Category: Uncategorized

A Korean couple in Ohio is making news due to their deportation from the US due to breaking immigration laws:

A father in Toledo has faced the toughest decision of his life. News 11 has been following the Jung family, originally from South Korea, living in Toledo for the past 20 years.

There’s been little hope of Young Jung getting out soon. “I had to make a decision on this,” said Andrew’s father Dae. Dae told us he couldn’t let his wife stay in jail, so he voluntarily bought plane tickets sending them back to South Korea Thursday afternoon. “I can have her next to me, that’s a good thing,” said Dae. “Bad thing is I have to leave my son Andrew behind.”

This is a sad story, but something that irks me is when people don’t follow US immigration laws. I personally have no problem with immigration into America for those looking for a better life, but do it legally. If this couple here would of followed the legal process they wouldn’t have the issues they have now. They also have the option of bringing their son back to South Korea with them as well if they don’t want to be separated.

I am also wondering if this family is any how linked to the Korean-American massage parlor/prostitution ring that was busted in Toledo recently? I think this may be more than just a coincidence.

The Marmot is providing an interesting report about Canadian war criminals from the Korean War. This story is conveniently published hot on the heels of the recent flourish of Nogun-ri articles in the Korean press. Marmot has promised a translation so I will wait for the translation before I comment on why the media is trying to draw Canada into this whole war crimes controversy during the Korean War.

Is anyone really surprised that Unification Minister Chung Dong-young has spoken out saying that North Korea should be allowed to have a peaceful nuclear program?

North Korea should be allowed to maintain a peaceful nuclear energy program as long as it verifiably scraps its weapons development, a top South Korean official said Thursday, signaling a major split in opinion between Seoul and Washington in the nuclear negotiations.

In an interview with local Internet portal Daum Media, Unification Minister Chung Dong-young argued that electricity-starved Pyongyang has the right to generate nuclear energy.

Now why would North Korea need these “peaceful” nuclear power plants when South Korea is offering them more than enough electrical power already in the negotiations? Here is this from the Washington Post:

South Korea has offered to supply the North with electric power equivalent to the output of two unfinished nuclear plants if the communist state gives up its nuclear weapons, South Korean officials said Tuesday.

Chung Dong Young, South Korea’s unification minister, called the offer a “last chance” for the government in Pyongyang, which in 1994 signed a deal with the Clinton administration for construction of the plants. South Korean officials gave details of the new plan as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrived here Tuesday evening on the last leg of an Asian tour.

Last month, South Korea was willing to give them enough power equal to two nuclear power plants for an electrical grid in North Korea which can’t even handle that much power to begin with and Minister Chung at the time last month called this a “last chance” for North Korea. Now this month he does a complete about face and says that North Korea should be allowed to have a “peaceful” nuclear program. What happened to all the “last chance” talk?

I know I’m beating a dead horse here, but North Korea never had any intentions of ending their nuclear program from the beginning of the six party talks, and South Korea knows this and probably everyone else involved with the talks knows this too.

Off Limits and No Drinking Policy Letter
In response to planned protests in Uijongbu, the downtown area of Uijongbu has been put off limits.

A planned “civil gathering” prompted the U.S. Army to warn its military and civilian personnel to avoid downtown Uijongbu city, the Uijongbu subway station and roads leading from the station to Camp Red Cloud on Wednesday and Thursday.

Fliers distributed to people leaving Camp Red Cloud by gate guards on Tuesday — and a warning broadcast on American Forces Network television — advised that the subway station and downtown shopping district would be off-limits from 9 a.m. to midnight and that roads from the subway station to the camp would be off-limits from 5 p.m. to midnight both days.

In addition to this off limits policy, all 2ID soldiers have a no drinking order placed on them from 12AUG – 03SEP during the entire length of Eighth Army’s ULCHI Focus Lens exerise. This does not effect any soldiers outside of 2ID unless they are soldiers from other Eighth Army units involved in UFL.

I guess we will see if anyone “runs amok” this weekend anyway.

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UPDATE: Apparently another factor weighing in on the decision to suppend drinking priviledges during UFL is the fact that 2ID has been notified that anti-American groups have made plans to go to areas where soldiers frequent and provoke incidents with the soldiers and capture it on camera to be downloaded to the internet and the Korean media. So if you are out and about these upcoming weekends be careful of these goons trying to provoke something. Think before you react.

With all this going on I really can’t blame General Higgins the 2ID commanding general for placing this order. With UFL going on and all the senior leaders in the Divison occupied by this important exercise the last thing they need to worry about is another “runs amok” incident. I know a lot of soldiers are complaining about this policy but heck I have been on more field problems than I can remember that were longer than this. Were professionals and should be able to comply with this order. It could be a lot worse. Soldiers in Iraq have a no drinking policy for one year.

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?