The day after the one year anniversary of the Sewol ferry sinking, 4,475 people gathered in Seoul Plaza in front of City Hall, Apr. 17, for an event titled “The Saddest Challenge in the World”. They managed to successfully set the Guinness World Record for largest assembly of people holding a candlelight vigil. (Hankyoreh)
It will be interesting to see how long this cooperation lasts:
Despite repeated attempts by reporters to bait him into dredging up lingering resentments against Japan, a senior South Korean diplomat bit his tongue, downplaying 70-year-old tensions at a trilateral meeting in Washington.
“Diplomacy is about trying to find a way to work together while we have healthy differences on issues,” South Korea’s Vice Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yong told reporters at the State Department on Thursday.
Cho said South Korea had not changed its stance “on the issues of history,” but understood that cooperation between Korea and Japan was “beneficial to both governments.”
The press conference played perfectly into Washington’s Asia rebalance strategy, which relies on the U.S. mediating differences between Japan and South Korea in order to better coordinate on China’s economic and military rise in the region.
“We have an extraordinary array of shared interests and that’s built on a foundation of shared values,” Deputy Secretary of State Tony Blinken said during the joint press conference. “That was obvious to me in conversations we had over many hours today covering an extraordinary array of issues.” [Foreign Policy]
You can read the rest at the link, but I will get excited about cooperation when I see something more tangible happen between the two countries.
I happened to come across probably the only expat tech K-blog which has a lot of tips for people to check out. The blogger’s latest tip is how to send and receive Naver mail in your Gmail account:
When you’ve created your Naver account, you may decide that using Naver’s webmail client (네이버 메일) is difficult or bothersome, because it is entirely in Korean, and a bit cluttered. I personally prefer sending/receiving my Naver Mail through my G-mail account.
G-Mail has a setting to automatically forward all mail to another account, but Naver Mail does not. Worry not; it’s easy to get all your Naver Mail in G-mail using POP3. The process is super simple. [10 Won Tips]
You can read the rest of how to set this up at the link.
This was a nice gesture by President Park to remember the soldiers from Columbia who came to fight communist aggression against South Korea over 60 years ago:
Colombian soldiers arrive in South Korea during the Korean War
South Korean President Park Geun-hye met with Colombian veterans of the Korean War on Saturday as she wrapped up her three-day visit to the South American country.
The meeting illustrated that Seoul appreciates the sacrifice Colombia made to help defend South Korea, then a little-known, faraway nation across the Pacific.
Colombia was the only nation from Central and South America to fight alongside South Korea against Chinese-backed North Korean forces. About 5,100 troops were dispatched halfway around the world to help fight the North’s invasion, of which 213 were killed and 448 wounded.
About 1,000 veterans are believed to still be alive. [Korea Times]
You can read the rest at the link, but this link to an article in a local Bogota paper explains why Colombia became involved in the Korean War. Unsurprisingly it had a lot to do with US economic benefits for dispatching troops to assist the United Nations effort to defend South Korea. I was surprised to read though that the veterans that did fight in the Korean War have been largely forgotten in Colombia though this attitude has been slowly changing according to the article.
A soldier from the 2nd Infantry Division of U.S. Forces Korea fails to spike the ball with his foot during a foot volleyball match against a team of Korean soldiers at Camp Casey in the city of Dongducheon, north of Seoul, on April 17, 2015, as soldiers of the two countries hold an athletic event aimed at promoting the South Korea-U.S. friendship. The Korean sport of foot volleyball, known as “jokgu” in Korean, is similar to European football tennis and Malaysia’s Sepak Takraw and is basically a combination of soccer and volleyball. (Yonhap)
It was only a matter of time, but it looks like the Korean left is now trying to use the Sewol tragedy to their political benefit by trying to turn it into another 2008 mad cow like violent protest:
Protesters try to topple a police bus at a rally in downtown Seoul on April 18, 2015. (Yonhap)
Police said Sunday they will trace violent demonstrators at a street rally here the previous night that left scores of police officers injured.
“We will run after those who organized the violent rally and acted violently so they could be subjected to legal punishment,” a spokesman for the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency said in a news conference.
