Recently there have been reports of Imperial Japanese Army soldiers left over from World War II being found in the mountains of the Phillipines. Check out Oranckay’s blog for more details on this. However, Yahoo News is reporting that the reports may not be accurate:

The astonishing claim that World War II holdouts may still be alive has attracted huge interest in Japan, where veterans are marking the 60th anniversary of the war’s end. But the Japanese government urged caution, saying the report came from somebody who had not seen the men himself. Efforts to contact the pair also were complicated by the fact that the area in which they supposedly were found is notorious for ransom kidnappings and attacks by Muslim separatists, who have waged war for three decades. Communist rebels also are active there.

Tokyo first learned of the former soldiers in January, from a Japanese trader on Mindanao who has been trying since Friday to arrange a meeting so officials could try to confirm the men’s’ identities, Japanese Embassy spokesman Shuhei Ogawa said. But Ogawa stressed that the trader had not seen the men and was relying on a Filipino contact, who himself got word of the mystery soldiers from yet another Filipino. “You should know this type of information comes in all the time,” he said. “We really have no idea if these two people exist.”

I have my doubts about this story because of the way the rumor of these two guys spread without anyone even have actually seeing them. Why would these guys come out of hiding now? Doesn’t make much sense but I guess we will see how this plays out.

South Korean students have begun their annual summer time protests outside Yongsan garrison.

Thousands of South Korean students rallying Sunday against the U.S. military’s five-decade presence clashed with police after trying to enter the American base, and at least 12 people were injured and more than 20 were arrested.

Demonstrators marched through Seoul before attempting to enter the main Yongsan U.S. military base in the city center. They called for the withdrawal of the 32,500 U.S. troops stationed in South Korea, a legacy of the 1950-53 Korean War.

What the article failed to report was that the protestors were from the Hanchongryun student group that is backed and financed by North Korea. The group used to be illegal under South Korea’s National Security Law but since President Roh Moo Hyun took office he has allowed the outlawed group free reign to conduct their criminal activities. In fact their leader Ms. Song Hyo Won last week traveled to North Korea fully approved by the South Korean government no doubt to get her marching orders from the Norks before this weekend’s protests.

Hanchonghyun Leader Song Hyo Won.

Here is an excerpt from an interview with the Hanchongryun spokesman that will give you a good indication of their ideology and thinking.

Dae Sik Yoo, the student body president of Kyung Hee University, is on the lam. Since police can arrest him anywhere but here—they’re not allowed on university grounds—Yoo never leaves campus for more than 12 hours. For a wanted man, he looks wholesome, with wire-rimmed glasses, baseball cap, and khaki pants. He could pass for a preppie American student. But when asked about the political opinions that got him into trouble, he sounds more like a North Korean Communist affiliate than a college student in a U.S.-allied country.

“Kim Jong Il is an outstanding leader,” says Yoo. “No other country can stand up to the U.S. Only North Korea can.”

Yoo landed on the wanted list for his role as spokesperson for the Hanchongryun, a left-wing student organization notorious for its pro-North Korean views. Hanchongryun spearheaded demonstrations and sit-ins for 11 years, pushing for reunification of the North and South—but on Korean terms and without any U.S. interference.

(…)

“Kim is just another leader and not a despot or a dictator,” he says. “If he really is a dictator, the North Koreans wouldn’t have tolerated that and overthrown him. They’re not that brainwashed. They must see something in the system that’s right.”

By saying the North Koreans are “not that brainwashed” he is admitting that at least some brainwashing is going on. What he doesn’t understand is that the North Korean people cannot see anything wrong in the system because if they did they would be sent to the gulag or shot. If the system is so great then why are defectors trying to jump the fences of every embassy in China. This is how Hanchongryun explains these facts:

North Korea’s violent crackdowns at home counted for little here. “The U.S. has been giving false propaganda about the North,” said one Catholic university student. “There is no proof that the North commits human rights violations. I think the U.S. is misbroadcasting information about North Korea killing its own people.”

