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Are you a German retiree and looking for a cheap place to retire? Well look no further than South Korea:

In one of the southernmost points of the Korean Peninsula, hours away from the nearest city, a couple of dozen houses with sloping, red-tiled roofs and large white walls dot the side of a hill here. More are under construction, separated from one another by wide, sometimes cobblestone streets.

On closer inspection, as the setting sun enveloped the hill in a warm glow one recent evening, large and, well, German-looking men could be seen standing on a terrace or in a yard next to garden dwarfs and white picket fences. German could be heard, not only from the men, but also from the Koreans here.

Yes that is right folks, there is a German village in South Korea. So who is populating this village? Well Koreans of course:

The authorities here in Namhae County took the invitation a step further by carving this village out of a mountain facing the sea. They offered cheap land and construction subsidies to any Korean nurse or miner who had lived in Germany for at least 20 years, requiring that they build houses in one of five German architectural models. The village will eventually accommodate up to 75 houses.

The village has drawn a small community of Koreans and some Germans, who may not have ever imagined whiling away their retirement days in a corner of South Korea that is visited by few Koreans, though famous for its garlic.

Just what Korea needs a German village with Koreans in it that are not even there:

Not everybody thinks the village project, at $7.5 million, has been a success so far. Ha Young Je, the head of Namhae County, whose predecessor conceived of the German village idea, said some of the house builders still lived in Germany and rented out their homes.

“We give them privileges,” Ha said. “But they go to Germany every nine months to renew their residency there. This becomes a holiday home for them.”

Sign me up for this tourist attraction. What is also interesting about this whole thing is that the above pictured homes don’t really look German when compared to this picture:

Anyway since the residents are moving in and then moving right back out, Namhae now has an even better idea to attract American retirees:

Still, Namhae County – where the population is fast decreasing and aging – is planning to build an American village for Korean-American retirees. This time, Ha said, the county will require the new residents to give up their American citizenship, so that they will live here full time.

Some how I don’t think the Arizona retirement communities are worrying about Namhae county yet.

Many of you that follow my blog know that I criticize Oh My News every once in a while. I maintain that Oh My News is an interesting concept it just needs better editorial over sight IMHO. However, this recent article about the victims of the Hiroshima bombing I felt was very well written because the author let the people tell the story instead of the writer trying to create a story by reinterpreting history as Oh My News has done in the past. Here are some quotes from the article I found interesting:

“We used to chant during the war ‘Be united in one mind like a fireball, 100 million people,’ she recalls. “Then when the bomb fell the trucks came around and ignored women and children, and just helped the healthy men. We were no use to them. That’s when I first understood what war really was.”

“I’ve been to Hawaii, Korea, China, Okinawa and the U.S. and seen for my own eyes what we did so now I can say now what I like. I criticize all governments, including Japan and America. I tell children to come to Hiroshima and see what war means.

“I knew nothing at the time, but that is how we were educated. We were told until the day the bomb fell that we were winning the war. Every day we were told: Die for your country! That’s the terrible power of education, so I ask teachers to tell children more about the war to avoid making the same mistakes. I fear people will forget.”

When the Dome was made a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1996, the U.S. and China objected. America said it was “concerned about the lack of historical perspective” in the nomination. China worried that people who deny the facts of history might “utilized the Dome for harmful purposes.”

Official Hiroshima defends against these claims ritually: “We don’t intend to play up our victim-hood,” says Minoru Hataguchi, Director of the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum. “But I appreciate it must seem that way to others. We make efforts here to show what Japan did to other Asian countries.”

I find this comment about not playing up one’s victimhood interesting because I don’t see the survivors of the atomic bombings demanding compensation from the US government like Korean civilian victims of the Korean War. Maybe it is a cultural thing I don’t know; I’m sure the commenters out there have an opinon, but for whatever reason Koreans seem quick to demand compensation. However, as this article in the Joong Ang Ilbo states there are Korean victims of the atomic bombings wanting compensation from the Japanese government:

HAPCHEON, South Gyeongsang ? Three years after a Japanese court ruled that victims of the U.S. atomic bombing of Hiroshima, no matter where they live in the world, are eligible for support from Tokyo, activists in Korea are struggling to establish the rights of more than 400 South Koreans.

