The North Koreans are demanding that the US conduct bi-lateral negotiations to end the nuclear crisis.

SEOUL, South Korea – North Korea has demanded bilateral talks with the United States to defuse the tension created by its announcement that it is a nuclear power, the communist state’s U.N. envoy said in a South Korean newspaper interview published Friday.

“We will return to the six-nation talks when we see a reason to do so and the conditions are ripe,” Han told Seoul’s Hankyoreh newspaper in a Thursday interview in New York. “If the United States moves to have direct dialogue with us, we can take that as a signal that the United States is changing its hostile policy toward us.”

I really think the only time President Bush will conduct bi-lateral negotiations with Kim Jong Il is when he is bombing them. Where is the UN in all of this? They were quick to run to Iraq and stick their nose into everything. Where are they now?

Japan is using a clever sanctions plan to pressure North Korea to end their nuclear weapons campaign.

Faced with North Korea’s declaration that it has nuclear weapons, Japan’s Prime Minister performed a deft political kabuki today, urging his bellicose neighbor to join disarmament talks, while letting the clock run on a new law that will bar most North Korean ships from Japanese ports starting March 1.

“I understand calls for imposing sanctions are growing

The New York Times wrote a nice article on the current Japanese – North Korean relationship. It is good to see someone getting serious with North Korea, finally.

An amended Liability for Oil Pollution Damage law requires that all ships over 100 tons calling at Japanese ports carry property and indemnity insurance. A seemingly bland piece of legislation, this law was drafted with North Korea in mind. In 2003, only 2.5 percent of North Korean ships visiting Japan had insurance.

“It will hurt, it will pinch, it will be felt by North Koreans who are significant,” said Chuck Downs, an American expert on Korea who wrote “Over the Line: North Korea’s Negotiating Strategy.”

Yes, hit them in the pocket book. This should eventually have the effect of restarting the negotiations. It may cause in the short term some more saber rattling and threats of war but the Norks know they cannot win a war. They want to stay in power and need international aid to do it. They will eventually have to negotiate.

President Roh Moo-hyun’s approval rating is on the rebound according to the Korea Times.

President Roh Moo-hyun’s approval rating has improved over recent months rise, reaching 39.2 percent early this month.

Thanks to the apparent turnaround in policy, Roh’s approval rating rose to 35.6 percent, according to another R&R poll released last month.

If 39.2% approval rating a normal approval rating for a sitting President here in Korea? It seems really low especially when he was sitting at 27.6% in November.

As much as people villianize President Bush with anti-Bush movies, books, songs, forgerized memo’s, etc, etc, he has always maintained at least around a 50% approval rating. I wonder if President Roh’s opposition made anti-Roh books, songs, movies, etc about him, how low his popularity would go?

According to the Chosun, 10% of Koreans are married to a foreigner.

Some 10 percent of Koreans are married to foreigners. Often they are men who marry women from developing countries.
Korean men unwilling or unable to find spouses at home are increasingly turning to life partners not only from among ethnic Koreans in China but from Southeast Asian countries like Vietnam, the Philippines, Thailand and Cambodia and from Central Asian countries like Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan. Often there is a commercial element to these unions. Many such couples lead contented lives, but many other marriages fail due to racial discrimination and ill-treatment.

This can be particularly damaging to women from Third World countries, who already find themselves socially isolated because of language and culture barriers and have nowhere to turn to if they suffer violence from husbands or other family members. Those who escape to shelters run by private charities often bear scars that will take a lifetime to heal.

I find the stat that 10% of Koreans are married to foreigners to high. I can’t say that 10% of the Korean people I know, and I know a lot of them, are married to a foreigner. Here is something else I find unbelievable:

“Overall, I think the proportion of problem families to ordinary families is 7:3. But all cross-cultural families have problems,” said Min Myung-suk of Cheonan, South Chungcheong Province, who has been married to a Filipina for nine years.

It is mostly the Korean husbands who are responsible for the failure of such marriages, according to experts. “Men are responsible 90 percent of the time. They should help their foreign wives to adapt to life in Korea,” but they do not, believes lawmaker Kim Chun-jin, a member of the National Assembly’s Social Affairs and Welfare Committee.

So basically this stat is telling me that 7 out of 10 families with a foreign spouse is having problems. That is disturbingly high and with such a high number of problems it makes me wonder why Koreans want to keep importing wives. There has got to be a better way for men here to meet women to marry. Difficult problem and I am not sure what the solution is.

North Korea has finally admitted to possessing nuclear weapons.

SEOUL, South Korea – North Korea on Thursday announced for the first time that it has nuclear weapons and rejected moves to restart disarmament talks any time soon, saying it needs the armaments as protection against an increasingly hostile United States.

“We … have manufactured nukes for self-defense to cope with the Bush administration’s ever more undisguised policy to isolate and stifle the (North),” the North Korean Foreign Ministry said in a statement carried by the state-run Korean Central News Agency.

It appears the Norks are just positioning themselves for better bargaining position to get more free stuff from the international community before beginning the 6 party talks again. Sounds like they are getting more and more desperate. If they do a nuclear test then we know they are really getting desperate for aid. We should know more in the coming days. Stay tuned.

Korea played a great game last night in beating Kuwait 2-0 at Seoul World Cup Stadium. Currently Korea is in really good shape to qualify for the 2006 World Cup with the win.

North Korea almost pulled off a stunning upset of Japan in World Cup Qualifying action last night in Japan.

SAITAMA — Japan managed to avoid a major disaster with an injury-time winner from Masashi Oguro securing the points in a thrilling 2-1 win in a World Cup Group B Asian qualifier against North Korea at Saitama Stadium on Wednesday night.

Japan made heavy weather of what should have been a routine three points and can consider itself fortunate to come out of this media-hyped fixture unscathed.

North Korea came very close to winning this contest before Japan scored the winning goal near the end of the game during injury time.

Japan began to panic as time ticked away, leaving gaping holes for North Korea to exploit at the back and it was only centimeters that saved Japan from certain defeat when, in the dying minutes, Kim Yong Jo struck a free-kick that shaved Japan’s right post.

Takahara glanced a late header wide and Ogasawara had a low shot well-saved by Chol with the writing appearing to be on the wall for Japan.

I like this cynical comment from the Japan Times article expressing their anger at the Japanese coach:

Deep into injury time with Zico frantically scribbling down excuses to present to the Japanese media, Chol, who had shown an unwillingness to catch crosses, opted to punch a soft one straight to Oguro who accepted the gift, slotting home the winner and taking home the glory.

Coach Zico from Japan has been drawing the anger of the media in Japan recently for benching some of his best players who play in the European leagues for players that play in the Japanese J-League.

Kim Jong Il must of been really pissed off after the game to come out today and announce to everyone he has nukes. Sore Loser!

Check out Simon World’s latest Asia by Blog Round Up.

Will Japan ever get enough of this guy? Here is a picture from the Sapporo Snow Festival in Japan of Bae Yong-joon. No word yet if it won the grand prize or not.

Does anyone know how a glow in the dark chicken fights cancer?

South Korean scientists successfully produced a chicken, which inheriteda fluorescent character from its green-tinged transgenic father, opening theway to mass-producing biomedical substances.

“We confirmed the possibility that biomedical substances such as cancer-fightingenzymes can be produced en masse via chickens, which can inherit injected genetic materials,” Kim said.

Congratulations Korea, you are first in the world with glow in the dark chickens!