As a ‘24‘ junkie, I absolutely love this Iris series. Plus just to stare at Kim Taehee. Wishing that I can find a working site or torrent that has subtitles, though. Will have to wait to buy the DVD.

Very good article from John Pomfret:

Reading all the stuff about North Korea’s nukes, one thing strikes me: the United States seems to want to outsource not just its jobs to China, but also its diplomacy. “It’s up to China!” and “China can do more!” are the operative phrases emerging from DC-think-tanks and the US government. As if….

Here’s where those easy exhortations break down and why I think it’s naïve of us to expect that China can “do more,” or in the words of John Bolton, “end this thing tomorrow.”

First, there’s a silly assumption in Washington that our interests (no nukes in North Korea) are the same as China’s. But they’re not. China’s first interest in North Korea is making sure the Kim regime doesn’t collapse. China’s second interest? Making sure the Kim regime doesn’t collapse. From Beijing’s perspective, nukes in North Korea rank somewhere around 10th.

Why is China so intent on “regime maintenance”? If North Korea collapses a few things happen.

First, about 2 million people will rush into China’s northeast as refugees. Not fun – and a huge tax on China’s already poor infrastructure. (An estimated 250,000 North Korean refugees already move back and forth between the two countries.)

Second, China will be faced with a tough decision: dispatch the PLA into North Korea? What happens if the PLA meets up with the South Korean or U.S. armies heading north?

Third, remember all that South Korean investment in China? We’re talking billions. It would all go home, into building a united country. (China is South Korea’s biggest trading partner, by the way.)

Fourth, a North Korean collapse means that China can forget about turning North Korea into an economic vassal state. (Talk to any South Korean interested in investing in North Korea. Any mine or industrial facility with any prospects of a profit is already a target of Chinese investment.) If Kim collapses, China’s firms are going to lose out to the Korean brothers from the south.

Fifth, how would a united Korean peninsula change China’s geopolitical position? It definitely wouldn’t help it. Right now, Beijing has an (admittedly wacky) Commie buffer state on their border. But at least it’s Commie. With a democratic, capitalist, united Korean peninsula, China loses out. (One of the under-reported stories in China is the depth of South Korea’s cultural influence in China. In the West, we like to think that China’s youth are “Westernized” or even “Americanized.” The reality is that they’re “South Koreanized.” That formulation is definitely unwieldy, but it’s closer to the truth.)

Six, China’s ethnic Korean population along North Korea’s border is not known for being restive. But what happens to those folks once the Korean peninsula is united? Greater Korea, anyone?

Another broader factor also plays into the problems on the Korean peninsula. And that’s this: For decades the United States has assumed that it could mold China into an ally. We had limited success in yanking China into our battle with the Soviet Union. But an exception doesn’t prove the rule. There’s a lot of hyperventilating in Washington these days about the “G2″ and about how the United States and China together will solve the world’s problems. On the Korean peninsula – the very peninsula where China and the United States fought a nasty war 59 years ago – those assumptions have run aground. We can’t outsource the solution to North Korea’s nukes to China because China views its interests a lot differently than we do. Sure, China would rather not see Pyongyang have the bomb. But if given the choice between a nuclear-armed North Korea and no North Korea at all, Beijing will go with the former.

So, this is the maw that China is staring into as Washington demands more action from Beijing. So what will Beijing do? My guess is encourage more talks.

The state-backed human rights agency suggested Monday that English-teaching E-2 visa regulations be eased to allow native English teachers to work at non-educational public and private organizations on a part-time basis.

The Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission said it had filed a petition with the Ministry of Justice to call for the visa rule amendment, claiming it will help numerous workers and their employers receive better English education and save money.

Under current law, E-2 holders are in principle banned from holding secondary jobs at non-educational public or private organizations. Even public and private institutes with appropriate educational facilities must employ E-2 visa holders full-time to get lessons from them.

“Once rectified, more than 1.3 million corporate workers are expected to benefit from the change, making it possible for their employers to save more than 120 billion won ($90 million) annually,” it said.

“The complaint is now being reviewed. Nothing is certain at the moment,” a Korea Immigration Service official said.

The commission, launched in February last year, is charged with finding resolutions for people’s grievances, protecting human rights, and fighting corruption.

Source: Korea Times

Seoul Global Center (SGC) is to offer three free courses, in English, to help foreign residents start their own businesses here.

They comprise a 25-hour basics course providing fundamental information on opening a business and understanding Korean business culture; a 15-hour specialized course on the trading and food services industries; and a one-session class on honing skills. Four special sessions on global business manners, revitalizing leadership skills, presentation skills and service empowerment will also be offered.

“This `business start-up college’ is aimed at encouraging foreigners to start business in Korea and create more jobs here as well. All courses are composed of practical, useful material,” an SGC official said. We expect the courses and consulting services to incubate more foreign businesses here.” He added that the center has already helped Banco do Brasil and nine other foreign investors establish businesses in 2008.

The instructors are experts from KOTRA (Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency) in fields such as law, accountancy and labor.

