Here is the latest Korea Finder. Who can name this Korean island?
The Red Devils, which is the fan club for the Korean National Soccer team for those new to Korea has released a new soccer t-shirt to replace their extremely lame 2002 “Be the Reds” shirt:
The Red Devils, the supporters club of Korea’s national football team, will release an official T-shirt to replace the unofficial one sported by fans since 2002 and secure exclusive rights to the merchandise. It hopes fans will embrace the new slogan “REDS, GO TOGETHER†instead of “Be the Reds,†which adorns the old T-shirt for which the club was unable to get copyright, making billions for makers of knock-off brands. The new shirts are copyrighted and will be exclusively sold through the casual clothing brand Basic House.
The design of the shirt is much better than the 2002 version, but I think the slogan could still use some work, but then again the shirt is not marketed towards foreigners. The slogan works well for Koreans familar with Konglish, so I’m sure the Red Devil fan club is going to make a killing on this; especially if they get everyone’s favorite soccer fan to wear one again:
Here is a great editorial in the Chosun Ilbo about the need for Korea’s government to look towards the future instead of the past:
Yet today, only two of the Northeast Asian nations that were not so long ago vying to emerge from their historic backwater are competing at the center of world history. China is bracing itself to provide a counterbalance to the U.S., and Japan envisages a policy of reining in China’s regional hegemony in alliance with America. The U.S., meanwhile, has embraced Japan to employ a dual strategy of restraining and cooperating with China.
What the three powers have in common is that Korea hardly figures on their map. They discuss it only when they are talking about struggling North Korea, a country caged in pre-modern failure but trying to embrace the bane of modernity, nuclear weapons.
No matter that we have progressed in leaps and bounds, we have been erased from their minds. A mere 15 years ago, Deng Xiaoping told his people to learn from South Korea; now China barely gives us a second thought.
It only took a few years for that to happen. “I will not be concerned at other men’s not knowing me,” says Confucius. “I will be concerned at my own want of ability.†And it has been Korea’s want of ability that in the last few years has made it drop out of the future-bound race among the three Northeast Asian neighbors, where one led one moment and another the next, and retreated into the past. It is our leaders we have to thank for this, with their insistence that we can only have a future if we right the wrongs of the past, and their refusal to brook any debate whether that is true.
I feel this country is hungry for some leadership and I hope the next presidential election provides it. The leftists pursuit of rewriting the past without focusing on the future of the country may very well cause Korea to forever be in the past as the rest of Asia passes this country by.
Here is a New Year’s message I received via e-mail from the US Embassy.
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My family and I would like to take this opportunity to wish all of you
here in the Republic of Korea a Happy New Year.
In 2005 we said good-bye to Ambassador Christopher Hill, as he returned
to Washington to serve as Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian
and Pacific Affairs and lead our delegation to the Six-Party Talks on
the North Korean nuclear issue. In October we welcomed to Seoul
Ambassador Alexander Vershbow, a career member of the Foreign Service with
extensive experience in East-West relations and non-proliferation.
President Roh’s visit to the United States, President Bush’s visit to the
Republic of Korea for APEC and bilateral talks, and visits by the
Secretaries of State and Defense illustrate the strength of the U.S.-Korea
alliance and its importance to both countries.
For the coming new year, the American Citizen Services Unit renews its
commitment to process applications for passports and reports of birth,
as well as requests for other services, as quickly as possible. We are
proud that we have reduced processing time for passports to an average
of seven business days – much faster than passport applications are
processed state-side.
This past year we worked, and will continue to work, with U.S. Forces
Korea to refine our plans for a noncombatant evacuation operation, which
we all hope never to have to execute. In 2006, we expect that even
more Americans will register their stay in Korea with the Embassy. We
wish you a pleasant stay in Korea, whether as a long-term resident or a
short-term visitor, and urge you to check our website periodically for
the latest information about matters that may be of interest to you while
in Korea.
Again, my family and I, and everyone in the Consular Section, wish you
a happy, healthy and safe New Year and best wishes for 2006.
Sincerely,
Michael D. Kirby
Consul General
United States Embassy Seoul
Does anyone think North Korea would issue a New Year’s message wishing for peace and happiness for the upcoming New Year? Of course not. Instead North Korea released a New Year’s message threatening war and demanding the withdrawal of US troops from South Korea:
North Korea on Sunday issued a New Year’s message demanding the withdrawal of U.S. troops from South Korea. The New Year’s message didn’t mention a word about the nuclear standoff with the United States.
“The entire nation should firmly defend peace and security on the Korean Peninsula by turning out in the Struggle to resolutely foil the U.S. attempt to launch another war. We must remove the root cause of war completely from this land by launching a nationwide campaign for driving out the U.S. troops,” said a joint editorial by North Korea’s Rodong Sinmun and two other major state-run newspapers.
