Korea now has some new sport’s heroes to celebrate after their short track skaters beat arch rival, American Apolo Anton Ohno:

Jin Sun-yu and Choi Eun-kyung swept the top two spots in the women’s 1,500-meter while Ahn Hyun-soo and Lee Ho-suk, whose combination earned them a gold and silver in the men’s 1,500-meter, followed suit in the 1,000-meter race.

Ahn, 21, crossed the line first at 1 minute, 26.739 seconds for a new Olympic record, holding off teammate Lee and American archrival Apolo Anton Ohno, who placed third.

He became the first Korean male multi-gold medallist in the Winter Games in 14 years since another short track skater, Kim Ki-hoon, won two gold medals in Albertville, France, in 1992.

Ohno had this to say in defeat:

Ohno threw up his hands in a similar move in Salt Lake City in 2002, where he claimed a controversial gold medal in the 1,000-meter over South Korean Kim Dong-sung. However, it had different meaning this time.

According to Associated Press, “That was like a `Wow, couldn’t believe it,’’’ Ohno explained after the race, saying he had no place to get ahead between the two Korean competitors. “It was … like, `Man, there was no room to move.’ That was kind of my emotion.’’

“There were a couple of opportunities for me to move up on Ahn,’’ he went on to say. “They were just skating so tight and any type of move would have probably resulted in disqualification. I didn’t want to risk it.’’

I have maintained for a long time that Ohno has been treated unfairly by the Korean media because in both victory and defeat he has demonstrated good sportsmanship and his third place finish in this year’s Olympics has been no different. Notice he didn’t make any accusations or excuses and in the above picture he can be seen shaking the hands of the Korean skaters and congratulating them.

I have never seen Ohno gloat when he has won past races over the Koreans, but as the Party Pooper has pointed out the Korean media is quick to gloat when Ohno loses. I wonder if the Korean media will grant Ohno media access this time since he lost? Last October Ohno won two golds at a competition held in Korea and he wanted to hold a news conference to set the record straight about how he is portrayed in Korea and he was denied. He had this to say at the time:

There was nothing hostile about the fans, they were just happy watching the races,” said Ohno, who regained the world No. 1 ranking from local skater Ahn Hyun-soo on Sunday with golds in the 1,000 and 3,000 finals.

Ohno regretted being denied any opportunity to hold a news conference in Seoul last week to show people another side to his character, which he figures has been largely demonized in the local media.

“A lot of media was shut away. I’m not sure why,” he said. Maybe “certain people wanted to keep that false image.”

I suspect Ohno probably will still be demonized in the Korean media, but maybe next time when he comes to Korea he won’t have to be escorted by riot police the minute he steps off the plane like he did this last October.

It looks like America will be introduced with cell phone technology that is currently being perfected in Korea and Japan:

In South Korea, E-commerce features already let consumers pay for things using their cell phones. Many of the phones have been integrated with banking systems so people already are buying groceries and soft drinks from vending machines with them.

Japanese consumers also use “wallet phones” with contactless FeliCa cards from NTT DoCoMo, Japan’s leading mobile communications company. Wallet phones are not just used as credit cards—they can contain entrance tickets, metro tickets, loyalty cards, air tickets, and employee ID cards, according to SmartTrust’s recently published “Mobile Trends” guide.

The technology will likely make its debut in the U.S. in the next six to 18 months, says Osmo Hautanen, CEO of Magnolia Broadband Inc., a chip developer that puts “smart” antennas into cell phones sold by top service providers in Asia.

In fact, earlier this month Motorola unveiled its M-Wallet product, which will let people make purchases using their cell phones. Additionally, the technology will allow merchants to issue virtual loyalty or gift cards to customers’ phones. Motorola says the M-Wallet will work with almost any device or cellular network.

There are some draw backs though:

That means cell phones will become much more valuable not only because they’ll come with more capabilities, but also because they will contain sensitive information like payment mechanisms. “People will value and guard their phones the way they guard their wallets,” says Valentine. So, losing a phone in a taxi will a much bigger deal than it is today.

Another problem I foresee is that in the states you can’t get a cell phone signal in many buildings which will effect your ability to use your phone to shop. What if you are in a roaming zone; do have to pay extra then to shop? I think I will just stick to using my debit card.

Maybe in the spirit of the Sunshine Policy, South Korea can send people like this to a North Korean gulag for castration:

Shocked by the gruesome murder of an 11-year-old girl on Friday, the Justice Ministry said yesterday that it would try to convince Korea’s courts to impose curfews on convicted child molesters and confine them in their homes from 8 p.m. to 8 a.m.

Late Sunday evening, Yongsan police announced that they had arrested a suspect in the case, and also had the man’s son in custody as an accomplice to the crime. Police said the girl was abducted on the street and as the man tried to molest her, she screamed. The suspect allegedly then stabbed her to death and, an hour later, called his son to help him dispose of the body. The son and the father placed the girl’s body in a box, rode to the Seoul suburb of Bucheon and burned the body in a rice field.

