Who can name who this woman is?:

Here are this year’s current Korea Finder Leader’s Board:

Mark -9

James – 2

Sonagi – 2

Peekstr – 1

HumKor – 1

Farty – 1

Mike -2

Maui – 1 

kcbill06 – 1

Note that who ever totals the most points at the end of the year, I will purchase for them a Korea related book or DVD of their choice using the proceeds I have accumulated by people purchasing books from Amazon.com on my website.

You have to admire somebody like this:

A woman in her 60s surnamed Lee donated land she owned in Cheongdam-dong, Gangnam worth 40 billion won to the Korea University Medical Center (KUMC) recently. It is the single largest individual donation in Korean history.

The donator was once hospitalized in KUMC to have her chronic disease treated. KUMC, located in Ahnam-dong, Seongbuk, said on Thursday that Lee delivered land-related documents in May, saying, “My mother told me not to obsess with material wealth. I want to follow her words.” The KUMC did not disclose her name or family information at the request of Lee. As a result, her praiseworthy deed was left unknown for the past two months.

When the KUMC asked her why she wanted to remain anonymous, she replied, “When my mother bequeathed her wealth to me, she told me to return it to society. I am only a mediator between her and KUMC.”

Two soldiers in Uijongbu have been arrested for allegedly punching a man in the face for staring at them and pushing the victims girlfriend to the ground. 

Remember the Osan airman that went AWOL to only have his girlfriend from the ville turn him in?  Well he is back and in trouble again:

An airman was sentenced Monday to one year in jail and given a bad-conduct discharge for using three other airmen’s Social Security numbers to take out more than $14,600 in loans last year.

Airman Basic Christopher R. Neal, 23, pleaded guilty to taking the Social Security numbers from papers in the 51st Communications Squadron office, where he worked as a maintenance technician. He filled out online applications and received three loans from Pioneer Military Lending between March and July 2006.

So why did our troubled airman commit such crimes?  If only I had a dollar for every time I heard this excuse:

Neal, who was court-martialed late last year for being absent without leave, repeatedly told judge Lt. Col. John Hartsell on Monday that he was not thinking clearly when he got the loans.

“I was in love. I thought I was doing something to help my fiancee,” he said. “Not only did I end up hurting her, but I ended up here today, sir.”

The judge also ordered Neal to forfeit $867 of his monthly pay for the next 12 months.

So where did the money go?  You guessed it, straight to juicy:

Neal said he spent the loans — two of $6,000 each, and one for $2,690 — on groceries, rent and paying off some of his fiancee’s debts. He said it was easy to get the Social Security numbers, all from people who worked in his office.

Wait there is more:

He told Hartsell he wanted to show he could be a good husband to his fiancee, who has remained with him throughout his courts-martial and first imprisonment.

“She was the best thing that ever happened to me,” he said. “I used this money to help her start a new life, a new life for the both of us.”

We’ll see if she is still with him after a year in jail and no money coming in.  Unfortunately these stories are all to common in USFK and a by product of the ville culture that exists there.  The girls in the ville are like a drug and servicemembers like Airman Neal that get addicted to them will do things such as theft and fraud in order to feed their drinky girl habbit. 

Not even protesters throwing crap on U.S. beef, has been able to slow the demand for the product:

Consumer demand is now sizzling, and experts are predicting a major market shakeup once imports begin to arrive in earnest.

Lotte Mart, the first of the big supermarkets to resume selling the meat, said its stock of 40 tons of chilled beef sold out on the second day Saturday at all its branches. At that rate, it expects to sell the remainder of its frozen U.S. beef by Tuesday morning. Market insiders attribute the higher than expected popularity to the price competitiveness of U.S. beef in comparison to its quality. In other words, it’s cheap and tasty.

The only people more upset about this than the protesting farmers, are the black market ajummas outside the USFK camps.

If the authorities send the low quality foreign English Teachers to prison shouldn’t they also send the people that are employing them to jail as well?

