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February 17, 2006

Paxil for the Lot of You: Cartoons Don’t Kill, Idiocy Does

[Updated] Not a good week for the idea of peaceful coexistence with the undiagnosed and insane.  It may be time to revisit the subject of secretly medicating city water supplies. “We are a nation that drinks blood, and we know that there is no blood better than the blood of Jews.”  Fortunately, my blood is only half   delicious. “Riots in Pakistan spurred by the publication in Europe of caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad spilled over to a South Korean...

Categories Anti-Americanism/Europe/Humor/Satire/Media Criticism/Terrorism/Iraq/WTF?
February 17, 2006

Cartoon Idiocy, Part II

After learning that South Korea was in danger of losing the title for “Hub of Petty Despotism,” President Roh Moo Hyun launched his own cartoon war of sorts this week. No embassies were harmed in this production; the only violence was that done to freedom of the press: President Roh Moo-hyun yesterday filed a second libel suit against the mainstream Chosun Ilbo newspaper, saying a cartoon defamed him by circulating false facts. The cartoon, titled “The lie is detected fast,”...

Categories Censorship/Humor/Satire/Korean Law/Korean Politics/U.S. Law/WTF?
February 16, 2006

Defector: NK Cheerleaders Sent to Gulag

Who recalls the days when South Korea’s faith in reunification bordered on an obession – a religion, perhaps?  Nothing was more telling of the North Korean regime’s success at self-popularization in the South than the public swooning over a  squad of North Korean cheerleaders,  despite all the procrustean, regimented eeriness surrounding them.  Let’s look back at that time: This bustling South Korean port bid an emotional farewell Tuesday to a North Korean cheering squad whose presence at the Asian Games,...

Categories Appeasement/Defectors/Human Rights/Inside NK/Korean Politics/Korean Society/North Korea
February 15, 2006

NK ‘Spokesman’: We Have ICBMs!

Today’s WTF headline is this piece of work by Kim Myong Chol, North Korea’s unofficial and unmedicated spokesman in Japan. The real torment of this piece is the difficulty of deciding which of the choicest cuts to serve you: Three factors make North Korea unique. The first is possession of a fleet of intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) capable of unleashing retaliatory nuclear strikes on the US mainland. Second, the North Koreans still torment the Americans as a result of their...

Categories Anti-Americanism/Appeasement/Asia/Counterfeiting/Diplomacy/Humor/Satire/Japan & Korea/Six-Party Talks/WTF?
February 14, 2006

Korean Teachers’ Union Gets Some Competition

You may recall how the KTU recently made itself  famous in the Korea blogosphere: its “What a Wonderful World” video for the APEC Summit.  This led, in part,  to an acrimonious controversy over education reform and a silly GNP boycott  of the National Assembly.  On a somwhat more productive front, tt also led to the formation of an upstart rival: The Korean Liberal Teachers Union, established last month by teachers opposed to the educational direction of the left-leaning workers union,...

Categories Anti-Americanism/Korean Education/Korean Politics/Korean Society
February 14, 2006

Ban Makes U.N. Candidacy Official

Ban Ki-Moon, South Korea’s Foreign Minister, chief promoter of appeasement of the North, and occasional provider of adult supervision to Roh Moo-Hyun’s government, is making official what has been known for months: he wants to be U.N. Secretary General. He would succeed Kofi Annan, who presided over the Oil-for-Food scandal, a procurement scandal, sexual abuse scandals, and several partially successful genocides without being driven out of office in shame (as if). Expect the Bush Administration to work quietly, behind the...

Categories An Alliance?/Appeasement/Asia/Geopolitics/Human Rights/Korean Politics/Uncategorized
February 13, 2006

‘He Doth Protest Too Much’

Would a statement like this have been uttered by a Korean diplomat ten years ago? Responding to a question about giving greater “strategic flexibility” to the U.S. Forces Korea, Kim said, “Even though I am an ambassador to China, I would say that it is certain that Korea and the U.S. are allies, and as such the bilateral relationship is far stronger than other relationships, which allows us to agree on strategic flexibility. He said China has not so far...

Categories An Alliance?/China & Korea/Uncategorized
February 12, 2006

$140,000 in N. Korean ‘Supernotes’ Found in Namdaemun

So South Korea really isn’t sure North Korea is counterfeiting our currency? Have a look at this: The South Korean government concealed the fact that U.S. investigators told it US$140,000 in counterfeit dollars found in Seoul’s Namdaemun market last April was made in North Korea, it emerged Sunday. Police at the time arrested three people who tried to exchange 1,400 so-called supernotes at a local money changer. They allegedly bought the supernotes from a broker in Shenyang, China. How do...