This small town in South Gyeongsang province has been referred as Korea’s Hiroshima because it has 609 people who faced radiation and blast effects in Hiroshima. With the assistance of Seoul and Tokyo, the Red Cross of South Korea in 1990 opened a welfare center in Hapcheon for atom bomb victims.

The problem some of these elderly people are having is proving they were at Hiroshima that day. Lack of documents and witnesses to verify their claims. I can understand the frustrations of these people but the Japanese government is providing compensation to Koreans with legitimate paperwork verifying them in Hiroshima that day.

The Japanese government also recently had a ceremony honoring Korean victims of the bombing:

HIROSHIMA — A memorial service for Koreans who died in or after the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, many after being brought to Japan as forced laborers, was held in the Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima on Friday, a day ahead of the 60th anniversary of the bombing.

The ceremony at a cenotaph in the park dedicated to Korean victims drew about 350 attendees including South Korean survivors and relatives of Koreans who died as a result of the atomic bombing of the western Japan city on Aug. 6, 1945. (Kyodo News)

I’m sure somebody out there is going to comment that the Japanese ceremony was not sincere enough.

The criminals who stole rifles from a ROK Army patrol last month, have now been arrested:

Police and military authorities apprehended three men suspected of attacking two soldiers on patrol along the east coast and running off with their rifles and ammunition last month.

Police said they recovered two riles and two 15-cartridge magazines near a fishing place in Hanam, saying fingerprints on a ticket at a tollgate in the province helped them to identify the suspects.

I’m still curious what they had planned for those rifles?

I was reading Thomas Friedman’s latest article in the New York Times and I was amazed to find out that the US hasn’t implemented cell phone technology to talk on a subway yet:

I’ve been thinking of running for high office on a one-issue platform: I promise, if elected, that within four years America will have cellphone service as good as Ghana’s. If re-elected, I promise that in eight years America will have cellphone service as good as Japan’s, provided Japan agrees not to forge ahead on wireless technology. My campaign bumper sticker: “Can You Hear Me Now?”

“That is how you say something if you see something today in a New York subway – tin cans connected to someone with a cellphone on the street,” said Mr. Rasiej, a 47-year-old entrepreneur who founded an educational-technology nonprofit.

I like Friedman and tend to agree with a lot of what he says especially this article here. With all the time I have spent overseas the last five years I have never realized how backward the US is in regards to cell phone technology. How is it that we just put a space shuttle into space but a cell phone doesn’t work in a New York city subway?

Korean and Chinese gamers have found a new favorite past time online:

Last year, an American game titled Medal of Honor: Pacific Assault became one of the most popular games in China. This game replays the blood war history between the United States and the Japanese during the second World War. Many of the game players say something like: “Never mind the screens and the sound effects. When you take the machine gun and spray fire on the little Japanese until they get ripped to pieces, that is what is called ‘cool’!”

If Korean and Chinese gamers are not getting a thrill killing Japanese soldiers in Medal of Honor: Pacific Assault then they turn to killing each other:

Team China

VS:

Team Korea

But more recently, the players from China and Korea engaged in another full-scale ‘war’.

There was one supporting battalion of about 200 persons, but only 9 of them survived in the end. They told the Chinese defenders: “We are from Taiwan and this is the sum total of all the fighters that we can offer. When you have problems, we will come to help for sure because we are brothers!”

Maybe the South Koreans can recruit a few gamers from the one internet cafe in North Korea to help them out next time.

(Hat Tip: Japundit)

If you ever had dream of becoming a superstar, Korea may be your place:

SHE might live a quiet life in Adelaide as a singing teacher, but overseas, Kirsty Roberts is a pop idol. Well, she’s treated like one, anyway. Scoring work in South Korea earlier this year, Kirsty headed over to do what she thought would be a simple cover-band gig.

