SOUTH KOREA EVENTS 2008

1970s View of Osan AB (USAF Photo)

SOUTH KOREA DOMESTIC EVENTS

January 2009

Year of the Ox (Jan 2008) The New Year has finally set in, with much anticipation that it will be a year filled with blessings. The year 2009 is the Year of the Ox, according to Chinese astrology. The ox is the second animal in the zodiac and often associated with honesty, faithfulness, strength and gentleness. But it also sometimes represents stupidity and stubbornness. The animal was an indispensable asset for Korean agriculture, as it was used to plow the soil here day after day. As such, ox people are believed to labor through their daily responsibilities either at work or at home without complaint. The basic character of oxen is success through hard work and sustained effort, finding no benefit in concocting get-rich-quick schemes.



Ox as Time, Space and Zodiac Sign

According to the National Folk Museum of Korea, the Chinese zodiac marks time and space based on the movement of heavenly bodies and seasonal change. The lunar calendar is structured over a 60-year cycle that consists of two separate interacting cycles -- the ten ``heavenly stems'' and the 12 zodiac animal signs. The ox is the second animal in the zodiac and the five ox years within the 60-year cycle are called ``eulchuk,'' ``jeongchuk,'' ``gichuk,'' ``sinchuk,'' and ``gyechuk'' in that order. The ox year comes every 12 years.

The ox also symbolizes north-northeast, as seen by the markings on star maps and sundials. This unique concept of time and space was used extensively for fortune telling and is frequently expressed in charms, divination books, gravestones and guardian god figures.

Close Companion

As Korea has traditionally been an agricultural society, oxen meant much more to farming families than just livestock. The ox was indispensable for its role in plowing fields and as a means of transportation for its owner. It was also considered a ``walking safe'' that could be sold when its owner was in urgent need a large sum of money, the museum said. The importance of the ox in Korean agricultural communities is reflected well in traditional ancestral rituals. Ox horns, skins and fat were widely used in daily life, not to mention the meat that was regarded as a premium food ingredient. There is an old Korean expression that ``there is nothing to waste from an ox except for the yawns.''

Traits and Symbolism

The ox is often described as dependable, patient, hardworking, strong and gentle. These positive attributes became symbolism reflected in religion, philosophy, literature and many other aspects of daily life. The folktale of an ox saving its owner from a tiger is regarded as an example of the Confucian ideal of loyalty. The image of a shepherd boy riding its back is straight out of a Taoist handbook.

In Buddhism, the ox symbolizes the essential goodness of human nature. The shape of a lying ox or the shape of its stomach was a feng shui technique to determine ideal housing sites, according to the museum. Honesty and integrity are often the themes in proverbs about oxen, and such symbolism is evident in everyday items.



Oxen in Folk Customs

The importance of draft animals is reflected in shamanistic rites of ancient times. The ``sonoreum gut,'' or ox worship rite, is a shamanistic ceremony performed for good harvests, good luck and prosperity for the family and local community. It is performed around the first full moon of the new year of the lunar calendar. Through singing and dancing, the shaman dramatically attempts to tame cattle to make plows, showing the ritual's nature as an agricultural rite.

The most distinctive part of the performance comes at the end, when the shaman hops on a swing made of two blades and swings forward to exorcise evil spirits. Although there are different types of ``sonoreum gut'' around the Korean Peninsula, the double-blade swing appears only in Pyeongsan, Hwanghae Province, now part of North Korea. (Source: Korea Times.)

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Police and protesters clash at weekend rally 3,000 people light candles to protest ruling party's attempt to pass 85 controversial bills Police arrested 32 civilians over the weekend for staging a "candlelight protest" against the ruling Grand National Party's unilateral push to put 85 contentious bills to a vote before the close of the extraordinary session on Thursday and parliamentary security guards' forcible dispersal of Democratic Party lawmakers who opposed it. The civic group Emergency People's Action to Protect Democracy and Counter Clampdown on Candlelight Protest (People's Action) and many netizens called the police's actions "excessive" and criticized them for cracking down on resistance to the GNP's plan to pass the bills without the consent of the opposition parties.

About 3,000 demonstrators gathered at the National Assembly on Saturday, and reports later showed that scuffles between parliamentary security guards and sit-in protesters left some people injured. A candlelight protest was held at 7:30 p.m. Police attempted to disperse protesters at around 11 p.m., taking into custody a protester identified only by his surname Lee. The protest continued with a "candlelight walk" out of the National Assembly building and two more protesters were arrested.

Protesters went to Yeoungdeungpo police station at around 4 a.m. the following day to ask for the release of their fellow protesters, but police, calling the group "illegal protesters," arrested an additional 29 people. Those arrested are being questioned at four different police stations, according to reports. One of the protesters said police arrested them after demanding dispersion only three times in 15 minutes. Kang Young-ku, a lawyer representing the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, an umbrella labor union group, called the arrest "illegal," saying that police did not follow proper procedures when taking them into custody, specifically by not advising them of their Miranda rights. (SITE NOTE: This part of "Miranda rights" is hilarious. There is no such AMERICAN right in Korea. These are all the previous hard-core protestor from the "mad cow disease" fiasco of 2008 -- who are now disgraced as US beef attained #1 best selling status in Korea in Dec 2008. The politics inside the National Assembly is that the GNP was threatening to railroad 85 "essential" bills through the National Assembly, but the DP staged a violent sit-in. On 5 Jan, there was a partial shutdown of the sit-ins, but the DP still refused to cooperate with the GNP. The passage of the bills by the GNP is assured with their majority of votes, thus the DP strategy of violent disruption. THE MAIN POINT IS THAT THIS DEMONSTRATION MARKS THE OFFICIAL END OF "THE MAD COW PROTESTS" AS THE ACTIVISTS SWITCH THEIR FOCUS!!! )

Police dispute this, saying that they followed the proper procedures and anything about the fate of those arrested is yet to be determined. People's Action held a press conference at 11 a.m. on Sunday and asked for the release of those arrested, saying, "The clock seems to be turning quickly back to the dictatorship era because police arrested people who were expressing their opinions peacefully." The civic group held a "candlelight cultural event" at 7 p.m. on the same day and plans to carry out an "emergency action" on Tuesday to prevent the contentious bills from passing through parliament before the extraordinary session ends on 8 Jan. (Source: Hankyoreh.) (SITE NOTE: Inside the National Assembly the leftist protest guru Rep. Kang Ki-gap was jumping up on tables in his hanbook to attempt to escape being removed physically by guards.)

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Completion of Saemangeum Reclamation Due This Year (Jan 2009) The administration plans to complete the 18 year-long construction of seawalls on the southwestern coast for the Saemangeum reclamation project and allow vehicles to enter the reclaimed land by the end of this year. It will have spent 3.236 quadrillion won to construct the seawalls and build a transportation network inside the 40,100-hectare reclaimed area. The plan was approved at the first round of the 14-member Samangeum Committee, presided over by Prime Minister Han Seung-soo.

The government plans to frontload the budget to complete the project as early as possible and hold an investor relations session in March to draw investment from local and foreign institutions. ``Saemangeum will be home to developers of green growth and low carbon technology, the country's new economic growth engines,'' Han said. The government has drafted special legislation for the industrial development of the tidal areas, which President Lee Myung-bak hopes will become the ``Dubai of Northeast Asia.''

The key aspect of the law revision is to increase the proportion of land assigned for industrial development to 70 percent and reduce that of agricultural land from 70 percent to 30 percent. The revision also extended the range of support for foreign investment. The firms that will settle in the industrial zone will be offered various medical and educational facilities, as well as reduced taxes and rental fees. The proposed special law also calls for easing conditions on the establishment and operation of foreign schools. (Source: Korea Times.)

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Sex with spy leads to jail for soldier (Jan 2009) A South Korean army officer who was caught in honey trap set by a North Korean spy has been sentenced to three and a half years in a military prison, the Army said on 16 Jan. The 27-year-old first lieutenant, identified only by the last name Hwang, was court-martialed on charges of assisting North Korean spy Won Jeong-hwa’s espionage operation and failing to notify the upper chain of command that he was aware of the spy’s identity.

Hwang was convicted on on 15 Jan, and Lim Choung-bin, the Army chief of staff, confirmed the decision yesterday, the Army said. Hwang has a week to lodge an appeal.

The 34-year-old spy was indicted in April 2008 for a series of National Security Law violations, including using sex to extract confidential military information. The so-called “Korean Mata Hari” scandal rocked the nation, but North Korea said the espionage allegations against Won were a “complete fabrication by the South.” Won, who identified herself later as an agent of the North’s Ministry of State Security, entered the South by posing as a defector in 2001. She slept with several South Korean military officers, including Hwang, to get confidential information. Her other missions included planning to assassinate Hwang Jang-yop, former secretary of the North’s Workers’ Party and the highest North Korean official to defect to the South. The spy was convicted last October and sentenced to five years in prison. She didn’t appeal.

Won’s stepfather, Kim Dong-sun, 64, was also indicted last year on charges of posing as a defector and funding her espionage operation. His trial is currently ongoing, but unlike Won, Kim has denied most of the charges.

Meanwhile, Yonhap News Agency reported last week that the prosecution and intelligence authorities are searching for another of Kim’s stepdaughters. She disappeared during their investigation. According to the Suwon District Prosecutors’ Office, the woman is in her 30s and is a witness for their case against Kim. Prosecutors said the woman entered Korea with Kim in 2006 as a defector and accompanied him on trips to China in 2007 and 2008. Kim was found to have met with North Korean agents during those trips. (Source: Joongang Ilbo.)

Spy's stepdad is cleared of espionage (Feb 2009) The 64-year-old stepfather of a convicted North Korean spy was acquitted of espionage charges on 18 Feb. The Suwon District Court said in its ruling there is indirect evidence to presume Kim Dong-sun was involved in spying, but that the prosecution had failed to prove the indictment beyond a reasonable doubt. The court also said it cannot completely dismiss Kim’s explanation that the fact he is a North Korean defector allowed him to engage in trade with the North. Upon the acquittal, Kim was immediately freed.

Won Jeong-hwa was indicted in April 2008 for a series of National Security Law violations, including using sex to extract confidential military information. The so-called Korean Mata Hari scandal rocked the nation. Won, who identified herself later as an agent of the North’s Ministry of State Security, entered the South by posing as a defector in 2001. Won was convicted last October and sentenced to five years in prison. She did not appeal.

Kim, Won’s stepfather, was indicted September last year on charges of posing as a defector and funding her espionage operation. Unlike Won, Kim has denied most of the charges. The prosecution has argued that Kim defected from the North even though he had no reason to do so. Prosecutors also suspected Kim because his family, who had once defected from the North, had voluntarily returned to the communist country, and because he had contacted North Korean officials in China in the course of running his trade business. The court said the suspicions raised by prosecutors are understandable, taking into account the peculiar nature of the situation that North Korean defectors face. Prosecutors said they will review the ruling thoroughly and decide whether or not to appeal. (Source: Joongang Ilbo.)

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Millions Take to the Roads for Lunar New Year (Jan 2009) Those leaving Seoul for their provincial home over the lunar New Year would be wise to avoid 6 a.m. to noon on Sunday, 25 Jan, the day before the new moon. On the way back, the traffic will be worst between noon and 6 p.m. on New Year's Day. With heavy snowfall disrupting traffic on several main roads leading into and out of the city, millions of Koreans continued their journeys to hometowns across the country to celebrate the Lunar New Year Saturday. Nearly 350,000 vehicles will leave the capital Seoul Saturday, the first day of the holiday period, and major roads are expected to remain jammed through the end of the holiday next week, highway authorities said. Lunar New Year's Day, called Seol in Korean, falls on Monday, 26 Jan.

The Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs on 22 Jan said an average of 3.4 million cars per day will use expressways between Jan. 23 and 28, 3.76 million of them on New Year's Day. The figure is up 2.4 percent from a year ago. "Our estimate is that the biggest number of people will leave Seoul for their hometowns in the morning of Jan. 25," a ministry spokesman said.

According to a nationwide telephone survey of some 6,800 adults by the Korea Transport Institute, 79.2 percent said they would drive to their hometowns in their own car, and 22.2 percent said they will leave between 6 a.m. and noon on Jan. 25. The period between 6 a.m. and noon on Saturday, Jan 24, came second with 15.3 percent.

On the way back to Seoul, 26.3 percent replied they would leave their hometown between noon and 6 p.m. on Monday, and 22.8 percent they would leave between noon and 6 p.m. on Tuesday. A bus-only lane on the Gyeongbu Expressway will be effective from Saturday morning until midnight on Tuesday on 141 km between south of the Hannam Bridge and Sintanjin IC. Up-to-date information can be found by calling 1588-2505 24 hours a day. (Source: Chosun Ilbo.)

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Biracial children shunned by classmates (Jan 2009) Six out of every 10 "native" Korean students do not consider biracial children born in Korea to be full-fledged Koreans, according to a recent survey released on 23 Jan. In the survey that questioned 1,725 elementary and middle school students in Seoul and Gyeonggi Province, only 40 percent of them perceived children born out of international marriages as Koreans. Almost half of the students said they have difficulties in maintaining friendships with students from multicultural backgrounds.

Of them, 24.2 percent cited the difference in skin color as the reason for their problem with getting close to biracial children. It was followed by a fear of becoming a outcast among their fellow students with 16.8 percent and a feeling of embarrassment with 15.5 percent. "Children of multicultural families who are born out of international marriages are likely to face difficulties due to fears of family break-up that result from prejudice and miscommunication within their family members," said Ko Seong-hye, an official of a youth foundation which conducted the survey at the request of the Ministry for Health, Welfare and Family Affairs. "When they start going to school, they become the victims in many cases, being ignored and pestered by their classmates, which often makes it hard for them to continue to go to school," Ko said.

