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Have you ever wonder who has been cutting Kim Jong-il’s hair all these years?  In a ROK Drop exclusive the dictator’s barber has been uncovered.

I just got done watching the Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer and Lynne Cheney absolutely unloaded on Wolf.  Cheney was there to talk about a childrens book she wrote and it turned into a complete media ambush on Cheney.  Lynne Cheney though absolutely smashed Wolf Blitzer.  If for some reason you still aren’t convinced of media bias at CNN then watch this video or the transcript over a Hugh Hewitt.

Lynne Cheney made a great point when she said she wrote a children’s book about the great things about America because of all the negativity in the media that children were seeing every day.  She wanted to write a book reminding them about all the great things about America and what does CNN do during a book interview with Lynne Cheney about her book, turn it into a ambush involving sex, lies, lesbians, rape, and whatever else the Democratic talking points accuse her of.

I think it is still a toss up of whose media is worse, the Korean media or the US media?  I can’t wait until this election is over so maybe some sanity can return to US television news but I’m not getting my hopes up.

With South Korea toying with the idea of implementing increased UN sanctions against North Korea, Pyongyang has come out and threatened South Korea in usual Nork rhetoric fashion:

North Korea warned Wednesday if South Korea joins U.S.-led sanctions against the Stalinist country, it will regard it as “a declaration of confrontation.” The Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland said it will treat South Korean cooperation with a UN resolution sanctioning the North as “a declaration of confrontation against its own people” and a negation of the 2000 Joint Statement by former president Kim Dae-jung and North Korean leader Kim Jong-il “and take corresponding measures.” “The South will bear the entire responsibility and pay dearly if international sanctions it backs have destructive results for inter-Korean relations,” a committee spokesman said in a statement.

I tend to agree with Dr. Lankov that the South Koreans will only implement sanctions to a degree to where it appears they are doing something to get international pressure off of them, but not enough of anything that effects or changes the current situation.  Think of it like the Korean Zaytun unit in Iraq, they are just there as a symbolic presence and have no real value, that is what I expect any South Korean sanctions against North Korea to be, symbolic and with no real value.

However, I do wish that for once that somebody in South Korean government, even if they are only planning symbolic sanctions, would just get some balls and tell the Norks after one of their rhetorical attacks to go F__k Off!

Dr. Lankov has an article up in the International Herald Tribune regarding the sanctions debate in South Korea:

Since the UN Security Council ordered sanctions against North Korea, Seoul has done its share of tough talking, and it will probably support the embargo once it is imposed. But it is unlikely that South Korea will maintain pressure on the North for long.

More likely, South Korea will use the first available excuse to walk away from the sanctions, citing, for example, humanitarian concerns (i.e. a major flood in North Korea). Already now, South Korean diplomats are working hard to make sure that the sanctions will not be too harsh, and they will probably find some support from China and Russia.

(…) 

 This might appear strange: after all, South Korea would seem to be the country most threatened by North Korean nuclear weapons. Some Americans blame South Korean indecisiveness on the nationalist left which now dominates Seoul’s politics. The major reason for Seoul’s attitude, however, is not an inability to grasp the seriousness of the situation, but rather a very real divergence of interests with Washington.

For those who have been following the North Korean nuclear issue, Dr. Lankov really doesn’t bring up anything new, but he is educating a wider audience by being published in the International Herald Tribune about the South Korean reaction to the nuclear crisis, which I have not seen one MSM media source accurately explain until Dr. Lankov’s article.

The cynical side of me just wonders if this will be used by the ROK government as an excuse to keep North Korean defectors out of South Korea:

South Korea said Thursday it will ban the entry of North Korean officials who fall under a U.N. travel restriction — Seoul’s first concrete move to enforce sanctions imposed after the North’s nuclear test.

Unification Minister Lee Jong-seok also said Seoul will control transactions and remittances relating to inter-Korean trade and investment with the North Korean officials, Yonhap news agency reported.

A U.N. committee on the sanctions, passed in response to North Korea’s Oct. 9 nuclear test, has been working to outline how they will be implemented.

So who exactly are they keeping out?

