Ultimately the authorities were able to catch the crazy man threatening passengers with a knife, but I am not sure what authorities in Seoul can do to prevent crazy people from doing crazy things:

Authorities on Tuesday apprehended a middle-aged man who was alleged to have brandished a 10-inch knife and threatened passengers onboard a subway train in Seoul during morning rush hour.

The suspect, determined later to be a 51-year-old homeless man, was caught more than an hour after the episode, in which he brandished a knife onboard a train on subway line No. 1 around 8:20 a.m., before exiting at Jonggak Station.

No injuries were reported, though the incident highlighted a barrage of loopholes present in subway security systems in the capital, with a population density almost twice that of New York City and where more than 7 million people on average use the trains daily.

Last year, police recorded 3,040 crimes at local subway stations, up 58 percent from the 1,922 cases in 2013.

The most apparent oversight, however, is the lack of security resources and personnel.  [Joong Ang Ilbo]

You can read more at the link.

Welcome to Korea Finder.  The way this contest works is that each week a new image is posted and the first reader to accurately describe or locate the image gets a point.  At the end of the year the reader with the highest amount of points will win a Korea related book of their choice.

Who knows where this image is located at?

2016 Korea Finder Leaders Board

1. Comfortable Chairs – 2
2. Dd – 1

This crime is absolutely horrible.  It almost seems like they wanted to get caught though leaving body parts of their son at their friend’s house:

A couple, detained by police on suspicion of killing their seven-year-old son before dismembering and abandoning the severed body parts, have participated in a reenactment of the alleged offenses.

Officers at the Wonmi Police Station in Bucheon, Gyeonggi Province, on Thursday took the father, surnamed Choi, 34, and the mother, surnamed Han, 34, to four places where the murder and mutilation of the corpse allegedly took place ― a public restroom at a community center located in Bucheon, their former and current residences in Bucheon and Incheon, respectively, and the home of Choi’s friend in Incheon.

Handcuffed and wearing masks and baseball caps, Choi and Han did not make any comments to reporters. According to officers they did not show agitation or remorse while taking part in the crime reenactment.

Also according to police, the boy’s remains were found in a bag in the home of a friend of Choi last Friday. The couple initially said that their son was injured after falling in the bathroom while resisting being washed in October 2012. They said they did not take the boy to a hospital and he died about a month later. They also said they mutilated the body and kept the remains in the refrigerator of their home even after they moved to Incheon, and had recently put them in the bag and asked the friend to look after it. But they deny killing the boy.

However, according to police, they told a different story on Wednesday. Choi, who frequently inflicted violence on his son, beat him for about two hours on the night of Nov. 7, 2012, allegedly while under the influence of alcohol.

The next day, Han went to work and Choi realized in the afternoon that the boy had died.  [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link.

Here is another interesting read from the former Prime Minister of South Korea Kim Jong-pil.  This time he discusses his views on the Sunshine Policy and why it was never going to work.  History has shown he was correct:

After his return to Seoul, Kim invited me and my wife Young-ok for a dinner at the Blue House on June 20, which was my first encounter with him in five months. Welcoming me, Kim said with a smile, “I felt pretty lonely without you.”

I replied, “You pulled off a major feat this time.”

Kim told me in greater detail of the progress he had made with Kim Jong-il during his stay in Pyongyang.

I told him, “I hope that agreement could lay down a path for the two sides toward an era of reconciliation.”

But in fact, I disagreed with the second clause of the agreement. If the two Koreas are reunified with different political systems, the problems in such a dual system would be enormous. I was firm in my belief that reunification would be complete only under one form of government as Italy had done in the 19th century.

The pursuit of reunification is a matter that calls for thorough contemplation and a long view. It should not be tackled with simple optimism or the illusion that the North could simply open up to the South and the outside world after a prolonged period of engagement. We need to be patient in waiting for change within the Pyongyang regime over the long run. Suppose we have a day of reunification suddenly and have to live with 20 million fellow citizens in the North. It wouldn’t be stretch to say half of our national income would be spent on assisting the North in a reunified Korea. I wonder how people would react to a government decision to take away half of their incomes just to nurture the North’s basket case of an economy.

A president should not be in a hurry to complete his or her North Korea policy during a single five-year term. We should wait and see what changes occur in the North as time goes by. For a considerable period of time, Seoul must spend its energy on strengthening our national power. West Germany achieved a peaceful reunification because it had the capacity to embrace East Germany. And West Germans were not hesitant to pour their money into reinvigorating the moribund economy of the East and elevating the standard of living of East Germans.

