This photo dated June 26, 1957, shows fishermen aboard the Jinam-ho, South Korea’s first overseas fishing boat, ahead of a voyage. People like them had served as an economic pillar for the country during hard times, sending home money earned from their catch. Government estimates show they remitted some US$87 million to South Korea from 1966-1987. Many of the fishermen died in foreign waters, and the fisheries ministry started a campaign in 2014 to bring back their remains. (Photo provided by the Korea Overseas Fisheries Association) (Yonhap)
The Mayor of Seoul is defending the city’s new slogan I.Seoul.U by claiming that since it make no sense that it could mean anything:
The Seoul Metropolitan Government will stick to its new slogan, “I.Seoul.U,” Mayor Park Won-soon said Monday.
“Many slogans of cities around the world receive negative feedback at first,” he said during a luncheon with reporters at City Hall. “After a while, I expect the negative reactions will change.”
“Even if we start all over again and come up with a new slogan, it will face some sort of criticism. That cannot be avoided.”
This is the first time that the mayor expressed his opinion about the slogan.
“I.Seoul.U” was selected as the capital city’s slogan on Oct. 28, after beating two other finalists ― “Seoulmate” and “SEOULing.”
“I had expected the slogan would be received positively, but it wasn’t,” Park said.
“I nonetheless believe that the process of selecting the slogan was meaningful because it allowed citizens to participate.”
Addressing the criticism that the slogan is nonsensical and unclear, Park said he believes it is better to leave the interpretation open to the public rather than try to define the meaning.
For example, he noted, the slogan “Incredible India” is a great one, but because its meaning is unchangeable, it can only be used for a short time.
“On the other hand, ‘I.Seoul.U’ can mean anything,” Park said. [Korea Times]
You can read the rest at the link, but the city spent $700,000 on something the mayor admits has no meaning.
If it makes anyone feel better according to this poll nearly 78% of Japanese hate China as well:
Nearly 60 percent of Japanese people said they hate Korea in a survey conducted last year and released Sunday by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The national image of Korea is the worst in Japan among 14 other countries where citizens were interviewed as part of a survey conducted by Samjong KPMG and commissioned by the ministry.
It showed that only 14.3 percent of Japanese respondents hold positive views about Korea, the lowest among 14 countries.
It surveyed 5,600 people in 14 countries about Korea’s image between October and November 2014.
The 14 countries were Malaysia, China, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, Russia, the United States, Romania, Britain, Spain, France, Italy, the Netherlands and Japan.
The accounting and financial advisory firm attributed Korea’s negative image in Japan to the ongoing historical and territorial disputes.
“The results suggest that persistent rows over historical issues and the relevant anti-Korea campaigns by rightwing activists affected popular sentiment in Japan,” a company official said. [The Korea Times]
I wonder if this guy was really a prolific anti-Japanese guerrilla fighter as claimed or just another Soviet era propaganda creation like Kim Il-sung was:
This file photo shows North Korean Marshal Ri Ul-sol (L) being greeted by leader Kim Jong-un.
Ri Ul-sol, an iconic North Korean politician and military official, has died of lung cancer, the country’s state media reported Sunday.
The North announced that it will hold a state funeral for Ri, who died Saturday at the age of 94, and that leader Kim Jong-un will lead a preparatory committee
He was an anti-Japanese guerrilla in the first half of the 20th century, working with Kim Il-sung, who later founded the communist nation.
“He dedicated his all to the sacred cause of liberating the country by participating in the glorious anti-Japanese armed struggle led by President Kim Il Sung (Kim Il-sung) in the dark period of the Japanese imperialist rule,” the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said.
After Korea’s liberation from Japan’s 35-year colonial rule in 1945, Ri “protected” Kim Il-sung, risking his life, and devoted himself to developing the Korean People’s Army, it added.
Ri assumed a number of key posts in the military and even gained the title of marshal of the North’s military.
But his role and influence had dwindled markedly since Kim Jong-un took power in late 2011.
The funeral committee said that Ri’s coffin would be laid at the Central Hall of Workers, and it would receive mourners though Tuesday. His funeral will be held the following day. [Yonhap]
Park So-dam, a leading actress in “The Priests,” poses for photos ahead of an interview in Seoul on Nov. 6, 2015. Park plays a young woman whom the priests try to save through exorcism when she suffers from unexplainable symptoms after a runaway car accident. The film drew 190,000 viewers on its opening day on Nov. 5, the biggest crowd for a movie released in the first week of November. (Yonhap)
So basically when it was all said and done Lieutenant General Franklin who was forced to retire because of this was actually right:
An Air Force sexual assault case that spanned two investigations, a lieutenant general’s forced retirement and a finding of unlawful command influence ended after more than three years Wednesday with the acquittal of Airman 1st Class Brandon T. Wright.