That’s right folks the gulags and famine are all US propaganda though evidence of these gulags come from the governments of other countries plus from the mouths of North Korean defectors themselves. The American CIA must of brainwashed all of these people to speak badly of the Dear Leader. It only gets better:

He is careful to emphasize that he’s not a radical and prefers to stay out of student protests. Still, he feels little reason to be threatened by Kim Jong Il’s regime: “Maybe it is dangerous for North Korea to have nuclear arms. I think, though, when reunification happens, their nukes will be our nukes and give us a higher international standing.”

Their nukes will be your nukes when they land on Seoul. Plus if he is so eager to see Korea possess nuclear weapons, South Korea is more than capable right now of manufacturing nuclear weapons. The government chooses not to due to treaty obligations. Now what about human rights in North Korea? Hanchongryun could care little about that:

Activists who try to denounce Kim Jong Il for human rights violations complain that South Korean government officials have sabotaged their efforts. Human rights activist Norbert Vollertsen, a German, once spent 18 months in Pyongyang working for Doctors Without Borders and witnessed the devastating effects the famine and gulags have had on North Korean citizens. Now residing in South Korea, he complains that he is followed and harassed and says surveillance is so strict, he feels like he is in Pyongyang again.

“The youth are quite interested in human rights issues in Iraq, racism in America. They’re eager to do something and make changes. But when it comes to North Korea, they are so ignorant and uninformed of human rights violations,” Vollertsen says. “When I do college tours, it’s quite shocking because first of all they don’t want to believe my stories. When I showed them pictures of children starving, they thought the pictures were from Dachau or Auschwitz. They didn’t want to believe it was in North Korea. They kept challenging me and saying, ‘Are you sure they’re starving and dying? Are you sure you’re a doctor?’ “

I’m sure Hanchongryun members comfort each other by saying Vollertsen is a CIA agent or something to that effect because famine cannot possibly have happened in the Worker’s Paradise.

Experts and activists, like Vollertsen, claim North Korean agents steer groups such as Hanchongryun, newsrooms, even Roh’s administration. But Yoo denies that Hanchongryun has official ties to North Korea, and is quick to defend the country. “Everywhere in the world, there are prisons. North Korea is nothing special,” Yoo says, with a sigh. “But if there are human rights problems, then Hanchongryun will help them.”

I really don’t mind people protesting against the US military because it is their right to do so but they shouldn’t be allowed to beat the heck out the riot police like they do. The young mandatory service draftees that make up the riot police get the crap beaten out of them every time there is a major protest. I can’t believe how these people get away with assaulting police officers.

What bothers me the most about these protestors is that the media will not tell you who they are. You read the news and the reports tell you students protested against the US military. Why doesn’t the media say Hanchongnyun protestors instead of student protestors? Well, that would mean admitting to who you are and from what you have read above, who they are is nothing to be proud of.

The Korea Times this weekend had this editorial from a Daniel Hong about the relationships between Western men and Asian women. It seems like the Korean newspapers just can’t get enough about talking about relationships between Western men and Asian women as is evident by the amount of articles that have been published on this subject. Anyway this particular article I find quite offensive. Here is just the start to it:

I had never paid attention to the arrangement of the evening news anchors, a young Korean woman paired off with an old white man, at my local TV channel in Seattle until I heard Sheridan Prasso’s lecture at the University of Washington the other day. “Have you seen an Asian man teamed with a white woman on the news?” she prodded. Prasso, a former Business Week Asia editor, in her new book, “The Asian Mystique: Dragon Ladies, Geisha Girls & Our Fantasies of the Exotic Orient,” asserted that the Westerners’ misconstrued perception of Asian women made it impossible to create the odd pair.

Ms. Sheridan is alledging that Asian women cannot be put on TV and deliver news to the public due to stereotypes about them. Ms. Sheridan must not get out much from her liberal paradise of the University of Washington because growing up in Colorado and watching the Denver Channel 9 News, the news station has a Asian female news anchor Adele Arakawa who is originally from Hawaii but her grandparents imigrated to Hawaii from Okinawa, Japan. This news station didn’t have any problems having an Asian woman anchoring the news. In fact the news station had two more Asian female reporters, one Quynh Nguyen of Vietnamese family origins and Jinah Kim who is originally from Seoul, Korea.

