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Category: South Korea

July 10, 2008

It’s Official: South Korea Is a Lost Cause

After opening last week in 350 theaters across South Korea, “Crossing” is now showing on 289 screens. As of Tuesday, 654,000 people had seen it ““ a modest number by local box office standards. In fact, the film’s producers are not certain if they will recover the investment of $4 million ““ a hefty sum by local standards. “Crossing” aims to remind South Korean viewers of an issue that they tend to overlook in a society concerned with its own...
Categories An Alliance?/Korean Society/U.S. & Korea/Uncategorized
June 28, 2008

Mad Sheep Disease

Update, 12/08: Here’s how history will record this whole ridiculous episode. It is an inviolable rule of today’s South Korea that all social movements will eventually become violent and anti-American.  So inevitably, a movement  that was, at first,  ostensibly about food safety has descended into a violent anti-American riot, with protestors ransacking the offices of newspapers that don’t  echo the street’s bleat.   I’d love to know a little more about who  the shepherds are: Junior Naver, the children’s site of...
Categories An Alliance?/Anti-Americanism/Korean Politics/Korean Society
June 25, 2008

With Friends Like These (Pt. 2)

Via Robert, there is finally confirmation for something I’ve long suspected — the South Korean government brings anti-Americanism to the bargaining table and uses it as a negotiating tool: Hong Seong-tae, a sociology professor at Sangji University, said, “The anti-American sentiment, voluntarily created by citizens, helps South Korea increase its negotiating power in its relations with the U.S. In fact, Trade Minister Kim Jong-hoon said, “Whenever the negotiations were at risk of failing, I produced a picture of the candlelight...
Categories An Alliance?/Anti-Americanism
June 25, 2008

With Friends Like These (Pt. 1)

Today is June 25, 2008, the 58th anniversary of Japan’s America’s North Korea’s invasion of South Korea.  I hope you’ll excuse my temporary confusion; my han has been acting up again: More than half of teenagers here do not know when the Korean War broke out or who started it, showing ignorance about the country’s history and national security.  The Ministry of Public Administration and Security said Monday that a survey of 1,016 middle and high school students showed nearly...
Categories An Alliance?/Anti-Americanism/Korean History
June 16, 2008

B.S. Stands for ‘Bovine Spongiform’

At this time a year ago, I thought by now that I’d be writing about the restoration of an alliance that Roh Moo Hyun had just about managed to destroy.  Although I’ve long felt that  a large  U.S. military presence in South Korea was an anachronism no longer justifed by any North Korean threat, I saw benefits to having  a healthy military, diplomatic, and economic alliance between South Korea and the United States.  Also, I think it would be nice...
Categories An Alliance?/Anti-Americanism/Korean Politics/U.S. & Korea/Uncategorized
June 3, 2008

The Washington Times Reviews “Crossing”

Avoiding the melodrama of many South Korean films, “Crossing” is relentless in its detailed, docudrama approach. A cross-border trader and his family are seized by secret police in a midnight raid. Ragged orphans beg in destitute markets. Camp guards kick a pregnant woman in China in the stomach. Kim Tae-kyun, the film’s director, said he did not retain Mr. Yoo, a high-profile defector, as a consultant for fear of creating a political incident while filming in China. Last year, Mr....
Categories Appeasement/Korean Society/Refugees
May 27, 2008

Guest Post: Dan Bielefeld Goes to a Screening of “Crossing” at the National Assembly

[Update:   Apologies — I had Dan’s name misspelled before.]   I met Dan Bielefeld at a LiNK event in Washington two years ago, and he has been living in Seoul since shortly thereafter.  After Dan’s excellent photography of the Chinese riot in Seoul last month, I invited him to guest-post here.  He was recently invited to a screening of “Crossing” at the Korean National Assembly, and here is review.  Since this is Dan’s first post, I’ll introduce him this...
Categories Korean Society/Refugees
May 6, 2008

Trailer for New South Korean Film, “Crossing”

Update: LiNK’s Joseph Hong sends: LiNK WILL ALSO HOST a private screening of “Crossing” in NYC on Thursday, May 8 at the ImaginAsian Theater, 239 E 59th St (Btwn 2nd & 3rd Ave.) New York, NY 10022. There are only a limited number of seats, but if you would like to attend, please RSVP to joseph@linkglobal. Shin Dong Hyuk will also be speaking in other locations, and I hope to get you more information on that soon. [End update] Over...
Categories Korean Society/Refugees
April 30, 2008

Better Them Than Us: Korean Nationalism Turns on China

As I suspected, the China’s censorship-by-thug on the streets of  Seoul is not proving popular among Koreans.  The Chinese  government seems to be coming to grips with the P.R. disaster it has made for itself.  Its diplomats, though not quite in a full kowtow position, are offering either an apology or whatever it is that  Asian diplomats  offer when national pride prevents one:  South Korea’s Foreign Ministry expressed regret Monday to China’s ambassador to Seoul, Ning Fukui, over the incident,...
Categories Censorship/China & Korea/Democracy/Korean Law
April 23, 2008

