Shown is a 5.9-meter, 2-ton minke whale found dead after being caught in a fishing net in waters off Samcheok City, Gangwon province, on Jan. 20, 2015. (Yonhap)

Ryu Hyun-jin ‘dates hard’ in offseason http://t.co/pZNEMvGRMO #RyuHyunJin pic.twitter.com/gfPENH1eZm

— The Korea Times (@koreatimes) January 20, 2015

Shown is a capture on Jan. 20, 2015, from U.S. ambassador Mark Lippert’s Twitter, showing his new son born in Seoul recently. (Yonhap)

Activist Park Sang-hak is at it again, but he has decided to not send copies of the movie “The Interview” to North Korea if they decide to agree to talks with South Korea:

A group of local and foreign activists has sent balloons carrying anti-Pyongyang leaflets across the inter-Korean border, but DVDs of the controversial film “The Interview” have been excluded, the group’s head said Tuesday.

“As previously announced in November, (we) scattered 100,000 anti-North Korean leaflets near (the border town) of Paju last night,” Park Sang-hak, the head of the Fighters for a Free North Korea, told Yonhap News Agency. “The DVDs of ‘The Interview’ were not included on purpose.”

About 20 American activists, including some from the U.S.-based Human Rights Foundation, also joined the border campaign, according to officials.

Claiming the exclusion of the DVDs as a warning to North Korea, Park said the group will spread a massive amount of “The Interview” DVDs if the North is not cooperative with South Korea’s dialogue offer and its proposal for a reunion of separated families.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

Could you imagine what the outcry in the US would be if tax deductions such as for children and mortgage interest were eliminated?:

Many salaried workers will be disappointed with their year-end tax settlement for 2014. Tax refunds are expected to shrink after tax code revisions made in 2013 went into force this year.

Some are even angry because they have to pay additional taxes. Their monthly deductions didn’t cover the amount they owe under the new tax laws.

Mr. Kim, a 33-year-old married worker at a conglomerate who has no children yet, breathed a sigh of relief after he learned that he will receive a tax refund of 430,000 won ($400) this year. Kim’s salary has been fixed at 37 million won since 2013, but his estimated tax refund is almost half of that last year.

“I feel lucky because at least I don’t have to pay more,” he said. Many of my superiors are panicking because they found out they owe taxes.”

Mr. Park, a senior manager at another conglomerate, is upset. Park used to receive about 800,000 won in tax refunds. He was taking care of his retired parents, but last year his younger brother decided to look after them. As a result, Park is no longer eligible for the tax deduction for taking care of his parents. As a result, his total tax refund this year sharply dropped.

“I heard from our finance team that I might end up paying an additional 1 million won in taxes,” he said.

Since the National Tax Service opened its website for year-end settlements on Jan. 15, complaints are exploding among office workers and other company employees.

In July 2013, the former economic team of the Park Geun-hye administration led by Finance Minister Hyun Oh-seok announced a tax reform plan.

Its main idea was to do away with deductions from taxable income of spending in four areas: education, medicine, charitable donations and insurance premiums, including the national pension system.

Under the new system, those forms of spending will instead be deducted at a new rate from tax owed, not from taxable income as a whole.

They are the major income tax deductions in Korea.

The measure was aimed at raising government revenues amid an economic slowdown, while keeping the president’s promise that the government wouldn’t raise tax rates.  [Joong Ang Ilbo]

You can read more at the link.

The cause of an apartment fire that killed three and injured dozens more in Uijongbu is being blamed on something as stupid as this:

An arrest warrant has been requested for a 53-year-old man who allegedly caused a massive fire at an apartment building in a Seoul suburb that killed four people and injured scores of others, police said Tuesday.

The man, identified only by his surname Kim, faces charges of manslaughter, assault without intent and causing a fire without intent, the Uijeongbu Police Station in this city just north of Seoul said.

Police believe the fire at the 10-story Daebong Green Apartment on Jan. 10 started when Kim held a flame up to the ignition of his motorcycle parked outside the apartment. He reportedly did this to take out the key that had frozen inside the ignition.

What Kim did not notice, however, was that he was also melting the sheaths of the ignition line, which created a spark and quickly developed into an inferno that injured 126 people, police said.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link, but yet another major disaster caused by a lack of public safety awareness.

Plane crazy: Global warming alarmists are taking HOW many private jets to World Economic Forum? http://t.co/lcWQyRMhVf

— Michelle Malkin (@michellemalkin) January 20, 2015

Gunilla Lindberg, chairwoman of the IOC Coordination Commission, tours the construction site of the Ice Arena, the venue for the short track and figure skating competitions for the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics, in Gangneung, Gangwon Province, on Jan. 15, 2015. (Yonhap)

I am willing to bet like many foreign jihadis this teenager is probably a loser who spends a lot of time in front of his computer and feels like joining ISIS is some kind of way to feel empowered:

A South Korean teenager who recently vanished in Turkey may have crossed the border into Syria to join the Islamic State (IS), a Seoul official said Tuesday.

The whereabouts of the 18-year-old Korean, identified only by his surname Kim, have been unknown since he arrived in Turkey on Jan. 10. A local Turkish newspaper claimed that he had exchanged e-mails with IS before traveling to the country.

Citing CCTV footage obtained by Turkish police, the ranking South Korean foreign ministry official said Kim took a van together with an unidentified man after meeting him in front of a hotel in Kilis, a city situated near the border with Syria.

Kim and the unknown man then got off near a refugee camp in Besiriye, about 18 kilometers southeast from Kilis, on that day, the official said, adding the van with a Syrian plate is an unlicensed taxi.

“Their whereabouts have not been known since they got off in Besiriye,” the official said, asking not to be named. “There are also no records showing that they crossed the border at a checkpoint.”

There has been no clear evidence so far supporting that Kim might have joined the IS group, but Seoul doesn’t exclude such a possibility, the official said.

“The government cannot presuppose a possibility (that Kim might have joined the IS), but (if it is confirmed), it is a very worrisome situation,” he said.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link, but ultimately I am willing to bet this teenager will regret doing this.

All I can think about when I read about this plan is a train full of potential hostages whenever the Kim regime needs to use them:

The Park Geun-hye administration unveiled Monday a series of new proposals for inter-Korean projects, including an ambitious plan to operate trains from Seoul to cities in the North this summer by linking severed railway lines.

Four government offices including the unification, foreign and defense ministries briefed Park on their proposals for unification preparation and projects they would like to push this year. The briefing was arranged after the government stated that this year should be a turning point in the unification of the two Koreas.

This year marks the 70th anniversary of Korea’s liberation from Japanese colonial rule and the subsequent national division.

“President Park declared her intention to prepare for unification at the New Year’s press conference on Jan. 12, and the ministries also agreed that the time has come to look back on seven decades of national division and prepare for unification,” a senior government official said.  [Joong Ang Ilbo]

You can read more at the link.