 Obviously this stereotype isn’t very strong in my conservative state of Colorado if we got all these Asian women all over our television screens giving us the news. So how is this stereotype alive and well according to Ms. Sheridan in her People’s Republic of Washington? I thought liberals were all fair and open minded? Seems like an Asian women delivering the news in Washington shouldn’t be a problem especially with such a high Asian population; unless it’s the liberals that are the one’s that believe the stereotypes. So how did three Asian women get hired in Colorado with a very small Asian population? This may be a shock to some kooks out there but maybe they were hired because they are really good news reporters and the stereotype of submissive Asian women didn’t play into the decision to hire them. In fact Adele Arakawa is a highly respected and recognized news anchor:

Adele has received 5 regional emmys in the Heartland Region NATAS awards, including 3 for best anchor. In 1997, the emmy was awarded for coverage of the Oklahoma City Bombing. In 1999, the recognition came for coverage of the Columbine shootings. And in 2004, the Best Anchor award was based on a compilation of the year’s work. She has also received a national 1st place award in 1991 for reporting from the Asian American Journalists Association. The report was a 3-part series on the 50th anniversary of the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Adele has received numerous other awards from both community and professional organizations.

Adele served as president of the Chicago chapter of the Asian American Journalists Association in 1992. She is a member of the Japanese American Citizens League, the Japanese American Service Committee and the Japan America Society of Colorado.

I have disproved Ms. Sheridan’s theory in 10 minutes of typing. I’m sure there are more Asian women out there on TV reporting the news. Just off the top of my head I see Michelle Malkin on the news all the time. I wonder how much money the university payed her to teach these false allegations to the student at the University of Washington? Our tax dollars at work.

Now that I have proven Asian females can work in the news industry lets move on to other allegations from Ms. Sheridan:

Still on the streets in Bangkok, as she witnesses numerous Asian women escorting Western men with bald heads and pot bellies, she couldn’t help but think, “What are they thinking? What does she want for dating the paunchy middle-aged man?” She believes that the Western man exploited the Asian woman, and vice versa: the Asian woman out of her need for money and Western man out of his sexual desire. Not only from the street but also from the growth in demand for mail order brides from Asian countries testifies to the exploitation, she laments.

It is true the sex industry in the country of Thailand is out of control but that is because of the poverty there. It is the same thing in the Phillipines and was once the case here in Korea. However, it is not strictly an Asian phenomenom. She needs to go to Eastern Europe and see all the exploited women there. Same thing in Africa. The bottom line is that where there is poverty there will be those who will exploit it in the sex industry be it Asia, Africa, or Europe. Also keep in mind that it works the other way around to. I can’t count the number of GI’s in Dongducheon I have seen wiped out by Phillipino and Russian “drinky girls.” These “drinky girls” must not have gotten the memo that they are supposed to be submissive and obey all commands from the Western man.

Here is what will really piss a lot people off:

Later in the discussion session after her lecture, I raised several questions: “Who are those Western men or Americans chasing after Asian females? Aren’t they what the Southern Californians would call, UCLA (Ugly Caucasians Living with Asians)? Aren’t they at the bottom of the Darwin’s food chain that they couldn’t get what they want in their own land because of their low social status and therefore only option left for them is to chase after those Asians? I know, without any empirical data, it’ll be difficult to press the argument” Prasso admitted that it is true partially and added, “Just street wisdom will give us a telling insight. In England where I used to live, they say that if you can’t make it here, that is, to find your girlfriend, go to Hong Kong.”

I don’t know where to begin on this one? But let me just sum it up this way; this may be a shock to these people but maybe the Western men that marry Asian women simply love their wives for who they are and did not marry them because they are alledgedly submissive and exotic.