A military jury made up of officers and enlisted personnel — six men and one woman — found Wright not guilty at Joint Base Andrews, Md., after three hours of deliberation.
The accuser’s former Special Victims’ Counsel said the verdict, although disappointing, was not a complete loss.
“I’m disappointed that the panel did not convict him; however, I am happy that the Air Force finally took the case seriously, as it should have from the start, and my former client received the day in court that she deserved,” Maribel Jarzabek said. “I think the fact that the jury deliberated for three hours and asked to see some of the evidence showed that this wasn’t the slam-dunk case that Gen. (Craig) Franklin and others predicted it would be.”
Wright was accused of raping a staff sergeant in her apartment near Aviano Air Base, Italy, after a night of drinking and socializing in 2012.
Wright’s defense, which focused its closing argument on the prosecution’s burden of proving guilt beyond a reasonable doubt and what the defense lawyers characterized as inconsistencies in the woman’s statements over the past three-plus years, hailed the verdict.
Maj. Jacob Ramer and Cpt. Patrick Hughes said in a statement that “panel member(s) understood the importance of their role and gave their full attention to resolving the question before them.”
They also said that Wright’s unit had been “monumental in… helping him through the most difficult time of his young life.”
Wright did not testify.
After an Article 32 preliminary hearing in the case, then-Lt. Gen. Craig Franklin, concurring with the hearing officer’s and legal adviser’s advice, dismissed the case in 2013. [Stars & Stripes]
You can read the rest at the link, but you have to like the spin the prosecution is coming up with. What is the purpose then of an Article 32 if someone who accuses someone of a crime deserve to have their day in court like the prosecution claims? Lt. Gen. Franklin has now been vindicated that this case did not have enough evidence to get a conviction. Also if anything deliberating only three hours shows how weak of a case this was. Even more troubling about this case is that it was so weak despite having the entire Air Force legal community trying to get a conviction to include using unlawful command influence:
An Air Force judge has ruled that the service’s top legal officer committed unlawful command influence in a sexual assault case, partly for political motives. Nonetheless, the case will proceed to court-martial.
Lt. Col. Joshua Kastenberg, in a July 30 ruling in response to a defense motion to dismiss the case against Airman 1st Class Brandon T. Wright, found that Lt. Gen. Richard Harding, formerly the Air Force Judge Advocate General, had improperly influenced the case or had given the appearance of doing so.
One such instance, the judge ruled, was recommending that Wright’s case be transferred to another court-martial convening authority for a do-over after the first convening authority, Lt. Gen. Craig Franklin, dismissed the case in the summer of 2013. Franklin’s dismissal came after an Article 32 investigative hearing at Aviano Air Base, Italy.
Such transfers are almost unheard of. It happened in the Wright case, Kastenberg’s ruling says, in part because Harding was worried that “the failure to have charges preferred against SrA Wright would enable Senator Kirsten Gillibrand to gain needed votes on a pending bill to remove commanders from the court-martial process.”
The ruling took Harding to task for supposedly telling Col. Joseph Bialke, Franklin’s legal adviser, that sexual assault cases, absent “smoking gun” evidence about an alleged victim’s credibility, should be sent to court-martial. In so doing, Kastenberg wrote, Harding improperly attempted to shape Bialke’s future legal advice. Katsenberg ruled that the forced retirements of Bialke and Franklin after their handling of the Wright case created an appearance of unlawful command influence. [Stars & Stripes]
All this case has likely done is force other convening authorities to send flimsy sexual assault cases to trial to protect their careers after seeing what happened to Lt. Gen. Franklin.
Is it just me or does anyone else find it distasteful that someone who willfully allowed himself to become detained in North Korea and become a bargaining chip for the Kim regime is now trying to profit off of his infamy?:
Kenneth Bae, a U.S. citizen who was detained in North Korea for two years before his release last November, plans to tell his story in a book.
W Publishing Group, an imprint of the Christian publishing firm Thomas Nelson, says “Not Forgotten: The True Story of My Imprisonment in North Korea” will be released next spring.
Bae, a Christian missionary and pastor, has family in the Seattle area but moved to China in 2006. He began leading tours to North Korea in 2010. He was arrested in 2012 while leading a tour group to a special economic zone and sentenced to 15 years of hard labor for alleged anti-government activities. [Washington Post]
