Well that is what the OECD says:

South Korea’s economic and financial indicators have been in good shape but the quality of life for its people remains below the average of members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

The OECD Fact Book 2007, which compared various indices of OECD member countries in 2005, showed that Korea commands positive economic indicators relative to other OECD peers.

Korea ranked 23rd in per capita gross domestic product (GDP) and 22nd in gross national income (GNI) among the 30 member countries of the leading countries club.

Its economic growth rate was the 11th highest; it placed fourth in household savings and third in labor productivity.

However, Korea was below the OECD average in indicators related with the quality of life. It ranked 29th in social welfare expenditure, indicating that the government needs to further expand projects to strengthen the nation’s social safety net.

I don’t see how giving people free handouts is an indicator of quality of life?  Anyway I think that Korea has a high quality of life, but could be better in certain aspects most notably pollution, their long working hours, and a need to modify the educational system, but overall Korea is doing very well for itself and life seems to only be getting better, which is really something when you think about how the Koreans have to live under the constant threat of hostile invasion from North Korea.

With the threat of the cancellation of free trade talks hovering over the negotiators, each side was finally able to agree on an FTA that some are calling an FTA-lite.  Even as an FTA-lite, it is still the world’s largest bi-lateral Free Trade Agreement.  The Korea Times has a pretty good graphical run down of the FTA:

Notice in the agricultural sector the rice market was not opened so Korean consumers will continue to pay some of the world’s highest prices for rice.  The beef sector is supposed to be gradually opened over 15 years, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the Korean government keeps playing the mad cow disease game with US beef.  American fruits and vegetables are going to be allowed into Korea which should reduce prices for Korean consumers a bit on those products.  The Korean automobile and textile industries are going to greatly benefit this agreement.  The Korean steel sector is also going to greatly benefit. 

All in all to the casual observer like myself it appears the Koreans are getting more out of this agreement than the US with their manufacturing sectors receiving a big boost while Korean consumers will find lower prices in their supermarkets with US products.  However, I expect the usual suspects to claim that Korea is being economically colonized by the US and all the other usual nonsense that comes from the anti-US lobby in Korea.  . 

This weekend I downloaded and played with some different plug ins for WordPress.  Unfortunately one of them knocked out my comments for while.  I had to deactivate the Gregarious Digg plugin because it doesn’t work with the K2 theme comment system.  I thought it was a pretty good plugin until I discovered it crashed my commenting system. 

I also activated a plugin called Kramer which enrolled my site into the Technorati system and more accurately logs trackbacks to the site.  That plugin has been working well.  I also have the Popularity Contest Plugin installed.  I had to do a lot of code tweaking but it is working fine now.  That plugin uses a formula that includes page views, comments, trackbacks, etc. to determine the most popular page on the site.

Finally I tried to install the Bad Behavior plugin to cut back on the spam messages hitting my webpage, but for whatever reason the Bad Behavior plugin would crash my whole webpage, so I had to delete it to get my page working again.  It is unfortunate because my site gets hit with an unbelievable 300-400 spam messages daily. 

Everything should be working fine now and let me know if there are any issues or advice on other plugins that are worth trying out.

In a prior posting, I posted about how the changing Pacific Ocean weather patterns were caused allegedly by pollution from Asia along with Asia’s participation in the Kyoto Protocol. I have been meaning to post a follow up to the prior posting and news that Korea experienced its warmest winter in a century has given me the perfect excuse to:

(more…)

From the Chosun:

The Canadian Parliament is pushing for the passage of a resolution calling for Japan to apologize for its "comfort women" atrocities and compensate the victims. The bill was submitted by New Democratic Party Rep. Wayne Marston. A motion passed Tuesday in a vote of four to three by the Subcommittee on International Human Rights under the Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development of the Canadian House of Commons. Marston said, "Prime Minister Abe must be pressured to formally apologize and to institute a program to compensate the 50,000 to 200,000 women who were forced to serve in military brothels during World War II."

