Category: Uncategorized

Some Korean students in China are learning that you have to actually study to graduate college outside of Korea:

But this year, Fudan University, Shanghai Jiao Tong University and others started requiring Korean students to take separate entrance exams in English, math and general humanities or science, because so many of them have fallen behind in class or taken to absenteeism. Some schools now reportedly organize separate classes and exams for Korean students.

China will be hugely important in the 21st century, and it is therefore good that more of our youngsters study there. But we have a problem if a large number of them drop out because they lack motivation or the sense of a clear goal. Because China’s renowned universities attract the brightest Chinese students, about half of the Korean students there reportedly fail to graduate because they lead an undisciplined campus life and mingle only with other Korean students. That is a waste of youth and foreign exchange.

This story reminded me of the Korean students that attended my university years ago. I experienced two kinds of Korean students. There was the super smart students who studied all the time and did well in school or there was the ones who led a party life style. Plus the comment about the Koreans only mingling with other Koreans is very true. However, I can understand Koreans socializing together in a foreign country because I’m sure other nationalities are that way while over seas as well. Just look at Itaewon.

However, if Korea wants the majority of students going over seas to improve their study habits, the country will need to first improve the university system in their own country, where universities in Korea are looked at as being party zones. So why should people be surprised when that attitude is exported?

South Korean Unification Minister Chung Dong-young has sided with North Korea over the US’s move to include North Korea’s counterfeiting activities into the six way talks:

Unification Minister Chung Dong-young said Monday, “Non-nuclear complaints by the United States against North Korea should be solved by bilateral talks between the two parties. As the six-party talks focus on resolving the nuclear issue, other matters should be kept separate from the six-party issue.”

Chung told a forum during a breakfast hour lecture at the Lotte Hotel in Seoul, “Major non-nuclear complaints fall into six categories, the most important of which is the North’s missile program, others include biochemical and conventional weapons and human rights abuses, as well as its alleged involvement in drug trafficking and currency counterfeiting.”

Does Chung have a cell phone with a direct line to Kim Jong Il to tell him what to do? This guy wastes no time jumping to North Korea’s defense. Chung is really a useful idiot for the Norks. First he cares little about North Korean defectors or human rights and now he thinks that North Korea’s illegal activities should be overlooked in the name of the six way talks that are accomplishing absolutely nothing.

I am continuing to believe that the US has finally hit the North Koreans where it hurts by sanctioning the Macau bank. I have never seen them whine this bad and get Chung to jump to their defense this quick. Hopefully the US will keep the pressure on them.

If the South Korean government has it’s way; the urban sprawl that USFK is trying to escape from by relocating units from 2ID and Yongsan, will be coming to Pyeongtaek soon as well:

The government said yesterday it will invest more than 18.8 trillion won ($18.1 billion) by 2020 to develop Pyeongtaek, southern Gyeonggi province, where the U.S. Forces Korea will build a consolidated base by 2008.

The ministry said nearly 1.5 trillion won will be spent to improve farms, build industrial complexes and develop tourist facilities near Pyeongtaek Lake.
The Defense Ministry also said it will invest nearly 1.4 trillion won on roads, parks and noise-proof facilities for residents. The ministry will also construct housing for relocated residents.
More than 16 trillion won will be invested to develop harbors in the region along with other industrial development projects.

Nomad has more on this topic, but I can’t help but think why the Korean government feels this need to surround the USFK base with urban sprawl. This same urban sprawl that currently plagues US bases will only continue to lead to traffic accidents and problems.

Former Korean President Kim Dae Jung is preparing to celebrate the 5th anniversary of the Nobel Peace Prize he was awarded after the June 2000 summit with North Korea:

Attaching more significance to the “fifth’’ anniversary, a group of dignitaries who served as Cabinet ministers under the Kim administration from 1998 to 2003 has formed a committee this year to prepare for a grand convention which will highlight the commemoration week.