Categories An Alliance?/Appeasement/Counterfeiting/Uncategorized
February 11, 2006

Hines Ward’s Korean Mother: ‘People Spat at Us’

The great “who is Korean?” conversation goes on. If South Korea doesn’t change the rules, after all, it didn’t win the Superbowl. Today, the Chosun Ilbo interviews half-Korean Johnny Westover, who did not win the Superbowl, but who has been active in fighting for the rights of mixed-race Koreans: Active in a group of mixed-race Koreans, he told a meeting Friday he has never seen a half-Korean become a general in the army, or for that matter reach any position...

Categories Human Rights/Korean Society
December 1, 2005

How North Korea tried to subvert the ROK democracy movement

(By guest blogger, Andy Jackson) This is the second in a four-part series on lectures concerning human rights in North Korea delivered at Sogang University in Seoul on November 26, 2005. The text in block quotes were taken from my notes of the translation of the lecture. Any inaccuracies in the text are strictly my own. As I mentioned at the end of my previous post, Kang Chol-hwan cut his lecture short and gave about a third of his allotted...

Categories The Fifth Column
September 15, 2005

Common Genes? Why Radical Korean Views on Race May Remind You of You-Know-Who

I meant to take note of The Marmot’s translation of North Korea’s latest blast of Herrenvolk rhetoric: It claimed USFK influence over the last 60 years eroded the unique speech, writing, dress, food culture and lifestyle of the Korean people. “U.S. soldiers indulge in bestial sexual assaults against South Korean women, and have polluted the bloodlines of our race, which remained unbroken for 5,000 years, and sullied the purity of the race,” it said. This is useful context for its...

Categories Korean Politics/Korean Society
August 7, 2005

Signs of the Times: So This Is Why I Spent Four Years in Korea

Above: 1950. A Marine plays taps over the graves of just a few of the 33,629 Americans killed in action in Korea. Below: August 2005. South Korean demonstrators show their appreciation for their prosperity and freedom of speech by standing at the entrance to a soccer match holding signs that say, “American soldiers not admitted.” The U.S. team was not playing. Isolated incident? No. Barring American soldiers from Korean businesses is quite common, as I can attest from personal experience,...

Categories An Alliance?/Anti-Americanism/Racism
June 22, 2005

PROPAGANDA SITE OF THE WEEK: AXIS TO GRIND

From the statement page of the Axis to Grind website: Axis to Grind exposes the clash of cultures of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) and North America… our status quo misrepresentation of north Korea actually stands as an obstacle to peace and reunification for the Korean peninsula… My first rapid unlearning of my attitudes about north Korea came when I visited there for 6 weeks as part of an International March for Peace & Reunification of the Korea,...

Categories Anti-Americanism/Media Criticism
June 21, 2005

THE UNFORTUNATE RESULT OF THE SUNSHINE POLICY

Since its inception with former President Kim Dae-jung, the Sunshine Policy has evolved to complicate U.S. Policy efforts in North Korea, but also to hurt the North Korean people. At first the unprecedented policy was acclaimed on all sides, since it had never actually been tried, and resulted in the historic June 2000 summit (which earned Kim Dae-jung his Nobel Peace Prize). But long after its uselessness has been demonstrated, South Korean politicians still pursue the Sunshine Policy, doing anything...

Categories An Alliance?/Anti-Americanism/Korean Politics
May 31, 2005

ANTI-AMERICAN PROTEST AT YONGSAN POST & US EMBASSY, 29 MAY

Following the anti-North Korean rally on Friday, where the older generation called for a stronger ROK-U.S. alliance, South Korean students protested the presence of the U.S. military on the peninsula: Thousands of South Korean students rallying Sunday against the U.S. military’s five-decade presence clashed with police after trying to enter the American base, and at least 12 people were injured and more than 20 were arrested. Demonstrators marched through Seoul before attempting to enter the main Yongsan U.S. military base...

Categories Anti-Americanism
May 31, 2005

ANTI-NORTH KOREA RALLY NEAR YONGSAN POST, 27 MAY

The protest path started near Itaewon, went by the main gates of Yongsan Post, and ended in front of the War Memorial across the road from the South Korean Department of Defense. There are 55 photos posted, these are most suggested; 1 (thumbs up!), 2, 5, 12, 21, 22, 23, 27 (torching a large Kim Jong-il doll head), 34, 45, & 53. Several protesters approached the photographer and described their hatred of Kim Jong-il, and the Noh Moo-hyun and Kim...

Categories An Alliance?/Korean Politics