State Will Tell Congress that N. Korea Was Helping Syria Build a Reactor

Reuters and the Wall Street Journal are both reporting that State is about to give Congress that briefing that it’s long been demanding about what exactly the Israelis bombed in Syria last September.  A senior congressional aide and a former Bush administration North Korea specialist said they believed the briefings were designed to persuade members of Congress that removing those sanctions was justified. Latest word, by the way, is that when State publishes its new list of state sponsors of...
Categories Appeasement/Six-Party Talks/U.S. & Korea
April 23, 2008

Yes, This Should Be Interesting

PAGING DON KIRK: Former South Korean spymaster Kim Ki-Sam, who must know where a lot of the bodies from the 2000 North Korea summit scandal are buried, has just been granted asylum in the United States, reports Yonhap. From the article, you have to infer that Kim was able to convince an immigration judge that he has something to be afraid of in South Korea, notwithstanding the recent changes in the presidency and the National Assembly. Kim is promising to...
Categories Appeasement/Korean Politics
April 17, 2008

Must Read: Sung-Yoon Lee on the Bush-Lee Summit

If anyone ever asks what we should do about North Korea from this day forward, I think I’ll just refer them to this: Empower the office of the US special envoy for human rights in North Korea so that the special envoy can fulfill his mandate as per Section 107 of the North Korean Human Rights Act of 2004 unfettered by Washington politics. Make full use of the $20 million appropriated for 2008 to provide assistance to North Koreans outside...
Categories An Alliance?/Money Laundering/U.S. & Korea
April 16, 2008

The Death of an Alliance, Part 68

Here is a delicious pairing of cause and effect: The U.S. has notified the South Korean government it will withdraw one squadron of some 20 F-16 fighters by the end of this year. [….]   The Defense Ministry is reportedly busy working out a response. They take the view that the abrupt notice of the withdrawal has something to do with the U.S.’s demand that Korea bear more upkeep cost for the USFK. [Chosun Ilbo] If you happen to believe...
Categories An Alliance?/Diplomacy/Six-Party Talks/U.S. & Korea
April 13, 2008

Kim Won Ung: A Most Joyous Political Obituary

Imagine an America  in which  Cynthia McKinney chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and holds regular meetings with Osama Bin Laden,  and you can  be begin  to grasp the national embarrassment of Kim Won Ung’s tenure as leader of the Korean National Assembly’s Unification, Foreign Affairs and Trade Committee.  Perhaps this analogy will also illustrate  the depth of my ambivalence at confirming that Kim  has lost his bid for reelction.  Kim Won Ung at Kim Il Sung’s Birthplace in North...
Categories An Alliance?/Anti-Americanism/Korean Politics
April 9, 2008

A Good Election for Korea

Well, what can I add to what Andy and Robert have done here?  Let me start with this complete listing (in Korean) of the results and just add some notable points: *   Defeated presidential candidate “Comrade” Chung Dong Young, originator of the die-in-place policy  toward North Korean refugees,  was trounced and failed in his bid to win a  seat in the National Assembly.  Chung was a superficial, anti-American demagogue.  I despise him so deeply  that I  hope he tries...
Categories Korean Politics
April 9, 2008

America: Now 16% Less Hated!

We have some more results for the OFK poll archive on South Korean anti-Americanism. Koreans’ attitudes toward the U.S. are improving, according to a poll by Britain’s broadcaster BBC late last year. A survey of 17,457 people in 34 countries on U.S. influence in the international community shows that the number of positive respondents outnumbered negativists only in South Korea and Portugal. Among 1,031 South Korean respondents, 49 percent showed a mainly positive attitude toward the U.S. The number of...
Categories An Alliance?/Anti-Americanism/Korean Society
April 7, 2008

Coreana Tries to Suppress Blogger Criticism of Nazi Ads

So instead of engaging in a moment of introspection about its tasteless Nazi-chic advertising, Coreana goes after Brian for putting the ads up on YouTube. And while they have removed Hitler’s name from the ad, the obvious Nazi symbols remain. Says CNN: A Korad official, Seo Sang-hee, confirmed the ad was meant to invoke a Nazi soldier and Hitler, which she said symbolize “revolution” in keeping with the lotion’s “revolutionary” dual functions. Seo said the commercial was not designed to...
Categories Censorship/Korean Society/WTF?
April 5, 2008

Watching Porn in Pyongyang (Part 2)

Because man cannot live on diverted food aid and crystal meth  alone: The demand for X-rated movies among North Korea’s high cadres is so great that a single VCD sells for 50 US dollars. The latest publication of Good Friends, a North Korea-related aid organization, tells the story of Mr. Park, a resident of Hyesan, Yangkang Province. Mr. Park was arrested for making copies of South Korean adult movies–called “colored movies” in North Korea–and selling them in Pyongyang. Despite the...
Categories Deprogramming/Inside NK/Korean Society