High-profile officials from the incumbent Roh Moo-hyun administration as well as political leaders from the ruling and opposition camps, including potential candidates for the 2007 presidential election, are expected to attend the congratulatory event.

Only in Korea would you celebrate someone who bought a Nobel Peace Prize.

There is now more competition in the Korea Blogosphere from these three women. These women may seem pretty hot, but don’t be fooled. They are actually the transgendered South Korean pop band, Lady. Lady made headlines earlier this year and now they even have their own Blog. So for all you trangendered fans out their you to can post and ask for dates with Lady as apparently many fans on the site have already done.

Hat Tip: Asiapundit

The US is really increasing the pressure on Pyongyang during the latest six party talks. First the US stopped all food aid to the Stalinist country and now the US placed sanctions on a Macao based bank that was allegedly being used to funnel counterfeit US dollars printed in North Korea:

Washington last week declined to negotiate on the sanctions it imposed on the bank and on North Korean firms, mainly fueled by suspicions that the North counterfeited U.S. currency. North Korea in response called off a visit by its deputy foreign minister, Kim Kye-gwan, to New York.

On Friday night, North Korea’s foreign ministry said the U.S. must unfreeze the companies’ assets and lift the ban on transactions with the bank before the six-party talks can make progress. The official Rodong Sinmun newspaper the same day called the U.S. “the world’s worst human rights abuser.” It also slammed as a “fabrication” footage of a public execution in North Korea broadcast by cable channel CNN, according to the North’s official KCNA news agency.

The North Koreans are masters of nasty rhetoric, but something seems different this time. It seems like the US has finally struck a nerve with the North Koreans. This is good because it is increasing the bargaining position of the US.

The North Koreans have been getting away with counterfeiting US currency for to long. Have you ever wondered why the US $20 bill seems to change every year? It is because of the skilled North Korean counterfeiters. The next thing that can be done to further increase the pressure on the North Koreans is if the Japanese stop boat traffic between the two countries that is used to bring in hard currency to North Korea through the drug trade and other underworld activities. Finally the US is taking the kid gloves off, but there is still a lot more to do.

I like what US negotiator Christopher Hill had to say about this issue:

A few hours after the statements, the U.S. chief negotiator at the talks Christopher Hill told AP, “We can’t just sit there stalemated session after stalemated session.” He added, “I don’t want to threaten walkouts, but I do want to see progress.”

I’m sure Hill realizes this, but most of the countries involved in the talks want to keep things at a stalemate becauses the status quo is more acceptable to their own interests, that is why the US has to break the status quo and shake things up if the US hopes to see any progress.

Is this another sign of the distrust the US government has with Korea?:

Korea’s much delayed plan to buy airborne early warning systems, the so-called E-X project, has hit another snag in the form of communications equipment in the favored bidder’s aircraft that falls under an export ban by U.S. authorities. The G-550 by the Israeli firm IAI Elta was said to be the favored of two remaining systems in the latest bidding round, pitted against the reportedly more expensive E-737 by U.S. aerospace giant Boeing. But with no U.S. export authorization for the Israeli equipment in sight, the W1.8 trillion (about US$1.8 billion) E-X project could be delayed again.

The article makes this issue out to be some kind of sinister plot by the US government to make Korea buy the Boeing aircraft, however they couldn’t buy the Boeing aircraft either because it has the same technology. So what technology is in the aircraft that is so sensitive?:

The equipment in question consists of five items including Data Link (link 11 and 16) discerning aircraft, IFF (Identification Friend or Foe), SATCOM, UHF/VHF Have Quick Radio, and GPS P(Y) code technology.

These system are extremely sensitive because the different data links are what provide air picture and communications for US forces. This technology would be a bonanza for the US’s military enemies and competitors. So the decision by the US to stop the Israelis from selling the technology to Korea is a sure sign that the US government does not trust Korea to keep the technology secret from the likes of the North Koreans, Chinese, and Russians who are all in the area.

