti-Korean sentiment, usually seen among Republicans, is showing signs of spreading to Democrats as well. Even pro-Korean people do not deny the recent spread of anti-Korean sentiment in Washington. I see Hillary Clinton...