Anyway, I’m assuming the writer Daniel Hong is Korean because of his last name, but he is clearly a racist, along with Ms. Sheridan, and by association the Korea Times for allowing such a piece of trash as this article to be published. I find it interesting that a Korean man and a so called open minded liberal are the ones passing along and reinforcing the negative stereotypes about Asian women. In their effort to defend Asian women these people have actually only furthered harmed their image and have shown that they are the real racists not Western men. What is really sad is that they probably don’t even know it.

Oh My News, has an article discussing how to properly reunify the Korean peninsula. This is how the article opens up:

By using Germany as a template on what to do and what not to do, we can minimize the problems of reunification by delaying it for several decades. A divided Korea will be needed to minimize the burden to South Korea’s economy when the North does collapse. This is the general consensus among South Koreans — even though they do genuinely care about the harsh conditions in the North — but they are not willing to give up their luxury cars and vacations to help them. This may seem heartless and cold but it is also reasonable. (*)

I really don’t consider keeping your luxury cars and vacations despite the suffering of the North Korean people as caring in general about the conditions in North Korea. I pretty much consider that as not caring at all about North Korea. Which is fine, but at least be honest about it.

The writer goes on to discuss how after reunification internal security should be handled in North Korea:

One of many important aspects needed to be considered by South Korea and the U.S. is internal security. The U.S. should play an integral role in the planning of internal security in the same way it has invaded and occupied Iraq, Japan and Afghanistan. Public relations should be on the minds of the U.S. when organizing internal security. Many anti-U.S. supporters may disagree with this statement, but you have to ask yourself this, “Which country has the expertise in this area?”

South Korea should handle all internal security because after reunification North and South Korea should technically be one country with the legimate government being the elected government in Seoul. A state of marshall law will probably have to be declared for a period of time to prevent looting and a mass refugee exodus to the south. The ROK Army has more than enough man power to handle this. During the period of marshall law the local North Korean police structure will have to be rebuilt to purge people guilty of atrocities and to train new policemen in the ways of modern law enforcement including such basics as, executing people is not standard police practice.

Here is something I can agree with the writer on:

The U.S. should not enter North Korea territory. The reason for this is because the North Korean government has used heavy anti-U.S. propaganda on their people for 50 years and the sight of a U.S. Marine could incite panic among North Koreans, especially in rural areas.
(…)
With the U.S. taking a prominent role in maintaining South Korea’s side of the DMZ….

There is absolutely no reason American soldiers should enter North Korea. The amount of propaganda taught to the people in the North is sure to cause many problems if American soldiers enter North Korea. This will also cause the North Korean public to wonder if the South Korean government is really legitimate and not an American puppet.

It would also be foolish to have American soldiers secure the entire DMZ. First of all there are not enough US soldiers here to even do it, so more GI’s would have to sent here creating a larger US footprint in Korea. Plus does anyone beside this reporter think it would be a good idea that the first person a North Korean refugee would meet when trying to enter South Korea would be an American GI? If that doesn’t reinforce the image of an American puppet regime in the south then I don’t know what will.

The best thing the US Army could do is just stay on post and speed up the current down sizing of forces on the peninsula. This would free up more needed soldiers for the War on Terror plus reduce the US footprint in Korea, and put China at ease that the US military isn’t trying to move into North Korea.

All the shots including internal and border security issues in North Korea needs to be called by and executed by the South Korean government to build legitimacy in the eyes of the North Korean people.

The Oh My News reporter thinks otherwise:

United Nations peacekeepers will be needed to ensure stability in the region. All internal security matters should be handled by the UN behind the scenes for PR purposes, since the United Nations did fight against North Korea during the Korean War.

This is the last thing South Korea should send into North Korea. To the North Korean public it would just look like another foreign occupation army wanting to take over Korea. Plus how would foreigners from third world countries like; Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nigeria, etc. that make up the majority of UN peacekeeping force handle enforcing the peace in North Korea. They can’t speak the language, don’t know the history, or the cultural differences in North Korea. Worse yet what if they get caught raping girls like they did in the Congo? It would be a PR nightmare for the Korean government.

