Search Results for: KTU

Interesting perspective here, from James Brooke. The points that struck me most: We still don’t have an FTA with Japan. Is an FTA with Korea designed to force Japan’s hand? The “Japanese street” has no sense of insecure competitiveness with Korea, but Japanese corporations probably do feel a sense of competitiveness. They have their eyes on market share. Roh Moo Hyun believes he can use an FTA to prove that his America-bashing and neutralism haven’t alienated the United States after...

The Unification Ministry is again facing criticism over its laxness toward North Korea, after announcing yesterday it would provide 4.8 billion won ($4.8 million) to repair and complete a project on Mount Paektu on which it has already spent 4.98 billion won. Of that, 2 billion won is to repair faulty construction by North Korean workers, carried out without clear specifications of what the South expected for its contribution. The project happens to an airfield, and I’ve yet to hear...

A hat tip to an influential official in the U.S. government, who saw this post at usinkorea and e-mailed me this morning to say, “Josh: These continuing developments in South Korea worry people in Washington.” Thanks also to Antti, whom I presume is the Finnish blogger who helped with the translation: Japanese bastards were expelled, and American bastards came in. We thought it was liberation, but they were all same bastards. Kick them out! Kick them out! USFK! Kick them...

The Joongang Ilbo has more coverage of Ambassador Vershbow’s chatroom diplomacy: The U.S. ambassador to Korea, Alexander Vershbow, warned South Koreans yesterday that ignoring the oppressive nature of the North Korean regime would not hasten the unification of Korea. He also said people in the South should be concerned about the North’s counterfeiting and other illicit activities. Mr. Vershbow was responding to a question posted on the Embassy’s Web site section called “Cafe USA,” a Korean-language message board aimed at...

Too many interesting things in the news today to discuss in too little time– North Korea More Alarming News on the Food Situation, via the World Food Program: The North Korean government has been unable to meet its own food distribution target of 500 grams of cereals per person per day, the World Food Program said in a report issued on Friday.The United Nations agency’s weekly “Emergency Report” said that its workers in North Korea visited public food distribution centers...

The Trotskyites in the Korean Teachers’ Union have cut out a few f-words and gone ahead with their agenda of poisoning little minds to hate America: The leftist union yesterday posted on its Web site a class plan and the video clip it will use in those classes. The video was a “cleaned-up” version of one shown in Busan last month and did not contain any foul language; the previous clip included curses directed at President Bush and President Roh...

The Chosun Ilbo reports today on an issue that I expect we’ll be hearing much more about–an upcoming strike by the Korean Teachers’ Union, a/k/a the Korean Teachers’ and Educational Workers’ Union, which is affiliated with one of the two major labor groups in Korea, the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions. One glance at the KTU’s Web site shows that education is clearly the last thing on its mind. It’s reasonable to ask whether these people are really qualified to...

I try to avoid offering predictions about North Korea, but here is one I’m willing to stake my reputation on: the Kremlinology and palace intrigues over North Korea’s succession struggle will supply generations of plotlines for TV dramas. For the good of us all, and of the North Koreans in particular, pray that all will be filmed on location at Mandsundae. The good news–for those who seek the regime’s self-subversion, as well as for lovers of Ancient Romans and modern...

It’s time to add another entry to Seoul Mayor Lee Myung-Bak’s dossier. His government appears to have had an extraordinary financial relationship with Korea’s second-largest trade union organization, the Federation of Korean Trade Unions: According to the petition, [FKTU Seoul branch chairman Lee Hui-Sang] used 470 million won ($450,000) of subsidies from the Seoul Metropolitan Government for his own purposes. The city government has subsidized the Seoul branch of the federation to the tune of 1.1 billion won “• an...

By now, you may or may not have heard that North Korea has already reneged on the deal it signed just yesterday (scroll down; next post). But in Pyongyang, agreement and disagreement are both wispy things, and you never know if we’ll have a deal again in six or eight minutes. I keep a stock ticker next to my coffee pot for just that purpose. Deal or not, it’s an interesting parlor game (albeit, one with deadly serious consequences for...

Well, I must say that I didn’t expect this: BEIJING, China (CNN) — Nearly three years after ordering U.N. nuclear inspectors out of the country, North Korea Monday agreed to give up its entire nuclear program, including weapons, a joint statement from six-party nuclear arms talks in Beijing said.” This is the most important result since the six-party talks started more than two years ago,” said Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Wu Dawei, Beijing’s envoy, in a report from The Associated...

Korea wants a seat on the U.N. Security Council.* * Not a parody. But it’s only for a non-permanent seat, which probably means Roh is positioning himself to run interference for Kim Jong Il when the six-party talks finally break down. And whose seat does Korea want to occupy, you ask? It will be interesting–and extremely telling for the state of US-Korea relations today–to see how much support Korea gets from the United States. _____________________ A Setback for the Mt....