Who can name what and where is this ruin:

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

Mark-6

Peekstr – 1

James – 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.

Well maybe this explains the high quality juche cartoons coming out of North Korea now a days:

North Korea is well known for its nuclear ambitions. But it is relatively little-known fact that the country is a hidden outsourcing mecca for the international animation industry, producing such well-known movies as The Lion King.

Even while North Korea has been under US-led sanctions that include a ban on commercial trade, several US animated films have allegedly been outsourced to the country, according to Beijing-based businessman Jing Kim, who says he was involved with American animation producer Nelson Shin’s filmmaking business in the Stalinist pariah state.

(…)

After seven years of cooperation with North Korea’s state-owned SEK Studio, employing as many as 500 North Korean animators out of its staff of 1,500, and 18 visits to the country, Shin finally completed Empress Chung in 2005, a famous Korean folk tale about a daughter who sacrifices herself to a sea monster to restore her blind father’s eyesight. It was the first cartoon jointly produced by the two Koreas.

Any guesses on how the animators were paid?  Very predictably:

Kim said he didn’t pay the North Korean artists in person for their work. Rather, he wired US$170,000 to North Korea directly for their 2006 assignments.

If true, this is another example of the outsourcing of slave labor from North Korea. 

HT: reader

It is always impressive the amount of money the military is able to raise for charities through the Combined Federal Campaign:

Representatives from units and fraternal organizations throughout South Korea gathered at the Yongsan Multiplex Theater on Tuesday for the 2006 Combined Federal Campaign awards ceremony.

More than 170 awards were given to the units with the largest percentages of members donating to CFC and with the largest average donations.

Awards fell into four categories: platinum, gold, silver and bronze. More than half of the awards fell into the upper two categories, with 54 units receiving the platinum award for at least 85 percent participation and an average gift of $200 and 49 units earning gold for 60 percent participation and an average donation of $120. Air Force Lt. Gen. Steve Wood, 7th Air Force commander, served as guest speaker and presented awards.

Describing CFC as the most inclusive charitable organization in the world, he explained why he felt donating was important. “CFC is a big deal,” he said. “It’s one of the ways we give back to the community and make things better.” According to Wood, CFC-Overseas generated more than $1.5 million in 2006, with 10 percent of the donations coming from within U.S. Forces Korea.

For those not in the military reading this, every year the military encourages soldiers to choose a charity that is part of the CFC to donate money to.  The soldiers are given a book with a number of charities that the military has deemed to be legitimate and worthy of donations and then it is up to the soldier if he/she wants to donate money.  As you can see above the military raised $1.5 million dollars overseas with 10% coming from USFK which means USFK raised $150,000 dollars this year for charity. 

The other really good charity campaign the Army does is the Army Emergency Relief fund.  AER donations are used to allow soldiers to have immediate financial assistance in case of family emergencies.  Soldiers can apply for immediate financial assistance that will come in the form of either an interest free loan or an out right grant if the repayment of an interest free loan is to big of a financial burden on the soldier.  This program is truly soldiers taking care of their own.  AER is especially important for USFK because when soldiers have family members get critically ill, injured, or pass away; they can receive AER money to pay for their plane tickets back to the US.  The AER program in the Second Infantry Division I know is outstanding from personal experience from sending soldiers there for money and being approved the same day and flying home the next. 

So if you are not already donating through both the CFC and AER you really should because they are definitely both good programs worthy of a few extra bucks you may have available every month. 

You can tell the Democrats are in power because this issue just continues to stay alive:

The Pentagon’s top general expressed regret Tuesday that he called homosexuality immoral, a remark that drew a harsh condemnation from members of Congress and gay advocacy groups.

In a newspaper interview Monday, Marine Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, had likened homosexual acts to adultery and said the military should not condone it by allowing gays to serve openly in the armed forces.

In a statement Tuesday, he said he should have focused more in the interview on the Defense Department policy about gays — and "less on my personal moral views."

I don’t think General Pace should apologize for his own personal moral beliefs, but it definitely wasn’t wise to bring up his moral beliefs because it just feeds the untrue assumption that the military is conducting a witch hunt against gay servicemembers. You can read more of my thoughts on this in my prior posting here.

This article from the Asia Sentinel is a must read for anyone remotely interested in the North Korean counterfeiting of US currency. The reporters travel to China to see if they find North Korean supernotes. This is what they found:

These days there is also a reasonable facsimile of another famous American crossing the river in the opposite direction  Benjamin Franklin. If you’ve got the connections here, and they aren’t hard to find, you can easily encounter Franklin’s enigmatic face for about US$50 on a reasonable copy of a US $100 bill. These presumably Pyongyang-printed Big-Head Benjamins are known worldwide as “supernotes.

We know. We bought one.

