Amb @mwlippert rode a pedal-powered bike to light the Christmas Tree at Seoul City Hall Plaza, and wished you a great holiday season! pic.twitter.com/yy1XnttGUE

— U.S. Embassy Seoul (@USEmbassySeoul) November 28, 2016

This combined image, provided by North Korea’s ruling party organ Rodong Sinmun on Nov. 28, 2016, shows its leader Kim Jong-un and other senior officials paying tribute to the statue of his later father Kim Jong-il during a visit to Samjiyon County at the southeastern foot of the 2,750-meter-high Mount Paektu, the highest peak on the Korean Peninsula. North Korea publicizes the county as the birthplace of the late leader. (Yonhap)

His jail sentence was suspended which means his plan to dodge mandatory service did in fact work:

A man has been given a jail term for having his body covered with tattoos to avoid mandatory military service.

Under the conscription law, men with “excessive” tattoos on their bodies are immune from duty for fear that they could upset other soldiers.

The man, 20, was sentenced to one year in prison with the term suspended for two years, the court in Uijeongbu, Gyeonggi Province, revealed Monday. [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link.

It appears that one way or another President Park is not going to complete her little over one year remaining in office after this announcement:

President Park Geun-hye on Tuesday called on parliament to determine her fate, saying she will step down in line with a timetable and procedures reached by political parties that can minimize any confusion arising from a government change.

Opposition parties dismissed the call as part of a political gambit to stall for time and thwart their impeachment push, stressing they won’t break ranks and will continue their move to oust the president.

During her third address to the nation over the corruption scandal centered on her confidante Choi Soon-sil, Park renewed her apology for her inability to address mounting public fury, but repeated her denial of any involvement in the scandal.

Earlier this month, the prosecution cited Park as an accomplice in “considerable parts” of the alleged wrongdoings carried out by Choi and her former aides — allegations denied by the presidential office Cheong Wa Dae.

“I will entrust the National Assembly with (the task of) making decisions on issues, including the shortening of my presidential term,” she said during the five-minute address. Her single, five-year term ends in February 2018.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link, but I think President Park probably does not want to put her political party members in a tough situation in regards to whether or not to support the impeachment vote coming up.  Offering to resign buys her political party time to organize a campaign for a person to replace her.  After she resigns elections are supposed to be held in 60 days.  It is going to be interesting to see how this plays out for President Park.

This is probably a good decision because I can’t remember the last time I remember seeing a Grandeur on the road in the US:

Hyundai Motor Co. is considering suspending the sales of the Grandeur sedan, exported under the name Azera, in the United States, industry sources said Sunday, due to its sluggish sales there.

While Hyundai announced the launch of the sixth-generation Grandeur earlier in November, sources said the company would not introduce the model in the U.S. If South Korea’s top automaker makes that decision, it would mark the first time in 16 years for the Azera to leave the U.S. market.

Industry watchers said although the Grandeur stands as a major high-end sedan in the South Korean market, it failed to grab enough attention in the North American market, losing out to the popular Sonata and the premium Genesis models.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

Not a single protester jailed or officer harmed in weeks of mass rally. Lawmaker @bdmin1958 says Koreans deserve Nobel peace prize candidacy pic.twitter.com/oAyOQ4LBFm

— Sam Kim 김혜성 (@samkimasia) November 28, 2016

Reporters gather in front of the house of former presidential chief of staff Kim Ki-choon in Seoul on Nov. 28, 2016, as a passenger car comes out of it. The lawyer of Cha Eun-taek, an arrested associate of President Park Geun-hye’s indicted confidante Choi Soon-sil in an influence-peddling scandal, said the previous day Cha had met with Kim at his office in 2014 through an arrangement by Choi. The testimony by Kim Jong-min, Cha’s attorney, fueled suspicion about Kim’s involvement in the scandal. (Yonhap)

This technology makes me wonder if a more powerful version of it could be to counter manned aircraft as well?:

South Korea is developing a technology to bring down unmanned North Korean aircraft using electromagnetic pulse (EMP), military officials said Sunday.

According to the officials, the Agency for Defense Development (ADD) has developed a directional, high-powered EMP generator, and it’s trying to devise ways to use it against small North Korean unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).

An EMP occurs when a nuclear device is detonated at a high altitude, potentially damaging the power grid and rendering most electronic devices useless.

The ADD is said to be studying unmanned aircraft’s potential weaknesses against EMP. Its EMP generator and its potential defense against drones were presented during a conference hosted by the Korea Institute of Military Science and Technology last week.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

I am sure the priority for North Korea’s Longevity Institute is to keep Kim alive, but I would think all these scientists are also responsible for keeping other regime officials as healthy as possible as well:

Hyeong-soo Kim said the mysterious Longevity Institute where he worked had the sole purpose of pushing back the leader’s death.

And with the lifestyle of North Korea’s leaders being notorious for its huge meals, that meant a constant fight with cardiovascular disease and diabetes.

It left researchers desperate to study other obese people, but with North Korea unable to feed its population, they were forced to spy on overweight foreigners instead.  (……..)

He continued: “They developed food products because Kim Jong-il had cardiovascular disease and diabetes.

“The two Kims were rather obese, so they monitored and researched people that were obese, which is hard in North Korea.

“Because most of the people are going through malnutrition, they had to study and research the obese superiors or the political leaders.

“Even foreign diplomats or correspondents that come to North Korea were actually researched. These people didn’t even know they were being studied.”  [Daily Star]

You can read more at the link, but the Kim regime should have just sent a spy into America and spied on how the people who frequent Wal-Mart keep themselves alive.

Over at Korea Expose there is a great article about a nondescript set of stairs near the US military’s Yongsan Garrison in Seoul that is actually a reminder of some interesting Japanese colonial history:

There’s a stairway on the outskirts of the hip Haebangchon area in Seoul — one that doesn’t really merit a second look. No impressive characteristics beyond its steepness, nothing spectacular in its surroundings. No chic bars, no hipster coffee shops. There’s no reason to remember, much less visit, it unless you’re a resident walking up and down the hilly area.

But the 108 Stairway, as the steps are called, is one of Haebangchon’s oldest residents. In existence since the colonial era, it saw the evolution of Yongsan, the district Haebangchon is in: Streams, woods and tigers in the early twentieth century, the tents and slums before the Korean War, the bombing and destruction, and eventually the clusters of red-bricked houses (and increasingly coffee shops) today.

Situated near the U.S military base, today’s Haebangchon boasts one of the most culturally diverse pool of residents in South Korea. But very few of them have actually used the 108 Stairs for its original purpose.

“My friends and I would rush up, panting, and skip two or three steps at a time,” says 82-year-old Seo Jang-hun. “At the top, there was this huge area, covered with gravel. And there was this temple, where adults threw coins into a box, clapped their hands three times, and prayed.”  [Korea Expose via Gusts of Popular Feeling]

You can read the rest at the link, but the staircase once led to the Gyeongseong Hoguk Shrine that was built in 1943.  Residents that lived in the neighborhood were forced by Japanese authorities to pray at the shrine for Japan’s war dead.  After liberation in 1945 residents tore down the shrine and today the steps are all that remain.  Soon even the steps may be removed to be replaced by an escalator.

This all poses the question of what Japanese colonial relics should be allowed to remain and what should be tore down?