Considering the deadly attacks these Chinese fishing boats have launched against the ROK Coast Guard I think the Chinese government has no legitimate argument to complain about warning shots especially when the Coast Guard thought they were North Korean ships.  If the Chinese government wants to ensure the safety of these fishing boats the best way to do that is to stay out of South Korean waters and not illegally fish:

Picture of illegal Chinese fishing boats teaming up to do battle with the ROK Coast Guard back in 2011.

China said on Wednesday it had asked South Korea to ensure the safety of Chinese ships after South Korea’s navy fired warning shots at a Chinese vessel which crossed into waters disputed by North and South Korea.

The South Korean navy told Yonhap news agency it had fired 10 warning shots at a Chinese boat which it said crossed the Northern Limit Line – a disputed inter-Korean maritime border on the west coast.

The ship was initially thought to be North Korean, but was later identified as Chinese, according to Yonhap.

“We are concerned about the relevant situation,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told a daily news briefing.  [Reuters via reader tip]

You can read the rest at the link.

I would think that as long as the Kim regime is making money off of this they would ensure the quality of the water is high.  However, regardless of the quality no one should buy this water which only provides more foreign currency to sustain the Kim regime:

Of all the options for bottled water in the world, South Korea accepted a shipment from North Korea.

Not just one, but ten full cargo containers arrived at the southeastern port city of Busan on Sunday.

Keep in mind that the two countries are technically still in a state of war that dates back to the 1950s.

But besides those minor details, the South and North agreed to team up with Russia to develop a reliable transportation system.

The end goal?

To move 120,000 tons of Eastern European coal down through the peninsula and into the possession of South Korea. Russia successfully moved 40,500 tons of the projected goal back in November of 2014.

The bottled water acts as merely a symbol rather than a burgeoning industry for the North.  [The Korea Times]

You can read more at the link.

It appears the generational divide in South Korea is getting worse as young people are now describing themselves as the “give up” generation.  Imagine if Koreans after the Japanese colonization and the Korean War decided to “give up” where would Korea be today?  Instead they worked extremely hard and built the country we see today that the younger generation is complaining about:

The younger generation have had to give up so many things that they are now calling themselves the “n-Po” generation. University student Chan-mok Lim, 25, said, “Myself and a lot of my friends are working part-time jobs to pay for tuition. If when we graduate there wouldn’t be a problem finding a job, we could smile through the difficulties we have now. But the reality is that when we graduate, finding a job will be a real problem. Even for those friends who have found a job, they worry about getting married. The ones who got married, they worry about how to buy a home. We are calling ourselves the ‘n-Po‘ generation because we are giving up all the things that are of value in life.”

The barriers young people are facing are reflected in their self-depreciating language. Internet communities made up of young people are creating new slang at a fast pace. Words alluding to current slang such as “dirt spoon” in comparison to “golden spoon” (someone who was born in a wealthy household). “Dirt spoon” refers to young people who grew up in a poor home, and have little financial support.  [Korea Observer]

I think this line from the article sums up quite well what is happening:

Kim Su-han, professor of Sociology at Korea University, “Looking at the situation here the ‘whining strategy’ becomes rampant. Young people who cannot enjoy any benefits in life are feeling angry or disenfranchised and have taken to mockery and self-depreciation. The older generation is recognized for their hard work, but the younger generation is more known for inheritance than hard work when it comes to achieving success. This way of thinking reflects the difficulties young people face today.”

You can read the rest at the link.

North Korea 'declares war' on deforestation at Paris climate talks https://t.co/cIp6vQ6BEE

— NorthKoreaRealTime (@BuckTurgidson79) December 7, 2015

A documentary aired on Dec. 3, 2015, by the North’s Korean Central Broadcast TV shows Kim Rak-gyom (circled), commander of strategic forces, bearing a shoulder insignia with four stars, indicating he has been promoted to general. The strategic forces, upgraded at the end of 2013 from the strategic rocket forces, commands and controls missile units. Kim was promoted to colonel general, equivalent to lieutenant general, in February last year, and his fast rise suggests he was rewarded for his achievements in rocket development. (Yonhap)

if you can believe it only 38% of the population in Hawaii is Asian with the numbers of Koreans making up that portion of the population dropping.  I bet the high cost of living in Hawaii is causing more Koreans to seek the American dream on the mainland instead:

Although the overall Korean population in the United States rose by 11.3 percent from 2009 to 2014, it fell slightly in Hawaii, according to American Community Survey data taken from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The state’s Korean population numbered 22,125 as of last year, down 337 from 2013. Koreans make up 1.6 percent of Hawaii’s 1.42 million population.