The older man had been convicted last July of molesting a 4-year-old girl, but was released on probation in September.

Let me get this right, this guy was released after two months after molesting a 4 year old girl? WTF? I thought only Vermont gave light sentences to child molesters?

Here is another reason why I will never see a social security paycheck:

The age of retirement should be lifted to 85 by 2050 to keep up with increases in life expectancy, according to a U.S. expert.

The advice by Stanford University biologist Shripad Tuljapurkar, has particularly serious consequences for South Korea, one of the world’s fastest ageing societies.

Tuljapurkar told the American Association for the Advancement of Science annual meeting in St. Louis that medical advances could raise life expectancy dramatically over the next 20 years.

“Some people believe we are on the brink of being able to extend human lifespan significantly because we’ve got most of the technologies we need to do it,’’ Tuljapurkar said.

But this will put heavy strain on national economies unless retirement ages are also lifted, he said.

I can’t imagine working at 85 years old. Especially as bad as my body aches already.

I like kimchi but the glorifying of kimchi is getting ridiculous:

As the health benefits of Korea’s representative dish are being touted all around the world, Kimchi is emerging as a “super food” in the U.S. The Washington Post published a special feature article on kimchi in its Sunday edition that featured an interview with Korean food expert Shin Hi-soo (69)

(…)

The Post also dealt with the efficacy of kimchi in preventing illnesses in a supplementary article entitled “Kimchi: A Superfood?” “Kimchi has long been touted as health super food that can cut cancer risk, lower cholesterol, improve skin, aide digestion and fight infection,” it reported. “Kimchi’s fermentation process produces beneficial bacteria that destroys harmful microbes. Crushed garlic yields compounds linked to reducing blood pressure and infection.”

The paper also published a report on Dec. 31 last year that said that as kimchi had proved to be effective in preventing bird flu, sales of kimchi in U.S. markets were increasing.

It looks like Toby Dawson may have found his birth parents in Korea:

A man from Busan on Sunday went public with a claim that he is the father of U.S. freestyle skier Toby Dawson, who took bronze in the men’s mogul competition at the Turin Winter Olympics. Kim Jae-su (52) said he got calls from relatives and friends who told him Dawson looked just like him. “So I looked at the papers and confirmed it myself,” Kim said. “There is no doubt that this is the son I lost 25 years ago.”

This is how he claims he lost his son:

Kim lost his son in 1981, when the boy became separated from his mother in the crowd at a local market. Dawson was found near the same place and taken to an orphanage, where he lived until he was adopted by an American couple.

The Kims say they searched high and low for their lost son. “I didn’t think reporting it to the police would be of any help, so I went around looking for him myself,” Kim said. The couple covered most orphanages and markets in the city but could only search on their days off and got around on foot or by bus, so their progress was slow.

Some how I don’t think they looked for him as hard as they claim, especially if he was sitting in the most obvious place, a local orphanage, but who knows. However, the resemblance between Dawson, Mr. Kim, and his son is uncanny:

At least one part of the world believes President Bush is the first “Muslim” President:

I don’t mean to criticize when I say this. The Kurds have been through decades of fascism, genocide, and war. They suffered more than any other group of Iraqis. Northern Iraq endured more recent hardship than any other place I have ever been in my life. Scratch just beneath the happy veneer of Iraqi Kurdish adults and you’ll find people with family members murdered by Baathists, who experienced unimaginable oppression by a regime that wanted to completely erase them, and who fled to the mountains during the uprising in 1991 when the cities of Iraqi Kurdistan were emptied of people. They still have no sewage system, and they still only have a few hours of electricity each day. Having a good time just isn’t a priority for them right now.

(…)

It’s impossible not to admire these people. Their attitude is go-go-go, build-build-build. They won’t let a little thing like a permanent power outage get in their way. They are the last people in the world anyone dare call lazy or apathetic.

(…)

Iraqi Kurdistan is more pro-American than America. People there refer to George W. Bush as “Hajji Bush” (meaning he made the Muslim pilgrimage, the hajj, to Mecca), an incredibly high honor for a Christian from Texas whom most people hate. Bill Clinton may have been America’s first “black” president. But people in at least one part of the world say Bush is the first “Muslim” president. Weird and amazing, but true.

That’s right the Kurds love Hajji Bush and great progress is being made in Kurdistan. There is something you won’t see in the MSM; they have more important stories to cover like hunting accidents in Texas.

Having traveled through Kurdistan and having worked with the Kurdish Peshmerga I can say that the Kurds are some of the best people I have ever met. When I was in Kurdistan I couldn’t help but think that maybe this is how Korea was 50 years ago; a place in shambles but filled with people with a lot of hope for the future and a strong work ethic. Korea had the “Miracle on the Han River”, I hope one day I will see the “Miracle on the Tigris River” as well.

