Here we go again with the media and activists bashing South Korea over dog meat restaurants:
Canadian figure skater Meagan Duhamel poses with her dog she saved from the South Korean dog meat trade. (AP).
As the planet sets its eyes on PyeongChang, South Korea, for the next two weeks to watch world-class grace and athleticism, an ugly subset of the country’s culture is seeing increased exposure from the Olympic spotlight.
The dog meat trade.
Around 2 million dogs each year are bred on dog meat farms for human consumption in South Korea, according to the Associated Press. They are often raised in cruel conditions, beaten or left without food before they are slaughtered. It’s a practice deeply ingrained in South Korean culture, with many believing that eating dog meat increases virility and energy.
It has become more taboo as younger generations have come to view dogs as pets rather than food. The AP reports that one in five households in South Korea keep a dog or cat as a pet.
With the arrival of the Olympics, pressure on the dog meat industry in PyeongChang has mounted. There are 12 dog meat restaurants in the city, and the local government has asked them to shutter or change their menus during the Games, even offering subsidies. [Yahoo Sports]
You can read more at the link, but eating dog meat is not “deeply ingrained in South Korean culture”. Hardly anyone eats dog meat anymore in South Korea. With that said if someone wants to eat dog why should the fact that Westerners think they are cute and cuddly matter? My biggest problem with dog farming in South Korea is that some of these farmers are very inhumane with dogs raised in small cages and then beaten to death to better tenderize the meat.
A group of people stages a rally in Donghae, Gangwon Province, on Feb. 6, 2018, as the North Korean ship Mangyongbong-92 carrying the North’s Samjiyon art troupe arrived at the eastern port city. They opposed North Korea’s participation in the PyeongChang Olympics. (Yonhap)
Kim Jong-un’s propaganda squad is getting ready for their big performance in South Korea:
North Korea’s art troupe on Wednesday held a rehearsal for its upcoming performances in South Korea, which will celebrate the PyeongChang Winter Olympics.
The 140 member-strong Samjiyon Orchestra traveled to the South by ferry Tuesday to perform in Gangneung, a sub-host city of the Feb. 9-25 Winter Games, on Thursday, and in Seoul on Sunday.
It will be the first performance by North Koreans in the South since 2002, when Pyongyang sent a cohort of 30 singers and dancers from several music and performance groups to Seoul for a joint event.
After having lunch in their Mangyongbong-92 ferry, which is docked at the South Korean eastern port of Mukho, the North Koreans showed up at the Gangneung Arts Center, the venue of their first performance, at about 3:40 p.m. on Wednesday in an atmosphere quite different from that of the morning.
They changed to casual attire from the stylish red coats and black fur hats and ankle boots for female members and from black coats and hats for males. [Yonhap]
You can read more at the link, but I see that the reason they brought the performers by ferry is because it can serve as a floating jail for them.
I wonder if the ROK government will replace South Korean astronauts with undeserving North Korean astronauts if the Kim regime demands it like they did for the Winter Olympics?:
South Korea unveiled a long-term plan Monday to secure indigenous space technology with the aim of successfully landing a spaceship on the moon by 2030, the science ministry said.
Under the roadmap crafted and finalized by the Ministry of Science and ICT, the government will secure the necessary basic technology to send a spacecraft into lunar orbit by 2020 and to land it on the surface of Earth’s satellite a decade later.
In order to meet the goal, the ministry will begin analyzing critical related technology starting in 2019, officials said.
It marks the first time that the Moon Jae-in administration, which took office in May 2017, has mapped out a long-term strategy for space exploration. In the past, the country has mostly been busy with narrowing a technology gap with powerhouses such as the United States and Russia, the ministry said.
Under the latest plan, South Korea will also begin an era of private companies launching orbital space programs in 2026. [Yonhap]
We just couldn’t go an entire Olympics without some Dokdo nonsense:
Japan lodged a protest with South Korea after flags hoisted during an Olympic preparation match were found bearing disputed islets in the Sea of Japan, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said Monday.
“We cannot accept the flag in light of Japan’s stance over the sovereignty of Takeshima and it is extremely regrettable,” Suga said at a news conference, referring to the South Korean-controlled, Japanese-claimed islands called Dokdo in Korean.