Most of the surveyed students also said they are able to accept the multicultural students as their classmates and felt comfortable having meals with them, but believe it was wrong to get married to a student with various cultural backgrounds, it said. State education authorities pledged to spend 70 billion won ($50 million) by 2012 to support those students. After-school classes will be expanded to help young children who have fallen behind in their studies and money will be allocated to educating pre-school children who do not go to kindergarten, officials said.

Together with short-term foreign residents, the number of expatriates living in Korea reached more than 1.17 million as of Sept. 30, figures from the Korea Immigration Service said. That figure is projected to jump to 2.9 million by 2020, taking up more than 5 percent of the total population. Of 144,385 people who have settled down in Korea due to international marriages, 76.5 percent of them live in metropolitan areas, while 23.5 percent reside in the farming regions, the ministry said. (Source: Korea Herald.)

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February 2009

National Police Agency classifies candlelight protest groups as 'violent' (Feb 2009) According to the police, Korea has no less than 1,842 organizations classified as “violent,” including opposition parties in the National Assembly, labor and civic groups, and even organizations of beekeepers and ginseng growers. The National Police Agency arrived at the number by looking up all the organizations that joined together to form the People’s Countermeasure Council against Mad Cow Disease, a national umbrella group that organized “candlelight protests” against the resumption of U.S. beef imports, officially defining even member organizations that participated only in name as “groups involved in illegal and violent protests.”

Any organization listed as an “illegal and violent protest” group is excluded from receiving any government financial assistance. The list of 1,842 “illegal and violent protest” organizations includes the Democratic Labor, the Renewal of Korea, and New Progressive Parties, progressive groups like the People’s Solidarity for Participatory Democracy, the Korean Federation for the Environmental Movement, the Korean Teachers and Education Workers’ Union ( Jeon Gyo Jo), and the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (Minju Nochong).

But it also includes groups that added their names as signatories to the umbrella anti-US beef protest organization but whose involvement was otherwise minimal, including the Korea Federation of Organizations of the Disabled, itself an umbrella organization for groups for the disabled, professional craft guilds like the Korea Beekeeping Association and the Korea Ginseng Farmers’ Association, as well as groups like the Uijeongbu Living Welfare Center, and the Surviving Families of Persons of Distinguished Service to the Independence Movement, an official organization of families with members cited by the government for their participation in the campaign for independence from Japan.

Police officials have formally reported the list of violent groups to the ministries of Labor, Unification, and Gender Equality, and to the Nakdong River Valley Environmental Authority, and will soon inform the Ministry of Public Administration and Security, Korea’s equivalent to an interior ministry. “We determined that all the organizations who added their names to the umbrella task force were involved in illegal and violent protests,” said Jang Jeon-bae of the National Police Agency. “There can be no exception for opposition parties and professional guilds.”

Since 2007 the government has been refusing government financial assistance of any kind to groups “involved with” protests deemed “illegal and violent.” There are two types of government financial subsidy for Korean organizations: “project funds for public interest activities by non-profit, non-governmental groups,” which is the type of funding received by civic groups, and funding for organizations “related to the government.”

“Funding for ‘public interest activities’ is different in character from money that goes to labor costs and operational expenses, and it is given only after a strict selection process,” said Jang Man-hui of the Ministry of Public Administration and Security. “It is all part of serving the Korean public, with non-governmental groups carrying out work in individual areas the government can’t manage on its own.”

Meanwhile, PSPD and Jinbo Korea, which were actively involved in organizing the protest against U.S. beef imports, have not been receiving government funds. The government cut “project funds for public interest activities” by 10 billion won (US$7.3 million) last year to 5 billion won (US$ 3.7 million) for 2009 and is currently accepting applications for this year’s funding. “I understand that the government wants to uses money to tame civic groups to its liking,” said the PSPD’s An Jin-geol. “But it is the Korean citizen who is going to suffer” from poor funding. (Source: Hankyoreh.)

Police Labels 1,800 Civic Groups 'Illegal and Violent' (Feb 2009) The National Police Agency submitted to government ministries Friday a list of organizations involved in illegal protests and violence. This includes more than 1,800 civic organizations including members of the People's Association for Measures Against Mad Cow Disease, which hosted last summer's massive protests against the resumption of U.S. beef imports. A number of minor opposition parties such as the Korea Democratic Labor Party are also on the list.

The ministries will review the list to decide whether to continue government subsidies for them. The People's Association claims that the police only supports pro-government organizations and has no regard for public benefit. (Source: Chosun Ilbo.) (SITE NOTE: You have to love the progressives logic. I have a right to hold violent protests to overthrow the government and it is the government's responsibility to pay for these protests. This is because the violence is for "the public benefit." Under the Roh administration, the monies were often used for the benefit of sending aid to North Korea that bypassed monitoring -- meaning the food ended up in the North's army hands or to support violent anti-American or anti-Japanese causes.)

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No Police Indicted in Deadly Yongsan Clash (Feb 2009) Prosecutors said yesterday (Feb 8) that they will indict 21 to 22 sit-in protesters but no police for the Jan. 20 deadly clash in Seoul’s Yongsan district. The Seoul Central Prosecutors` Office has completed a 20-day investigation into the cause of the fire that killed six people including one police officer. (SITE NOTE: On Jan. 19, a police swat team raided a dilapidated four-story building in central Seoul to evict dozens of squatters opposing redevelopment of the area. Six people, including a police officer, were killed in the blaze that occurred during the pre-dawn raid. Investigators at the Seoul Public Prosecutors' Office concluded that the fire was caused by the protesters' mishandling of a large amount of paint thinners used in makeshift bombs. The five protestors were supposedly killed following the collapse of a "watch tower" after they were trapped by the fire they started. The leader of the protest has been arrested. The police were hoisted to the top of the building with a shipping container and the SWAT team member was killed when the building exploded. Lee Myeong-bak stated the country “needs to create a society that maintains law and order and morals even if it’s a painful thing to do.” The radicals -- including the same cast of characters from the Mad Cow fiasco -- have called the police actions as lies and fabrications and continue to attempt to forment protests against the LMB government.)

After much drama including the unusual calling of a meeting by the Seoul High Prosecutors’ Office and delay in the release of the investigation results, prosecutors are expected to finally announce their findings in a news conference this morning. Despite controversy over police brutality and the dispatch of a SWAT team, prosecutors said they could not charge police officers since no illegal action such as violence was taken in the crackdown.

They did say police failed to take some safety measures in their operation, but that this had no direct causal connection with the tragedy. Thus, police officers will not face charges of involuntary manslaughter in the line of duty. The decision by police commanders to send the SWAT team only a day after the demonstration broke out was also not classified as a criminal action.

Prosecutors, however, said they will announce blunders in the crackdown when they announce their probe results today. Announcing matters not facing criminal charges has become a point of contention within the prosecution, but experts say the mistakes of police officers must be scrutinized by a relevant authority to prevent a recurrence.

The probe judged as irrelevant in the fire’s cause a private demolition worker who sprayed water from the rooftop of a building next to Namildang building, the site of the clash. Nonetheless, police could still be held responsible for his conduct. Officers tried to prevent the creation of a lookout by protesters with a water hose installed at the police’s request. The worker and police disagreed over the reasons of the worker spraying water over the building in their testimonies. (SITE NOTE: The radicals are calling the construction company "security guards" -- not construction workers. The problem is that the police enlisted the aid of the private worker.)

Twenty-one to 22 of the 25 protesters in the sit-in demonstration will face indictment. In response, their attorneys plan to request a jury trial. “We aim to seek the truth of the case through a jury trial because of high controversy over the fairness of the investigation,” an attorney said. (SITE NOTE: On 9 Feb 27 protestors were indicted.)

The probe results also said one of the protesters poured paint thinner on the fourth floor of the lookout. The liquid then flowed down to the floors below via the building’s iron frames. Police officers said that while they were trying to reenter the scene to arrest 14 protesters who resisted until the very end, paint thinner that splashed on the third floor caught fire when one of the protesters threw a Molotov cocktail. Prosecutors said the entire lookout was ablaze when the fire on the third floor spread instantly through the iron frames. A report also said a protester was allegedly caught on video pouring paint thinner, but prosecutors failed to confirm his identity due to his face mask and poor video quality. (Source: Donga Ilbo.)

Police and protesters clash at Yongsan memorial events, 6 arrested (Feb 2009) Police and civilians clashed on Saturday (Feb 7) during a memorial event for the victims of last month’s police raid on anti-urban development protesters in Seoul’s Yongsan district. The gathering was the third of its kind held in central Seoul following the Yongsan tragedy, which left six people dead. On Saturday, police arrested six people during the event organized by the People’s Committee to Protest against the Murderous Clampdown on the Yongsan Evictees, including a 25-year-old student only identified by his surname, Park.

Protesters were calling on the government to step up efforts to find and punish those responsible for the Yongsan tragedy. Police sealed off Chonggye Plaza, where the memorial event was scheduled to be held, leaving protest participants to gather in front of the Korea Deposit Insurance Corp. at around 4 p.m. Approximately 5,000 people joined the event, and over 9,000 police officers were deployed, including members of the riot police. After the memorial event ended, participants attempted to move toward Cheong Wa Dae at around 5:50 p.m., when they clashed with police who were trying to stop them. In Jongno and Myeong-dong, scuffles between protesters and police also broke out, with police firing water paint at protest participants. The crowd dispersed at around 10 p.m., and approximately 200 college students who had been protesting at Lotte Department store also departed the scene at around 11 p.m.. A memorial event was also held at 7 p.m. on Sunday. Earlier in the day, the People’s Committee had displayed pictures related to the Yongsan tragedy in central Seoul. The committee said it is planning to organize a large-scale demonstration on Monday, when the prosecution is scheduled to unveil the results of its investigation into the Yongsan incident. (Source: Hankyoreh.) (SITE NOTE: This is a continuation of the progressive protests -- after the suppression of the Mad Cow Protests that were really about overthrowing the Lee Myeong-bak government. The radicals failed and have been flailing around looking for a cause. This is just the latest. The Seoul Police Chief withdrew from his nomination to the head of the National Police Agency because of this incident -- a victory for the radical protestors who didn't deserve it.)

Protesters attack and rob police officers (Mar 2009) Eleven police officers were assaulted and one robbed by protesters at a Saturday anti-government rally over the Yongsan tragedy. Eight demonstrators were arrested and are being questioned in connection with the case. Police said yesterday that a special investigation team has been launched to capture the remaining offenders.

According to Seoul’s Hyehwa Police Precinct, over 200 protesters participated in the rally near Seoul Station. In the Yongsan incident, five squatters and a police officer were killed in an eviction gone wrong. At around 9:15 p.m., protesters moved to the Jongno area and encountered a plainclothes police officer identified as Park near Dongdaemun subway station. A protester saw him holding a walkie-talkie and shouted, “There’s a cop!” Park was then mobbed by dozens of protesters and severely beaten.

“Most of them looked in their 40s and 50s and some looked homeless,” Park said. His wallet and walkie-talkie were taken. Police found that his credit card had been used to buy a 152,000 won ($98) jacket and a pack of cigarettes. (SITE NOTE: The criminal was caught on CCTV at Dongdaemun Station buying a pack of cigarettes with the credit card.)

The protesters then moved to Jongno 5-ga and attacked eight riot police officers and a traffic cop. An officer identified as Choi said they took his two walkie-talkies. An officer called Kang had his nose broken. Joo Sang-ryong, commissioner of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency, said police will “sternly punish those who engaged in the illegal violence.” (Source: Joongang Ilbo.)

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Korean 'Ghost Airports' Abandoned (Feb 2009) On the afternoon of Feb. 2, cold winds swept into the passenger terminal of Yangyang International Airport in Gangwon Province, where not a single passenger could be seen. In fact, the airport has been deserted for the 99 days since the arrival of its last chartered flight, a Korean Air carrier returning from Japan, on Nov. 1. Yangyang Airport was granted a budget of W356.7 billion (US$1=W1,378) in April 2002 with a view to establishing itself as a tourism hub in the eastern Gangwon region.

But due to decreasing numbers of passengers, the airport posted deficits of more than W10 billion for three consecutive years -- W12.9 billion in 2006, W10.6 billion in 2007, and W10.1 billion in 2008. Some blamed incompetent planning and administration, which failed to consider potential environmental changes, including the expansion of nearby expressways.

In 2008, a daily average of 26 passengers used the airport. In contrast, up to 146 airport staff were there to service them. Yangyang Airport is not the only Korean "ghost airport." Construction has been suspended at both Uljin Airport in North Gyeongsang Province and Gimje Airport in North Jeolla Province. Indeed, Uljin Airport was selected by international news agency AFP as one of its "Seriously strange: zany stories of 2007" for the fact that, "A town in South Korea which spent some US$140 million to build its own airport was then forced to admit that no airlines actually wanted to fly there." When Uljin Airport was 85 percent complete, construction was suspended in 2005 after the Board of Audit and Inspection decided to re-evaluate the project. (Source: Chosun Ilbo.)

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164 Koreans Go Missing Every Day (Feb 2009) Some 50,000 to 60,000 missing persons are reported to the police every year. Police classify them as "missing" for children under the age of 14, mentally disabled people and the elderly with dementia, while children over 14 and adults are classified as "runaway."

Since the statistics began to be compiled in 2006, the number has been rising, from 59,739 in 2006 to 35,439 in the first half of 2008 only. Assuming the average to be at 60,000, about 164 people go missing every day.

The number is considerably higher than in advanced countries. Japan had 88,000 missing and runaway cases in 2007, 22,000 more than Korea in the same year. But that is out of a population of 120 million, 2.5 times greater than Korea's, so the missing rate is lower. In Korea, 1.3 people out of 1,000 go missing, as against 0.7 in Japan.