So where did these reporters buy these supernotes, right in the open of course:

Our supernote purchase  $100, US Series 2003, serial number DI03120777A (acquired strictly for purposes of this story) took place literally within the shadow of the China Bank of Communications. The bank is directly across the street from the Dandong office of China Customs, which in turn is next to a People’s Liberation Army facility as is the Dandong Police headquarters. Coincidentally, the transaction also took place on the afternoon of Kim’s 65th birthday, February 16.

So where did the supernotes come from you may ask?:

At first he said he got them accidentally from various foreign tourists who were changing them for yuan. Were the tourists from North Korea? He shrugged and smiled and said perhaps some had relatives or friends over there across the mighty Yalu. But after asking if he could sell one or two more, he quickly left on his bicycle after taking a brief mobile phone call.

Make sure you read the whole article, very interesting read about this illegal activity happening quite openly in China with little effort by Chinese authorities to stop it. Maybe it is time someone starts printing Chinese yuan to start spreading around and see how the Chinese government likes that.

HT: Simon World

That is the question that the Joong Ang Ilbo asked recently. The Joong Ang also called Koreans the Italians of Asia. Wait a minute I thought Koreans were the Irish of Asia? Anyway this is how the Joong Ang answered the question of why Koreans are rude:

Anti-social behavior displayed by Koreans is said to have its origin in the agricultural society of the country’s past. In close-knit communities where members care for each other like family, strangers were rare. This perhaps explains why the Korean language has limited expressions appropriate for social conversation between complete strangers.

As society modernized, companies engaged in Western-style services or retail industries had a hard time training local staff to be hospitable to customers, as they have a habit of taking professional situations very personally.

Compared with other Asians, Koreans in general are known to be temperamental.

I think to an outsider it may appear that Koreans are rude, but really I don’t think they are. For example in Seoul there is a lot of bumping on sidewalks and subways, but Seoul is so over populated people are just used to bumping into each other and think nothing of it. The locals are used to it, but foreigners new to Korea are not. Really the only non-polite tendency that really bugs me is some of the drivers of both mopeds and cars are just absolute jerks and the people who obviously cut in line. The line cutters I’m able to deal with because I will confront them and when confronted they retreat to the back of the line. The drivers, not much I can do about that, I just grin and bare it.

However, in restaurants and businesses I have more often than not received better service than what I have received in many western countries. When traveling on the subway or trains around the country and I needed assistance usually I was overwhelmed with people wanting to help. Often in Korea I also see people give up their bus and subway seats to senior citizens. There is politeness in Korea, but in a Korean way, not a western way.

From the Stars & Stripes:

For two U.S. soldiers and a and a South Korean counterpart, duty went beyond the needs of U.S. servicemembers and into the local community recently.  Spc. John Plaia of the 557th Military Police Company, and Sgt. Fitho Simplice of the 348th Quartermaster Company were wrapping up an accident report involving a soldier and heading back to post on Feb. 28, when a small van flipped through the air and came to rest on its top.

The driver of the skinny Daewoo van was trying to pass traffic on the right when a big truck cut him off, running him into the curb on Highway 39 at about 3 p.m. in Hyeonju-ri. The van took flight and landed upside down on the sidewalk.  It wasn’t a servicemember’s van, but the soldiers say they weren’t just going to ignore the accident.

“He didn’t really move while we were running toward the vehicle,” Plaia said. “It looked like it hurt him pretty bad.”  The right tire broke off from the axle and unidentified fluid began leaking from the undercarriage, Plaia said.  Plaia and Simplice got the door open and pulled the man out of the van, while South Korean augmentee Pfc. Park K.M. told the man to lie still.  To their surprise, the slightly built South Korean man suffered few injuries beyond cuts and bruises. A larger man may have taken more of the impact, Simplice said.

“It was scary. If somebody like myself was in that tiny little van, I’d probably be dead,” Simplice said.

Great job by these soldiers.  You can read more over at Nomad.

The ROK Drop has been interestingly enough mentioned in the Korean media again.  The Korean news site Media Today uses quotes from my site on for a good article they wrote on the death of the ROK Army soldier SGT Yoon in Afghanistan.  I’m glad that outlets from the Korean media are reading my site and hope they continue to do so. 

OFK and DPRK Studies has the latest on the beginning of the possible reneging by North Korea on the nuclear agreement signed last month.  Is anyone really surprised by this?

Links from this week worth checking out

-  Ever wondered about differences between Korean and Japanese bath houses?  Well Ampontan has the scoop here.

-  The Western Confucian has some strong words about suicides in Korea.

-  Cool XK2 video can be view here.

-  Ever wondered where Koreans learned to drive?  Find out here.

-  Speaking of driving in Korea, a couple of excellent posts on this subject can be found here and here.

-  gdimension has the low down on Cheju Island myths and has a great sandscape photo here.

-  See douchebaggery in action here.

-  Have you taken any of the Top 10 photos in Japan?

-  Caution, a child molester is on the loose in Japan.