If you haven’t been to the UN Cemetery in Busan it is definitely worth checking out as it is the only cemetery with UN servicemembers buried together:
Hundreds of Korean War veterans around the world offered a moment of silence on Wednesday, turning to face the direction of Busan where the fallen U.N. soldiers killed during the war are buried.
In the South Korean port city, 40 veterans from 11 countries including the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and Turkey attended the ceremony that began at 11 a.m. in the United Nations Memorial Cemetery (UNMCK).
The Turn Toward Busan ceremony, arranged by the Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs, was simultaneously observed in Canada, New Zealand and the Philippines. The ceremony was held in some 40 cities of the 21 nations that fought together to safeguard freedom decades ago.
The cemetery is the only place in the world where fallen U.N. servicemen are buried. According to the ministry, 40,670 servicemen of the 21 U.N. allied nations were killed during the conflict, with 104,280 wounded and 4,116 missing. A total of 23,000 U.N. servicemen were laid to rest at UNMCK. [Korea Times]
This seems a pretty bold and sweeping statement from someone who has never served in the military. Until one of these critics advocates for equal physical fitness standards between male and female soldiers their criticism of bias against females has little creditability. I don’t think there is a more fair organization for women and minorities than the US military:
Corporate America and the military are sexist and show racial bias, a leading businesswoman told cadets Friday at the Air Force Academy.
Sheryl Sandberg, chief operating officer of Facebook and author of the book “Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead,” told a crowd of nearly 3,000 cadets that society tells women they are less competent and capable. She described the military as one of “the worst” organizations for bias during a 30-minute speech.
“Women and minorities face barriers white men don’t face,” she said.
Sandberg has become a leading figure of modern feminism with arguments that women should fill half of corporate boardroom seats and men should do half the stay-at-home child rearing. Detractors have said that Sandberg’s Lean In pitch shatters traditional gender roles driven by biology and that her perspective is one borne of privilege, as a wealthy technology entrepreneur. [The Gazette]
China knows they have a huge disadvantage with the US in regards to space based sensors, imagery and communications and anti-satellite weapons is the way it is hoping to even the playing field. However, if during a conflict they decided to extend the war into space the debris fields caused by them destroying satellites would make many of the orbits used by everyone on Earth unusable:
China recently conducted a flight test of a new missile capable of knocking out U.S. satellites as part of Beijing’s growing space warfare arsenal.
The test of a Dong Neng-3 exoatmospheric vehicle was carried out Oct. 30 from China’s Korla Missile Test Complex in western China, said two defense officials familiar with reports of the test.
A Chinese press report also provided details of what was said to be a missile defense interceptor flight test carried out Nov. 1. Photos of the missile’s contrails were posted online.
However, the defense officials said the DN-3 is primarily a direct-ascent missile designed to ram into satellites and destroy them, even if intelligence assessments hold that the weapon has some missile defense capabilities.
The DN-3 flight test was the eighth time China carried out an anti-satellite missile test. An earlier test occurred in July 2014, which China also asserted was a missile defense test.
State Department and Pentagon officials declined to comment on the anti-satellite test.
A Chinese Embassy spokesman said: “I don’t have detailed information about the missile test you mentioned.”
“China advocates for the peaceful use of outer space, and opposes space weaponization or arms race in space,” the spokesman said in an email.
A State official referred to a speech from February by Frank Rose, assistant secretary of State for arms control, verification and compliance, who commented on the 2014 test.
“Despite China’s claims that this was not an ASAT [anti-satellite] test; let me assure you the United States has high confidence in its assessment, that the event was indeed an ASAT test,” Rose said. [Business Insider]
Members of South Korea’s underwater demolition team (UDT) show martial art moves during a demonstration marking the UDT’s 60th anniversary in Changwon, South Gyeongsang Province, on Nov. 5, 2015. (Yonhap)
Koreans residing in the Philippines are growing more wary of organized kidnappings there, particularly in light of the latest incident, in which a 74-year-old man was discovered dead 10 months after his abduction by a kidnap-for-ransom group.