The UN is successful in executing operations like caring for refugees and providing food aid. However, there is no government body worse at handling peacekeeping than the UN. Does Rwanda, Bosnia, and Somalia ring a bell? All collosal UN peacekeeping failures, especially Rwanda. Check out this PBS Frontline report to see how effective UN peacekeeping is.

Then the reporter thinks that Chinese Army would be a great element to have join in on the peacekeeping operation:

If the UN is the head of this operation, China will be the face of the operation. North Koreans have been taught that the Chinese have helped (not saved) North Korea from the U.S. during the Korean War; China is considered a brother to North Korea.

The People’s Liberation Army of China is not known for liberating anyone much less North Korea. Tibet ring a bell? If the Chinese are allowed into North Korea, mark my words, South Korea will have a hard time getting them out.

The reporter then goes on to think that by keeping the country divided, by having the UN govern North Korea, that more international aid will roll in. After the Asian Tsunami in Southeast Asia five billion dollars overall of international aid was pledged to the effected areas. How much of that money do you think those countries will actually see? Probably not much now that the media focus has moved on, plus the cost to reconstruct North Korea will run at approximately $350 billion dollars over 10 years from just South Korea. So Korea shouldn’t count on international aid, this will be their financial burden.

Then the reporter continues to go on thinking that neighboring countries will help finance reconstruction in the name of free trade:

You may be asking yourself, why would North Korea’s neighbors be willing to spend so much on another country? There are many uses for free trade. It is the view of this writer that trade prevents wars and ensures peace between nations. This view draws on the fact that everyone wants to be rich and people would not look favorably on their government if they took steps that threatened trade. In this instance, trade will be used as a tool to speed up normalization of relations.

Before you can have free trade you need to have something to trade. North Korea won’t be in the missile exporting, counterfeit money, and drug trafficking business after reunification which leaves them with nothing to trade. It will take years to build up the economy to attract international investment.

Then the reporter concludes by thinking that money for investment in North Korea’s economy can initially be provided by making cuts in the ROK military:

I have mentioned the domino effect. Since the threat from the North would be non-existent, South Korea could redirect billions spent on defense into North Korea.

It would be extremely foolish to cut the military in Korea especially with neighbors like Korea has in northeast Asia. Northeast Asia is a tough neighborhood that requires Korea to have a strong army to prevent past national humilations for occurring again. Plus the money saved cutting the ROK Army would only put a small dent in the overall amount of money needed to fix North Korea.

The bottom line is that Korea sooner or later is going to have to suck the egg and pay for the price of unification. The current policy is to pro-long the Kim Jong Il regime to put that day of reckoning off so that the citizens of Korea can enjoy their current prosperity. I don’t agree with it but if that is what Korean government wants to do that is their choice. But when the day of unification does come the South Korean government needs to immediately establish its authority over North Korea to build its legitimacy in the eyes of the North Korean people. Any intervention by foreigners like the US, UN, or China will not be received very well by the North Korean public and will harm the legitimacy of the South Korean government.

The article overall IMHO is not to well thought out and probably should of been challenged by the editors at Oh My News. But I guess everyone has a right to their own opinion and now you know mine.

It is official now, I have now determined that the Dokdo Islets do in fact belong to Korea. I have been there and seen for myself that there are in fact Koreans on the island. Many of them were drunk, but never the less they were in fact Koreans.

My adventure to the Dokdo Islets began in the port town of Mukho just to the north of Donghae on the East Coast:

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I arrived in the city the night before the departure of the boat that would take me to Dokdo. My wife and I found a cheap hotel to stay at and then we began to look for a place to eat. While looking for a place to eat I ran into a couple of young guys who I thought were maybe Americans. It turned out they were Russian sailors. I always figured Russian sailors would look well like scruffy sailors, but these young guys looked like they were ready to go to a Justin Timberlake concert with there clubbing clothes and died blonde hair.  I think they mistook me for a Russian like I mistook them for Americans.  As I walked by they asked me something in Russian. I know absolutely nothing in Russian, so I responded by telling them that I am an American in English and they seemed surprised by that. The two guys knew very little English and amazingly enough we began to talk a little in Korean. These guys told me that they have been to Korea many times on their boat and had learned some Korean. It was a little surreal talking to Russian guys in Korean. We talked for like only three minutes before we parted. They smell liked alcohol and looked like they were looking for their next bar to hit up. They wanted my wife and I to go with them, but we declined because we were tired and had plenty on our agenda for the next day.