Does anyone from Canada know if Wayne Marston is just a Canadian version of Michael Honda? 

Like I have maintained, I will start caring about what these politicians say on the sex slave issue the day they start demanding China do something about the modern day sexual slavery going on in China right now.  Condemning Japan is an easy target to display ones own "righteous outrage" compared to China where it would take real political courage to condemn the abhorrent human rights conditions for North Korean refugees there now.  I’m sure 60 years from now someone in both the Canadian Parliament and the US Congress will each submit their own bill condemning China for their human rights record now, while the politicians today do nothing. 

-  Amazing news, Tommy Hilfiger’s long lost brother has been found in Korea. 

-  Are you an ugly American?  Well you can find out here.

-  The new Inchon airport railway is looking pretty good.

-  Speaking of looking, the Big Hominid has discovered something you really need to see.

-  Here is an important tip of what not to brief to a ROK Navy Admiral.

-  I have to agree, doesn’t Bill Richardson have better things to do?  It is all about the photo op. 

-  Here is an interesting list of what Japanese think is history’s 100 most influential people.  A few Americans made the list and a some of the selections didn’t make much since to me.  Bruce Lee in Japan is considered more influential than Leonardo Da Vinci and Julius Caesar?

-  Japan this week has also just activated their newest missile defense system.

-  Finally, speaking of advanced weapons systems, here is an interesting story about possible espionage of US submarine technology in America by an aledged Chinese spy.

Courtesy the Metropolitician, comes news of a dance this weekend to raise money and support the farmers of Daechu-ri.  Daechu-ri is the village that was annexed by the Korean government as part of the agreed upon USFK transformation plan to expand Camp Humphreys in order to consolidate both Area 1 and Yongsan Garrison forces on one camp.

No word yet when a dance is going to happen in support of the people in Uijongbu and Dongducheon who were forced to relocate for such things just as equally important to national security, such as a new Home Plus, high rise apartments, shopping centers, a four lane highway, and a subway expansion.

Maybe someone can tell me what the difference is after watching this great video courtesy of USinKorea.

USinKorea has an additional North Korean human rights video posted that is must see viewing as well. 

The weird deserter case involving a Korean national who enlisted in the US Army and then deserted and then was drafted by the Korean Army has now gotten even weirder:

The 26-year-old man, identified only as Kim, joined the U.S. Army in 2003 in a bid to become an American citizen, South Korean Ministry of National Defense officials confirmed earlier this month.

After deserting the U.S. Army in 2005, he returned to South Korea and began his mandatory military service in November 2006, officials said.

With the knowledge of his South Korean unit, he turned himself into the U.S. military earlier this month but was released back to South Korea’s 25th Infantry Division so officials could investigate the sticky legal matter, the MND said.

But Kim deserted his post in northern Gyeonggi province early Friday morning, South Korean officials confirmed.

Officials believe the unarmed Kim is hiding in mountainous terrain surrounding the camp and have launched a search.

Maybe he can pull a trifecta and defect and join the North Korean army? 

The Marmot has more on this as well.

The big question is how this effects the juicy girl business?:

South Korea may limit the entry of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) due to the rising number of overstaying Filipino migrants, the local recruitment industry said Thursday.

Recruitment industry leaders said the government of South Korea has announced plans to reduce the rate of hiring Filipino workers to prevent an increase in the number of undocumented OFWs there.

Yong-Dal Kim, president of Human Resources Development (HRD) Service of Korea, reported that a huge number of overstaying workers will affect the labor quota that will be given to the Philippines under the Employment Permit System (EPS).

The government of South Korea has allocated 10,000 jobs for Filipino workers over the next three years. The same number of Filipinos are reportedly overstaying in Korea.

Only 10,000 Filipino workers over the next three years?  I’m willing to bet there is over 10,000 Filipina juicy girls in Korea already, in addition to the thousands of Filipino industrial workers.  How come I have this feeling the crackdown will target industrial workers and not juicy girls.