Lee Young-ae fans will soon have a long awaited new drama to watch that she will be staring in.  It is hard to believe that it has been 12 years since she starred in “Jewel in the Palace”:

Hallyu star Song Seung-heon says he never dreamed he would co-star with top actress Lee Young-ae.

“I was so nervous that I made a lot of mistakes” Song told a press conference at Seamark Hotel in Gangenung, Gangwon Province on Monday. The eastern province will feature in many scenes for the upcoming drama “Saimdang, the Herstory.”

Lee will play Sin Saimdang (1504-1551), a painter from the Joseon Kingdom (1392-1910) who is better known as the mother of Confucian scholar Lee Yul-gok (1536-1584). Lee will also play a double role as a modern woman, a college lecturer in art history.

The drama has been much anticipated since she starred in “Jewel in the Palace” (2003).

For her part, Lee said she wants to bring out Saimdang as a real figure, not one that is etched in the Korean 50,000 won note.

“I chose this drama so we could tackle what it means to educate children, and to look in-depth into what women’s lives entail,” Lee said. [Korea Times]

You can read the rest at the link.

https://twitter.com/freekorea_us/status/671150640698155008

While the public expected Dwight Eisenhower would make a trip to the peninsula, as he promised to do so during his campaign, they didn’t know when it would happen. On December 2, 1952, Eisenhower arrived in Korea and spent three days surveying troops there. To keep details of the visit hidden, the administration gave off the impression he was still in the country by making a number of cabinet appointments from the president’s home.  [Business Insider]

It amazes me that after already being convicted of forgery that no one scrutinized his divorce paperwork before letting this guy off the hook and allowing him to retire:

Prosecutors in South Korea have reopened the case of a U.S. soldier who allegedly tricked a local woman into a bigamous marriage and left her $50,000 in debt when he returned to his wife in America, according to South Korean news reports.

Rachel Lee, 43, a divorced mother from Chuncheon, said a friend introduced her to Master Sgt. Scott Fuller, 40, in August 2013 when Fuller was serving with the Korea-based 2nd Infantry Division. The pair hit it off and married in a traditional Korean ceremony just four months later. However, documents Fuller submitted to have the marriage recognized in Korea, including Army and U.S. Embassy certifications of his single status, turned out to be forged, she said.

“He’s a con, and he killed my soul and broke my heart,” Lee said of the deception, which was discovered only after Fuller abruptly returned to the U.S. in May 2014. “He just left without saying anything. He totally ruined my life.”

The Army returned Fuller — who was stationed at Fort Drum in New York — to South Korea when it discovered the forgeries.

In October 2014, a South Korean court found him guilty of forgery and sentenced him to eight months in prison. The Army knocked him down in rank to sergeant first class after an Article 15 hearing, according to documents provided by Lee to Stars and Stripes. The details of the case were then verified by a U.S. military official in Korea.

Fuller then convinced Lee, the Korean court and the Army that he had, at last, divorced his American wife after producing what he claimed was a divorce judgment document from a New York court. His sentence was reduced on appeal to a $10,000 fine with no prison time, and his rank was restored. Fuller also used the document to obtain a dependent identification card for Lee that listed her as his spouse.

It wasn’t until August of this year that she found out — from Fuller’s American wife, Marianne — that the divorce document was also a forgery. The Army quickly determined that the document was likely not genuine. Nonetheless, U.S. and Korean officials declined to take further action, Lee said.  [Stars & Stripes]

You can read the rest at the link, but what a mess.

This is one of these only in Korea stories where Buddhists are in conflict with leftist anti-government thugs who are hiding from authorities in their temple:

Calls are mounting from citizens who attend the Jogye Temple for the head of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU), Han Sang-gyun, who has taken refuge from police there, to stop “abusing” the place in pursuit of a political agenda and face investigation.

Such objections are rare, as the temple and other religious facilities have long been used in Korea as sanctuaries for social activists on the run from the authorities.