View Larger Map

The next morning we headed for the Mukho Harbor Station to get our tickets for the boat. To get tickets to Dokdo you need to make sure you reserve them in advance because they are hot items right now. At the station you could buy all the anti-Japanese shirts, hats, and Taeguki flags you needed to show your support for Dokdo and further enrich the marketers making a killing off the whole Dokdo craze. The shirt below says “Dokdo Bodyguard” and on the back of the shirt is says that “Daemado is ours too”:

This refers to the Japanese island of Tsushima just to the south of Pusan that many Koreans believe to be Korean territory taken from them by Japan hundreds of years ago.

Mukho ferry boat terminal.

At the station you need to be prepared to fight for every inch of space you have. The amount of pushy ajumas will force you to have to push and shove just to hold your spot in the ticket line and also the boarding line. If you are a foreigner a Customs Agent will check your passport and ask you questions about why you are going to Dokdo. I felt like telling them I was going to claim the isles for America to end the current controversy but I stuck with my story of being curious and wanting to see what the big fuss was all about with these islands. The custom agent must of felt I was up to something sinister because she then asked to see further ID. I then pulled out my military ID, which further surprised her. She asked why I wasn’t at work, so I told her I was on leave. She still must of thought something was fishy because she then asked to see my leave form. Anyway I eventually did get through Customs and boarded the boat. Be advised though that if you are Japanese you will not be allowed to board the boat. Matter of fact if you don’t have a passport they won’t let you board the boat.

The East Sea was remarkably calm that day and the boat cut through the ocean waves without any problems. I had taken some sea sickness medicine before I went on the boat but I really didn’t need it with the water so calm. The inside of the boat was like sitting in an airplane. The only difference was that there was more leg room and more drunks.

Inside seating on the ferry boat.

That is right, the boat was full of drunks. I would estimate 60% of the boat was older ajummas and 30% older ajushis while the other 10% was misc. people like my wife and I. Anyway these older ajummas and ajushis were having the time of their lives. They were dressed in their Dokdo / anti-Japanese finest and openly drank soju bottles on the boat. The boat employees didn’t care. So the boat was a raging party before we even reached Dokdo. Ajushis were singing and stumbling all over the place and grabbing other ajummas and dancing around. If you weren’t in a Dokdo mood after this the multiple TV’s played Dokdo videos over and over again proclaiming Korea’s ownership of the isles. The only time the boat employees tried to calm the party was when the partiers started stumbling into rooms and offices on the boat they weren’t supposed to go into. Overall it was a big Dokdo orgy of nationalism.

This made me wonder if all the bus tour groups of older ajushis and ajummas you see around the country at the different tourist areas are like this? Are they all just wild parties of older people making up for their lost party years of their youth due to war, famine, and hard work reconstructing the country?

Anyway after 5 hours of sailing and quick stop at Ullongdo Island, we reached Dokdo. Was it the beatiful unspoiled land I had envisioned and every Korean would lead you to believe? No it was nothing more than two unimpressive rocks:

My first view of the Dokdo Islets.

A closer view of the islets as the boat approached them.

They were both mostly brown rocks with no trees. There was occassional patches of green grass on the rocks. There was a lot of birds though. Dokto is supposed to be a bird migratory pit stop. There was lots of smaller rocks sticking up out of the crystal clear water. Overall, I wouldn’t call Dokto beautiful but is was definitely unusual. Especially for being so far out in the middle of no where.

Birds are the only thing more numerous then fishermen around the islets.

A close up look at the more unusual rock formations of the Dokdo Islets.