Former Korean president Choi Kyu-hah will be layed to rest in an official state funeral:

The late former president Choi Kyu-hah will be buried on Oct. 26, the day his predecessor Park Chung-hee was assassinated 27 years ago. After Park’s death, the then prime minister shortly served as acting president and later formally president. A Cabinet meeting on Monday decided to organize a state funeral for Choi. In accordance with the wishes of their children, the remains of Choi’s late wife Hong Ki, who died in 2004, will be exhumed from her grave and laid to rest alongside her husband.

For some interesting reading about Choi’s short presidency make sure to read this great posting from Oranckay.

Where is Amnesy International?  From the Chosun:

Police in Tianjin, China are indiscriminately taking fingerprints and blood samples from ethnic Koreans there to investigate the murder of a Korean student. Angry ethnic Koreans in the city said Tuesday that police started taking fingerprints and blood samples by visiting their homes and Korean companies there. A Korean running a company there who gave his name as Lee (50) said, “Two investigators with Chinese law enforcement came to our office today and sampled finger prints of all of 10 fingers and blood from four Korean workers and two ethnic Korean workers.”

Police target Korean men between 25 and 45 who have been living there, Korean residents said. Sampling is being carried out across the city. Police say they concluded the murder of a 20-year-old Korean woman who was studying there at an apartment in the Hexi District on Oct. 2 was committed by an acquaintance. An ethnic Korean identified as Lee (50) said, “Police consider every Korean adult man living here a suspect. This is a serious infringement on human rights, to indiscriminately take fingerprints and blood from foreigners.”

The usual human rights groups are probably to busy investigating more important things like false claims of Korans being flushed down the toilet at Gitmo to be bothered by such things as gulags in North Korea or an involuntary round up of Koreans in China.

Some bad autumn weather is hitting the east coast of Korea:

People in Gangwon Province on Monday (Oct. 23) suffered damage from unusually heavy fall rain and strong winds.

Heavy rain warnings and alerts were issued in the province. Hyangnobong Peak received 252 millimeters of rainfall, Misiryeong 260 millimeters, Sokcho 201 millimeters and Goseong 87 millimeters. The rainfall was the largest recorded for the latter part of October in the regions.

Winds with a speed of 20 meters per second also struck the region, and strong wind warnings were issued. Trees and signboards on many streets were blown down.

A dozen fishing vessels that were docked at harbors broke loose and many sank. Some houses and roads were inundated and seven elementary schools closed temporarily. About 13,000 households lost power.

It will be interesting to see if the North Koreans will use this flooding from this recent bad weather in order to get more free aid from the South Koreans.

Brian at Gangwon Notes has pictures up of the storm damage as well.

The DOW has past the 12,000 mark setting new all time highs despite the war in Iraq and the North Korean nuclear threat.  Now even more good news is coming out about the US economy:

The Labor Department Friday announced that the number of jobs increased between April 2005 and March 2006 not by 5.8 million but by 6.6 million.
…
The federal budget deficit has been cut in half in three years, three years faster than George W. Bush called for. Why? Tax receipts were up 5.5 percent in FY 2004, 14.5 percent in FY 2005, and 11.7 percent in FY 2006. That’s up 34.9 percent in three years. And that’s after the 2003 tax cuts.

So why isn’t anyone hearing about this?  Why is it only doom and gloom in the media?  Could it be because the media would rather show you footage of sniper attacks killing US servicemen in Iraq before the November election?

HT: CDR Salamander

I suspect the same is true in Korea as well:

But while reports of robberies by U.S. servicemembers may grab local headlines, cabbies say they have more problems with their countrymen, whether combative drunks or thieves. Most drivers interviewed recently by Stars and Stripes said they feel safer on the bases.

“If I work at night, I have to expect lots of scary situations,” said Yukio Kawamitsu, 56, as he waited for a fare recently on Camp Foster. “Japanese passengers, too, sometimes give us a hard time because many of them are drunk.

“In fact, when dealing with drunken customers, Americans are much easier because we cannot communicate fully. Some Japanese customers get really fussy, giving us hard time.”

(…)

“It’s much easier,” said Takemasa Chibana, who is with a taxi company that has base access. He said American riders are more polite and trips are shorter. “When I worked for an off-base company, I had to drive about 250 kilometers (about 155 miles) every day,” he said. “On base, I only have to drive half of it to earn about the same amount.