After the basics course, held twice yearly, specialized courses for trade businesses, starting May 30, and one for running restaurants, starting June 13, will be held 4 times yearly.

Each regular course will have a quota of 25 students; and special sessions, 50. The SGC expects some 350 students to complete the courses by the end of the year. Those who do will get post-course, one-stop consultation services from the center.

Applications for the basics course will be screened for start-up plans and participants for the specialized course will be chosen on a first-come-first-served basis.

The courses will be offered free to all foreigners who reside in Seoul and applications will be accepted until a week before the beginning of each course. The classes will run between 6:30-9:30 p.m. Monday, Wednesday and Thursday, and 1-5 p.m. Saturday.

The SGC also provides tailored business consulting services starting Monday. Experts offer counseling on taxation, reporting of foreign currency transactions and legal advice for business operations, labor consultation, real estate leasing among others, on the third floor of Seoul Press Center on Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m.

For more information, call Seoul Global Center at (02) 2075-4139 or visit its Web site at global.seoul.go.kr.

Source: Korea Times

Koreans and their love for Konglish, have always been able to work the word ‘Self’ (셀프) into their daily dosage of English-influenced Korean vocab trends. But the word doesn’t sound so hot, these days, due to the recession prompting many gas stations to cut back on staffing costs and going ‘self-service’. No more high-socked gas station doumis. /pouts

Source:Imaeil

By Yun Chung

An article with the above title appeared in The Korea Times on Jan. 30. The author signed off, “”The writer teaches sociology at the University of xxxx, Asia.” He tried to offer sociological explanations as to “why Korea is strange.” His opinions were, however, grossly ethnocentric and need to be whitewashed. I will call him David.

David wrote, “[Korea's] thought pattern [is] among the strangest, and its behavioral rationale among the most difficult to comprehend” and “Korea’s social structure, food, clothing, manners of living, language and other aspects of life are some of the ‘strangest’ the Western world has known about.” Wow! David sounds as if he has dug up a Korean tomb in 3009.

David thinks “hermit kingdom” is a fitting label for Korea, even now. In the late 1800s, Korea was trying to protect itself from Western gunboats and earned the contemptuous label. But it could not remain a hermit, thanks to the secret 1905 “Taft-Katsura Agreement,” in which the U.S. sold Korea out to Japan in exchange for the U.S. right to colonize the Philippines. Thus, the U.S. violated the “Treaty of Peace, Amity, Commerce, and Navigation between Korea and the United States of America,” known as the 1882 Jemulpo (Incheon) Treaty.

David continued: “Many conclude that Koreans are too impenetrable and weird to understand.” He cited “the mad-cow protests, the National Assembly brawls, the Internet madness, and now the ‘Minerva’ phenomenon, among others” as examples of the “incomprehensive strangeness about Korea.”

The Abu Ghraib and Gitmo phenomena are more incomprehensive than the “Minerva phenomenon,” and brawls among politicians are not uniquely Korean; they occur in other countries as well. In the U.S., brawls are part of national sport events. The mad-cow protesters were demonstrating against U.S. beef imports. They were also demonstrating against U.S. arrogance.

Some U.S. leaders wronged Korea with their arrogance toward it. Woodrow Wilson was a hero to Koreans when he first proposed the national self-determination principle in 1918. Future president Syngman Rhee was Wilson’s student when he was President of Princeton University, but when he appealed to U.S. President Wilson for help in attaining Korean self-determination, Wilson acted deafly and prevented Rhee from obtaining a passport to go to the Paris Peace Conference. President Roosevelt and former Assistant Secretary of State for Far Eastern Affairs Dean Rusk divided Korea along the 38th Parallel, the mother of all evils to the Korean people, as if they were cutting up their lunch steak. 51st United States Secretary of State Dean Acheson excluded South Korea from the U.S. defense perimeter in a policy speech in 1950, prompting Kim Il-sung and Stalin to start the Korean War.

In the spring of 1951, I stood in what was once a village of about 80 homes in Korea. All had burned down, probably due to U.S. napalm. There was not one life in the entire village. I cried for the innocent people who once lived there, laughing or crying. I saw more such villages and cried more. The late United States Air Force General Curtis LeMay was arrogant when he said without any sense of regret that the USAF had reduced Korea to rubble.

David said that the Korean language is unique, and it’s true. Windows can support 11,571 Korean syllable blocks, all by simple arrangements of 24 Hangeul symbols. David also said that Koreans can change simple phrases, like “to eat and live,” so as to express “different degrees of emotions and feelings” that only native Koreans can understand. This is incorrect. He was arrogant and malicious when he stated, “As a curse, it [the Korean language] keeps Korea forever in the black hole of impenetrable oddness.”

If the Korean language were a curse to Korea, so would the Japanese language be to Japan. Both languages share many similarities, including syntax, speech levels, and honorific expressions that may be “strange” to Westerners.

The U.S. State Department classified Arabic, Chinese, Japanese and Korean into “Category III, languages which are exceptionally difficult for native English speakers.” For me, however, Japanese was very easy and English the hardest, harder than German, to learn. I have been living in the U.S. for over 50 years. My English still hiccups on articles, prepositions, uncountable nouns, tense, and numbers. I just do not have the “feelings for picking the right words that natives do unconscientiously.