As concerns grow, police now have a systematic investigation network for missing children. After a law on protection and support for missing children was enacted in 2005, the Police Agency for Missing Children under the Korean National Police Agency was established. It is open 24 hours a day to receive reports and distribute the cases to local police stations. (Source: Chosun Ilbo.)

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HIV infections hit record high in 2008 (Feb 2009) Nearly 800 Koreans were newly infected with the human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV, last year, the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on 10 Feb. This is the highest number ever. In 2008, 797 Koreans were infected with the virus that leads to AIDS, or acquired immune deficiency syndrome.

There has been a gradual increase in the number of Koreans infected with HIV annually, from 105 in 1996 to 219 in 2000 and 610 in 2004. Of the 797 newly infected, 743 were males and 54 were females. Twenty were teenagers. The number of infected Korean teenagers is also on the rise, from 0 in 1996 to 2 in 2000, and 12 in 2004. There were also 56 infected seniors who were 60 years old or over.

The 459 people for whom the cause of infection was known, all caught the virus from sexual contact. Of those, 268 were infected through heterosexual contact, and 191 through homosexual interaction. All of those who got infected through sexual contact were males. “This shows that people are not cautious enough when having sex,” said Nam Jeong-gu, the senior researcher at the AIDS and tuberculosis department of the KCDCP. Nam also said the high number of infected males is due to the high number of infections through homosexual contact.

A total 6,120 Koreans have been infected with HIV; 1,084 of them have died from AIDS or other reasons. The KCDCP said AIDS has now become a chronic disease like high blood pressure or diabetes. (Source: Joongang Ilbo.)

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N.Korea Classified a 'Direct, Serious Threat' (Feb 2009) The Defense Ministry on 17 Feb said it decided to define North Korea as a "direct, serious threat" in the 2008 White Paper published Friday. The word "direct" is added to the 2006 definition. It is the strongest expression South Korea has used about the North since striking the phrase "main enemy" from the biennial white paper amid thawing relations in 2004.

"We've decided to define the North as a direct, serious threat because the security environment has changed considerably since the North's missile and nuclear tests in 2006 and that its conventional forces are still threatening." a ministry official said. In a question-and-answer session in the National Assembly in July last year, Defense Minister Lee Sang-hee already hinted the ministry would not revive the term "main enemy" in the white paper. He said, "We'll use an expression that is not liable to escalate unnecessary internal debate but that everybody can agree to," he said.

The white paper will have on a cover a picture of the 14,000 t-class Dokdo, the largest landing ship in Asia that was commissioned in 2007, to display the country's determination to defend the islets. (Source: Chosun Ilbo.)

The Ministry of National Defense made the determination not to refer to North Korea as the "main enemy" but as a "direct and serious threat" in its 2008 Defense White Paper. "It was determined that North Korea would be listed as a 'direct and serious threat' in the 2008 Defense White Paper that will be issued on February 20," an authority at the ministry said Tuesday. In so doing, the ministry expressed its intention not to repeat a previous designation of North Korea as the country's "main enemy," in spite of repeated demands from conservatives since the launching of the Lee Myung-bak administration last year. This approach by the Defense Ministry is a simple issue of expression regarding whether or not to call North Korea the country's main enemy, and it is known to have reflected an understanding that this is separate from a readiness posture or the recognition of a realistic threat.

Previously, when Defense Minister Lee Sang-hee was asked at a general meeting of the parliamentary Defense Committee last September if the expression "main enemy" would be used again in the White Paper, he responded, "I don't think it's right for our society to lapse into the internal conflict that North Korea desires by using the expression 'main enemy' again."

The expression "direct and serious threat" used in the 2008 White Paper represents a "composite" of the 2004 and 2006 Defense White Papers from the Roh Moo-hyun presidency. In the 2004 White Paper, North Korea was listed as a "direct military threat," and in the 2006 White Paper, it was called a "serious threat." Defense White Papers are released every two years.

The expression "main enemy" was first used in the 1995 Defense White Paper. This followed a statement made by North Korean representative Park Yong-su at the eighth inter-Korean working-level talks held at Panmunjom in March 1994, when he said, "If war breaks out, Seoul will become a sea of fire." There are no other examples worldwide of nations being specified as "enemies" in Defense White Papers, and the expression was removed from the 2004 White Paper in consideration of the special nature of inter-Korean relations, combining exchange and cooperation with military antagonism. (Source: Hankyoreh.) (SITE NOTE: This is a MAJOR change as the Roh administration forced the Defense Ministry to remove North Korea as the "main enemy." Without this designation, how could anyone justify the US troops to "support" the ROK. If it had no "main enemy" the question politically was -- Why were Americans still stationed in the ROK? The addition of a "direct serious threat" is still not a "main enemy" but it does resolve the question of why Americans are still in Korea. However, under the Obama administration, the presence of troops in Korea may become a touchy issue as he needs monies to support his programs and he's starting to make moves to cut back on defense spending by 10 percent -- WHILE putting 17,000 troops into Afghanistan. Cuts have to come from somewhere.)

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Won Plunges to Two-Month Low (Feb 2009) The won plummeted for a fifth day Monday, closing at W1,427.50 to the dollar, down W23.30 from the previous day and the lowest since Dec. 9. The plunge was caused by a slew of bad news for Korea's financial market. They included a selling spree by foreign stock investors, news of an impending missile launch by North Korea, and negative news from the European financial market. Weakening share values prompted foreign investors to sell W18 billion worth of Korean stocks. For last five days, foreign investors sold W680 billion. Endless rumors about a second global economic crisis caused investors to buy U.S. dollars, considered a safer bet in turbulent times. (Source: Chosun Ilbo.)

Won's Value Falls to 11-year Low (Feb 2009) The Korean won yesterday fell to an 11-year low on news that Wall Street stocks hit their lowest level in 12 years. The Korean financial market will likely keep fluctuating as long as negative developments abroad remain unresolved. In Seoul yesterday, the won dropped 27.30 points against the dollar from Monday to close at 1,516.3, the lowest value since 1,521 on March 31, 1998. The cause was foreign net sales of Korean stocks that continued for the 11th straight day. The won-dollar rate has shot up as much as 256.8 points since late last year.

The benchmark stock index KOSPI fell 35.67 points (3.24 percent) to close at 1,063.88 in the wake of the U.S. Dow Jones Industrial Average plunging 3.41 percent to hit a 12-year low. The sense of crisis weighed on Korean stocks, with market insiders fearing that the index could fall below 1,000 again after October and November last year.

The U.S. government said it will inject more state funds into major banks after reviewing their financial situation. The move has heightened investor fears by spawning debate over the nationalization of private banks. Investor sentiment rapidly deteriorated on news that Washington is discussing the bailout of AIG, which has suffered record losses, amid mounting fears that the Big Three American automakers could file for bankruptcy protection. The spread of the financial crisis originating in Eastern Europe also weighed on global stocks. The crisis in Eastern Europe underscored the risk of investments in emerging markets, triggering a "sell Korea" spree and sending the won's value plunging.

Oh Hyeon-seok, head of investment information at Samsung Securities, said, "Chances are high that GM could file for Chapter 11 at the government's initiative, and if that happens, the market will inevitably be affected in the short-term." "As expectations still remain for recovery, however, the KOSPI will fluctuate between 990 and 1,320 points for the time being." (Source: Donga Ilbo.)

South Korea intervenes to prop up Won (Mar 2009) The South Korean won on Tuesday (4 Mar) rebounded from the weakest level in 11 years, helped by suspected intervention by the foreign exchange authorities. The won has lost about 18 per cent of its value against the dollar this year to become the worst-performing major currency in Asia amid growing concerns about the country's debt-financing ability.

The Korean currency fell as much as 1.5 per cent on Tuesday morning as the stock market fell below the 1,000 mark. But it rebounded 1.2 per cent to close at 1,552.40 per dollar, ending a three-day losing streak. Traders say Won1,600 appears to be the dollar's short-term peak.

Traders said the government repeated its intervention after the finance minister warned against currency speculation. "[Authorities] are resolutely watching the foreign exchange market," finance minister, Yoon Jeung-hyun, told reporters. "[The dollar/won] will not continue to go in one direction forever."

Traders suspect that the authorities sold between $500m and $1bn in the market after selling more than $1bn on Monday to prop up the flagging currency. Government officials believe the foreign exchange market has been driven by sentiment, rather than economic fundamentals, with investors unsettled by AIG's huge losses, Citigroup's nationalisation, and financial unrest in Eastern Europe.

Kim Ik-joo, director general in charge of currency and international affairs at the finance ministry, said this week that the country would do its best to stabilise the foreign exchange market. The Bank of Korea directly provided $3bn to local banks in 84-day swap agreements.

The continued intervention reduced the country's foreign exchange reserves, the world's sixth-largest, from $201.7bn in January to $201.5bn at the end of February. However, analysts said the government needed to dispel growing concerns about the country's dollar funding shortages and high external debt. South Korea's short-term external debts stood at $194bn at the end of 2008, just covered by its international reserves.

"The won's weakness stems from external factors rather than domestic problems. So the won would remain under pressure so long as global financial unrest continued," said Lee Sang-jae, economist at Hyundai Securities. "Government intervention could slow the pace of the won's slide, but can't reverse the trend." (Source: Financial Times.)

Won Rallies on Trade Surplus Forecast (Mar 2009) The won rallied Monday (16 Mar), closing at W1,440 to the dollar, the strongest showing since W1,427.50 a month ago. The won was strong throughout on news that Korea could a record trade surplus in March. The fact that Philips sold off its share of LG Display last weekend also contributed to the surge. Foreign investors who bought LG Display bought won to pay for the shares, boosting Korea’s dollar reserves and thus the won. But the stock market closed down slightly, probably due to pressure from a short-term hike last week. The benchmark KOSPI closed at 1,125.73 points, down 0.3 point or 0.02 percent from Friday. The tech-heavy Kosdaq shed 0.5 point or 0.12 percent to 388.77 points. (Source: Chosun Ilbo.)

Korean won rises past 1,100-level to dollar (Sep 2009) The South Korean currency rose past the 1,100-level against the U.S. dollar for the first time in about one year on Wednesday as foreign investors bought Seoul shares amid recovery hopes, dealers said, according to Yonhap News. The local currency was trading at 1,196 won to the greenback as of 9:15 a.m., up 7.4 won from Tuesday's close. It was the first time that the Korean unit has broken the 1,100-level to the dollar since Oct. 1, 2008.

The won's ascent came as offshore investors continued to buy Seoul stocks, lending support to the Korean currency. Foreign investors bought a net 3.36 billion won (US$2.8 million) worth of Seoul shares on the main bourse as of 9:15 a.m. On the back of their continued stock buying, the benchmark Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) surpassed the 1,700-point mark on Tuesday, the highest closing in 15 months. The KOSPI traded in negative territory in early trading on profit-taking. (Source: Korea Herald.)

The Korean won will likely continue to gain ground against the dollar over the next few years, sending the exchange rate down to three-digits in 2011 for the first time in four years, according to an international financial consulting firm, Tuesday. Citing the easing of the global financial market jitters and the nation' strong growth, Global Insight reported that the won-dollar rate will average around 1,273 won this year and decline to 1,054 won in 2010 and 980 won in 2011. The local currency traded at an average of 930 won against the greenback in 2007, on the back of active foreign buying of local stocks and bonds.

On Tuesday, the local currency gained 0.6 won to close at 1,203.8 won from the previous trading session, boosted by foreigners' massive buying of local stocks. It marked the strongest rate against the greenback since Oct. 1, 2008, when it traded at 1,187 won per dollar.

Even though the strengthening of the won is a bonanza for Korean travelers and students abroad, its rapid rise is feared to chip away at the price competitiveness of domestic companies on overseas markets and thus shrink the nation's outbound shipments. The consulting firm said Korea's faster-than-expected economic rebound has eased concerns over its foreign exchange liquidity, adding that international investors will not bet against the Korean won.

Following the collapse of Lehman Brothers a year ago, foreign investors dumped local stocks and bonds, and took dollars out of the country en masse, sending the local currency into a plunge. The won was depreciating sharply against the dollar and the yen, and the foreign exchange reserves were shrinking rapidly, with many foreigners raising the possibility that the nation could face a recurrence of the foreign exchange crisis.

But with the signing of the currency swap deal with the U.S. and a range of government steps to stabilize the financial sector and the overall economy, the won has regained strength over the past few months.

However, the strong won is not good news for everyone. Local exporters may suffer losses in foreign markets because of the deteriorating price competitiveness. But the extent of the negative impact will not likely be as severe as some fear because the Japanese yen has also strengthened against the greenback. Korean firms are locked in fierce competition with their Japanese rivals in automobile, electronics and many other consumer markets across the globe. "The local currency lost its value sharply last year. But it has gained some ground this year. We expect the won-dollar rate to show a downward curve at a modest pace," an official at the Ministry of Strategy and Finance said.

Korea Exchange Bank (KEB) currency dealer Lee Young-chul echoed the government view, saying the won will continue to appreciate against the greenback but the pace of the rise will moderate down the road. "We think that the won-dollar rate will fall below 1,200 won toward the year's end. In 2010, the rate will likely drop further, hovering around 1,100 won on the nation's continued trade surplus and active foreign buying of local stocks and bonds. Korea's outpacing of other major economies in growth has and will contribute to raising the won's value," Lee said.

He then said the strong won will not negatively affect the country's exports as severely as it did in the past. "Besides the price competitiveness, Samsung and other companies here are performing better than their rivals on the global stage thanks to their improved brand image, design and technologies. I think, despite the won's strength, they will continue to post strong results across the globe." (Source: Korea Times.)

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New Trial Could Recategorize `Pro-democracy Events` (Feb 2009) In 1989, seven police officers were killed while trying to suppress student demonstrations. Those found guilty of the officers’ deaths in the “Dongeui University case” were later recognized as pro-democracy activists, but a new trial could change that. The ruling Grand National Party’s Jeon Yeo-ok said on 24 Feb that she will suggest a revised Act on the Honor Restoration and Compensation for Those Related to the Democratization Movement to the National Assembly next week.

The Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun administrations asked the Commission for Democratization Movement Activists` Honor Restoration and Compensation to determine if certain controversial cases could be judged democratization movements. If the revised bill is passed, it will be used to determine if such decisions were right. (SITE NOTE: This is to effect a 180 degree shift of the Progressives movement that actually had North Korean communists awarded the designation of "Freedom Fighters" and having the North Korean families awarded stipends. If successful, the government can start hunting down all the past "Democracy Fighters" now holed up in such places as Yonsei, Seoul National University, etc. and go after the radical professors and union officials who spearheaded the violent riots of the past.)

Jeon told The Dong-A Ilbo, “Improper activities related to entrance exams invited the so-called Dongeui University case. Violent students threw Molotov cocktails and seven innocent police officers were sacrificed. Nevertheless, the Commission for Democratization Movement Activists` Honor Restoration and Compensation had 46 violent protesters including their leaders labeled pro-democracy activists.” “I will definitely have the case reexamined to eradicate violence and correct Korea’s history distortions by left-wingers.” The revised bill said, ‘When certain critical factors appear, a retrial can be held only once after deliberation is over. The retrial can be held within 10 years.” In other words, the revised bill suggests that a retrial can be held.

On the other hand, existing law says a retrial is possible only after an objection is filed within 30 days after the commission’s decision or the commission concludes that a retrial should be held within 30 days. Thus a retrial cannot be held without legal changes. When the commission concluded that the Dongeui University case was a democratization movement in 2002, the families of the seven police officers submitted a protest to the Constitutional Court. The court dismissed their appeal, however, saying, “Bereaved family members are not a concerned party.” If the revised bill is passed, the commission can hold a retrial of all cases recognizing democratization movements over the past 10 years. Jeon is considering whether to hold a retrial for other cases, but will face heavy resistance since organizations related to the democratization movement and opposition parties are expected to oppose the bill. (Source: Donga Ilbo.)

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W50,000 Bill Unveiled (Feb 2009) The Bank of Korea on Wednesday unveiled a new W50,000 bill, the largest denomination banknote in Korea. Its front shows a portrait of Shin Saimdang, a prominent 16th-century female artist, calligrapher, and mother of Confucian scholar Yulgok. This is the first Korean banknote that features the portrait of a woman. The bills will go into circulation in June.



Shin's portrait on the banknote was drawn afresh by the design research office of the Korea Minting and Security Printing Corporation based on the authorized portrait of hers kept at Ojukheon, her old home in Gangneung, Gangwon Province. It was drawn by the renowned artist Kim Eun-ho in the 1960s.

The W50,000 bill is of the same length as the current 10,000-won bill, but 6 mm wider. New anti-forgery features are added using state-of-the-art security technology, such as a hologram stripe, a moving image in a stripe band, and serial numbers that look bigger to the right. (Source: Chosun Ilbo.)

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April 2009

Convictions in Taean Oil Spill Overturned (Apr 2009) (SEE Jan 2008 for Taen Oil Spill Story) In sorting out who is at fault in the nation's worst oil spill, the Supreme Court in Seoul has overturned a lower court's decision that found the captains of both vessels involved guilty.

In December 2007, a crane barge owned by Samsung Heavy Industries collided with the Hong Kong-registered crude tanker Hebei Spirit off the coast of Taean in South Chungcheong Province. This resulted in the leakage of 12,000 tons of crude oil into the West Sea. The captains were later fined and sentenced to jail, but Thursday's decision nullifies the punishments and sends the matter back to the local district court. (SITE NOTE: At the time, we stated they were hung simply because the Koreans wanted a pound of flesh and it didn't matter who. The Captain of the Heibei was standing off-shore with engines stopped. Regardless of the warning, it would have taken 20 minutes to move the tanker -- and they didn't have the time. The fault was obviously the tug boat companies and the Samsung Barge. We saw it as a typical example of the Korean injustice -- to blame everyone, even if they are not guilty.)

The nation's highest court says the degree of damage to the vessels does not justify the punishments. The court, however, acknowledges the charge of marine pollution as valid and is holding the companies involved accountable upholding fines on both companies.

In 2008, a lower court fined Samsung Heavy Industries and Hebei Spirit Shipping each W30 million (US$1=W1,346). The initial ruling had some critics pointing out that the oil tanker was anchored and unable to avoid the collision.

The estimated damage to local tourism and fishing industries, according to the International Oil Pollution Compensation Funds, exceeds W570 billion. The ruling could influence a separate civil lawsuit brought against Samsung by locals who were affected by the spill. (Source: Chosun Ilbo

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May 2009

Police rounded up 240 citizens during weekend demonstration (May 2009) The police rounded up 240 citizens who participated in a gathering held in Seoul, April 30 to May 2, commemorating the one-year anniversary of last April candlelight vigil demonstrations. A police announcement of harsh punishment has led to concerns of mass arrest.


I May Protest


2 May Protest


2 May Protest


5 May Protest

The Criminal Investigation Bureau of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency said on Sunday that it round up 241 people. It also said that it arrested a person with the surname Bae, and requested arrest warrants against 4 people, including a person with the surname Lee. It sent 31 people to summary justice and will decide whether it requests arrest warrant against 205 who are now investigated. The police round up 30 persons on April 30, 71 persons on May 1, and 112 persons on May 2.

Around 50 civic organizations, including the National Conference for People’s Livelihood and Democracy, aimed to hold a ceremony commemorating the first anniversary of candlelight vigil demonstrations on May 2 at Cheonggye Plaza and Seoul Station. The participants said “The Lee Myung-bak government attributes the responsibility of economic polarization to the people. The people have to fight the dictatorship of government with the spirit we showed last year in the candlelight demonstrations.”

The police did not allow the demonstration to take place, and deployed 13 thousand police to block the rally. In response, citizens moved to the Seoul Plaza in front of City Hall and occupied the “Hi Seoul Festival” stage, leading the Seoul city government to cancel the festival. Some participants fought against police on the street by throwing bricks.

Ahn Jin-gul, the chief policy maker of National Conference for People’s Livelihood and Democracy criticized police, saying, “The police’s blockade led to unnecessary violence. The police’s use of excessive force to break up the demonstrations was the cause of the violence.” (Source: Hankyoreh.)

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Gov't Suspends Subsidies for Anti-Government Civic Groups (May 2009) -- Yonhap News ("GOV'T SUSPENDS SUBSIDIES FOR ANTI-GOVERNMENT CIVIC GROUPS ", Seoul, 2009/05/06) reported that the ROK decided to sever financial subsidies for a number of civic groups accused of participating in illegal anti-government demonstrations, officials said, accelerating its campaign to crack down on such rallies. The decision to strip "anti-government" private organizations of state subsidies was made public after the government finalized a plan to dole out 4.9 billion won (US$3.89 million) in subsidies to private non-profit organizations this year. Ministry officials said the list of those excluded included six civic groups that received huge sums in state subsidies last year despite their participation in a series of illegal street rallies in protest over the government's resumption of U.S. beef imports. (Source: Nautilus.)

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NIS raids 19 places related to the unification movement (May 2009) Detectives from the National Intelligence Service (NIS) and the Security Investigative Team of the National Policy Agency (NPA) raided nineteen places, including the South Korea branch office of the Pan-Korean Alliance for Reunification (PKAR), on charges of violating the National Security Law on Thursday (7 May).

It was reported that the NIS arrested six persons including Lee Kyu-jae, 73 years old and chairman of PKAR's South Korea branch, and searched their headquarters located in the Namyoung neighborhood of Seoul. It is the first time in six years, since Professor Song Du-yul's case in 2003, the NIS has directly involved itself in the investigation of a security matter.

At 6:30 a.m. of the same day, detectives from the NIS and NPA raided twelve houses of PKAR senior members, six offices of PKAR, and the company that has managed PKAR's email. The NIS says that they are analyzing hard discs, accounting records and publications that they secured during the raid. The NIS also arrested three PKAR senior members, and three senior members of the South Korean branch of the All-Korean Committee for Implementation of the 6.15 Joint Declaration. The NIS says that it is investigating them both for whether they have communicated with North Korean without the South Korean government's permission or praised North Korea in their publications.

The Director of PKAR's South Korean branch says, "We have visited North Korea with the permission of the Unification Ministry and published our magazine, 'The way of nation,' for ten years without problems." The PKAR issued a statement later that day, calling the raid a form of suppression against the unification movement. (SITE NOTE: Under Kim Dae-jung's and Roh Moo-hyun's administration, these folks had the run of the house. Everyone in Korea knew that they were actively providing aid to the North and these folks were linked to all the violent demonstrations against the USFK -- including the violent hate American campaign in 2002. At the start of the Lee Myung-bak administration, there was a promise that these groups would be targetted. However, the mad cow demonstrations (which off-shoots of this organization supported) -- that were thinly disguised Topple LMB protests -- interrupted the move. Our guess is that the group were targetted much less for their North Korean links than their anti-LMB stance.) (Source: Hankyoreh.)

The Joong Ang Ilbo is reporting that the police believe the Pan-Korean Alliance for Reunification was taking orders from North Korea in violation of the National Security Law.

For those that don't know, the Pan-Korean Alliance for Reunification is one of the many North Korean front groups active in South Korea. For example the former Vice Chairman of the PKAR, Kang Soon-jeong was arrested back in 2006 as a North Korean spy that instigate the MacArthur Statue protests in Incheon that ultimately led to a massive counter-demonstration by ROK Marine Corps veterans that turned the streets of Incheon into utter anarchy of fisticuffs.

The PKAR has been active in communist causes for years. In recent years they even teamed up with leftist communists groups in the US to protest the US-ROK FTA. PKAR members have also been regularly going back and forth to Pyongyang to receive their marching orders these past few years with no action taken by the prior Roh Moo-hyun administration.

The PKAR has also been active in promoting the North Korean Songun philosophy in Korean school classrooms and even decorates their webpage with North Korean propaganda posters. They have also been active in the anti-USFK movement as well.

I could go on and on but I think everyone gets the point that these people have been breaking the law for years, but has been able to get away with it due to the past governments not enforcing the law. This selective enforcement of the law is nothing new in Korea because while these North Korean apologists and spies was busy degrading the country, the Roh government was busy trying to silence the ROK veterans groups that regularly counter-protests these North Korean stooges.

By the PKAR has also been part of an effort to get the Obama administration to sign a peace treaty between the US and North Korea. This effort actually appears to be working considering Stephen Bosworth is now the US envoy to North Korea. (Source: Marmots Hole: Robert Koehler.)

(SITE NOTE: After a reinvestigation, the time of Roh jumping from the cliff was changed to between 6:14 am and 6:17 am. The misinformation is the result of the bodyguard lying about the incident, and then changing his story many times. Later the police indicated that the bodyguard was supposedly on an errand when Roh fell from the cliff. The times were verified from the bodyguard's telephone records -- NOT his admission. However, as of 28 May the police continued to absolve the bodyguard of any conspiracy theory of foul play. Police say the bodyguard initially lied under extreme psychological pressure. The bodyguard was worried about his failure to protect the former president, police said. "He, however, changed his mind and provided the new, accurate account about the incident," police said. We personally find these comments VERY strange.)

Owl Rock where Roh fell (27 May 2009)

Roh — who after leaving office moved back to his hometown of Bongha in Gimhae, some 280 miles (450 kilometers) south of Seoul — went for a walk in the mountains behind his house. He was accompanied by a security guard, Busan police said. Part way up, Roh hurled himself off a 100-foot (30-meter) -high cliff known as Owl's Rock, the Yonhap news agency said. Police said they were still investigating the circumstances of Roh's death.

Roh is said to have asked for a cigarette from his bodyguard before falling from the cliff. When the bodyguard said he would get him one, Roh reportedly said, "That's okay. You don't need to." Shortly after, Roh distracted the bodyguard's attention by pointing to people walking below. While the bodyguard was looking below, Roh jumped.

(SITE NOTE: THIS VERSION PROVED TO BE FALSE. The bodyguard recanted his story and stated he was not present when Roh fell. There are other anomalies to the story being reported in the media. During the days immediately following Roh's death, rumors and speculation was rampant. They were saying that Roh's wife asked if he wanted her to go along on the hike. He said it was up to her. She was at home changing clothes when the incident happened. If this is true, this begs the question as to why would someone contemplating suicide invite his wife to join him? There are other puzzling items as the note he left behind was found on a computer in a room that supposedly only Roh had access to -- but the aides found the note within minutes of Roh's fall. We ask why they would release the note to the media even before the Busan Police could verify the notes contents? Supposedly the media received the contents of the note at 9:21 am -- even before Roh's death at 9:30 -- and even before the Pusan police could confirm the contents of the note. However, the police state that the note was NOT tampered with. In addition, we are questioning why Roh would leave such a cold and impersonal note on his computer for his family. In Korea, it is traditional for a HANDWRITTEN note to be left behind. There are circumstances that we find very peculiar in this case. To most, something doesn't smell right.)

(SITE NOTE: Questions on blogs asked why Roh, who had signed up for organ donations after his death, would ask to be cremated. Though he and his wife made the pledge during the 2002 Presidential campaign, the pledge was still posted on Roh's web site as of 27 May. These and other questions were immediately circulated via the Internet.)

(SITE NOTE: Though the bribery investigation is ended, there still is the matter of the Presidential harddrives that Roh had removed from the Blue House just prior to leaving office. These were relocated to Bongha. Roh has fought to retain the materials claiming he was using them to write his memoirs. Threatened by Lee Myeong-bak, he returned copies of the materials but retained the original harddrives. This case is very much alive as the information is classified and officially belongs to the National Archives. Prior to Roh's death, they were at an impasse. There is a possibility that the materials were passed on to third parties -- and the harddrives provided clues to the recipients of the information. This perhaps is why Roh refused to turn over the harddrives.)

