Considering the media attention this is getting it seems somebody is bound to find this cat:
The U.S. ambassador’s plea on social media for help finding a missing cat has generated a furry furor in South Korea’s media, which has taken up the effort to find the feline.
Ambassador Mark Lippert posted a picture of a cat named Nike on Facebook and Twitter, saying it had befriended his dog Grigsby and needs to be safely returned. The owners are offering a million won (about $855) reward for the cat, which went missing on Yongsan Garrison several weeks ago.
“Grigsby’s favorite US Embassy cat friend is missing!” the post says. “Please find Nike and return Grigsby’s best cat friend to him!”
South Korean media and online communities quickly took up the cause, publishing numerous stories and pictures of the flier. [Stars & Stripes]
You can read more about the missing cat at the link.
This is pretty symbolic of how much has changed in 75 years:
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will visit Pearl Harbor with U.S. President Barack Obama at the end of this month, becoming the first leader of his country to go to the U.S. Naval base in Hawaii attacked by Japan in 1941, propelling the United States into World War II.
Monday’s unexpected announcement came two days before the 75th anniversary of the attack and six months after Obama became the first sitting U.S. president to visit the memorial in Hiroshima for victims of the U.S. atomic bombing of that city at the end of the same war.
Abe, in a brief statement to reporters, said he would visit Hawaii on Dec. 26 and 27 to pray for the war dead at Pearl Harbor and to hold a final summit meeting with Obama before the latter’s presidency ends. [Stars & Stripes]
“We help them copy whatever they want onto microSD cards,” said Yao, who would only give his surname, in his tiny store primarily selling cameras.
“They usually want South Korean TV dramas,” he said, sliding open a display cabinet to reveal a stack of the tiny memory cards, each the size of a fingernail, that slot directly into DVD players and computers.
The flow of information in and out of North Korea is tightly controlled by authorities. Most North Koreans cannot access the internet or foreign media and share content secretly on USB sticks.
But tiny microSD cards are increasingly popular now because North Korea has been cracking down on USBs, Yao said.
“It’s getting harder to bring USBs across the border, customs will check what’s on them. But microSD cards are smaller, easier to slip through,” he said.Apart from their small size – the cards can be woven into clothes or hidden between the pages of a book – MicroSD cards can often be directly inserted into a “Notel”, a device popular in North Korea which can be powered by a car battery and plays DVDs and media from USB sticks and memory cards.”MicroSD cards make it easier and safer for North Koreans to smuggle foreign digital media in from China,” said Sokeel Park of Liberty in North Korea (LiNK), an organization which works with defectors. [Reuters]
You can read the rest at the link, but like I have been saying for years, subversive media is the type of engagement with North Korea I can support.
You can read more about North Korea’s “Notels” at the below link:
Another week and another threat against South Korea from the Kim regime:
Kim Jong Un instructed North Korean troops to “wipe out South Korea” in the latest sign of aggression from North Korea’s supreme leader. Kim’s remarks came during a military border exercise this week as the United Nations Security Council adopted sanctions targeting Pyongyang’s coal exports.
“This is how we must forcefully respond to those South Koreans. At first strike we must completely break the will of those South Koreans and wipe them all out,” Kim said according state-controlled television network KCTV.
Kim spoke directly to a marine brigade and a frontline unit that has been tasked with fighting Seoul. The drills included the rapid firing of artillery and Kim was briefed on their training plan, UPI reported Friday.
The annual winter training exercise was held near a disputed maritime border in the Yellow Sea. North Korea state media said an island targeted during the training saw loud explosions and light that simulated “the enemy’s cities and military targets submerged in a sea of fire.” [International Business Tribune]
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un (R) and his wife, Ri Sol-ju, watch an air combat training competition held by the Korean People’s Air Force and Defense in this photo released on Dec. 4, 2016. It is the first time in nine months the North Korean first lady has appeared in public. (Yonhap)
I agree with this article that for the younger generation of Koreans the influence peddling scandal is to be expected, but the cheating to get Choi Soon-sil’s daughter into Ewha Women’s University is what really infuriates them:
A rigorously meritocratic education system lies at the heart of South Korea’s stellar rise from the ashes of the 1950-53 Korean War to Asia’s fourth-largest economy.
The system is highly competitive and can take a distressing toll on young students who devote their teenage years to studying for the national college entrance exam.
Admission to one of a handful of elite universities — such as Ewha — is seen as vital to a student’s future prosperity, social standing and even marriage prospects.
But however cut-throat it might be, there is steadfast public faith and trust in the exam’s fairness, with every applicant sitting the same paper on the same day, and a formalised marking system.
That faith is summed up in a term popular for decades, “a dragon from a ditch” — a person of modest means who rose to success through education and hard work. (………..)
“But Chung and Choi shattered this faith and hope spectacularly,” it said.
Park’s presidency has coincided with growing disquiet over a widening disparity in incomes and opportunities — an inequality now embodied in the public mind by Choi and her daughter.
In a now-infamous Facebook posting in 2014, Chung flaunted her privilege, saying: “Money is part of your talent. If you don’t have talent, blame your parents.”
The depth of anger over Chung’s admission to Ewha has been illustrated by the large number of high-school students who have taken part in weekly mass demonstrations that have seen millions march through the streets of Seoul and other cities.
“I was so angry about Chung and couldn’t even sleep when I first heard about her scandal,” said Jenny Park, a 16-year-old high school student.
“What’s the point of studying night and day when the rich and powerful can rig the whole system so easily?” she said, waving a banner reading “We didn’t study hard for this.” [AFP]
You can read more at the link, but like I said before I seriously doubt Choi Soon-sil is the only rich and connected person to get their kids into major universities in Korea through improper means.
The Stars & Stripes recently made it to the village of Taesong-dong located on the South Korean side of the DMZ:
South Korean children who study at Taesong-dong Elementary School board a bus after classes on Tuesday, Nov. 22, 2016. The school is in the village of the same name, just about a mile from its North Korean equivalent called Kijong-dong. The North Korean side is believed to be largely vacant but plays loud propaganda broadcasts that can be heard across the border day and night.
Both villages are in the DMZ, an area about 160 miles long and 2½ miles wide marked by barbed wire and dotted with land mines.
A key difference is that the North Korean side is believed to be largely vacant — a Potemkin village that exists mainly to look pretty and broadcast round-the-clock propaganda and socialist songs that provide a constant soundtrack in Taesong-dong.
“It’s very loud,” Kim said, although the volume Tuesday was somewhat muted by windy conditions. “The residents hear it but don’t pay attention.”
With a population of just over 200, residency in Freedom Village is strictly limited to descendants of the original inhabitants or to women who marry men who live there. Men are not allowed to marry into the community because the government doesn’t want people to exploit the military service exemption, Kim said.
Residents can come and go, but they have an 11 p.m. curfew and must be present in the village for at least eight months of the year. The mayor said one of the biggest inconveniences is that they can’t receive pizza deliveries or online mail orders.
The trade-off for the bleak conditions is a tax-free income; free accommodation; land for rice paddies, red peppers, ginseng and other crops; and an elementary school with nearly as many teachers as students.
Despite the benefits, the aging population has declined in recent years, forcing the school to bus in students from nearby areas. Only four of the 29 students are from the village, officials said. There is no high school. [Stars & Stripes]
You can read more about life at the village at the link.