This year, 10 Koreans have been killed in the Philippines, raising alarm in Seoul on how to better protect its nationals residing in or visiting the Southeast Asian nation.
Concern has also grown over the presence of kidnapping groups, which assign different people to oversee different stages of the abduction process, from targeting victims and identifying their locations to the negotiation process.
On Sunday, Thien Nyuk Fun, a Malaysian woman who was kidnapped by the terrorist group Abu Sayyaf, was released after six months in Sulu province, in the southern Philippines.
The 74-year-old man, however, only identified by his surname Hong, who was kidnapped at the beginning of this year by the same group, was not so fortunate.
Hong was abducted by the kidnap-for-ransom group Abu Sayyaf on Jan. 24, while he was visiting his son’s home in Zamboanga Sibugay province, near Sulu.
Abu Sayyaf bandits operate around the remote Sulu province and reportedly demanded a ransom of 500 million pesos ($10.6 million) for Hong three weeks after he was kidnapped. [Joong Ang Ilbo]
This is a nice profit for the cash strapped regime considering that they make $86 million a year from the Kaesong Industrial Complex as well. Tourism is only growing in North Korea despite the human rights situation so the Kim regime can probably count on larger profits in the future:
Foreign runners join a ceremony to mark the annual Pyongyang Marathon in this photo taken in August 2014. North Korea plans to invite up to 1,500 marathoners from abroad in April next year. / Courtesy of Koryo Tours
Tourism is emerging as a new cash cow for North Korea amid growing U.N. pressure on its economy amid its state-perpetrated human rights violations, according to analysts last week.
They speculated that the cash-strapped Kim Jong-un regime could step up efforts to boost tourism in the long term.
The experts said travelling to North Korea is not currently seen as a violation of U.N. Security Council (UNSC) resolutions that restrict trading activities between the internationally-isolated regime and the rest of the world because of Pyongyang’s development of weapons of mass destruction.
They also said touring the authoritarian state is not considered defiance against growing U.N. calls to improve Pyongyang’s dire human rights records, including the severe working conditions of North Korean laborers overseas.
“I guess North Korea could capitalize on tourism as a growth engine to escape poverty,” said Yoon In-joo, a researcher at the Korea Maritime Institute.
Citing her 31-page research paper released this year, Yoon said North Korea’s income from foreign tourists was estimated to be in the range of $30.6 million to $43.6 million last year.
Maybe in Korean the lyrics sound worse than what it sounds in English because after reading this article I don’t see what the big deal is:
A Brazilian novel first published more than 40 years ago has unexpectedly become a highly sought-after read, after the Korean pop star IU was accused of sexualising the story of its five-year-old protagonist in one of her songs.
José Mauro de Vasconcelos’s My Sweet Orange Tree, first published in Portuguese in 1968 and in English in 1970, is set in Rio de Janeiro and follows the life of the boy Zeze, as he gets up to mischief and is mistreated. “Everyone beats him. If you look softhearted he will tell you it’s revolting the way they beat on a little kid. Can you believe him when he says he’s only six? No! The boy is a liar. He is five years old,” runs the copy on the first UK edition.
My Sweet Orange Tree has been out of print in English for years, but Abebooks.com has reported that the novel became its most searched-for title late last week after controversy enveloped IU’s pop song Zeze, which is based on the story. The bookseller’s Richard Davies said that My Sweet Orange Tree was “a much-loved book in South Korea and often studied in schools”.
According to the Korea Times, the book’s Korean publisher has issued a statement saying that: “We regret the way the five-year-old character is portrayed as a sexual object.”
The paper quotes lines from IU’s song which run: “Zeze, come on up the tree quick and kiss the leaves, don’t be naughty and don’t hurt the tree, come up the tree and get the youngest leaf … you are innocent but shrewd, transparent but dirty and there is no way of knowing what’s living inside.” [The Guardian]
You can read the rest at the link, but IU has since apologized for the lyrics, but says she had no intention of sexualizing Zeze.