(SITE NOTE: Chun's condolences were a rather back-handed one that simply said that Chun would pray for him -- not that he was saddened by the event. We noted that condolences from Roh Tae-woo were pointedly missing as both Chun Doo-hwan and he were subjected to scorn and persecution by Roh's attempts to recover the millions of dollars of hidden slush funds accrued during years of power under false name accounts. )

(SITE NOTE: Obama should read up on history as Roh brought the 60-year old US-ROK alliance to the brink of dissolution. He should have chosen some other words.)

British Prime Minister Gorden Brown also offered his condolences over Roh's death, the British Embassy here said Saturday, according to Yonhap News. "I would like to send you and the Korean people sincere condolences on behalf of the British government at this time of grief and shock," said Brown in a message sent to South Korea's President Lee Myung-bak through the British Embassy in Seoul. "I was most saddened to hear the news of President Roh Moo-hyun's tragic death. He had been a leader of your country who had made his mark both nationally and internationally."

Earlier, Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso expressed surprise at the death of Roh and offered his condolences to the neighboring country, AFP reported. "I was quite surprised," Aso told reporters after hearing about Roh's death, according to Jiji Press. "I would like to offer my condolences and pray for the repose of his soul," Aso said. Yukio Hatoyama, head of the nation's main opposition Democratic Party of Japan, said in a statement: "I would like to give my sincere condolences to the bereaved family and Korean people."

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen also offered his condolences following the death of Roh who he said made large contributions to the improvement of ties between Korea and Southeast Asia. "I don't know how to express my sadness. I express sincere, deep condolences," the prime minister told a group of South Korean reporters visiting here. "I didn't hear yet about the exact reason for his death, but I can't contain my sadness over the news." He noted that Roh had given much aid and support to Cambodia during his presidency from 2003-2008, recalling Roh's visits to Phnom Penh and Siem Riep, home of the Angkor temple complex. (Source: NY Times, Chosun Ilbo, Donga Ilbo, Joongang Ilbo, Korea Herald, Yonhap News, and MSNBC.)


Roh Moo-hyun and Donald Rumsfeld (2005)

Mourning by Supporters Mourners wailed as Roh's coffin, draped in red, returned to Bongha from a Busan hospital. His two children, sobbing, followed the casket to the community center near his birthplace of Gimhae, some 280 miles (450 kilometers) from Seoul. About 13,000 people had paid their respects at a mourning site at the village's community center, police said.

A stream of mourners paid their respects to late President Roh Moo-hyun at his retirement home at Bongha village in Gimhae City. A memorial altar for the former president was set up at the village hall late Saturday night (23 May) a few hours after his body was transported from Pusan National University Hospital. Top officials of the Roh administration including former Prime Minister Han Myung-suk, former Health and Welfare Minister Rhu Shi-min, former Justice Minister Chun Jung-bae burned incense and paid respects before the altar. Among the mourners were chairman of the main opposition Democratic Party Chung Se-kyun and chairman of the minor opposition Democratic Labor Party Kang Ki-gap.

Outside the village hall, thousands of supporters and citizens attended a wake with candlelights in their hands with many in tears. The mourners — many of them members of Nosamo, an association of Roh's supporters — expressed saddness over the late president's sudden death and outrage over the prosecution investigation that apparently led to his suicide.

Prime Minister Han Seung-soo was blocked from paying respects to the late former President Roh Moo-hyun at a memorial altar set up at his residence at Bongha village in Gimhae City. Han visited the village at 10 on Saturday night accompanied by a group of officials in a bus. But a group of angry supporters of the former president and villagers blocked the entrance of the village and shouted "Go away." at the prime minister and his group. The prime minister's group returned after staying about ten minutes at the entrance of the village. Earlier in the day, Liberty Forward Party leader Lee Hoi-chang was pelted with eggs and plastic water bottles as he arrived at Bongha village in a minibus.

Rep. Chung Dong-young, who served as unification minister under Roh and head of the now-defunct Uri Party, along with his wife, came to pay respects but were met with angry supporters who shouted at them "traitors." They were stopped at the village entrance by Roh supporters yelling "Down with Chung Dong-young!" Some supporters apparently threw "night soil" at Rep. Chung, too.

By 29 May, nearly 1 million mourners have flocked into Bongha Village since the news of Roh Moo-hyun's death. But the town remains clean and orderly thanks to the hard work of volunteers, many of whom come from outside Bongha. Some light candles, some greet guests entering the village, guiding them to the right lines to stand in, and some pick up trash on the ground. Others prepare and serve food all day, all night. There were countless people who just drop by after school or give a hand for a few hours. And there are also groups of people from different organizations as some come to the town after their normal daily business.To show appreciation for the volunteers' hard work, former prime minister Han Myeong-sook made a visit to Bongha to offer thanks. Roh's body will be moved to Seoul, where the final funeral service will be held at Gyeongbok Palace on Friday. (Source: Chosun Ilbo.)

In Seoul, more than 2,500 people held a somber candlelight memorial service Saturday night (23 May) near the capital's Deoksu Palace, many bowing, burning incense and leaving white chrysanthemums, a traditional Korean symbol of grief. Hundreds of riot police were deployed at the memorial service to keep order if it turned violent but there were no immediate reports of clashes at first. Roh's backers accuse conservative supporters of President Lee Myung-bak, who took over from Roh in February 2008, of carrying out the probe as political revenge. Near Seoul's City Hall, Roh supporters stood in line to sign a petition seeking Lee's impeachment.

Some of the "mourners" tried to politicize the mourning as protesters" and tried to march to the Blue House. However, the police had blocked all passageways leading north. Some attacked several young riot policemen in a rage, brutally dragging them off the main line and kicking and hitting them. To their credit, the riot police did nothing in response save to hold their ground. Afterwards, the protester-mourners left a small "offering" at an impromptu memorial altar that had been set up on the sidewalk in Roh's honor with banners left over from previous protests stating "Out with the Bloodthirsty Lee Myung-bak Regime." (Source: KBS Global, Donga Ilbo and King Baeksu: Scott.)

(SITE NOTE: The progressive Hankyoreh has a multitude of articles about the "political murder" of Roh and condemnation of the Justice Ministry in their investigation of Roh's alleged bribe scandal. Activists are attempting to create this as a new cause to seek the ouster of Lee Myeongbak. As a supporter of progressive causes, Hankyoreh also condemned the blocking of the path to protest at the Blue House.

After visiting the mourning altar in front of Seoul Station yesterday morning (28 May), Kim harshly criticized the Lee government. Kim said he was "thinking of the humiliation, despair and sorrow that Roh must have felt. I would have the same determination." "The prosecution has conducted probes of the children and relatives of Roh but none of the corruption allegations has been confirmed by the day of his death," Kim continued. "Does it make sense that the prosecution has failed to come up with any evidence 20 days after questioning the former president?" The 2000 Nobel Peace Prize awardee also added that the Lee administration's moves to block the entrance to Seoul Plaza downtown and prohibit his speech (eulogy) signal "an enormous digression from democracy." (Source: Joongang Ilbo.)

All the signs are there that the progressives are planning some sort of protest but it was unknown if it would be the day of the funeral (29 May) or later. Just in case, the riot police were making plans to increase the police presence during the funeral on 29 May.)

The nationwide mourning period was for seven days. Mourners visited official altars set up at various locations including Seoul Station Plaza, Seoul Museum of History and local government buildings. Some 77 such official altars had been set up across the country as Monday afternoon (25 May). Gimhae District Office estimated that as of Monday afternoon (25 May), about 300,000 mourners had visited Bongha Village. Police said some 30,000 mourners had visited a makeshift altar set up near the front gate of Deoksu Palace in Seoul.

By Wednesday (27 May) there were 263 funeral service halls for the Roh memorial throughout the country. Throughout the nation, Roh was eulogized as a President of the People. At the altars set up around the nation, one of the favorite photos was Roh in a farmer's hat taken after his retirement. Other photos were of him mingling with the people. Thousands of people stood against the long stone wall of Deoksu Palace in downtown Seoul for three to four hours just to offer a few seconds of condolences. Politicians who had been present since day one at the memorial altar were tired but continued to stay hour after hour to greet grief-stricken visitors. The scene was little different at the altar in Seoul Station. Reminiscing about the ex-president and his political career some mourners broke down in tears. Those who had heard about Roh's last request for a cigarette right before taking his own life lit one and left it beside his portrait as a means to fulfill his last wish.

By 29 May, some 60,000 South Koreans had turned out daily at makeshift altars in Seoul and across the nation from morning to night. Nearly 400,000 people had visited a memorial site in Roh's hometown Bongha. "We came to pray for his soul," a Catholic nun waiting outside Gyeongbok Palace said. "I barely slept last night. Too many thoughts crossed my mind and I was overtaken by emotions." "I can't believe a week has passed already, and he is really gone," said Lee Han-bok, who came to attend the ceremony with his wife, leaving home at dawn to avoid the crowd.

Roh's funeral procession left his hometown Bongha at 5 a.m., some 450 kilometers southeast of Seoul, as his wife, children and his closest confidants looked on with members of his support group, club Nosamo, a Korean acronym for "people who love Roh." TV footage showed villagers weeping and praying as his hearse was carried on to a convoy to head to Seoul. Onlookers flew yellow paper planes toward the convoy, the color that symbolized Roh's presidential campaign. (Source: Yonhap News.)

(SITE NOTE: Though we have never been a fan of Roh Moo-hyun after undergoing the vile 2002 anti-American hate-fest that swept him into office, we still would never have wanted such a tragic event to befall him. Throughout his term in office, we repeatedly said that he was the "closest thing to a North Korean without being one." He inherited Kim Dae-jung's "Sunshine Policy" and turned it into the "Peace and Prosperity Policy" -- and through the Unification Ministry started a massive giveaway program to the North. The North used him as a pawn -- taking everything and giving nothing. Perhaps he should be best remembered for his idealism -- though we felt it was misguided. He alienated the USFK to the point that the 60-year alliance was about to be irretrievably broken. In the end, the transfer of wartime control will be implemented in 2012 -- slipped from the original 2008 date because the RoK found that it was neither financially nor technically capable. He foisted a xenophobic business atmosphere in Korea that penalized foreign ownership -- and foreign businesses started leaving Korea despite Roh's claims of wanting Korea to become the international business hub for Asia.

Perhaps most disconcerting was how he used the Human Rights Commission situated directly under his office to demoralize the Korean National Police with their constant decisions to side with activists -- while these activists were inflicting great physical harm to the riot police in protests. In effect, the police could not attack -- only endure. We watched in horror as he tried to dismantle the National Security Law by placing leftist-leaning directors in charge -- and how all investigations for North Korean spies immediately stopped. In fact, he openly invited some indicted under the NSL to visit Korea that exploded into scandals. We watched as he turned his "Truth Commissions" into witchhunts for Japanese "traitors" but penalized the families living today by confiscating their lands. We saw his "Truth Commissions" grant pensions to North Koreans who fought in the Korean War against the South as "freedom fighters" -- and granted dissenters who actively sought to overthrow the Korean government by violent means as "democracy fighters" as well. We saw him trying to force the country into directions that would end in a crisis. Though we disagreed with just about every decision he made, we cannot deny that he tried to lead Korea in the path that he thought was best for the Korean people. He wore his heart on his sleeve -- and as such was able to appeal to the emotional nature of the Korean people. However, we saw him time and time again use this tactic to engage in demagoguery with nationalistic rhetoric against the Japanese and US to distract the populace whenever he got into trouble. By the end of his five-year term, the people were tired of this tactic and wanted a change. His Uri Party was destroyed and with it, he endured disgrace.

But we should not be so negative in his condemnation. We also have to see that he was a man that felt a deep bond with the common-people -- the people in his political base. He attempted to undo what he saw as abuses by previous conservative dictatorships. He attempted to redress the wrongs (as he perceived them) of the past dictatorships to address the concerns of previously unheeded voices of the "victims" of government abuses of power. Though we may disagree with his politics, his intentions were clearly motivated by his concern for the common-people. Perhaps he should be remembered for his reshaping the Korean self-image from one dependent upon foreign powers to one of a self-reliant nation acting independently of the control of foreign powers. One could say it was an unrealistic image of the real world, it was nonetheless one that appealed to the youth of Korea as now members of the global generation. Perhaps he should be remembered for laying the groundwork for Korea to enter as a worldclass internet nation -- with young people no longer set in the mindset of Korea only, but now with a broader world view. In the end, we can say that his decisions were based upon his love of the Korean people. Perhaps he should be remembered for his humanity in trying to reach out to the common people instead of vested interests. He wanted what all Koreans wanted -- the unification of the homelands and a strong and independent people.

Regardless of our view of his politics, we would never have wished this death upon him for any reason. He was a President of Korea -- a leader of his people. Those who supported him, believed in his words implicitly and he was able to spur them into action. He was a leader of great persuasiveness. Whether we agreed with his views or not is irrelevant as it was only important that the Koreans believed in him.

We still find the circumstances of his death hard to believe. Presidents are made of strong material -- enabling them to withstand pressures that normal men would crumble under. Despite his failed Presidency, the pressures he endured in office were real. What he faced in recent months were mere trifles. It is for this reason that we find it extremely hard to believe that he died as a result of a suicide. We are not denying the fact, but just that we feel in our heart that Roh Moo-hyun was a stronger man than this. He endured an impeachment and returned to power. He endured some of the greatest increases in tensions between North and South Korea in recent history -- balancing on the brink of war. These were pressures that normal men would crack under the strain. He withstood the strain for five years and retired to his country home. A suicide -- especially one as dramatic as falling from a cliff -- just does not seem reasonable.