Kirsty lived in a beachside apartment and ate three meals a day at a five-star buffet. She also lived it up. “You’d play six days a week, but you’d only sleep about three or four hours a night,” she says. “It’s pretty hard to come down after gigs like that.” The group even needed security guards, but Kirsty says they didn’t help much. “Even the staff think you’re stars, so that’s weird,” she says.

Maybe New Kids on the Block or Milli Vanilli can make a come back here too?

This is interesting, North Korea plans on fielding a Korean K-League soccer team based out of Pyongyang:

If the Pyongyang team participates, the K-League will increase to 15 teams from the current 13, counting the new team from South Gyeongsang province that plans on joining next year.

This will give all of us more opportunities to see North Korean cheerleaders and North Korean soccer hooligans.

New Japanese textbooks that whitewash Japan’s colonial history and involvement in World War II continue to be criticized by Japanese NGO’s:

Japanese textbooks that exercised the country’s colonial victims for months may have been approved but will hardly be taught anywhere, a group says. Children and Textbooks Japan Network 21 says the history and social studies textbooks, sponsored by the rightwing Japanese Society for History Textbook Reform, will be adopted by no more than 1 percent of middle schools, amounting to about 13,000 copies. According to the group, as of late July, 300 of Japan’s 584 educational districts had decided on their textbooks, and only one — Tochigi Prefecture’s Odawara City — had adopted the offending texts.

“The initial goal of the Society for History Textbook Reform, an adoption rate of 10 percent, has been blocked,” the group said. “In the days ahead, a battle will unfold over the 1 percent line.” No more than 0.039 percent of schools adopted an earlier version of the textbooks in 2001, and they are currently used in mere 21 schools across Japan.

Think about that, the first set of textbooks that caused all this uproar in Korea and China back then is used by only 21 schools, .039% of the population. The newest edition of these textbooks will once again go to less then 1% of the population. It is obvious that attacks on Japan for the use of these textbooks by Korea and China are politically motivated when many Japanese don’t agree with the books to begin with as well.

Japan could of have saved themselves this headache to begin with if the Ministry of Education didn’t approve these textbooks from the start.

Strategic cooperation between India and Korea continues to improve:

Mr Natwar Singh conveyed India’s interest in joining the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) and sought Seoul’s support to help India contribute in this project. The Korean side agreed to consider the request earnestly and consult with other parties to the ITER.

The two Asian powers decided to strengthen cooperation through putting in place institutional framework and regular service-to-service exchanges at senior and middle levels to generate confidence between the two sides, regular ship exchanges and conduct of joint exercise as also cooperation in areas like anti-piracy and search and rescue operations, exchange of training delegations, mutual visits to defense establishments and industries connected with defense production.

It wise for Korea to build relations with India which has a growing economy and a surging technology sector that complements Korea’s technological expertise well. To help build economic ties government is making it easier for Indian businessmen to gain Visas to Korea:

South Korea agreed to seriously consider the issuance of visa-on-arrival at South Korean destinations for visiting Indian businessmen, South Korean Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Ban Ki-Moon said Monday.

Addressing a meeting of business leaders organized by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), Ban, who is leading a high-power 10-member official and business delegation from South Korea, said, “One of the most effective ways to augment the vast potential that exists between the two countries from their complementary trade and industrial structures is to speed up efforts to establish institutional framework such as relevant laws, systems and consultations between the two governments.”

India is also interested in the ITER nuclear program probably because India foresees this program as being the way to solve a future energy crisis for India as the country develops and requires more energy. Some of you may remember the bickering between Japan and Korea over this program, that looks like the French will ultimately end up building.

The development of military exchanges between the two countries is also wise. It is helpful to have a strong Asian military power like India to be on your side in case of any future conflict with China over North Korea or Taiwan.

I wouldn’t be surprised to see this relationship further develop in the future.

I really don’t know what to think of this:

Scientists for the first time have cloned a dog. But don’t count on a better world populated by identical and resourceful Lassies just yet.

The experiment extends the remarkable string of laboratory successes by Hwang, but also reignites a fierce ethical and scientific debate about the rapidly advancing technology.

I guess there is medical value in these experiments so I am withholding judgment on the ethical values of cloning, but I wonder how the boshintang industry views dog cloning?