The head of the nation’s second-largest umbrella union is on the police’s wanted list for refusing to appear in court on charges of organizing illegal rallies. While evading police, he appeared at the massive anti-government rally in Seoul on Nov. 14 and then took refuge at the temple.

As he has remained there for over two weeks, frustration is running high among those who go to the temple because it has become the center of a political confrontation and is surrounded by more than 500 police officers and a large number of media crews.

During his stay, Han has continued to be active online, including posting a message calling for another massive rally on Dec. 5.

According to the temple, a group of Buddhists attempted to forcibly kick the labor activist out of the temple Monday afternoon, saying Han and the KCTU were disturbing their right to meditate in silence. But the effort failed, because Han vigorously resisted during a scuffle. Approximately 10 other KCTU leaders who had taken refuge in the temple with Han were all forced out. This was the first attempt by citizens who use the temple, not law enforcement authorities, to force the activists to leave. [Korea Times]

You can read the rest at the link.

This is something that I wish that we would do in the US because these megachurch leaders living opulent lifestyles should be taxed:

Picture of South Korean church steeple from Flickr user Knigel. 

In a sweeping revision of Korea’s tax system, the government plans to tax religious leaders for the first time and change regulations governing “corporate cars.”

The revisions were proposed at the taxation subcommittee of the Strategy and Finance Committee of the National Assembly on Monday.

In a move to be approved by the National Assembly on Wednesday, the government said it will begin collecting income tax from pastors, clergy and monks starting in 2018. The decision comes after long-standing discussions on the sensitive issue over the past 50 years.

“We decided to take the next two years as a time to prepare for the new rule, since it is the first time that Korea has implemented such a law,” Rep. Kang Seog-hoon of the ruling Saenuri Party said. “During the two years, we will keep communicating with religious groups so that the policy can settle down without turbulence.”

The revision categorizes income of religious leaders as “religious income,” instead of what is currently classified as an “honorarium,” and it will be collected under the same conditions as regular workers’ income.   [Joong Ang Ilbo]

You can read the rest at the link.

How China's 'Great Green Wall' will have a limited impact on climate change https://t.co/kmMDbpG1rg pic.twitter.com/2S9flHO4yh

— The Telegraph (@Telegraph) November 29, 2015

Can you imagine a whole country of people with Kim Jong-un haircuts?  Well that is reportedly what the Kim regime is trying to do:

North Korean officials are ordering young men to keep their hair short and are enforcing their tonsorial diktat if they find anyone who fails to comply.

A source in Pyongyang last week said authorities have issued an order requiring men to keep their hair no longer than 2 cm, while women are required to keep their hair bobbed. “University student monitors are walking around with scissors and cutting off the hair of offenders,” the source said.

Young men have been told to model their hairstyle on North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, whose eccentric hairdo is known in the North as the “ambitious” style, where the sides and back of the head are almost clean shaven and only the top is left. [Chosun Ilbo]

You can read the rest at the link.

I don’t see any issue with the high dependence on nuclear power as long as the reactors are safely designed unlike what we saw at Fukushima:

South Korea’s reliance on nuclear power is the fourth-largest in the world while its use of renewable energy ranks near the bottom, a report showed Monday.

According to the World Factbook by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, Asia’s fourth-largest economy possessed a total installed power generation capacity of 94 gigawatts (GW), placing it 13th in the world. The country’s annual electricity generation output stood at 517 terawatts (TW) placing it 11th, while it ranked 10th in terms of consumption at 482TW.

The numbers represent power generated by thermal and nuclear power plants, hydro-electric dams and renewable energy sources.

The European Union’s combined installed power capacity stood at 9,071GW, with China and the United States ranking second and third with capacitites of 1,505GW and 1,063GW each.

South Korea’s power capacity and consumption of electricity is roughly on par with its global GDP ranking that stood at 13th last year.

On the other hand, the country’s reliance on atomic power to meet its energy requirements was high.

The country receives 26.8 percent of all power from nuclear reactors, placing it behind France, Armenia and Belgium. France received 48.8 percent of its power from reactors with numbers for Armenia and Belgium standing at 34.3 percent and 30.4 percent, respectively. [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link.