As many as 74 police officers were wounded, three of them seriously, the spokesman said, adding that 72 police vehicles were damaged and 368 police cameras, walkie-talkies and other equipment were either damaged or stolen. (………)
More than 13,000 police were mobilized to blockade the road to Cheong Wa Dae and they used hundreds of trucks and other vehicles to seal off the roads nearby.
Some demonstrators destroyed police vehicles and took out fire extinguishers to spray them against the police.
Several of the police vehicles were turned over by some protesters using ropes.
Police rounded up 100 violent demonstrators, including 20 members of the bereaved families of the ferry sinking.
Nine demonstrators were brought to nearby hospitals for injuries suffered in the clash. [Yonhap]
You can read the rest at the link, but as we have seen before the leftists are trying to get the police to over react and then use carefully taken picture to create the perception that South Korea has become a police state just like Park’s father once administered back in the 70’s. All it would take is the leftists getting violent and the policing responding heavy handedly and then the leftists inserting one of the mother’s of the Sewol victims into the scuffle. They would love nothing more then having pictures of what appears to be a Sewol victim’s mother being beaten by police and they may have gotten them:
“After countless attempts and struggles until the break of dawn, we are here at the Gwanghwamun Gate with a blanket,” Kim Young-oh, who lost his daughter Yu-min in the accident, said on a social networking service on Friday. “In the meantime, the mother of one of the victims broke four of her ribs and 10 others were taken by the police.” [Joong Ang Ilbo]
What is actually ironic about the Korean leftist is that this time they actually have a legitimate complaint though President Park is not entirely to blame for the Sewol tragedy. The lack of safety and corruption in Korea has been going on long before Park ever became President. Probably the worst thing so far I have seen in the aftermath of the Sewol tragedy is how the captain and crew took nearly all the blame while the company that owned the boat received less than a $10,000 fine. If the leftists really cared about this tragedy they would be protesting in front o f the Chonghaejin Marine Company demanding that they pay compensation to the families and raise the Sewol themselves instead of protesting President Park.
This is a protest I think most men would want to go check out:
A topless woman appeared in Seoul’s busy downtown area around noon Wednesday with her private parts only covered in tape to protest for women’s right to bare their breasts.
Holding a sign that roughly translates as “Why are men allowed to expose their nipples while women are not?” she later put on a bikini top to cover herself up when a crowd of men had gathered around her.
Police arrived at the scene to stop her and the woman left at around 1:30 p.m. Police said they had no idea why she was holding the protest.
The 27-year-old woman, identified only by her surname Lee, had caused a stir last month after a video clip of her dancing topless at a night club went viral on the Internet. She is known to be an ex-dealer of German luxury cars. [Chosun Ilbo]
You can read the rest at the link, but when asked why she was protesting topless she said it was the only way to get people’s attention.
Robert Farley who is an assistant professor at the Patterson School of Diplomacy and International Commerce shares his views on how North Korea would try and attack South Korea:
The clearest path to North Korean victory in war depends on a quick defeat of South Korean forces, providing the United States and Japan with a fait accompli that Pyongyang will expect Beijing to back.
The North Korean attack would likely involve a classic 20th century combined arms assault, using artillery to disrupt RoK defenses and soften up positions (as well as create civilian panic), infantry to break holes in the South Korean lines, and mechanized forces to exploit those gaps. The North Koreans could well add special forces (potentially deployed to South Korea before the initiation of hostilities) and regular forces deployed by tunnel to South Korean rear areas.
The Korean People’s Air Force is ancient, and has received no significant infusion of Russian or Chinese technology in years. The force has very little counter-air capability relative to the Republic of Korea Air Force, and its fighters would find themselves easy prey for well-trained South Korean pilots flying sophisticated aircraft. The KPA can expect very little ground support, either on the tactical or operational scales, and would likely struggle under South Korean air attacks. [The National Interest]
You can read the rest at the link, but North Korea’s success during a war with South Korea relies heavily on the use of ballistic missiles to attack airfields and seaports in an effort to deny reinforcements from the US military. Is it any wonder why the THAAD missile defense system is such a hot topic in South Korea right now for the US military and the North Korean stooges in South Korea are trying so hard to stop its deployment.