The Korean fast food industry is trying to win back customers with special give a ways and reduced prices after losing many customers to the recent well being fad:

Korea’s leading fast food chain Lotteria on Monday said it will give out cell phone call vouchers worth W4,000 (about US$4) to customers who buy set menus for the same price. But while the last-ditch strategy seems to go against common sense, a Lotteria staffer said the company, while expecting no great profits, was not losing out because it buys the free call vouchers in bulk at 30 percent of face value.

Fast food firms continue to slash prices for set menus amid fierce competition in a dwindling market. Set menus typically consist of a burger, French fries and soft drink, and prices have already dropped to below W3,000 in some chains, making a single hamburger more expensive than a set.

Lotteria would have to give me a free car before I would eat anything there. Lotteria has to have the most disgusting fast food so it is no wonder they are getting hit especially hard:

Despite such efforts, the number of fast food outlets is dwindling. The number of Lotteria branches fell from 890 in 2003 to 811 in June and 800 in November this year. McDonalds saw the number of outlets shrink from 343 in 2003 to 305 in September. The industry nonetheless maintains hope that the worst is over.

This is no joke about the fast food outlets reducing their restaurants. Whenever I go to Uijongbu station there is a McDonald’s in the station that I will usually stop and eat at, or should I say used to eat at because it is closed down now. I am still amazed it closed because every time I would go there the place was packed but I guess not packed enough. It is the same thing with the Lotteria’s. I have seen a couple of them close down not that I am concerned about Lotteria’s.

Oh well I can live without McDonald’s it just means I will need to eat bibimbap for lunch instead the next time I go to Uijongbu Station.

Canadian autoworkers are now feeling what the US autoworker has been feeling for a long time:

Council learned that the federal government is fast-tracking a free trade agreement with South Korea, which it wants to have completed by mid-2006. This move is going ahead even though NAFTA has failed miserably to deliver on promises including effective dispute settlement. The government now wants to recreate NAFTA for Asia. While Korea is first, Japan and China are next.

CAW National Executive Board member Jim Woods urged action to put an end to “unfettered and one way trade.?Woods said free trade with Korea, Japan and China would decimate the auto parts industry in Canada. We certainly are at a crisis and at a cross roads in the auto parts industry,?said Woods, first vice-president of CAW Local 1524.

Here are some interesting statistics from the article:

There is already an imbalance in trade between Korea and Canada. Korea, for example, sold 130,000 vehicles in Canada in 2004. Canada sold 400 vehicles in Korea in 2004.

The ratio of Korean to Canadian auto sales is 268-to-1. Canada’s top export to Korea is wood pulp, while Korea’s top export to Canada is finished motor vehicles. Wood Pulp costs 25 cents per pound, while Korean vehicles cost $15,000 wholesale. It takes 60,000 pounds of wood pulp (requiring two acres of clear-cut forest) to pay for each vehicle we import from Korea.

I’m surprised Canada even sold 400 cars in the tightly controlled Korean car market.

The Korean government has declassified additional documents highlighting specifics about the ROK Army deployment to Vietnam:

Korean president Park Chung-hee in the later 1960s proposed a regional defense body with Japan and Taiwan to combat the spread of communism, newly declassified documents reveal. The dossier related to the Vietnam War made public on Friday also shatters persistent myths by showing that Korean soldiers who fought in the war were paid the same as their Thai and Filipino counterparts, and that the money did go to the soldiers and was not used by the state to boost Korea’s economic development, as some have charged.

It shouldn’t be a huge shock that President Park was trying to create a regional defense body with Japan and Taiwan at the time because it was the height of the Cold War and South Korea wasn’t nearly as strong national power as they are now. The ROK Army soldiers I have met who fought in the Vietnam War always felt unappreciated by Korea and dismissed as mercenaries for Washington. The fact that they were receiving their combat pay will probably only reenforce that stereotype, but those ROK Army soldiers that fought in Vietnam should be looked at no differently than the foreign troops that came to Korea’s aid when communist aggression threatened to take over the country. All the soldiers that served in both Korea and Vietnam are heroes and shouldn’t be dismissed or forgotten.