But we must accept it as fact -- as the Korean people also must accept it as fact. Many things in life are unfathomable -- and the human mind is one.

May he rest in peace.)

VIDEO: Montage of Roh's life

VIDEO: Clips of Roh's Body Returning to Bongha

Funeral Arrangements The family of late former President Roh Moo-hyun asked the government to hold his funeral in Seoul instead of his rural hometown in the country's southeast, the family's spokesman said Monday (24 May). "We concluded it is desirable to hold the service in Seoul so as many people as possible may take part in the funeral," said Cheon Ho-sun, a spokesman for Roh's family. "The courtyard of Gyeongbok Palace may be appropriate for the funeral." "We concluded it is desirable to hold the service in Seoul so as many people as possible may take part in the funeral," said Cheon Ho-sun, a spokesman for Roh's family. Roh's family agreed on Sunday to hold a "people's funeral" instead of a private service, following a seven-day mourning period. Under the current law, South Korea's former and incumbent heads of state are entitled to a state or people's funeral. The latest people's funeral was held in the palace for late former President Choi Kyu-ha in 2006.

Roh's family agreed on Sunday (23 May) to hold a "people's funeral" instead of a private service, following a seven-day mourning period. The public funeral was expected to take place in Bongha Village, some 450 kilometers south of the capital, on Friday. Under current law, South Korea's former and incumbent heads of state are entitled to a state or a people's funeral. The body will be moved from Bongha to Seoul on Friday (29 May).

The latest people's funeral (state funeral) was held in the palace for late former President Choi Kyu-ha in 2006. Choi's funeral also took place in the front courtyard of Gyeongbok Palace. A state funeral follows a nine-day mourning period and has only been held once here, for the late former President Park Chung-hee in 1979. After the funeral service, Roh will be laid to rest near his residence in Bongha Village, said Cheon, who served as senior presidential secretary for public information during the Roh presidency. On a note that Roh left before his death, he asked his body be cremated.

Prime Minister Han Seung-soo and his predecessor, Han Myeong-sook, who served as prime minister under Roh, will jointly head a government committee that will organize and oversee the state-arranged funeral service. The venue for the public funeral service for former president Roh Moo-hyun has been changed from Jinyeong Public Stadium in Gimhae, South Gyeongsang Province to the front of Gyeongbok Palace in Seoul.

Jinyeong Public Stadium was the first choice for the funeral service because Roh retired to his hometown nearby, "but we've concluded that it is better to hold the funeral service in Seoul so that as many people as possible can attend without much difficulty." The Ministry of Public Administration and Security on Monday afternoon said the service will be held in front of Gyeongbok Palace, respecting the family's wishes, but that his body will be laid to rest at Bongha Village, his hometown in Gimhae. (Source: Chosun Ilbo, Yonhap News, and Yonhap News.)


A hearse carrying the coffin of former President Roh Moo-hyun leaves Bongha Village in Gimhae, South Gyeongsang Province for the funeral service in Seoul on 29 May.

A 1,383-man committee will organize the official funeral service of former president Roh. This is the largest committee ever, over twice more than the 680 people for the funeral of former presidents Choi Kyu-ha in 2006 and 691 for Park Chung-hee in 1979. President Lee's spokesman Lee Dong-kwan said on 27 May that President Lee would attend the funeral ceremony for Roh at Gyeongbok Palace, Seoul, on 29 May.

Various shades of yellow blanketed the Gwanghwamun area of downtown Seoul on 29 May in honor of the late President Roh Moo-hyun. Roh's supporters often used the color in a symbolic fashion during his successful presidential campaign. They broke out the yellow balloons, flowers and ribbons to honor Roh one last time during a street marching ceremony after the official funeral service at Gyeongbok Palace. The funeral procession began at 5:30 a.m., when a black hearse carrying Roh's coffin departs for Seoul from his hometown of Bongha Village, South Gyeongsang. Roh's body had lain in state in Bongha since his death on 23 May. Police cars and motorcycles escorted the hearse and a bus carrying surviving family members to the east gate of the historic royal palace.


People attend the funeral for former President Roh Moo-hyun at the Gyeongbok Palace in Seoul /Newsis

The people's funeral service for the late President Roh Moo-hyun was to start at 11 a.m. on 29 May inside the palace in central Seoul with up to 3,000 in attendance. Only two years and seven months ago, Roh was one of the mourners at the same venue for the funeral of the country's 11th president, Choi Kyu-hah. Before that, Park Chung Hee's state funeral took place at Gyeongbok in 1979. More than 3,000 former and current heads of state, politicians, foreign delegations and surviving family members gathered in the palace's front yard to bid him farewell during the people's funeral, which began at 11 a.m. and was scheduled to last just over an hour. Those attending included President Lee Myung-bak and former presidents, Kim Dae-jung and Kim Young-sam, as well as key government officials, political and religious leaders, diplomatic delegations and funeral committee members. For those who could not be inside the palace, the ceremony was shown live on big screens across central Seoul. (SITE NOTE: Notably absent was former President Roh Tae-woo who also refused to make a condolence statement after Roh's death.)

A funeral organizing committee - which was co-headed by current Prime Minister Han Seung-soo and former Prime Minister Han Myeong-sook who served while Roh was in office - presided at the service. Public Administration and Security Minister Lee Dal-gon spoke briefly about Roh's personal life. That was followed by the funeral address, given by Han Seung-soo and Han Myeong-sook. Buddhist, Protestant, Roman Catholic and Won Buddhist religious services followed. A video clip looking back on Roh's life - from his birth to his rise in politics to his retirement years - will be played. Delegates then offered white chrysanthemums. A 21-gun salute concluded the funeral.

Former president Kim Dae-jung, Roh's immediate predecessor, accepted the invitation by Roh's aides to give the eulogy, but the idea was vetoed by the incumbent administration, said Cheon Ho-seon, former presidential spokesman for Roh. The Lee government said letting Kim give the speech in the presence of other former presidents will raise a "fairness issue."


Thousands of supporters gather at a plaza in Seoul to pay homage to late former President Roh Moo-hyun during his funeral in Seoul. /Newsis

A traditional funeral procession, led by Roh's funeral car, followed at 1 p.m. and lasted approximately 30 minutes. The procession moved down Sejongno, a broad avenue in Gwanghwamun leading to Seoul City Hall. At the same time, an unofficial tribute and memorial ceremony took place at Seoul Plaza in front of City Hall. Entertainers, poets and other celebrities, as well as ordinary citizens carrying yellow balloons, gathered to sing Roh's favorite songs.

The funeral procession then moved toward Seoul Station heading to Suwon , Gyeonggi, where Roh was cremated at 3 p.m. The cremation process took about two hours. Roh's ashes was placed in an urn that was transported from Suwon to Bongha at 9 p.m. His urn was to be placed temporarily at Jeongtowon Temple at 10 p.m. Cheon Ho-seon, who served as Roh's Blue House spokesman, said Roh's ashes will not be buried in the designated burial site until his surviving family marks 49 days after his death.

The government said on 28 May it would open Seoul Plaza to the public from 7 a.m. on 29 May. Since Roh's death on 23 May, the government had barricaded the plaza with police buses for fear that the space could become a venue for a massive anti-government demonstration as tens of thousands of mourners per day visited the makeshift mourning altar just across the street.

Until 27 May, the government turned down several civic groups' requests for approval to use the plaza, saying that "details of the funeral service schedule haven't been confirmed yet." Seoul Plaza was to remain open to the public "as long as no chaotic situation occurs," according to the government. The altars installed by the government nationwide will shut down at 5 p.m. As of 28 May, mourners who visited more than 100 altars for Roh have topped three million, according to police.

Throughout 29 May, police had 200 companies of riot policemen totaling around 20,000 standing by in central Seoul to maintain security. Some 360 traffic policemen manned major intersections in the vicinity. Bongha Village and the Gyeonggi area also had a massive police presence. Police blocked Gwanghwamun from noon until 2 p.m. and advised citizens to take public transportation. (Source: Joongang Ilbo and Joongang Ilbo.)

VIDEO: Clips of Roh's Funeral

The Many Inconsistencies Dealing with Roh's Death: We find the explanation of a suicide in falling from a cliff hard to accept. Roh left his home at 5:45 am. According to the news, during his morning hike in Bongha, he turned to his bodyguard and asked if he had a cigarette at 6:14 am. (NOTE: The police had previously set the time at 6:40 am until the bodyguard recanted his story.) The bodyguard said that he didn't have any and asked if he should go back to get some cigarettes. Roh said no and then commented about there being some people in the distance. Then while the bodyguard looked away, he fell over the cliff. A strange end. The only "witness" was his bodyguard who wasn't watching at the moment of the fall.

First, if Roh wanted to commit suicide, why would he distract his bodyguard. Instead why wouldn't he simply say that he wanted the cigarettes and send the bodyguard back. He then would be alone to commit suicide. The circumstances seem very strange.

Second, according to Korean newspapers his wife asked if Roh wanted her to go along and he said it was up to her. She was changing clothes at home when the incident occurred. When she had finished dressing at about 5:45, Roh had already left. Why would Roh invite his wife along when he was contemplating suicide?

Then there is the note. Former president Roh left a brief note consisting of fourteen clauses in his computer before he left home. According to Kim Kyung-su, Roh's close aide, the former president demonstrated remorse to close acquaintances, "I am indebted to so many people. Many people have suffered due to me." Roh also said, "The pains I have received are also countless" in reference to the pressure and suffering caused by prosecutors' investigations. Roh added, "Life and death are a part of nature. Cremate me and leave only a single tombstone near my home."

The first thing we find puzzling is that the only proof that it was a suicide was the note on his computer -- on the screen, but NOT printed out nor saved. To us, it is not rational that a computer literate person would leave something as important as a suicide note only on the screen without printing it out.

(SITE NOTE: Later internet rumors stated that the document was saved and that the title was the SECOND line. The importance is that an untitled document is usually saved as the wording in the FIRST line. This means that the document was PREVIOUSLY saved and the first line added later. However, on 28 May, the police said that there were no traces that showed the suicide note was manipulated, and that there was no additional suicide note found yet.)

(SITE NOTE: The pledge by Roh and his wife was made during his Presidential campaign in 2002. Though it may have slipped their minds during the crisis, the pledge was still posted on Roh's website as of 27 May 2009.)

(SITE NOTE: The main point is that the existence of the note is NOT proof that Roh wrote the document.)

Roh Leaves Last Evidence of Love for Computers

Former president Roh Moo-hyun, who died Saturday, left a suicide note on his computer instead of writing it by hand -- evidence that a love of computers that his aides have often spoken about was with him to the last. While in office, Roh invented an electronic document management system called "e-Jiwon" (digital knowledge park), which he instructed all Cheong Wa Dae staff to use.

Roh was one of the five inventors of e-Jiwon, which was patented in 2006. He "used to get up at 5 a.m. and was the first to turn on the computer and read reports on e-Jiwon every morning," a former Cheong Wa Dae official said.

It was at 5:21 a.m. on the day of his death that he began writing his suicide note. He must have sat down at the computer right after he got up, just as he had done every day while in office.

Roh was the first Korean politician who came to power by taking advantage of the Internet, which had spread rapidly since the early 2000s. His supporters exchanged views and expanded their support base online. Experts speculate that the Internet came to his rescue with its quick spread and influence during times of crisis, such as the collapse of his coalition with rival presidential candidate Chung Mong-joon at the last moment during the 2002 presidential election and the impeachment motion against him in 2004.

Even after he left office, Roh enjoyed raising issues and debating them on his homepage and a website called "Democracy 2.0," which he had opened. When it emerged that he had taken a bribe from wealthy supporter Park Yeon-cha, he posted a message online saying, "I apologize... Please forget me."

His love of computers was related to his inventive propensity. When he prepared for a bar exam in the 1970s, he obtained a patent by inventing an improved version of a reading stand with which he could read books from any angle he wanted. Former presidential spokesman Yoon Tae-young said in 2004, "President Roh thinks ceaselessly if there is anything that he can change. It's not that he dreams of being an inventor, but that invention is his nature or instinct." (Source: Chosun Ilbo.)

(SITE NOTE: Some hikers had come forward with claims that they saw the bodyguard alone at around 6:20 a.m., the time the bodyguard had claimed to have been with Roh, and yet no investigation took place to confirm either of these accounts. Nor did one take place even after it was communicated to police that the bodyguard was attempting to cover up the fact that he had gone on an errand to Jeongtowon Temple, a Buddhist temple located in Bongwha behind Roh's home. The "hiker" may also have been a 57 year-old woman picking herbs who talked to Lee while he was searching for Roh.)

Supposedly Roh got up before 5:00 and went to a room that only he had access to. Roh left a short note for his family on his computer. The note was created at 5:21 a.m., shortly before Roh left home for the last time, He astoundingly did NOT save it or print it. He talked to his wife and she asked if he wanted her to accompany him on his walk. He said it was up to her and she left to get dressed. When she returned, Roh had already left. He left his residence around 5:45 a.m. and arrived at Owl Rock at 6:14 a.m. Roh asked bodyguard Lee for a cigarette. Roh supposedly distracted Lee and jumped off a cliff between 6:14 and 6:17 a.m.

(SITE NOTE: The police had previously erroneously stated that he had jumped off the cliff between 6:40 am and 6:45 am based upon the false statements of the bodyguard.)

Unconscious with a head injury, Roh was rushed to a hospital in Gimhae.From there, Roh was taken to Busan National University Hospital at around 8:13 a.m., but passed away at 9:30 a.m. Roh was declared dead from a head injury.

