I am a big supporter of radio programming into North Korea because it is a proven way to challenge the Kim regime’s propaganda machine within the country.  Many defectors have said that listening to illegal radio programs is how they learned about the outside world and inspired them to defect.  The BBC is now going to join the Korean Broadcasting System, the Voice of America and Radio Free Asia as producers of North Korean radio programming:

The BBC World Service will launch a daily radio program aimed at North Korea as part of its biggest expansion since the 1940s.

The Korean service will be transmitted in short wave in a bid to evade the communist regime’s government censors, the Financial Times reported.

It’s one of 11 new language services announced Wednesday by the British Broadcasting Corp. as part of an expansion financed by a $360 million funding boost from the British government.  [Stars & Stripes]

You can read more at the link, but it will be interesting to see if the BBC becomes a target of North Korean cyberattacks due to this announcement.

Considering Rhee’s very controversial background running the Washington, DC school system that included allegations of a widespread cheating scandal, she seems an odd choice to run the Department of Education:

President-elect Donald Trump will meet Saturday with Michelle Rhee, a Democrat and former District of Columbia public schools leader who is considered in the running for secretary of education.

Rhee will meet with Trump, a Republican, at his golf club in Bedminster, N.J., where he is also meeting with former GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney, purportedly being considered for secretary of state.

Jason Miller, Trump communications director, confirmed the Rhee meeting Saturday morning with FoxNews.com.

Like Trump, Rhee has been a supporter of school choice, backing some public money for charter schools while the D.C. schools chancellor from 2007 to 2010.

Trump’s School Choice Policy released in September calls for his incoming administration to “immediately” redirect $20 billion in federal funds to school choice — in the form of block grants for an estimate 11 million school-age children living in poverty.  [Fox News]

You can read more at the link.

Just another Saturday night at the @Reuters Seoul bureau… pic.twitter.com/7jCu6bHXQL

— James Pearson (@pearswick) November 19, 2016

Choo Mi-ae, chief of the main opposition Democratic Party, shouts slogans as she leads a ceremony in Seoul on Nov. 18, 2016, to launch a party-wide body to popularize a movement in the general public to oust President Park Geun-hye over a seething political scandal involving Park and her longtime confidante Choi Soon-sil. (Yonhap)

President Park is so unpopular right now she really has nothing to lose politically any more by signing the long anticipated intelligence sharing agreement with Japan:

South Korea and Japan plan to sign a military intelligence-sharing pact this week to better counter mounting threats from North Korea, the defense ministry said Monday.

The two countries signed a provisional General Security of Military Information Agreement (GSOMIA) last week, less than a month after they resumed discussions on Oct. 27.

“We are planning to formally sign the GSOMIA on Wednesday upon approval by President Park Geun-hye after it is passed by the Cabinet on Tuesday,” a ministry official said.

Defense Minister Han Min-koo and Japanese Ambassador to Seoul Yasumasa Nagamine are expected to sign it at the defense ministry in Seoul, he said.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

I wonder how much this has to do with protectionism for ROK companies that provide mapping services?:

South Korea decided Friday not to allow Google Inc. to take government-supplied map data outside the country, citing possible security breaches.

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, which supervises mapping policy, announced the decision after a meeting with officials from the foreign, defense and other-related ministries.

“There are security concerns amid the confrontation between the South and the North,” the ministry said. “(The ministry) suggested Google come up with supplementary measures to relieve security concerns, but Google did not accept this.”

The Seoul government had said it might allow Google to use the government-supplied map data if it deleted or blurred sensitive and military facilities, including the presidential office Cheong Wa Dae.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

Could humans one day have pig organs and even wear pig skin?  South Korean scientists are taking the first steps to make this one day possible:

South Korean scientists have successfully transplanted organs from a genetically modified pig to a monkey.

The Rural Development Administration said Wednesday that the monkey remains healthy for a record 51 days after receiving the heart and cornea of a pig named “Mideumi.”

The administration said the transplant was conducted on September 26th by a joint team from Konkuk University Medical Center and the National Institute of Animal Science, a research arm of the state-run agency.

On October 24th, Samsung Medical Center and Hallym University Medical Center jointly transplanted the pig’s skin to a monkey for research.

The pig, engineered by the administration in 2010 for xenotransplantation research, carries a gene that helps prevent transplant rejection from one species to another.   [KBS World Radio]

Russian flood relief supplies arrive in North Korea https://t.co/cFTLRdSACB pic.twitter.com/69DIpyhatu

— NK NEWS (@nknewsorg) November 19, 2016

A senior student looks at a slip of her self-graded score on the state-administrated scholastic aptitude test at Seocho High School in Seoul on Nov. 18, 2016. The official scores for the nationwide exam will be announced about a month later. The exam, which took place the previous day, is a deciding factor in entering college, with the spring semester beginning in March. (Yonhap)

Pringles lovers may have a hard time finding chips for sales:

South Korea’s food safety agency on Friday imposed a temporary sales ban on Pringles potato chips imported from Malaysia after the body of a lizard was found in one of the imported products.

Nongshim Co., the local importer of Pringles chips, has also been ordered to recall all other packages from the same Malaysian manufacturer, according to the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety.

The recall affects 4,410 kilograms of Pringles chips produced in Malaysia on July 2, it added.  [Yonhap]