I hope everyone has a great 2015!
December 31 is the worst day of the year, says @AliceAudley http://t.co/AnPUyBF9D4 pic.twitter.com/TfirgbpYoF
— The Telegraph (@Telegraph) December 29, 2014
Models pose with lamb imported from Australia to celebrate the year of the sheep in 2015 at an E-mart outlet in Seoul on Dec. 29, 2014. (Yonhap)
Via One Free Korea comes this Yonhap article that explains how missile defense is one area the US can use to pressure China to reign in North Korean provocations:
The deployment of ballistic missile defense systems around North Korea by the United States and its allies could be an effective way to change China’s strategic thinking about Pyongyang, a U.S. congressional report said.
The Congressional Research Service made the point in a recent report, “North Korea: U.S. Relations, Nuclear Diplomacy, and Internal Situation,” saying Beijing would find it not in its national interest if provocative actions by the North lead to increased military deployments in the region.
When North Korea fired a long-range rocket in April 2012, a key focus of Chinese media coverage of the case was Patriot missile deployments that were made by the U.S. and its allies in response to the North’s launch, the report noted.
A subtext of those reports was that the North’s actions are feeding military developments that are not in China’s interests, it said.
“As part of the efforts by the United States and its allies to change China’s strategic thinking about North Korea, the BMD (ballistic missile defense) deployments may have an impact,” the report said. “Many observers, particularly in the United States and Japan, argue that continued North Korean ballistic missile development increases the need to bolster regional BMD capabilities and cooperation.” [Yonhap]
You can read more at the link as well as over at One Free Korea who also believes that South Korea and Japan should also move towards developing their own nuclear arsenals to further pressure China.
This editorial in the Korea Herald explains why Koreans have such a hard time speaking and understanding English despite the amount of time and money they spend to learn the language:
When I first went to the United States to study in the summer of 1998, every trip to fast food joints was full of stress. I managed to submit my order, but had difficulty understanding what the clerks said to me. Only after several repetitions and after my face had reddened did they make themselves understood. Spending almost 20 years studying English at that point including experience at an English-related workplace did not save me from embarrassment. Indeed, for many of us here, the struggle with the English language is a never-ending story. After conferences and meetings, we hear many of our colleagues saying “if only it had been done in Korean.”
Koreans spend a lot of time and money studying English, as the term “English-fever” would indicate. English is first taught at kindergarten. Tremendous efforts are then poured into learning the language through elementary, middle and high school. The efforts continue in college to get good scores on standardized English tests such as TOEFL and TOEIC, so as to impress potential employers in the job market. Even office workers flock to morning and evening sessions of private teaching institutions so as not to be left behind.
And yet, Koreans’ English proficiency does not match the resources mobilized. In terms of English ability, Korea’s global ranking falls roughly in the middle, basically in the same group as countries where English is not so relentlessly taught as in Seoul. If the so-called principle of “10,000 hours” holds true, by the time students graduate from elementary school in Seoul, English should not be a problem. And by the time they graduate from high school, they should speak like BBC anchors. What then explains this meager outcome after all the time and effort? [Korea Herald]
You can read more at the link, but the editorial goes on to explain how the focus on written tests is why Koreans do not put any effort into listening and speaking. The Korean government has even recognized this folly and decided to make the standardized test’s English section easier so parents do not have to spend so much money on English classes for their kids.
#TheInterview is now available in more places than anyone actually needs. http://t.co/wBNFpCnDP7 pic.twitter.com/YEH3RkT0xb
— Boing Boing (@BoingBoing) December 29, 2014
Children join an event in Seoul on Dec. 24, 2014, to ride a taxi with the popular cartoon character “Pororo.” (Yonhap)
Especially of interest with this missile defense test is that Japanese intelligence may be included as part of the test:
South Korea plans to conduct its first missile defense drill in the first half of next year to test the effectiveness of locally developed defense programs in the face of North Korea’s missile and nuclear threats, a government source said Monday.
South Korea has been developing its own Kill-Chain and Korean Air and Missile Defense (KAMD) systems to better detect and respond to military provocations from the North.
“Military authorities are planning our first independent Korean Peninsula missile defense drill during the first half of next year,” the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
“I understand that the drill is aimed at testing the effectiveness of the KAMD and Kill-Chain systems that have been developed by our military and identifying any flaws.”
The drill is expected to run on the missile defense simulation model developed jointly with the United States, the source added.
The exercise is also likely to use military intelligence provided by Japan under a trilateral pact signed earlier in the day.
(Yonhap)
You can read more at the link.
I would not want to be the taste tester for this job:
Grasshopper croquette served with mealworm coffee sherbet, beetle powder-crusted fried chicken, and sweet pumpkin porridge topped with dried cricket, pickled larva and assorted vegetables.
These are some of the recipes submitted to a government-hosted insect cooking contest late last month as South Korea experiments with the culinary potential of six-legged creatures.
The event was the latest of Seoul’s efforts to foster the insect industry as it searches for new sources of livestock and ways to help cash-strapped farms find new profit makers.
In 2010, the government announced the legislation of a special law aimed at fostering the insect industry, valued at 168 billion won (US$151 million) in 2011 and forecast to reach 298 billion won next year. (Yonhap)
You can read more at the link, but that sure is a lot of money being project to get people to eat bugs.
Via a reader tip comes this article that explains how the Seoul government is trying to shutdown the ride sharing app Uber by indicting the company’s CEO:
South Korea has indicted the chief executive officer and local subsidiary of Uber Technologies Inc for violating a law governing public transport, becoming the latest jurisdiction to challenge the U.S. taxi service provider.
The Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office issued the indictment against CEO Travis Kalanick and the firm’s Korean unit for violating a law prohibiting individuals or firms without appropriate licenses from providing or facilitating transportation services, an Uber spokeswoman said. [Fortune]
You can read the rest at the link, but the Seoul government has been trying to shut down Uber in Korea in order to protect their own taxi drivers and the domestic Daum-Kakao app that provides an Uber like service and is endorsed by the taxi union. This indictment is probably being used to scare Uber out of Korea. It will be interesting to see how this works out.