Former President Kim Dae-jung prided himself on moving the country a step closer to reunification. In fact, nothing has changed much since his summit 16 years ago. But Kim had the honor of winning the Nobel Peace Prize in December 2000. That was the real fruit of his tireless efforts to engage North Korea.  [Joong Ang Ilbo]

You can read the whole thing at the link.

U.S. to ask China to ban oil exports to North Korea, report says https://t.co/FknBvjYSLH

— Elizabeth Shim (@GlobalAsianista) January 22, 2016

A group of students sleep under vinyl sheets next to a statue erected in front of the Japanese Embassy on Jan. 24, 2016. South Korea experienced the coldest weather this winter on Jan. 24 with temperatures dropping to near record lows. As of 5 a.m., the temperature in Seoul was minus 17 degrees Celsius, while the wind chill was minus 23.8 degrees. Historians estimate more than 200,000 women, mostly Koreans, were forced into sexual slavery at front-line Japanese brothels during World War II. The protest came after Seoul and Tokyo reached an agreement on Dec. 28 on the issue, which sparked a wave of public protests among victims and their supporters, who claim the deal was reached without reflecting the victims’ opinions. (Yonhap)

It will be interesting to see who Korean-Americans support in this year’s Presidential election.  Hopefully it is now for someone who wants the tried and failed policy of engaging North Korea and receiving little to nothing in return:

The U.S. presidential election in November is expected to be like no other. As the flamboyant candidates are currently challenging one another on a range of issues from immigration to foreign policy, many say that this year’s race is expected to be pivotal not only for Americans, but also for Koreans as well.

A prominent Korean-American political activist says it will also be significant for Koreans in Korea.

“Eligible Korean voters living in the U.S. have the capacity to have an influence on Washington’s various policies that directly affect Korea,” said Kim Dong-suk, founder and chairman of New York-based Korean American Civic Empowerment (KACE), in an interview. “In that sense, this year will be a turning point for all of us.”

He said that the ethnic minority vote will become an increasingly decisive factor in changing the outcome of U.S. elections, which means American politicians must appeal to people in all Asian communities, including Koreans.  [Korea Times]

I would hope the majority of Korean-Americans are not thinking like this:

Paul Lee, chairman of the Bergen County Republican Committee (KARC), based in New Jersey, agrees that the election should be an opportunity for the Korean Peninsula to get the “fair analysis it deserves.”

“The U.S. is now talking to Cuba and Iran,” said Lee, who heads the committee that is under the umbrella of a local Republican party organization. “Is North Korea that much more crazy? Have we really made an effort to end the war in Korea? Whoever wins the White House, whether they’re a Republican or Democrat, they need to tackle the North Korea issue.”

North Korea is not crazy, but the Kim regime is definitely more oppressive and dangerous than the Iranians or Cubans.  Also has Mr. Lee not been paying attention to all the overture to North Korea that have gone no where other then providing free goodies to the Kim regime to allow them to further their nuclear and ballistic missile programs?

Here is a long, but interesting article about what is going on in the Seoul real estate market in regards to the jeonse rent system that continues to see higher prices which is causing renters to instead become buyers.  This is in turn is making the jeonse rent go even higher and causing apartment shortages:

Up until last fall, 39-year-old office worker Kim Ji-seok was renting his apartment in Nowon District, northern Seoul under a jeonse agreement, a long-term deposit contract that is usually guaranteed for two years.

At the end of the summer, however, he bought a 59 square-meter apartment nearby for 320 million won ($267,468).

He decided to buy a house after his 220 million won jeonse rose nearly 30 percent to 280 million won in just two years. “I had to borrow 50 million won from the bank just to renew my jeonse contract,” Kim said. “I just decided to buy an apartment of my own as it seemed the jeonse price would again go up after two years.”

The housing market last year saw all-time record transactions as people like Kim, who were living on jeonse agreements, decided to finally buy an apartment. [Joong Ang Ilbo]

You can read the rest at the link.

If you're still using the verb "abducted" to describe 2 California journalists in North Korea in 2009, think again. https://t.co/0BhPaLdtBQ

— Adam Cathcart (@adamcathcart) January 23, 2016

People enjoy playing tug-of-war at a winter cultural festival in Gangwon Province, South Korea, on Jan. 23, 2016 while the country continued to be swept by a cold wave with temperatures dropping to below minus 10 degrees Celsius in many parts of the country. (Yonhap)