Category: Uncategorized

Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has released a New Year’s broadcast that is sure to cause a strong reaction from China and Korea:

In a nationally broadcast news conference marking the start of the new year, Mr. Koizumi defended his annual visits to the Yasukuni Shrine, the memorial to Japan’s war dead, although the visits have frozen Japan’s diplomatic relations with its neighbors. The leaders of China and South Korea have refused to meet Mr. Koizumi in protest over the visits to the shrine, which also honors top-ranked war criminals and is considered a symbol of Japanese militarism throughout Asia.

“I’ve never once closed the door to negotiations with China and South Korea,” he added.

I think Prime Minister Koizumi is a good leader that has been managing his country very well and has been a great ally for the United States which I appreciate, however when it comes to this whole Yasukuni Shrine nonsense I can not find any common ground with him. I have been to the shrine and I did find it offensive. It wasn’t offensive for the war criminal aspect often mentioned by Korea and China because a war criminal like General Tojo for example is not glorified at the shrine from what I could see.

What did offend me was the outrageous interpretation of history during World War II. You can check out my posting on the shrine for more details, but Koizumi is definitely wrong visiting the shrine. The history is so skewed I can understand the Korean and Chinese perspective. However, I still don’t think this should cause the sometime childish reactions from China and Korea, but I can see why it would strain diplomatic relations.

With that said Koizumi made this New Year’s message for a reason and I think it is safe to say that Koizumi is pissed off about what happened to the Japanese diplomat in China:

There was no immediate comment from Beijing. The growing rivalry between China and Japan, Asia’s two great powers, was punctuated in recent days by the feud over the diplomat’s suicide in 2004. A Japanese newsweekly reported recently that the diplomat killed himself after he was blackmailed into providing sensitive information by a Chinese agent who threatened to reveal his affair with a bar hostess.

The Japanese foreign ministry attributed the death to “regrettable actions by local Chinese security authorities” in violation of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations. China denied the charge, accusing Japan of trying to “smear China’s image.”

I doubt China will ever come clean on this, but it is a tad bit hypocritical for the Chinese if they did do this, to say that Koizumi is provoking the Chinese with the shrine visits when they are blackmailing Japanese diplomats. Koizumi knows this and wanted to make a point to the Chinese with his statemetns that the Japanese aren’t going to back down from Chinese provocations as well.

Here is a strange story of a Korean athlete who was suspended from the Korean National Fencing Team because she had unauthorized plastic surgery:

The Korean Fencing Federation (KFF) said Tuesday that it is currently in the process of determining disciplinary measures for Nam Hyun-hee, 25, with the final decision to be made at a committee meeting slated for today, the sports-governing body said.

“A national team athlete can’t be an entertainer, and it’s incomprehensible why she went out of the training center to get plastic surgery,’’ a KFF official was quoted as saying by the Yonhap News Agency.

How can the KFF say it is “incomprehensible” to have plastic surgery when they authorized her to have eyelid surgery to begin with?

Also can any Koreans out there confirm if eyelashes getting in the way of the eyelid is a common Korean problem? This whole thing seems overblown and silly.

Is Korea the land of Toilet Culture?

Q:
One of my nightmares being in Korea used to be the bathroom, but over the past few years, Korean bathrooms have cleaned up remarkably. Korean bathrooms are now decorated with picture frames, plastic flowers, and even fake sounds of running water. On top of that, the toilet is equipped with a machine that warms and changes the seat cover and something else that comes with a dozen buttons. What all of sudden drove Koreans to get into such a lavish toilet culture?

The new entry is the “bidet,” which is a plumbing fixture designed for washing the external genitalia and the anus as well as the skin near these areas. Health-conscious Koreans are more than happy to follow advice from health experts, saying washing not only helps blood circulation but also prevents various ailments.

Where are these wonder toilets because I sure have never seen one of them? Here is another question, after the toilets washes you anus and groin how do you dry it? Do you have to hold up your groin to the hand dryer machine?

Here is one video game that has already been endorsed by the Beloved Leader in North Korea, so hopefully the South Korean authorities will not feel compelled to ban it here in South Korea:

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.

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.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________

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.

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.