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Category: Korean Society

September 18, 2006

Yoduk Story Update

Tickets are now on sale at this link. Here are two background reports from the BBC and the L.A. Times. There have been numerous reports on “Yoduk Story” on this blog, including on alleged attempts by South Korea to censor it. Previously, Horace Jeffery Hodges had commented that the English translation for the YS production in Seoul was, well, Konglishy. After making some inquiries with people who are involved in bringing YS to America, I’m pleased to pass on that...

Categories Activism/Human Rights/Korean Society
September 15, 2006

Daily NK: Kim Jong Il’s Niece Commits Suicide in Paris

After life in Paris, I suppose even a gilded life in Pyongyang would seem less worth living. A niece of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il killed herself in Paris, probably because she did not want to return to her home in the reclusive state, Yonhap news agency reported on Friday. Jang Keum-song, 29, died in Paris – where she was studying – because of what appeared to be an overdose of sleeping pills taken after drinking alcohol, Yonhap cited a...

Categories Kim Jong Il/Korean Society
September 14, 2006

Yoduk Story Update

There is a change of date and location to report: The plans have now been finalized to bring Yoduk Story to the USA! Opening night will be 7:30 pm on Wednesday, October 4, 2006, at the Strathmore located in North Bethesda, Maryland. Performances will be held on October 4, 5, 6 at 7:30 pm, and we also hope to plan a special Friday, October 6 performance at 3 pm especially for students. Tickets will be available for sale beginning this...

Categories Activism/Human Rights/Korean Society
September 8, 2006

I Propose an Exchange

I love irony. The fellows on the left are in Korea. They’re angry that their President is trashing their country’s alliance with America, and they want him prosecuted for treason. The fellows on the right are in Seattle. They’re angry with America, of course, but also with their President. They think he’s plotting to sell their country to top-hatted Yankee capitalists. They want him brought before a People’s Revolutionary Court for bourgeois splittism, but they’ll probably vote for him until...

Categories An Alliance?/Anti-Americanism/Korean Politics/Korean Society/NK Economics/U.S. & Korea
August 29, 2006

Be the First One on Your Block to Instigate a Missile Crisis (No, really.)

Update: Scroll down and tell me I didn’t find what I think I found. Yes, I had spent many hours “flying” over North Korea with Google Earth, but it took this article to tip me off to an entire online community of amateur photo intel analysts. The L.A. Times reports: An intrepid German poster named “wonders” has flagged more than 332 sites of interest. Most are military — the vast air defenses ringing Pyongyang, the artillery along the demilitarized zone,...

Categories Famine & Food Aid/Korean Society/NK Military/North Korea/Technology
August 17, 2006

TKL Saves Washington’s Upstanding Moral Reputation

The questionable massage parlor James blogged about here has been raided and shut down. In the District, federal agents targeted five brothels that were masquerading as massage parlors or spas. The establishments were 14K Spot, which operated in a basement in the 1400 block of K Street Northwest; Downtown Spa, in the 1000 block of Vermont Avenue Northwest; OK Spa, in the 2400 block of Wisconsin Avenue Northwest; Cleveland Park Holistic Health, on the second floor of a building in...

Categories Human Trafficking/Korean Society/Media Criticism/Uncategorized
August 10, 2006

TKL Exclusive: What Hyde Will Tell Roh

Via a reliable source I can’t name, I now have some specifics on just how pretty this won’t be. Among Hyde’s expected talking points for his visit to Korea this week are the following. Disclaimer — this is a paraphrase of a paraphrase: * You want operational control of all forces during wartime. How is that going to work? Will there be a U.S. general and a Korean general commanding the entire force jointly or two forces separately? Either way,...

Categories An Alliance?/Appeasement/China & Korea/Human Rights/Korean Society/NK Economics/Refugees/U.S. & Korea/Washington Views
August 8, 2006

More Details on the Washington Debut of ‘Yoduk Story’

[Previous] Via the Chosun Ilbo: A Korean musical about human rights abuses in North Korea’s notorious Yoduk concentration camp will be staged at the National Theater in Washington D.C. Producers of “Yoduk Story” said Monday the musical will debut there on Sept. 21. The 165-year old National Theater is right on Pennsylvania Avenue, about 100 m from the White House, and is one of the national symbols. There will be 10 shows until Oct. 1 at the theater. Suzanne Scholte,...

Categories Activism/Human Rights/Korean Society/The Camps
July 27, 2006

How a Party Rooted in Authoritarianism Can Grow a Conscience

Cardinal Kim Soo-Hwan seems to have very little use for President Roh Moo-Hyun and Unifiction Minister Lee Jong-Seok, and he’ll get neither an argument nor any points for originality from me there. The most important words he spoke were for the Korean right, which has been much too busy boycotting the National Assembly to use its seats there to propose a better direction for Korea. I hope the GNP (and everyone else) heeds the Cardinal’s words: Cardinal Kim also urged...

Categories Activism/Human Rights/Korean Politics/Korean Society
July 26, 2006

Reading, Writing, Rodong

One reason I don’t think the North Koreans would invade South Korea is the simple fact that their infiltration of the South has been so successful as to render war unnecessarily strenuous. Now, the powerful and well funded Korean Teachers’ Union — remember them? — is caught in the act of flogging juche to its members. The ultimate recipients would have been South Korean kids. Although the KTU didn’t disclose the source of its information, this should have been a...

Categories Anti-Americanism/Korean Education/Korean Politics/Korean Society/The Fifth Column
July 25, 2006

Free at Last?

The Koreans have been relatively free for some time now. But if a new bill passes, the American men and women who help secure that freedom may be able to put outrages like these behind them: The bill aims to prevent discrimination in all public and private sectors including employment and education. Discrimination would be defined based on 20 criteria, including gender, physical disability, religion, age, nationality, race, skin color, appearance, pregnancy, ideas and sexual preferences. Under the bill, indirect...

Categories An Alliance?/Anti-Americanism/Korean Law/Korean Society/U.S. & Korea
July 13, 2006

The FTA Has Turned Ugly

An anti-Free Trade Agreement protest of 25,000 has clogged downtown Seoul, and on that day, it wasn’t safe to look “American” on the streets, not even for the Swiss. A Swiss man and two friends were set upon by a mob of angry protestors who apparently mistook them for Americans on Wednesday. The group of 10, who were taking part in a Gwangwhamun rally to protest against an FTA between Korea and the U.S., approached the man and his friends...

Categories Anti-Americanism/Korean Law/Korean Society/NK Economics/U.S. & Korea
July 8, 2006

Photos of Korea, Circa 1906

Many thanks to my wife for finding and saving these (she’s standing over my shoulder). Unfortunately, she didn’t think to save the link, so I’d appreciate it if anyone could tell me where these were originally published. The photographer was … some German guy. Some of the pictures seem so real, you almost expect the subjects to shoo you away. Scroll over them for captions, and look for them in a book soon to be published. Pick up an extra...

Categories Korean History/Korean Society/Miscellaneous