(SITE NOTE: As of 28 May, it appears that another bodyguard Shin discovered the body based on phone conversation records. This other person was also implicated in being involved in the search by a radio communications log. This remained a fuzzy area as to who actually found Roh and carried him to the car for transport to the emergency room in Gimhae. What is even more disturbing is why this other bodyguard had not come forward to clarify the first bodyguard's deceptive explanation. Content included in the initial police report said that Roh and the bodyguard were seen standing together at Owl Rock by another bodyguard who remained at the guard post. This information cannot be true. As if the shoddy investigation were not enough, now the police are suspected of fabricating data.)

In this first version, the bodyguard stated that he and Roh were on the cliff together when Noh asked him for a cigarette. The bodyguard said he had no cigarettes and asked if he should return down the hill to get some. Roh told him not to worry about it and stated that there was someone moving down below. When the bodyguard turned to look, Roh jumped off the cliff. <

(SITE NOTE: Besides the problems with the note and the agreeing for his wife to come along on his suicide jaunt have been addressed before, there are other problems with this scenario. The question of why Lee did not simply call 119 or even call for a medivac helicopter instead of hauling Roh on his back to the car and drive to the hospital has not been answered. But there is a major question. It has been pointed out that if Roh wanted to commit suicide, he would have simply told the bodyguard that he would like a cigarette and please go back and get him some. The situation doesn't make sense. However, on top of this is the question of why Roh had only ONE bodyguard. Two bodyguards are supposed to go with him under the protection procedures. If there were an attack on the former president, one of the bodyguards was to protect Roh and get him to safety, while the other repelled the attackers. The Hankyoreh decried: "The failure of the PSS is outside the bounds of common sense. This tragedy could have been averted if they had just upheld the basic protocol of having two or more bodyguards continuously monitoring their charge from a close distance at all times. It is difficult to understand how a dereliction of duty of this sort could have taken place with bodyguards of a former president. Clearly the responsibility falls on the PSS, which oversees bodyguard duties.")

It was confirmed that there was no bodyguard present when the former President Roh Moo-hyun committed suicide on May 23. Accordingly, police have launched a reinvestigation of what the former president was doing on the day of suicide. "It may be that the bodyguard sent by the Cheong Wa Dae was not present when the former president threw himself from 'Owl Rock,'" an official of the Cheong Wa Dae (the presidential office in South Korea or Blue House) said on Tuesday. "The bodyguard failed to find him and created a false story," the official added.

A police official said, "The bodyguard has changed his account of his whereabouts several times, and we have summoned him again to the South Gyungsang Police Agency for further questioning." The police have secured the content of a radio communications report to the Cheong Wa Dae in which the bodyguard said, "I missed him. I cannot see him." Another police official confirmed the content, but said, "We do not know when the radio communication took place. We will find that out through further investigation." (Source: Hankyoreh.)

On 27 May, the police said that after Roh Moo-hyun and one of his bodyguard's, whose name is Lee, went up onto the mountain together, Noh instructed the bodyguard to go ahead of him to the Buddhist temple about 270 meters beyond the cliff (Owl Rock) to see in the head of the temple was there that day. The temple is where the memorial tablets of Noh's parents are kept. That was supposedly at about 6:14. When the bodyguard returned about three minutes later, Noh had disappeared.

The bodyguard named Lee then called another bodyguard named Shin at 6:17 and said, "I went away on a short errand for the president, and now he is gone. Come out and see if he is coming down." Lee than asked a 57-year-old woman digging for herbs if she had seen any hikers. When she answered, "No," Lee called Shin again at 6:23 and asked, "Did you find him? Can you see him?" Shin answered, "I see him." (This answer does not make sense.)

Lee then ran to a place called "Lion Rock," which is beyond the temple, to search for Noh. Then at 6:30, Lee called Shin again and said, "Look around the reservoir or pond area." Lee then went back to check the temple. Shin then called Lee at 6:35 and say, "Check the sanctum area of the temple. He might be there." Lee answered, "No, he is not there," and then ran back to the cliff area.

Lee said that he got a feeling that Roh might be at the bottom on the cliff and ran down to check. He found Roh at 6:45 and called on his radio to the guard quarters and said, "Bring a car. There has been an accident."

Lee then supposedly carried Roh to a flat area to attempt to resuscite him. They then loaded Noh into a car and took him to a hospital. (Source: Marmot's Hole blog: Gerry Bevers.)

(SITE NOTE: This story is so full of holes that it is unbelievable. A Presidential bodyguard does NOT leave the side of the President no matter what. Second, after a traumatic fall, why would the bodyguard (who had a radio and in contact with unidentified parties) would not have called for immediate medical support? Why would he have rushed him to a nearby hospital and risk further injuries instead of immediately calling for a medical aerovac? But the main point is that there are OTHERS involved as verified by the radio transmission so this was not simply one guards misjudgement. Why did they not immediately correct the story of the bodyguard? This is becoming a conspiracy theory in a hurry.

As of 28 May, the police were sticking to the SECOND VERSION as the way the events took place. South Gyeongsang Province police on Wednesday said Roh on the day of the accident told Lee Byung-choon, the head of his security detail, to go to a nearby temple where the memorial tablets of Roh's parents are enshrined to see if the abbot was there. Lee went to the temple at 6:14 a.m., and it was 6:17 a.m. when he came back to Owl Rock and realized that Roh was missing. Police also said there was nobody who actually witnessed Roh's fall. )

I flagged the note as suspicious the same as Sonagi. The suicide note in Korea is almost "traditional." Even the suicide groups who meet on the internet — gather and then write a personal note to those left behind before they commit the act. An impersonal note left on a computer screen — and NOT PRINTED — is not rational for someone who is computer literate. I do not buy the Chosun Ilbo's piece that the note showed his love of computers.

Also the note was on a computer in a room that supposedly only Roh had access to. Then pray tell how did his aides get access to the secure room — and release the note to the media BEFORE the Busan police could confirm the contents of the note?

I also note that the incident itself is very strange. A bodyguard looks over the edge and — whoops — the boss goes over. He didn't even hear him moving to the edge. The only witness is someone who didn't see a thing.

Also heard an account from a student that I can't corroborate. She said that the Korean news said that when Roh was getting ready to go out for the hike, his wife asked if he wanted her to go along. He said it was up to her. She was getting dressed when the incident occurred. Does a man contemplating suicide ask his wife to come along?

However, the reality is what I think is not worth a hill of beans in this situation. The activists are going to try to raise a stink over Roh's "political murder." Roh's death is just an excuse to get at LMB. The ROK national archivists will more than gladly sweep the missing harddrives under the table — along with the possible trail of compromised material to potential spies in South Korea (my hunch without proof). The Ministry of Justice will be glad to wash their hands of the potentially embarrassing probe that threatened to embroil LMB confidantes. Everyone wants this whole thing to be swept under the carpet and forgotten… (Source: Marmot's Hole.)

Granfalloon May 27, 2009 at 7:02 am

In the CIA's manual for guerrillas and would-be insurrectionists, the number one method for political assassination is to gain access to the target as an aide or bodyguard and push him or her from a considerable height. Just sayin'.

Sonagi May 27, 2009 at 7:20 am

@Granfalloon:
I thought you might be joking, but you're not. Below is the actual text from the declassified CIA Assassination Manual:

"The most efficient accident, in simple assassination, is a fall of 75 feet or more onto a hard surface. Elevator shafts, stair wells, unscreened windows and bridges will serve. Bridge falls into water are not reliable. In simple cases a private meeting with the subject may be arranged at a properly-cased location. The act may be executed by sudden, vigorous [excised] of the ankles, tipping the subject over the edge. If the assassin immediately sets up an outcry, playing the "horrified witness", no alibi or surreptitious withdrawal is necessary."

(SITE NOTE: Later telephone records for Lee showed that the incident occurred between 6:14 - 6:17 am. The police reports themselves show that Lee knowingly provided false information. There is also the question of why the bodyguard stopped using the radio communications and switched to his cellphone.)

(SITE NOTE: Remember that the time was revised to between 6:14 and 6:17 based upon the phone records of the bodyguard -- NOT by the bodyguard's confession. This latest final story is NOT final at all.)

(SITE NOTE: The first evidence we have another person's involvement is the radio transmission that was logged into the log book. Then we Shin is called out to assist in the search at the residence. We find that there is a conflict here where the other bodyguard, Shin, stated that he saw the body via radio contact -- much DURING the period that Lee says he was searching for Roh. In other words, there is a possibility that Shin actually moved the body of Roh instead of Lee. This is supposition based upon Shin's statement that he saw Roh when Lee asked, "Do you see him?")

(SITE NOTE: There are still questions as to why no medivac helicopter was dispatched or why no 119 emergency ambulance was called as the bodyguards all had cellphones. Once Lee Myeong-bak was notified, only then was a medivac flight placed on alert in case Roh needed to be flown to Seoul.)

(SITE NOTE: Hopefully, the Presidential Security Service will release a dossier on Lee Byung-choon and the other bodyguard with the surname Shin. Serious questions need to be answered as to their qualifications to be in the Presidential Security Service -- and how they were selected for the job assignment. Until their behavior during the incident is explained more clearly, we cannot rule out the possibility of foul play -- especially since the Blue House Presidential Security Service is now saying these people worked autonomously. In other words, the Blue House is washing their hands of the bodyguards.)

The service said the Bongha Village team informed the Blue House around 7:10 a.m. on Saturday (23 May) about the incident. President Lee Myung-bak was briefed 10 minutes later, and a helicopter was dispatched to Gimhae in case Roh had to be moved to Seoul for further medical treatment.

The Hankyoreh decried: "The failure of the PSS is outside the bounds of common sense. This tragedy could have been averted if they had just upheld the basic protocol of having two or more bodyguards continuously monitoring their charge from a close distance at all times. It is difficult to understand how a dereliction of duty of this sort could have taken place with bodyguards of a former president. Clearly the responsibility falls on the PSS, which oversees bodyguard duties. It also has to be ascertained whether there were any organized attempts to cover up these errors. It is a matter of common sense that the circumstances of Roh's fall would have been communicated between bodyguards who were at the scene and PSS headquarters. In light of the fact that wireless transmissions went back and forth in an attempt to find the former President after he disappeared, it is impossible to completely rule out either the possibility that officials at the scene might have falsified a report regarding the circumstances of Roh's death or that PSS headquarters received a communication and opted to conceal the truth." (Source: Joongang Ilbo, Hankyoreh and Korea Herald.)



Retracing Roh's death: Gyeongnam Provincial Police act out the circumstances of the death of former President Roh Moo-hyun at Owl Rock, the 30-meter-cliff in Bongha Village of South Gyeongsang Province, Tuesday (2 Jun). The person playing the role of Roh's bodyguard, center, carries the body of Roh after he was found under the rock on May 23. Such a reenactment was conducted to clarify questions surrounding Roh's death as his bodyguard changed his statement about seeing Roh kill himself, after initially saying he was present at the time. Analysts from the National Institute of Scientific Investigation conduct on-the-spot research at "Owl Rock," June 1. The Cheong Wa Dae (the presidential office in South Korea or Blue House) Presidential Security Service (PSS) officer who was serving as the former President's bodyguard had left his post and had not been with Roh just before he fell to his death from Owl Rock, as he had claimed. Since Roh was alone for more than 30 minutes before his body was found, it has not yet been possible to know exactly what happened in those final moments. (SITE NOTE: What this means is that the police do NOT fully believe the bodyguard's story because of his retractions. That the bodyguard was missing may indicate that he is being held in custody. Under Korean law, a person may be kept up to 72 hours without charges.)

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June 2009

Police nab 72 after protests erupt following Roh rites (Jun 2009) Following the people’s funeral for the late South Korean president Roh Moo-hyun, protesters demonstrated late into the night clashing with riot police early on Saturday at the plaza in front of Seoul City Hall and nearby streets. Many protesters were hauled away to neighborhood police stations. Some 2,600 demonstrators from progressive labor, civic and student groups skirmished with riot police after the funeral rites Friday. Some damaged police buses with hoes, sticks, shovels and plastic pipes after police used force to disperse them. A few even threw rocks before attempting to flee. Police captured 72 protesters. (SITE NOTE: This is the same die-hard elements who want the ousting of LMB. It was anticipated. However, it appears that their aim to incite the people to join them failed.)

Originally, the rally was supposed to take place at the City Hall Plaza at 4 p.m., but the police blocked entry with buses. Some protesters breached police lines at 5:35 p.m. and took over Seosomunno, Taepyeongno and a street near Daehanmun, the main gate to Deoksu Palace. Due to demonstrators’ surprise occupation of streets around the plaza, traffic was tied in knots. There were some scuffles between drivers and protesters.The number of protesters began to decline after 9 p.m., and only people holding candles remained behind. The atmosphere calmed, but the rally continued until early the next morning.

“There was a large number of people who wanted to hold a peaceful ceremony in memory of the late former president. Also some people came out to hold a violent rally,” said an officer who requested anonymity. “When a ceremony turns into a political rally, we will disperse participants.”

72 Roh Supporters Apprehended After Clashes With Police (Jun 2009) More than 72 people were arrested during clashes with riot police in the wake of the funeral service for former President Roh Moo-hyun, police said. On Sunday, tensions were building again around Seoul Plaza, which police cordoned off after it had been briefly opened for the street memorial service for Roh Friday. Police said they apprehended the Roh supporters who they said attacked police officers who were dispersing the crowd which was participating in unauthorized rallies in central Seoul after the funeral.

Police said more than 2,600 pro-Roh activists from progressive civic groups and labor unions staged rallies around Seoul Plaza and its vicinity over the weekend. One infuriated activist attempted to disembowel himself, but failed, police said. Police had banned the rallies but the protestors pushed ahead as planned and ended up in clashes with riot police. More than 14,000 riot police, eight water cannons and other anti-demonstration vehicles were dispatched to the area.