Even if you thought these rocks seemed pretty worthless you wouldn’t know it by the Koreans’ reactions. People broke out in the Korean national athemn and waved their Taegukis as we neared the islands. People were even crying at the sight of the islands. The ajummas stormed all over the deck of the boat and shifted their position to face the island every time the boat moved. It was like standing in a stampede of cattle as the ajummas raced across the deck to get a better view of the islets:

The people on the boat cheered the many fishing boats as we floated by. They looked back with indifference. In the distance you could even see the Korean naval destroyer that patrols Dokdo protecting it from any Japanese horde that may try to seize the islands such as research vessels filled with legions of hostile scientists.

Cable car used to transport supplies to the soldiers stationed on Dokdo.

On the islands there is actually quite a few buildings for the coast guard soldiers. There was more buildings than I expected. It must be boring being stuck on those islands all day though I imagine unless you like bird watching.

Islet garrisoned by Korean military personnel.

The importance of the islands for Korea’s fishermen was quite obvious with the number of fishing boats in the proximity of the islands. There was probably more fishermen than soldiers stationed on the island:

The real defenders of Dokdo, hordes of fishermen.

Overall, my trip to Dokto was at best interesting. If you got the time and patience to go through with this trip I say go for it. The price is not to expensive. A round trip ticket to Ulleongdo Island costs 93,200 won while the round trip ticket from Ullongdo to Dokdo cost 37,500 won for a grand total of 130,700 won for the total transportation costs. But keep in mind when traveling to Dokto that you will be more impressed by the experience than the actual sights. That is unless you are a bird watcher or you have a fetish for ajummas with big visors; Dokdo may then be your cup of tea.

Apparently the crackdown on prostitution in Korea has created a surge of sex tourism in Japan.

South Korean men are pouring into Japan to use the country’s imaginative sex businesses, literally creating cultural friction, but that by no means suggests there’s any trouble, says Shukan Post (6/3). Korean men having a proclivity for Japanese sex workers is nothing new.

Kim Jong Nam, Kim Jong Il’s son and once heir apparent, revealed when he was nabbed in Tokyo in 2001 that he frequented high class brothels in Tokyo’s Yoshiwara soapland district.

But now growing numbers of average Korean businessmen are partaking in the pleasures of the flesh like never before.

And I thought Kim Jong Nam only wanted to see Disneyland. I wonder if Bae Yung Joon made stopped by one of these soap lands during his last tour of the country?

Here is something that will make all Koreans proud:

Bubble babes, the women working the soaplands, are pleased to fire up the men from the Land of the Morning Calm.

“I’ve serviced about five Korean guys so far. They’re all very gentlemanly at first. They’ve all had military training, too, so they’re fit, really go it hard and want it time and time again. I start feeling it for real and am exhausted by the end of a session,” one worker says. “I suppose the biggest impression left on me is that all the time we’re going at it, they keep asking me in broken Japanese, ‘Am I better than a Japanese guy or what?'”

This is probably going to please many Koreans when reading this but keep in mind that this only further validates the point I made in my prior posting about the Korean inferiority complex. As long as Koreans feel like they have to compare themselves to Japan even when having sex with a prostitute, the country will never fully recover from the Japanese colonization. Koreans need to learn to just be comfortable with who they are.

Hat Tip to the Japundit.

According to the Japundit, the Nork ferry running between Japan and North Korea has been playing loud music causing local citizens to complain.

The Niigata prefectural government has warned the crew of Mangyongbong-92, a NORK ferry that makes regular trips between North Korea and Japan, to turn down the music when anchored at the Japanese port.

The government said that the music played through the ship’s loudspeakers during its last visit was too loud, and that future port calls may be denied if “the volume of sound emitted from loudspeakers, etc., at Niigata Port [is not] kept within the socially acceptable range.”

Maybe the Norks party like South Koreans on their ferry boats too.

The Chosun has an article about the sexual attitudes of Koreans in college. If find it a little surprising that only a quarter of students have had sex while in college among some other interesting findings:

Only 354 of the 1,276 — 27.7 percent — said they were sexually experienced. About half of them — 46.3 percent or 164 respondents — had their first sexual experience when they were 20-21, but a third of the group had their first sexual experiences in middle or high school.

