Tag: Seoul

It will be interesting to see how this turns out, but I expect eventually gay marriage will become a normal practice in Korea just like it is in the US:

Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon has put himself at the center of controversy after he expressed his support for same-sex marriage during his recent trip to the United States.

Talking to the San Francisco Examiner, Park was quoted as saying, “I personally agree with the rights of homosexuals,” adding Korea would become the first Asian nation to legalize same-sex marriage.

The Seoul Metropolitan Government (SMG) homepage was immediately inundated with comments, most of them complaints.

Park has successfully drawn public attention, but it remains to be seen whether this bold political gamble will help the potential presidential bid of Park, a liberal-minded former NGO leader.  [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link, but interesting both the religious groups and the gay activists groups are upset Mayor Park’s stance.  The gay activist groups do not think he is doing enough.

It was reported a few weeks ago that Seoul is planning to close the Seoul Station Overpass and turn it into a park, influenced by High Line Park in New York City (itself influenced by Promenade plantée in Paris). The Wall Street Journal Blog compares it to Lee Myung-bak’s Cheonggyecheon Restoration as a possible ‘pre-run-for-the-presidency project’ by Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon. [Popular Gusts]

This photo taken on Oct. 7, 2014, shows Deoksu Palace’s Seokjojeon Hall in downtown Seoul, a Western-style building used as an audience hall and sleeping quarters of King Gojong of the Joseon Dynasty, who later became an emperor of Daehan Empire, after its five-year restoration work. The building is to open to the public on Oct. 13 as the Daehan Empire History Museum. (Yonhap)

It appears that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) are reaching deep into their playbook to put down the Hong Kong protests.  Instead of the world media seeing pictures of protesters being beaten by security forces the CCP has instead outsourced the beat down to organized crime syndicates:

Pro-democracy demonstrations in two of Hong Kong’s most crowded shopping districts came under attack on Friday from unidentified men who assaulted protesters and tore down their encampments, after a week of erratic and unsuccessful attempts by the Beijing-backed government to end the protests.

The protesters said the attackers were pro-government gangs, and several protest groups called off planned negotiations with the government in response.

Crowds of residents, fed up with the inconveniences of the protests, had cheered on the attacks on the camps.

On Saturday morning, a police spokesman said 19 men, including eight with links to organized crime syndicates, or triads, had been arrested in connection with the violence in one of the districts, Mong Kok, according to Radio Television Hong Kong.

The police also said that at least 18 people had been injured in the violence, including six police officers…….

They shoved and punched protesters, sometimes kicking them after they fell. Others grabbed the scaffolding of canopies and pulled them down until the tents collapsed . Residents said the police were outnumbered and slow to react, and hours passed before reinforcements arrived to protect the protesters from a hostile crowd.

Some threw cans and plastic bottles at the protesters; others spit at them. One protester was led away bleeding from his head as angry residents pressed forward, hurling insults and threats. Another was rushed out on a stretcher, an oxygen mask on his face. Several protesters said the attackers groped and sexually harassed female protesters, and Amnesty International alleged that police officers watched and did nothing.  [New York Times]

You can read more at the link, but long time ROK Drop readers may remember that the Chinese government used this same tactic in Korea when the Chinese Embassy organized and bussed in Chinese students in Korea to attack and beat Free Tibet activists who showed up to protest the 2008 Olympic Torch Relay in Seoul.  The Chinese government sponsored mob attacked Koreans and other foreigners at the protest:

Some of the Free Tibet activists tried to run into the Plaza Hotel in downtown Seoul to escape the mob and the Chinese thugs followed them and beat them in the middle of the hotel:

Could you imagine what the reaction in Korea would be if a bunch of GIs ran amok in Seoul beat down Koreans like this?  Well the reaction from the Korean government was to deport some of the Chinese thugs and tighten visa rules.  There was no demands for an official apology from the Chinese government or removal of the Chinese ambassador from Korea.

