Hey, where's *MY* military-industrial complex money? I've been writing blog posts, op-eds & acts of Congress about North Korea in my spare time for 16 years & I've yet to see dime one! Should I send a bill to Raytheon? https://t.co/SDgaRMvju2
— Joshua Stanton (@freekorea_us) February 10, 2019
That is what this Korea Times editorial is claiming:
National Assembly Speaker Moon Hee-sang gave the wrong gift to U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi during his visitto the latter in Washington, D.C., Tuesday, with a group of lawmakers.
Korea Times
The gift in question was a scroll with Chinese calligraphy he presented in person. The photo of the occasion has been posted on media websites and carried in newspapers.
There are two problems ― the first being plain to see and the second more subtle and more damaging.
The first is “Dear Pelosi” written on the right side of the scroll. Missing isthe honorific “Madam” or job title “Speaker” or “Madam Speaker” ahead of her last name.
Addressing the speaker just as Pelosi is inappropriate at best and ignorant at worst.
Then, “Dear” looks misplaced because it is not a letter but a scroll. Then, it violates the usual rule of scroll writing that allows for the name of the writer with their pen name and stamp of their seal, not that of the recipient.
The second is the four Chinese characters writ large.
Chinese characters were used by the upper class to boast of their knowledge and show their superiority over the ordinary classes in the Joseon Kingdom, a tradition that has survived in pockets of society.
Moon and his aides should have remembered what happened after the summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping in the Mar-a-lago Hotel in Florida.
Trump quoted Xi as telling him that Korea belonged to China during their private walk. Trump’s lack of historical knowledge and resultant gullibility, most likely shared by much of the American public, is reinforced by Western society’s Sino -centric view of Asia.
It wouldn’t be a great exaggeration if Moon had helped strengthen such a Western belief with his Chinese gift. Of course, the chance is that Pelosi won’t be as single dimensional as Trump.
Then, the meaning of Moon’s favorite phrase is detrimental to Korea’s image _ the Yellow River of China flows through countless turns and twists but only heads east.
The speaker uses it to express his conviction that North Korea’s denuclearization and establishment of a peace structure will eventually be achieved despite many challenges.
But the history of the phrase is rather unsettling.
You can read more at the link, but the “Dear Pelosi” on the scroll really does stand out and just looks odd to be on there. Besides that does anyone really think Speaker Pelosi knows the difference between Chinese characters and Hangul? Does anyone even think she knows where the Yellow River flows and the significance of the phrase?
Plus she probably receives so many gifts that this one will probably just be stored away somewhere or given to someone. It seems to me the Korea Times is making more of this than they should.
I guess we will see in a few days of South Korea’s optimism is warranted:
South Korea’s top trade official on Wednesday sounded a cautious note of optimism on his recent sales pitch to key U.S. officials and lawmakers for exempting South Korean cars from possible U.S. tariffs.
Yonhap
Trade Minister Kim Hyun-chong said there is neither justification nor actual benefit for the United States slapping tariffs on South Korean cars, as South Korea, a close ally of the U.S., does not pose a threat to U.S. security.
Washington is set to issue a report by Feb. 17 into whether U.S. President Donald Trump should impose tariffs on foreign autos on national security grounds based on Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act.
“The U.S. reaction was not bad,” regarding South Korea’s request for an exemption from possible U.S. tariffs, Kim said in a briefing in Sejong, adding that Washington officials praised South Korea’s efforts to revise their bilateral free trade dea
You can read more at the link.
I wonder if President Trump is given briefing notes to review before he talks because this is a big difference in numbers he misstated:
U.S. President Donald Trump said South Korea’s payment for the U.S. troop presence will increase further only days after both sides signed a one-year deal for the defense cost sharing.
Korea Times
“Working with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and National Security Adviser John Bolton, they (South Korea) agreed to pay, yesterday, $500 million (560 billion) more toward their defense,” Trump said in a Cabinet meeting, Tuesday (local time).
On Sunday, Seoul and Washington signed the one-year provisional deal on defense cost sharing, called the Special Measures Agreement (SMA) for the upkeep of United States Forces Korea (USFK).
Under the 2019 SMA, the South will pay 1.04 trillion won toward the upkeep of stationing 28,500 U.S. troops here, up 8.2 percent from the previous year. This is an increase of 78.7 billion won, compared with last year, not the amount stated by Trump.
It remains unclear why the U.S. president made the remark with such an obviously factual error. But it is highly likely that he overstated the amount to score a political point there and raise his approval rating.
You can read more at the link.
Only Bob Mueller can save Korea now. https://t.co/c3Wtg3I9It
— Joshua Stanton (@freekorea_us) February 9, 2019
I would not be surprised if he used the Chinese plane again just for safety purposes; a train journey from North Korea to Vietnam just seems too long of a trip to take though it would be a pretty awesome way to see China:
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un flew to Singapore on a rented Air China plane, instead of his aged official jet, last June for his first summit with U.S. President Donald Trump. What he will use to travel to Vietnam’s Hanoi for a second meeting with Trump is a point of speculation that will likely remain a mystery until his arrival there.
Yonhap
Many say Kim is likely to fly on the state jet, codenamed “Chammae-1,” this time because the distance of travel, about 2,760 km, is only slightly more than half of the 4,700 km flown last June, and the Soviet-era jet, even if it’s aged, can sufficiently cover the flight.
But others say that Kim could rent a plane from China again if he places priority on safety.
Some even suggest that he could use his special train to travel all the way to the Southeast Asian nation through China for the Feb. 27-28 summit, just as he traveled to the neighboring nation by train last month, noting that Vietnam also has the same rail specifications as North Korea.
You can read more at the link.
Are there any ROK Heads living in Korea excited about this news?:
The Seoul High Court ruled that the import of sex dolls should not be prohibited on grounds that that it corrupts public morals.
In 2017, a company made an import declaration of a 159-centimeter-tall headless sex doll made of silicon that resembles a female body, but Incheon Customs put the entry on hold, saying it corrupted public morals. (…….)In reversing the lower court decision, the Seoul High Court said that while it may seem vulgar, it does not show the sexual areas in full display to justify the claim that it destroys human dignity.
Korea Herald
The court added that the country should not interfere with one’s private life to protect dignity and freedom, and there are no legal grounds to regulate the import of sexual devices.
You can read more at the link.
Below is a posting over at Reddit where one foreign woman describes how she felt she was drugged by employees at a club in Seoul:
So I recently went clubbing in Hongdae (which is common among foreigners) and I went to a few different clubs. The last one I went to was called Club Aura (PLEASE REMEMBER THIS CLUB AND AVOID IT!)
Reddit
They have multiple bad reviews pretty much everywhere about how they charge different prices based on how you look (race, wealth, etc) and how the security there is absolute shit and very violent.
Anyway, my experience there was bad not from either of those things but because I got drugged. Im not sure what the hell I was drugged with but it made me forget everything and I was sick for a good 12 hours after, I was also super paranoid and ended up going home asap. The thing is, I wasn’t drugged by club-goers; I was drugged by girls who are hired to work there, who were giving out ‘special’ drinks only to girls.
This has been a problem in every big city across the world, but I’ve lived in Korea for 6 months now and Ive always felt safe here, so I guess that was enough to let my guard down.
PLEASE BE SAFE. PLEASE DONT GO OUT ALONE. AND PLEASE BE CAUTIOUS, EVEN IF YOU FEEL SAFE.
At the link you can read all the various comments from other readers who were complaining about the same thing happening in Seoul at other clubs where the drug foreign women and then try to hook them up with Korean guys.
Has anyone else experienced or heard of such activities going in Korean bars?