Of the 175 that said they are having sex, 30 said they thought of their bedfellow as “just a sexual partner.”

Overall, students appeared fairly liberated in their attitudes, with a robust 61.1 percent (780 respondents) saying they were against the idea of chastity before marriage at least in theory, while 40.9 (522 respondents) said it was possible for men and women to live together without getting married. An overwhelming 85.3 percent (1,088 respondents) said they did not think it necessary for two people to get married if they have slept together.

Asked if prostitution helps prevent sex crimes such as rape, most men or 51 percent said yes, but most women or 65.5 percent said no.

Japan’s Vice Foreign Minister during a visit to Korea said that Japan is hesistant to share intelligence with Korea because the US does not trust Korea:

The official scoffed at reported remarks by Japan’s Vice Foreign Minister Shotaro Yachi to the effect that Tokyo is unable to share intelligence with Seoul because Washington “can’t trust South Korea.” “It’s below my dignity as a Korean official to ask the Japanese why they said something like that,” he commented. He also dismissed reports in the Japanese press that Seoul’s unceremonious scrapping of a Korean-U.S. military plan for contingencies in North Korea, dubbed OPLAN 5029, would be a key topic when President Roh Moo-hyun and U.S. President George W. Bush meet next month. The matter had not made its way on the summit agenda, he said.

It is pretty odd for a Japanese official to say something like that so publicly. It may be an interesting summit for President Roh coming up.

This article in the Korea Times thinks that if the US disarms its nuclear arsenal all the world including North Korea will be good neighbors and get rid of theirs:

Since the U.S. has the lion’s share of the world’s armaments, both conventional and nuclear, it is incumbent on the U.S. to lead the rest of the nuclear nations in disarmament. After all, the U.S. is the main reason for North Korea’s current nuclear ambition. They are noticeably concerned that they are next on the U.S. hit list, and can anyone really blame them for thinking this way?

Only after the U.S. promises to start doing something about this ridiculous escalation of armaments, then, and only then, can Iran and North Korea be called to the negotiating table. Let’s remember that when it comes to weapons of mass destruction, the U.S. outspends the rogue regimes of Iraq, Syria, Iran, North Korea, Libya and Cuba by a ratio of 22-1.

The US could probably decrease some of its nuclear arsenal but to get rid of it would be ridiculous. The writer thinks that the main reason the North is pursuing nuclear weapons is because they fear being attacked by Washington. Yes, they fear an attack from Washington but they could destroy Seoul with or without nuclear weapons many times over with just their conventional weapons. This fact is what has been the biggest deterent to war on the peninsula since the Korean War. The human cost of war on the peninsula is to costly. It is better to keep the peace.

The North Koreans want to build nuclear weapons as a bargaining chip for international aid (money, oil, electricity) since their economy is so horrible. The US has never attacked them (they started the Korean War) and would never attack them due to the threat to Seoul if it wasn’t for the nuclear weapon issue. The US would just assume to sit back and let them implode. So to think that if the US got rid of its nuclear arsenal and the North Koreans would just suddenly stop their nuclear program and be good neighbors is at best naive.

It is additionally naive to think that other countries would stop their pursuit of nuclear weapons if the US got rid of theirs. Imagine how different the Iraq, Bosnia, and Kosovo wars would of been if those countries had nuclear weapons. The international community would have never intervened if a dictator threatened nuclear weapon use, thus leaving these dictators in power to further ethinically cleanse their own people and seek additional military ventures.

Countries will always seek military superiority over other countries. It has been that way since the beginning of time and the US disarming itself will not change that. It will only encourage people to pursue more aggressive and hostile policies. If the US greatly cut its military and got rid of its nuclear deterrent do you think China would cut theirs? Heck no, they would invade Taiwan. Many other nations would feel free to attack their neighbors as well. The strength of the US military is what has prevented large scale warfare the likes of World War II from happening.

Now these rogue elements in the world have turned to terrorism because of their lack of conventional military power. Terrorists will never inflict the amount of casualties large scale warfare inflicts unless they get their hands on weapons of mass destruction. Thus the need to do something about North Korea.