Since this strategy worked so well in Seoul the CCP probably thinks it will work in Hong Kong as well which they are probably right about.  I do not see the CCP backing down from their decision to remove democracy from Hong Kong and will use their hired thugs to wear down the protesters.

Via Korea Noodles comes this news:

Star Trek 3 will be filmed in Seoul, Mayor Park Won-soon said Monday.

“Today I met with Jeffrey Chernov, producer of Star Track 3, at the Paramount Pictures Studio and agreed to film a portion of the upcoming movie in Seoul,” Park said in his Facebook post.

Assuming they go forward with the plan to shoot in Seoul, this is significant as it will be the first Star Trek film to do any shooting outside of United States.

TrekMovie has already reported that the upcoming Star Trek film will not be Earth focused, so it appears that the Korean location will be standing in for some kind of alien location, or possibly a (non-Earth) Starfleet location. [Korea Noodles]

You can read more at the link.

Did anyone see a naked woman walking around Gangnam last week?:

A viral video of a naked woman on the streets of Gangnam, southern Seoul, uploaded to YouTube last week, is prompting a slew of false rumors.

When the video went viral on Thursday, netizens spread the rumors about how she ended up in her birthday suit. They also claimed that the woman had been questioned by police.

However, Gangnam police said the video had been uploaded four days before, and went viral due to the rumor mongering.

“It seems as if someone deliberately made up stories about an existing video to get attention,” said the police.

“Once we receive reports from the woman or another relevant party, we will find who first spread the video and consider punishment.”  [Korea Times]

So let me get this straight, if you take a video of someone walking naked in public in Korea and post it to the Internet, you are the one that gets in trouble?

So it appears the Koreans are still hoping to turn Yongsan Garrison into a giant city park:

Yongsan, along with other U.S. Forces Korea bases in and north of Seoul, will eventually be turned over to South Korea as part of a long-planned relocation of most Army forces on the peninsula to regional hubs in Daegu and Pyeongtaek. Although a handful of buildings at Yongsan are expected to remain under U.S. control, South Korea plans to turn the 635-acre base into a massive Central Park-like green space. (Stars and Stripes)

You can read more at the link, but I would not be surprised if a good chunk of that land becomes apartment buildings.

That is what this Yonhap News report is claiming:

South Korea and the United States have agreed to make the Combined Forces Command (CFC) exempt from their plan to relocate U.S. troops until Seoul retakes wartime command of its forces from Washington, sources here said Thursday.

Seoul and Washington had been at odds over whether to move the CFC headquarters and its affiliated forces to Pyeongtaek, some 70 kilometers south of the capital, in accordance with their 2004 agreement to move the Yongsan Garrison, the sprawling U.S. military headquarters in central Seoul, and the 2nd Infantry Division stationed north of Seoul to the southern town by the end of 2016.

“The two sides have agreed to maintain the CFC in Yongsan, where it is currently located, until we regain the operational control (OPCON) from the U.S.,” a senior Seoul government source said, requesting anonymity.

The CFC, which has the command over South Korean and U.S. troops stationed here, was to be disbanded upon Seoul’s OPCON transfer in December 2015, but a bilateral agreement to delay the transfer has led the CFC to remain intact.

“Albeit temporarily, we, in fact, accepted the U.S. request to stay them in Seoul. The U.S. has proposed the CFC be an exception for the relocation plan, citing smooth policy coordination between the allies,” the source said.

“Though the U.S. wants to have most of its forces under the CFC stay in Yongsan, we have conveyed our position that it would not be possible. Discussions are under way about the size of the remaining forces,” he added.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link, but the ROK Defense Ministry are denying the report.  If true it will be interesting to see how large of a footprint will remain on Yongsan and will the commissary, PX, and other facilities remain open as well?

Just a reminder to everyone that owns a motorcycle in Korea that the Dead Seoul Run is coming up: