Home  >  South Korea  >  Korean Politics

Category: Korean Politics

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 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
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
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-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