Koreans are centered in Oahu, numbering 19,973 there. Big Island (1,049), Maui (651), Kauai (429) and Lanai (15) follow, according to data.

Asians make up 38 percent of the state’s population.  [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link.

The left in the US continues to make the claim that President Park Geun-hye is becoming a dictator like her father.  They rhetoric is clearly meant to be inflammatory and draw a response and the Korean consulate in New York City was stupid enough to take the bait:

The main opposition New Politics Alliance for Democracy on Monday demanded the government offer an apology for a claim by a U.S. weekly that the South Korean consul general in New York protested an article criticizing President Park Geun-hye.

The newspaper, the New York-based Nation, ran a story last week lambasting the Park administration’s crackdown on antigovernment protesters, likening her approach to the authoritarian rule of her deceased father and late strongman, Park Chung-hee.

The writer, Tim Shorrock, since wrote a post on his Facebook account on a “spate of phone calls” that he received from his editor about a complaint lodged by the consulate general, saying officials there wanted to have a meeting “to discuss” his article.

“What a disgraceful self-portrait of Korea. I have to question if they are trying to export a Korean-style censorship to the U.S.,” NPAD floor leader Rep. Jun Byung-hun said at a senior members’ meeting. “As it is not a matter borne out of the consulate general, I demand a proper explanation and grave apology from the government.”

NPAD lawmaker Jung Cheong-rae also said: “It’s a shame that the reporter exposed via Facebook that the consulate general officials called the newsroom to complain about the story and requested a meeting with the editor. We’re urging a probe into the consulate general officials.”  [Korea Herald]

You can read the rest at the link, but how stupid can you be to take the troll bait coming from a publication like The Nation?  Anyone that follows the news in the US knows not to expect any unbiased reporting in The Nation.  This is like complaining to Sean Hannity about not having unbiased reporting on President Obama.  Anyway here is the link to the article in the Nation by Tim Shorrock which continues the leftist claims of South Korea becoming a dictatorship again which as I have explained before is absolutely ridiculous.

I sure don’t remember the left complaining that South Korea was becoming a dictatorship when President Roh Moo-hyun was busy putting down protests around Camp Humphreys or in Incheon around the MacArthur Statue which featured Braveheart style battles.  The claim is as stupid as the people who claim President Obama is setting himself up to be a dictator.  It is just propaganda best left to echo chamber media and not taken seriously.

Here is another interesting interview with the 89 year old former Korean Prime Minister Kim Jong-pil who discusses what he learned from meeting famous world leaders.  What he had to say about Charles de Gaulle and Winston Churchill was interesting, but here is what he had to say he learned from President Harry Truman:

Kim Jong-pil, far right, poses for a photo with former U.S. President Henry Truman in September 1964, at the Harry S. Truman Library and Museum in Independence, Missouri. [KIM JONG-PIL]

In June 1964, I embarked on my second overseas journey to ease growing protests against diplomatic efforts to restore ties with Japan.

I visited the Harry S. Truman Library and Museum in Independence, Missouri, in September that year and met with the former president, who had courageously decided to form the U.S.-led UN coalition forces to defend South Korea at the outset of the (1950-53) Korean War.

During our hour-long meeting, President Truman told me that one of the most regrettable things he had done in his presidency was failing to unify the Korean Peninsula despite the huge loss of life during the conflict.

He couldn’t push for the unification at the time, he said, because of daunting international opposition to that effort.

I then asked what advice he had for a young political man from Korea.

He told me a story of a tiger. “You may think a tiger is tame, and even feel grateful for the zoo keeper as he feeds him and looks after him every day. But to think so is nonsense. If a zoo keeper steps on the tiger’s foot by mistake, the tiger will jump him and try to bite. If a politician thinks of his people as the tiger and forms his politics accordingly, he will inevitably succeed in his political career.”

He spoke the truth. A politician by nature must be willing to serve the people. If he looks to gain from his political activities, it could be the end.  [Joong Ang Ilbo]

You can read the rest at the link.

South Korea to develop stealth drones to bomb North Korea’s key military targets https://t.co/FQUh9Dsehg @korea_observer 님이 공유

— The Korea Observer (@koreaobserver) December 6, 2015

Victim of a North Korean mine blast, Kim Jung-won shows his enthusiasm after being released from a Seoul hospital. [Korea Times]