Few Americans, white or non-white, behave arrogantly in the U.S. White Americans abroad, however, seem to feel the urge to display white supremacist arrogance, particularly toward non-whites. They represent a different USA, the “United Slobs of America” according to a British headline. Why have white Americans abroad behaved differently and arrogantly to perpetuate the unsavory moniker “Ugly American” since 1958? No other group of people, e.g., non-white Americans, are capable of offending other peoples without really trying.

Of 141 nations that have become U.N. members since 1946, Korea has done better than most, proof that David was wrong in his sociological explanations and claim that Korea will remain in “the black hole of impenetrable oddness.” Odd that there are still many Davids outside the US. Strange that they do not know they are the ones who will remain stranded in the supremacy orbit. Nonetheless, America is a great country in spite of my misgivings as stated above.

The writer is a Korean engineer living in California. He can be reached at yunchung2@comcast.net

Source:Korea Times

The real absurdness of this, is how quite plausible and par-for-the-course this sounds for Korea.

MySpace, the world’s second-largest social networking service, is pulling out of Korea 10 months after it first appeared.

MySpace, which entered Korea in April 2008, announced it will stop Korean language service as of Feb 18.

Due to Cyworld’s strong presence, MySpace failed to gain enough of a following, although it launched local services such as “minilog,” where users were able to jot down their daily thoughts and feelings. Cyworld has 22 million users in Korea, or more than 45 percent of the country’s population.

The failure of MySpace was not surprising news. The Korean SNS market was already saturated when the company entered without distinct features. MySpace seemed to lack understanding for Korean culture, industry watchers said.

MySpace will convert Korean service to English menus, user interface and customer care. Content already created by users will remain in Korean language, MySpace said.

Source: TelecomsKorea

Korea will issue a 50,000 won ($35.93) bill in May or June after beefing up anti-forgery works, according to the central bank.

The Bank of Korea (BOK) earlier projected to issue 100,000 won and 50,000 won bills in the first half of this year. On Thursday, it decided to drop a plan to issue a 100,000 won bill at the request of the government amid controversy over its design and effectiveness, but will push to issue the other new bill as planned.

Currently, 10,000 won notes are the country’s highest-denominated bills, followed by 5,000 won and 1,000 won.

“The BOK plans to make public the final version of the 50,000 won bills in February and to put the notes into circulation starting in May or June,” an official at the BOK said.

Shin Saim-dang, a renowned female writer and calligraphist, is to be featured on the 50,000-won bills. Shin was also the mother of Yulgok, one of the most respected scholars of the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910).

Source: Korea Times

A group of dedicated foreigners is planning a project aimed at giving Korea an opportunity to improve its tourist attractions.

The “Following the Footsteps of Wonhyo” project is to foster the worldwide trend for pilgrimage journeys and to give Korea an opportunity to improve what it has to offer both Koreans and foreigners.

The project consists of building a pilgrimage trail inspired by the journey of Wonhyo, a Korean Buddhist monk in the seventh century.

The idea of the project was raised in 2007 by a group of foreigners living in Korea. All of them were interested in Korean Buddhism as a way of achieving personal development and they wanted to learn more about the famous monk.

They started to undertake research on the journey followed by Wonhyo from Korea to China in order to study Buddhism. This journey was supposed to start in Gyeongju and to lead to Pyeongtaek, where he achieved enlightenment and where he decided to end his trip and stay in Korea.

The Wonhyo trail will serve as the basis for designing a methodology to build a range of pilgrimage trails as flagship tourist attractions.

A three-year project, it will be supervised by an international preparatory committee, composed of specialists in tourism development, spirituality, pilgrimage, Korean Buddhism and other pertinent areas.

1. The Wonhyo Trail, a flagship Korean tourism attraction retracing the route of Wonhyo, a Korean monk born in 661. It includes numerous temples.

2. A Modern Korean Canterbury Tales, a collective work by professional writers, echoing the spirit of the famous Canterbury Tales of Britian’s Geoffrey Chaucer in the 14th century, but in 21st century Korea.

3. The World Pilgrimage Trail Network (WPTN) Web site, an international web community for all pilgrims in the world.

Curiously, few people are aware of the exact path taken by Wonhyo on his journey and no one has yet come up with the idea of creating a pilgrimage trail.

That’s what led to the group deciding to design a pilgrimage trail that would follow in the footsteps of Wonhyo in order to offer Koreans and foreign visitors an opportunity to be inspired and to discover the beauty of Korean landscapes while visiting Buddhist temples and hiking in the mountains.

As English-speaking foreigners, they hit on the idea that the pilgrimage experience could be promoted through writings from pilgrims, similar to the Canterbury Tales.

The Canterbury Tales tell the story of a group of Christian pilgrims who met in a tavern before their journey from London to Canterbury and decided to amuse each other by telling stories.

Thus, the group believe that Korea could form the head of a surging worldwide trend for pilgrimage and tourist expeditions to spiritual locations.

Source:Korea Times