The sports flag appeared during a game between Sweden and the unified Korean women’s ice hockey team in Incheon ahead of the Pyeongchang Winter Games. [Japan Times]
I wonder how many sanctions busting demands Kim Yong-nam is going to demand from President Moon?:
Kim Yong-nam
President Moon Jae-in is considering having bilateral talks with North Korea’s Kim Yong-nam who will lead a high-profile delegation to the PyeongChang Winter Olympic Games, according to Cheong Wa Dae, Monday.
The meeting, if it takes place, could speed up the thawing of inter-Korean relations which is a result of the North’s participation in the Games.Moon is also expected to try to encourage Washington-Pyongyang talks, as he will also meet with U.S.Vice President Mike Pence who is leading his country’s Olympic delegation.
Cheong Wa Dae welcomed the attendance of Kim, the president of the Supreme People’s Assembly, the nominal head of North Korea according to its Constitution.
“It is Kim’s first visit to South Korea, and he is the highest-ranking North Korean official ever to visit the South,” presidential spokesman Kim Eui-kyeom said.“His visit shows North Korea’s wishes to improve inter-Korean relations and for a successful Olympics.We recognize the North is showing a serious and sincere attitude.” [Korea Times]
South Korea’s Transport Minister Kim Hyun-mi (2nd from R) gets on an autonomous bus, which underwent a trial run using the world’s first fifth-generation (5G) network service of South Korea’s second-biggest mobile carrier KT Corp., at the Korea Transportation Authority’s Transportation Safety Research and Development Institute in Hwaseong, west of Seoul, on Feb. 5, 2018. (Yonhap)
It seems like Korean far left is attempting to try and implement their long alleged plan to confederate with North Korea on the terms of the Kim regime:
The fiasco of the ruling Democratic Party correcting its outline of a rewrite of the 1987 Constitution a few hours after its release raises serious concerns about the liberal party’s real motive for pursuing constitutional reform. In its original outline, the party removed the word “free” from Article 4, which defines the national policy direction of pursuing peaceful unification based on basic free democracy principles. The party restored the word “free” four hours later after the outline’s release and claimed it was a typographical error. But skepticism lingered.
The issue of leaving out the word “free” from the democratic order has long been disputed among liberal scholars. As the party’s floor spokeswoman Je Youn-kyung explained, a reunified Korea may not be able to stick to its political system of free democracy once it becomes one with North Korea, which has lived under a socialist system for more than a half a century. The unified Koreas may have to choose a different or unique hybrid system of free or socialist democracy with respect to North Koreans. The constitutional reform drafted by an advisory commission of the National Assembly, which also stirred controversy over being left-leaning, also took out the word “free” in its proposal. [Joong Ang Ilbo]
You can read more at the link, but I think this was clearly a trial balloon by the Korean far left to see what the reaction would be. The Korean far left also want to change the make up of the national parliament to get more left wing politicians inside of it. Finally, they are pushing to make the South Korean presidency a four year term with the option for a four year reelection. The Korean far left likely knows that they likely need at least eight years of ROK governmental control to completely transform the government and thus why they are pushing for this.
I guess we will see in the coming months if the ROK public wants to embrace these leftist policies.
Jon Dunbar from the Korea Times had a fun night in jail at the Trump Hotel in Naju:
The hotel, newly opened in July, has a glitzy neon exterior. And a prison cell theme room! What could they be thinking? I had to stay there myself.
So the next available weekend, I filled up my cats’ bowls and headed south, mum to friends about my destination.
Trump Hotel is a short walk from the station, right next to a Lotte Mart. Unsure how it works, I entered the building and took the elevator to the third floor, only to find no lobby. I met owner Hur Jung-oun, his wife Kim Hyo-won and Hur’s brother and co-owner Jun-chul and they kindly helped me check in. I got my wish, the prison cell room, for only 55,000 won. I did not identify myself or reveal intentions to write an article.
Guests are expected to enter through the garage, where they get a private parking spot and can walk up a short flight of stairs to the room and a check-in system. But non-drivers are welcome too. The garage displays the hotel logo — a bunch of playing cards. A reference to Trump’s failed casinos?
Once I was alone in the room, I pulled out my camera and took pictures of everything. Trump bathrobes, Trump bed sheets, Trump hairdryer and, of course, the prison bars. They were real metal and if you brought your own padlock you could lock someone in there. I imagined waking up in the morning to find myself locked in. [Korea Times]
