Tag: South Korea

This is really not a surprise at all because the truth about how these reunions came about to stop the ROK’s propaganda broadcasts is not something that the Kim regime can have the average North Korean learn about:

When it comes to news, the two countries could hardly be more different, as evidenced by Wednesday’s papers.

South Korea has more than 100 newspapers and even more online news outlets, and South Koreans are constantly on their smart phones checking the latest headlines.

In the North, however, there’s the state-run wire service, the Korean Central News Agency, the official TV station, Korean Central Television and the main newspaper, the Rodong Sinmum. And all of them feature a heavy diet of Kim Jong Un news.

But what was reported about the reunions also differed sharply.

South Korean outlets focused on the personal stories of the separated families, especially on the reunion of Lee Soon-gyu, who got to see her husband Oh In Se for the first time since 1950, when she was 19 and six months pregnant.

But North Korean state media used the occasion to trumpet their “socialist system” and the wise leadership of Kim Jong Un.

“Those from the north told their separated families and relatives from the south about the fact that they and their families are enjoying a happy and worthwhile life in the Korean-style socialist system,” KCNA reported.

Uriminzokkiri, a Web site affiliated with North Korea, also ran with the same message about how great life is in Kim Jong Un’s socialist paradise.

And of course, North Korea took the credit for the reunions happening at all (only scant mention of the South Korean Red Cross, which did the organizing, or the fact that these reunions happened so Kim Jong Un could stop potentially destabilizing broadcasts from the South.)  [The Washington Post]

You can read the rest at the link.

For those that have followed the North-South family reunions before the news that strict controls on what the South Korean families can discuss and the fact that the North Korean relatives are closely monitored should be no surprise:

The Koreans tearfully reuniting this week after being torn apart by war for six decades yearn for details about their loved ones. But with strict rules and constant hovering by North Korean officials, the brief reunions have often ended with deep regrets over questions not asked and future meetings never to come.

Participants from democratic, wealthy South Korea travel with a guidebook warning about what not to say to relatives from impoverished, authoritarian North Korea: nothing about food shortages and economic malaise; nothing that questions the competence of three generations of Kim dictators.

“I just looked at their faces and asked questions like how many family members were still living in the North,” said Jang Choon, 83, who was reunited with his younger brother and sister at the last round of the reunions before this week’s. “We should have been given more time,” said Jang, who still weeps whenever he thinks about the siblings he saw in February of last year but knows he’ll likely never see again.

After the tears and hugs, genuine conversation is often tough, maybe impossible, during the reunions at North Korea’s Diamond Mountain resort.

Here’s a look at what past participants say happens when the journalists covering the reunions, which end Monday after two three-day rounds, leave and long-lost families from two starkly different countries have time to themselves:  [Associated Press]

You can read the rest at the link.

Due to the Korean War there are many more families like this one that have remained separated for decades.  It is good they have finally been able to see each other:

The long-awaited reunions of some 530 members of 96 families separated for over six decades following the Korean War (1950-53) kicked off Tuesday at Mount Kumgang in North Korea in a flurry of tears of joy and sorrow over the time together stolen from them.

Lee Sung-kyu, from Changwon in North Chungcheong, was separated from her husband Oh In-se in June 1950 at the outbreak of the war. She was just 19 years old.

Lee was one of 389 South Korean participants eager to reunite with 141 North Koreans at the reunion center on Mount Kumgang at around 3:20 p.m.

Some were anxious over whether they would recognize the faces of a child, spouse, sibling or parent after more than half a century had passed, in the first round of the 20th inter-Korean family reunions that will run until Thursday.

Lee, now 85, was accompanied by her and Oh’s son and daughter-in-law. Her eyes swelled with tears upon seeing her 83-year-old husband in a gray suit, a fedora hat and hearing aids.

Their 65-year-old son Oh Jang-kyun uttered the salutation “Father” for the first time in 65 years.

“I tried to live proud to be your son,” said Oh, who was born during the war and never knew his father in North Korea. “We look alike.”

His father beckoned him, said, “Come nearer,” and stroked his son’s face. It was their first conversation.

Jang-kyun and his wife proceeded to give a deep bow to his father, a sign of respect to elders.

For 37 years, Lee thought her husband was dead and even conducted memorial services for him every year.  [Joong Ang Ilbo]

You can read the whole thing at the link.

About 3,000 people raise their cups to make a simultaneous toast in a Korea Record Institute record attempt for the largest toast during a beer festival on a street in Seoul’s Sinchon region on Oct. 17, 2015. (Yonhap)

I guess we will see if the Kim regime manufactures a reason to cancel these reunions at the last minute, but it appears these reunions are pretty much set to happen this time:

South Korean families separated by the 1950-53 Korean War gathered at a resort on the country’s east coast Monday to prepare for reunions with their North Korean relatives later this week, officials said.

The first batch of the nearly 400 South Koreans, part of 96 families, stopped in the city of Sokcho on their way to the scenic resort on Mount Kumgang for the reunions with their family members in North Korea from Tuesday to Thursday.

The upcoming event, the first since February 2014, is the result of the deal South and North Korea reached in August to defuse military tension and resume the family reunions.

The second round of the reunions involving some 250 South Koreans, part of 90 families, will be held from Saturday to next Monday at the North Korean resort, which is about a half-hour drive from Sokcho.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

It is a bit amazing how popular the Apple iPhone continues to be in the land of arch rival Samsung:

Despite a price tag as much as $100 higher than previous models, the popularity of Apple’s latest iPhone 6s and 6s Plus appears hotter than ever in Seoul.

The country’s three major mobile carriers said on Monday that preorders of the entire first batch of the two mega-popular phones, with guaranteed shipping on Oct. 23, ran out in less than 10 minutes after they were made available on the carriers’ respective websites at 9 a.m. on Monday.

Top player SK Telecom presold the latest iPhones in two groups, using the date customers are guaranteed to receive the phone and launch a subscription – on Oct. 23 and on Oct. 24.

The first batch sold out in seven minutes and the second in half an hour, according to an SK spokesman. He refused to disclose the number of phones the company released on preorders.

The seven-minute record is the fastest for any iPhone model, given iPhone 6’s first preorder in October last year was done in nine minutes and its predecessor 5s, in 10 minutes in October 2013.   [Joong Ang Ilbo]

You can read the rest at the link.

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— 10 Magazine Korea (@10_Magazine) October 16, 2015

These leftist teachers in South Korea only help justify President Park’s efforts to have the government provide school textbooks when classes which include pro-North Korean propaganda and wishing President Park was never born are taught:

The Ministry of Education on Thursday launched an investigation at a high school in Seoul over a report that one of its teachers had shown a video clip containing questionable remarks about President Park Geun-hye and her late father.

The ministry sent two auditors to the high school, located in Gangnam District in southern Seoul, to question the teacher who showed the controversial video and three students.

A civic group claimed Wednesday that the teacher had shown a controversial video clip last month during class. The Blue Union civic group said it recently received a tip from a student about what happened in the classroom on Sept. 18.   [Joong Ang Ilbo]

You can read the rest at the link.

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— The Jeju Weekly (@JejuWeekly) October 16, 2015

A farmer operates a rice-harvesting machine to gather ripe rice at a paddy field in the city of Boryeong on South Korea’s west coast on Oct. 13, 2015. (Yonhap)