From Newsbusters:

What is even more outrageous than this cartoon is the fact that the leftist propagandist, Ted Rall, that made this cartoon is published in more than 140 publications:

His cartoons now appear in more than 140 publications, including the Philadelphia Daily News, Aspen Times, Hartford Advocate, Newark Star-Ledger, Los Angeles Times, Wilmington News-Journal, San Diego Reader, Village Voice, Harrisburg (PA) Patriot-News, Las Vegas Review Journal, Washington City Paper, Tucson Weekly, Sacramento News & Review, San Jose Mercury-News, Lexington Herald-Leader and New York Times.  […]

In 1996, he was one of three Finalists for the Pulitzer Prize. He was one of the New York Times’ most reprinted cartoonists in 1997, 1999 and 2001. He also did color strips for both Time Magazine and Fortune Magazine from 1998 to 2001. He was awarded the 1998 Deadline Club Award by the Society of Professional Journalists for his cartoons. Rall received first place in both the 1995 and 2000 Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Awards for Cartoons. The award, founded in 1968, recognizes distinguished work on behalf of disadvantaged Americans.

Whatever happened to that line about supporting the troops and not the war?  As I have been pointing out over and over again; that line went out the window a long time ago and this is just another example of the liberal media effort to paint soldiers as uneducated low lives that are committing war crimes all over Iraq and thus not worthy of the nation’s respect.  People like Rall do not support the troops and they never did. 

HT: MM

North Korea has reportedly shut down its nuclear reactor and the countdown to the eventual reneging on the deal by the North Koreans has begun.  What will be the cause for the reneging?  This Chosun Ilbo article casually mentions it here:

After shutting down its main facility, Pyongyang has pledged to disclose and disable all of its nuclear programs in exchange for humanitarian assistance equivalent to one million tons of heavy fuel oil.

Does anyone really think Pyongyang is going to give up the nuclear weapons they currently have as well as fully disclose their secret HEU program?  If you believe in this deal that is what you have to trust the North Koreans to comply with.  History has shown us that North Korea has no intentions of giving up their nuclear weapons program, but are more than willing to use them as a bartering tool to get concessions from the international community for giving back little in return.  Look how much Kim Jong-il received for shutting down a reactor he can just as easily turn right back on again.  Meanwhile an issue that it appears governments around the world would rather just forget about is the massive human rights violations and suffering of the North Korean people. 

The Bush administration doesn’t appear to eager to confront Pyongyang on these issues so I expect the status quo to remain until President Bush leaves office.  When Kim Jong-il demands his next pay day from the next US President you can expect the ransom to be much higher with the time he has gained to perfect both his ICBM and nuclear capabilities.  Despite these realities some how in Washington this deal is applauded as a foreign policy victory.  It boggles the mind. 

Make sure you check out DPRK Studies as well as One Free Korea for even greater analysis on this issue.

The Korean soccer team was defeated 2-1 by Bahrain and are facing elimination in the Asian Cup.

Koreas
– The deadly "Korean Wave" in North Korea
– Would you like some dung with that beef?
– Attacked by protesters, but got the shoes.
– It is always important to keep the moral high ground.
– Shark warning issued for the Sea that Cannot Be Named.
– Riding on Gadoekdo Island.
– I wish more Korean ATMs would do this.
– Good advice on what to pack for a trip to Korea.

Japan
– More debate on the legitimacy of dropping the A-bomb on Japan.
– One busy intersection in Shinjuku.
– The mysterious toilet money donor of Japan. 
– The McPork burger is on its way to Japan.

China
– Anybody want some Chinese cardboard meat buns?
– Starbucks has been booted from the Forbidden City.
– Are the Chinese supplying armor piercing bullets to the Taliban?

Milblogs
– You won’t hear this in the MSM, but murder charges against a US Marine have been dropped.
– Make sure to read Michael Yon’s latest posting.
– The surge against the surge.
– I never get tired of listening to this speech.
– The whole Pat Tillman saga has been one big screw up after another.