Yawn….. More rhetoric. This makes me wonder if this proclamation is in coordination with the communist anti-USFK groups protesting the USFK redeployment to Camp Humphreys? Anyway North Korea’s proclamation is interesting because the majority of the US soldiers here would love to go home.
The Washington Post is reporting that sales for Korean kimchi have risen by 20% due to the Avian Flu scare:
Ho Jin Lee, president of Kim Chee Pride Inc. of Maspeth, N.Y., which supplies kimchi on the East Coast, said sales jumped 20 percent this year.
A sudden new joie d’epice in the American diet?
Try avian flu.
Blame it on the Internet, the anxiety of life in the 21st century, or a volatile combination of the two, but publication of a minor study by a South Korean academic last spring has apparently triggered a minor run on kimchi, a daily staple of the Korean diet that the bland-of-palate are likely to avoid like a global pandemic.
Which presents a potentially difficult choice given the work of Kang Sa-Ouk of Seoul National University, who took 13 chickens infected with avian flu virus and a couple of other diseases, fed them kimchi juice and found that 11 of the birds recovered.
After the stem cell scandal from Seoul National University does anyone trust what a scientist from Korea especially another scientist from Seoul National University has to say? I was suspicious of this “scientific study” when it first came out and now after the Dr. Hwang fiasco I am even more suspicious. Since it has to deal with kimchi I doubt there will be anyone in Korea willing to investigate this and start the 2006 kimchi scandal. Kimchi is one thing you don’t mess with in Korea, no matter how outrageous this study may be.
Happy New Year from Jeongdongin Beach, South Korea
The Chosun Ilbo is running an article listing their top stories of 2005. Here they are with my comments of course:
1. The Hwang Woo-suk Debacle – (Definitely the biggest story for Korea this year.)
2. North Korea Admits to Nuclear Arms; Six-Party Talks Resume – (Yawn)
3. Killing Spree at Guard Post – (Big wake up call for the ROK Army and the government)
4. Sixth Consecutive World Cup Qualification – (No mention of the coaching change?)
5. The Secret-Service Bugging Scandal – (Korea’s own wiretapping scandal.)
6. Constitutional Court Rules for Administrative City – (Residents in Jonju are being relocated for national security reasons and no one is complaining, USFK relocates to Pyoengtaek for national security reasons and the activist groups come out in force to protest.)
7. The Cheonggye Stream Restored – (May seem like a small thing in western country, but a big deal here.)
8. Three Divisive Laws – (I think the melee in the legislature made more news than the laws themselves.)
9. Stock Prices Hit the Roof – (Yet everyone is pessimistic about the economy.)
10. The Ruling Party in Crisis – (Thank God!)
North Korea Renegs On 6 Way Talks Deal (1): A day after issuing a joint statement, North Korea changes their mind and demands light water reactors again. US officials are angered, while I don’t think anyone in the K-blogosphere was surprised.
Charles Jenkins Speaks Out (1): The world learned about life inside North Korea through former US Army deserter Charles Jenkins who returned from 35 years of living in the North. He also dropped a bombshell by claiming that North Korea still had captives from other countries while simultaneously showing the world his farmer tan.
Campaign Against North Korean Defectors (1)(2): It is bad enough the Chinese and the North Koreans are trying to stop defectors from the North but now the South Korean government is also actively trying to stop defectors. With all the challenges the defectors keep coming.
Human Rights Summit In Seoul (1): This summit has begun to lay the groundwork for holding North Korea accountable for their deplorable human rights situation.
Food Aid Stops To North Korea (1): The US and the World Food Program stop all food aid to North Korea due to the North Koreans not allowing proper monitoring of the aid.
Ric Flair On North Korea (1): The famous wrestler has a lot of interesting things to say about a wrestling trip to North Korea.
Unification Minister Needs a Muzzle (1): Chung once again blames the US for all of Korea’s woes. I wish this guy would shut up, I’d rather listen to Ric Flair.
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I hope everyone enjoyed this look back at 2005. I expect an eventful year next year as well. Once again Happy New Year!
Dokto Madness (1)(2)(3): The madness over Dokto continued in full force in 2005. It continued enough that even I got in on it as well.
Yasukuni Nonsense Continues (1)(2): Prime Minister Koizumi continues to aggravate his childish neighbors by visiting the highly biased memorial that honors war criminals and white washes history. How do I know this? I visited the shrine myself.
International Tug of War (1): The dispute over an illegal Korean fishing vessel shows how childish Korean and Japanese relations have become.
Remembering Hiroshima (1)(2): This year was the 50th anniversary of the atomic bombings of Japan.
Textbook Flap (): The controversy over Japanese textbooks whitewashing history continued.
