The New York Times has a long article published about the release of the two American detainees in North Korea this weekend:

North Korea released two Americans who had been accused of trying to subvert the secretive state, after the director of national intelligence for the United States flew to the country on a secret mission and left on Saturday with the men aboard his aircraft.

The plane carrying the Americans — Kenneth Bae and Matthew Todd Miller — and the national intelligence director, James R. Clapper Jr., landed at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, near Tacoma, Wash., about 9:15 p.m. Pacific time on Saturday.

Mr. Bae walked off the plane and into the embrace of relatives on the tarmac. Mr. Miller, his head shaved, sprinted down the steps into the arms of his parents, who were waiting for him at the bottom.

Securing the releases was an unusual role for Mr. Clapper, the nation’s most senior intelligence official, whose job is to coordinate policy and operations among the nation’s 16 spy agencies. Gruff, blunt-speaking and seen by many in the Obama administration as a throwback to the Cold War, the retired general is an unlikely diplomat but, in the words of one American official, “perfect for the North Koreans.” [New York Times]

You can read more at the link, but the release of all the American detainees in North Korea has got me wondering what was the backroom agreement for their release?  Could the Obama administration be trying to copy the Bush administration by trying to manufacture a foreign policy success with North Korea at the end of their Presidency?  The Agreed Framework 2.0 deal that the Bush administration agreed to with North Korea was predictably a failure and I do not see any change in the nature of the North Korean regime that would indicate any future deal would be any different.  Anyone else have any thoughts on this?

Please leave anything you want to discuss in the comments section.  You may also find the below Forum topics from this week of interest as well:

• Will New Fort Jackson Security Policies Come to Korea?
• Citizens to protest deal to keep U.S. military unit in Dongducheon
• Ft. Benning Battalion Commander Relieved for Wearing Fraudulent Tabs
• Airman Convicted In “Wet Willy” Altercation with Police Officer
• Government Worker Proven to Be A Phd Fraud

If it makes Koreans feel better they were beat out by the ignorance of Americans.  You can read more over at the Marmot’s Hole.

Kim Jong Un Provides Field Guidance to Jongsong Pharmaceuticals | @KCNAWatch http://t.co/G6FgvBbxsu pic.twitter.com/oQNzb1AF6O

— NK NEWS (@nknewsorg) November 7, 2014

Shown is a picture of the main street in front of the Gwanghwamun, the main gate of the royal Gyeongbok Palace, in Seoul taken in 1900. The picture is displayed at a photo exhibition at the Seoul Museum of History. (Yonhap)

Either someone is really stupid or something was lost in translation with this story:

An Irish school teacher was turned away from a position in South Korea due to the “alcoholism nature of [her] kind”.

Katie Mulrennan, from County Kerry, had applied for a job in the capital Seoul after seeing the role advertised on Craigslist.

However, the 26-year-old received a rejection email telling her that she would not be offered the work because, as the stereotype goes, Irish people are drunks.  [The Independent]

You can read more at the link, but she has since found another job.

There are some very shady practices going on in South Korea’s plastic surgery industry:

Kim Bok-soon disliked her nose and fantasized about getting it fixed after learning of the Korean superstition that an upturned nose makes it harder to hold on to riches.

While waiting in a hair salon, she saw a magazine advertisement for a plastic surgery clinic and decided to go for it, despite her family’s objections.

In South Korea, where physical perfection is seen as a way to improve the quality of life, including job and marriage prospects, plastic surgery procedures can seem as commonplace as haircuts.

Kim’s doctor said he could turn her into a celebrity lookalike, and Kim decided to take the plunge, taking loans and spending 30 million won ($28,000) for 15 surgeries on her face over the course of a day.

When the bandages came off and she looked in the mirror, she knew something had gone horribly wrong. Only later did Kim find out her doctor was not a plastic surgery specialist. (Reuters)

You can read more about Korea’s shady plastic surgery practices at the link.

Via a reader tip comes news that Jesse Jackson is bringing his race hustling enterprise to Silicon Valley:

Civil rights advocate Jesse Jackson brought his campaign for more diversity in Silicon Valley workforces to The Chronicle Editorial Board Wednesday, noting that the racial separation of 50 years ago wasn’t as great as the inequality today. First Google, and then other Silicon Valley firms, released numbers depicting shockingly low racial and gender diversity in their workplaces, stories routinely reported in The Chronicle.

The Rev. Jackson said Silicon Valley companies are operating outside the equal opportunity employment and anti-discrimination laws and should know better. These companies have been created long since those laws were passed, and well after cultural expectations of equal access to jobs had taken root. The most frequent defense from the companies is that these jobs are technically demanding and that there are few blacks or Latinos with the needed skills. “Then why not invest in a plan to produce the engineers you need?” Jackson asks.

Jackson is promoting the idea that Silicon Valley firms, who have billions of dollars in offshore bank accounts that bypass U.S. taxes, could invest some of those funds in education and scholarships to train people of color as programmers and engineers. “Grow your own food, so to speak,” he said.

From Jackson’s view, the workforce should represent the marketplace. If 12 to 20 percent of the technology marketplace is black or brown, then shouldn’t 12 to 20 percent of the technology workforce be black or brown? The companies’ bottom line would benefit from the added value of inclusion, he said. (SF Gate)

You can read more at the link, but I eagerly await Jackson to start a campaign to get more whites and Asians into the NBA to better reflect the population like he wants Silicon Valley to do.

Kim Jong Un Has Photo Session with Korean People's Army personnel | @KCNAWatch http://t.co/kCuKqRrJga

— NK NEWS (@nknewsorg) November 5, 2014

Dutch King Willem-Alexander (C) tours Gyeongbok Palace, the main royal palace during the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910), in downtown Seoul on Nov. 4, 2014. His wife, Queen Maxima, is at his left. (Yonhap)