MRE auction on E-bay causes “MRE-gate” scandal for US Army:

Meals, Ready to Eat, the prepackaged rations infamous among service members, remain hot collectibles on the online trading site eBay.com, despite defense officials’ efforts to stop the practice.

MREs typically cost about $4.50 to produce, and are intended solely for use and distribution by members of the military, according to Defense Department rules.

But the water-activated rations are being marketed on the site as both survival gear and collector’s item, with some cases of 12 going for upward of $100.

On Friday, more than 90 unopened cases with U.S. military markings were for sale on the site, and more than 300 other listings featured individual meal packets, MRE desserts and other related foodstuffs.

In many of the listings, warnings reading “U.S. Government property — Commercial resale is unlawful” are clearly visible on the packaging.

This is actually a scandal that the military is really working on clamping down on. Usually units keep a few spare boxes of MRE’s on hand in case of a last minute tasking or a range comes up and soldiers need to get out there quick and there is no time to coordinate for chow for them. Now commanders are going through unit areas to search for spare boxes of MRE’s to ensure no extra boxes are lying around that can be picked up and sold on E-bay to survivalists or the curious.

In Korea MRE’s are highly sought after by Koreans as well. They are often sold to fishermen who spend days out on boats and MRE’s serve as a great way for them eat. Not to long ago soldiers used to give MRE’s to ajumma in ma’s tent out in the field in exchange for her to cook up Korean food for the soldiers. The army eventually clamped down on this activity but I’m sure ma was making a fortune from it at the time.

When working with the ROK Army they will always hit you up for MRE’s as well. They usually just want MRE’s to eat them more so than selling them.

To see the MRE trade in Korea in action, just travel to any of the known black market areas near US Army installations. Even in Itaewon in the back alleys you can find MRE’s for sale there. Even when I traveled last year to Ulleong-do Island I found black marketed AAFES goods and MRE’s there as well. MRE’s are what I would consider a quasi currency in Korea.

Camp Red Cloud officials help with Korean highway expansion project:

Fifteen years of negotiations and planning came to fruition Friday when a bulldozer punched a hole through Camp Red Cloud’s old outside wall.

The Army Corps of Engineers and its contractors finished building a new base wall several months ahead of schedule, thereby giving Uijeongbu city workers a head start on widening Highway 3, said Army Corps of Engineers project manager Kenneth Jen.

This highway expansion project is much needed because the traffic in front of CRC is absolutely horrendous most of the day and has a high amount of traffic accidents. Hopefully this highway expansion will cut down on the traffic problem and make the road safer as well.

It looks like the United States will further break from South Korea and begin accepting North Korean refugees for the first time:

Participants said it was important that the U.S. takes on some of the refugees who ended up in a country other than South Korea. On Thursday, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice also implied a policy shift by saying, “We are reviewing our policies on refugees, reviewing them with DHS (Department of Homeland Security), reviewing them with the FBI, to see if we can find a way to participate in the refugee activities as well.” If it does admit them, it is likely to exacerbate tensions with North Korea in an already chilly climate because of Washington’s sanctions and the North’s nuclear ambitions.

The North Korean Human Rights Act, which went into effect in October of 2004, stipulates that North Korean refugees can seek asylum or residence in the U.S. despite the fact that they are automatically entitled to South Korean citizenship.

This is further evidence that Washington is speeding up efforts to pressure the Pyongyang regime. First the US government implemented economic sanctions due to North Korea’s money laundering and counterfeiting operations, then the Japanese began to raid companies aiding North Korean weapons programs and now the accepting of North Korean refugees in America.

Neither Pyongyang or Seoul will be to happy about this. This is a big loss of face for Pyongyang when it’s citizens are defecting to it’s sworn enemy the United States plus asylum in the US is only going to encourage more defections which is what Washington is probably hoping to create. Seoul isn’t going to like this because it will anger North Korea and negatively effect their Sunshine Policy exchanges. Plus Seoul has to be worried about how well North Korean refugees integrate in American society compared to South Korean society. If North Korean refugees begin to integrate better in the United States than South Korea where they are discriminated against; this will cause a loss of face for the South Korean government.

Now why is the US government encouraging defections? The main reason I think is because a loss of man power and skilled labor from North Korea will negatively effect the Kim Jong Il regime. Factories can’t operate without laborers. South Korea and China having been trying with some success on clamping down on North Korean defectors but the recent policy change from the United States is sure to encourage North Korean citizens to defect from the horror of the Kim Jong Il’s regime and hope to obtain the American dream.

Of course check out the new Korean Liberator for more coverage of this announcement. Edit this Post | Delete this Post