Protesters chanted anti-government slogans and denounced police for banning their access to the large grass field in central Seoul. Some violent activists damaged police buses encircling the plaza and assaulted riot police with long wooden sticks. Some wielded shovels and iron pipes and hurled stones. About seven were injured during the confrontation, police said. The clashes in central Seoul paralyzed traffic surrounding the area for hours. Most activists left on their own accord around midnight, but some continued mourning ceremonies on their own.

Activist Choi Joon-ho said, ``The government doesn't want to listen to what people say. Police even destroyed makeshift altars in a hurry after Roh's funeral was over.'' Lee Jae-eun, 20, added, ``The authorities maintained a low-key stance until the funeral. But today was totally different.'' Police have not ruled out the possibility that mourners could turn into anti-government protesters, with a large number of Roh supporters believing the former head of state had fallen prey to a politically motivated investigation which they say has been orchestrated by President Lee Myung-bak. Police said that they will not overlook any unapproved gatherings to mourn the former president, signaling that another round of clashes in the days to come could be likely. (Source: Korea Times.)

(31 May 2009) (Tongil News)

Meanwhile, a group of mourners, mostly families, yesterday visited Bongha Village, Gimhae, South Gyeongsang, where the former president lived after his retirement, to pay their respects and leave chrysanthemums in tribute. They waited in long lines that stretched from the outskirts of the village to the memorial altar to the former president. After paying tribute, some mourners examined the cliff called Owl Rock where the late president fell to his death on May 23. Then they visited nearby Jeongtowon Temple where Roh’s cremated remains are enshrined.

Police estimated that approximately 40,000 people visited the village to pay homage following the funeral. After the seven-day national mourning period, Roh’s son Gun-ho made a public statement expressing his appreciation to the public on behalf of his mother, Kwon Yang-sook. His comments came after the late leader’s remains were placed in the temple early Saturday.

Former Prime Minister Han Myeong-sook, who co-chaired the funeral committee, said, “In line with the former president’s will, let us fulfill our jobs and hold hands together to realize the dreams that the late leader pursued for the sake of national development.” (Source: Joongang Ilbo.)

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Minimum wage increased by 2.75% (Jun 2009) July 01, 2009 The minimum wage in Korea will be raised by 2.75 percent next year, the smallest wage increase in 11 years. The Minimum Wage Council Republic of Korea, a three-party group involving corporate management, labor unions and the government, reached a compromise yesterday after marathon overnight talks. From the beginning of next year, the minimum wage for corporate workers will be 4,110 won ($3.23) per hour, the amount guaranteed by law, 110 won higher than the amount they receive this year.

In terms of monthly salary, employees working a 40-hour week will earn 858,990 won. Those on a 44-hour week will make 927,860 won. The average monthly salary of all workers in Korea stands at 2.15 million won per month, based on 40 hours a week. The government estimates the minimum wage will apply to 2.57 million employees.

The committee submitted the wage plan to Labor Minister Lee Young-hee yesterday, and he will make a final notification on Aug. 8, after giving labor unions and management a period for filing opposition. The wage decision was finalized yesterday morning, a day after its legal deadline, which is June 29, following a 10-hour round of negotiations. Negotiations have been stalled for the past month mainly due to disagreements between management and labor unions over the size of the wage hike.

Corporate managers had proposed a 5.8 percent cut to the minimum wage of 3,770 won, and labor unions wanted an increase of 28.7 percent to 5,150 won, a 34.5 percent difference. Management has not offered a wage cut since the financial crisis in 1998. That year, the minimum wage edged up 2.7 percent, the lowest level since Korea adopted the minimum wage system in 1988. The Korea Confederation of Trade Unions, one of the two umbrella labor unions, said in a statement that the 2.75 percent increase is no better than a reduction, given that consumer prices in May posted a year-on-year increase of 3.6 percent. "We are hugely disappointed that the amount is unreasonably low for the livelihood of low-income laborers," said the union.

The Federation of Korean Trade Unions, the other umbrella group, said, "Forcing workers earning the least to sacrifice in the name of helping economic recovery and strengthening corporate competitiveness is extremely antisocial and inhumane." On the other hand, the Korea Federation of Small Business, a lobby group representing smaller firms, said the wage increase rate is still "burdensome," given the harsh economic conditions. The corporate sector has claimed that should the minimum wage climb, firms have no choice but to lay off more workers. (Source: Joongang Ilbo.)

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July 2009

Size of Rice Bowls Shrinking due to Waning Demand (Jul 2009) A few days ago, a woman visited her son and daughter-in-law. When her daughter-in-law filled only half of a bowl of rice, the woman said, “If you want to live a happy life, you have to fill the bowl.” Her daughter-in-law said, however, “Most people nowadays are eating less rice.”

The rise in household incomes has led to changing eating habits. Increasingly, more people want to lose weight so the amount of rice consumption per capita has decreased. Accordingly, the average rice bowl has gotten smaller.

The shrinking rice bowl

According to the think tanke of Haengnam Chinaware, the capacity of a rice bowl was 530 cubic centimeters in the 1940s and 50s, when Koreans believed a bowl of rice was no less than expensive medicine. After Western-style eating habits were introduced, however, the capacity of a rice bowl decreased to 500 cubic centimeters in the 1960s and 450 cubic centimeters in the 1970s and 80s.

As fast food chains mushroomed in the wake of the 1988 Seoul Summer Olympics, rice demand in Korea further decreased. The average volume of rice a Korean ate per year decreased from 132.4 kilograms in the 1980s to 93.6 kilograms in 1990. The amount has since decreased further. Accordingly, major Korean bowl makers such as Haengnam and Hankook Chinaware have reduced the size of rice bowls to 350 cubic centimeters.

The size of stainless steel rice bowls used mostly by restaurants has also decreased. In the past, most eateries used large bowls without lids but now use flat bowls with lids. A bowl wholesaler in Seoul’s Namdaemun Market said, “Flat bowls are better than large bowls in retaining heat, but restaurants use flat bowls because customers eat less, not because of better functions.”

Decreasing rice demand

The National Statistical Office said the amount of rice consumed by a Korean fell 1.3 kilograms from 2007 to 75.6 kilograms last year, a decline of 14.5 percent (13.1 kilograms) from 88.7 kilograms in 2001. That means a Korean last year ate 1.7 to two bowls of rice every day. The fall in rice demand has also put downward pressure on rice prices. The Korea Agro-Fisheries Trade Corp. said the wholesale price of a 20-kilogram bag of rice was 39,000 won (30.7 U.S. dollars) Wednesday, down 5.6 percent or 2,300 won (1.80 dollars) from the previous year. The retail price also fell 2.6 percent, or 1,196 won (0.94 dollar), last month to 44,596 won (35.1 dollars). (Source: Donga Ilbo.) (SITE NOTE: Saw this occurring in about 1995 when the rice consumption started falling while the consumption of bread was increasing. Nowadays "bakeries" are everywhere and kids are hooked on pastries. Likewise the consumption of hamburgers and hot dogs along with pizza became standard -- and the traditional rice reduced. However, I never forecast that the traditional size of the rice bowls would be affected. But that is an indication of NOT reduced eating habits, but the restaurants getting stingier and blaming it on changing tastes. I have yet to see a Korean leave a rice bowl empty at a restaurant -- but I have seen restaurants becoming stingier and rice becoming a sidedish (1000 won a bowl).)

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Reuse of Side Dishes Subject to Sanctions From Today (Jul 2009) Lee Sun-young, a 26-year-old office worker, rarely eats side dishes at small restaurants or bars. That's because she knows how some restaurant owners ``recycle'' them. ``I once worked part time at a local bar and was shocked that the owner mixed leftover food and served them to other customers. It was so disgusting,'' Lee said. ``After watching that, I couldn't eat side dishes at restaurants, especially small ones. It was more surprising that the restaurant owner didn't feel a sense of guilt.''

From Friday, restaurants reserving leftovers to customers will be suspended from business or slapped with fines of up to 30 million won. Recycling of leftover food is not only unsanitary but the key cause of food poisoning, especially in summer, experts say. ``Customers' saliva is transferred to leftover foods and it could cause food poisoning,'' Lee Kuem-Ju of Kyung Hee East-West Neo Medical Center.

The Ministry for Health, Welfare and Family Affairs announced new regulations for the reuse of food at restaurants. According to the new rule, eateries can only recycle certain food supplies that maintain their original form and are not processed such as lettuce, sesame leafs and cherry tomatoes; ingredients with an outer cover intact such as bananas and quail eggs; and those customers can take out from a lidded container if they so desire including kimchi and pepper powder.

If caught reusing food other than those listed, the dining place will be temporarily closed down for 15 days. Any restaurant caught again within a year will have their operating license suspended for two months, and three months for a third time. If they persist after this, eateries will lose their license. Seoul City plans to promote the new regulations before launching on-site inspections. The city has already looked into food reuse at 92 local restaurants and caught five of them doing so. ``Most of the eateries caught were small ones reusing rice, side dishes or pot stew, while larger restaurants were more hygienic, and managed food leftovers better,'' an official of the city's Food Safety Division said. ``We will publicize the new rule sufficiently before we begin inspections, giving small restaurants enough time to correct their wrongdoings on their own.''

District offices in Seoul have been pushing restaurants to either not recycle side dishes, or to charge for them so guests can order the amount they want. However, owners emphasize that the most important thing is to change the mindset. ``Recycling leftover food can actually save a lot. Though I don't do it, there are still many places reusing side dishes,'' a small restaurant owner in central Seoul said. ``If the owners do not change their way of thinking, the new rules will end up as empty talk.'' (Source: Korea Times.) (SITE NOTE: The next step is the elimination of side dishes that will become part of the plate served for the meal. Then side dishes will become optional -- and paid for by the dish. The handwriting is on the wall.)

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DPRK Cyber Attack on Korea and US (Jul 2009) The nation's spy agency yesterday (9 Jul) pinpointed North Korea as the mastermind of the latest cyber attack on key administrative websites both here and in the United States. The National Intelligence Service, while briefing lawmakers, said the reclusive communist state seemed to have unleashed the "Distributed Denial of Service" virus.

Experts said despite its impoverishment, the North is likely to have attained a crude level of such hacking expertise. "We have heard that North Korea has been training its people over the past several years, and was biding its time before experimenting on the rest of the world," said professor Yang Moo-jin of the University of North Korean Studies here. [Korea Herald]

Sixteen high-profile Web sites, including those of the National Intelligence Service and antivirus software provider Ahnlab, have been hit by a second round of denial-of-service attacks.

An official at the Korea Information Security Agency said Thursday that a second round of cyber attacks began at six p.m. Wednesday (8 Jul) on ten Web sites, including that of Ahnlab, and six Web sites that were subject to the first round of attacks earlier on Tuesday (7 Jul).

The official said that out of 26 Web sites that were crippled on Tuesday, six of them, including Web sites of the presidential office and the Chosun Ilbo daily, were disrupted for a second time starting late Wednesday.

The Defense Ministry reportedly was able to eliminate dangerous data traffic after installing equipment to counter denial-of-service attacks on Wednesday, but difficulties are still in place in getting access to the ministry's Web site due to an error made in the process of setting up the equipment. Meanwhile, the prosecution and police found three additional "zombie computers" on Wednesday and are currently analyzing a total of four such computers. Zombie computers are computers that come under the control of hackers without the knowledge of their owners. Such "zombies" are activated to run software that automates routine, repetitive tasks. [KBS Global]

South Korea's National Intelligence Service said it suspects the rogue state, or its sympathisers, may have orchestrated the attack, which used around 20,000 computers to overwhelm the websites with more traffic than they could handle. South Korea's Foreign and Defence ministries, as well as the presidential office, all had their websites shut down for several hours. There was also speculation in the South Korean media that the attacks may have originated in China.

"The attacks appear to have been elaborately prepared and executed at the level of a group or a state. The sites hit included 14 United States sites including government ones," the NIS said in a statement to the news agency Yonhap. However, no classified information was jeopardised during the attacks. Hackers continued to attack some sites on Wednesday but South Korean internet service providers distributed a vaccine program to remove the viruses.

South Korea is one of the world's most wired countries with 95 per cent of homes having high-speed broadband access, according to a recent US survey. Among the private Korean sites infiltrated were a newspaper and two major lenders, Shinhan Bank and Korea Exchange Bank, officials said. The Defence Security Command reported last month that South Korea's military computer networks were under ever-growing cyber attack, with 95,000 cases reported daily on average. (Source: Telegraph UK.)



US officials eye North Korea in cyber attack (Jul 2009) U.S. authorities on Wednesday eyed North Korea as the origin of the widespread cyber attack that overwhelmed government Web sites in the United States and South Korea, although they warned it would be difficult to definitively identify the attackers quickly. The powerful attack that targeted dozens of government and private sites underscored how unevenly prepared the U.S. government is to block such multipronged assaults. While Treasury Department and Federal Trade Commission Web sites were shut down by the software attack, which lasted for days over the holiday weekend, others such as the Pentagon and the White House were able to fend it off with little disruption.

The North Korea link, described by three officials, more firmly connected the U.S. attacks to another wave of cyber assaults that hit government agencies Tuesday in South Korea. The officials said that while Internet addresses have been traced to North Korea, that does not necessarily mean the attack involved the Pyongyang government. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly on the matter. South Korea intelligence officials have identified North Korea as a suspect in those attacks and said that the sophistication of the assault suggested it was carried out at a higher level that just rogue or individual hackers. (SITE NOTE: "The attacks appear to have been elaborately prepared and executed at the level of a group or a state. The sites hit included 14 United States sites including government ones," the NIS said in a statement to the news agency Yonhap. However, no classified information was jeopardised during the attacks.)

U.S. officials would not go that far and declined to discuss publicly who may have instigated the intrusion or how it was done. In an Associated Press interview, Philip Reitinger, deputy under secretary at the Homeland Security Department, said the far-reaching attacks demonstrate the importance of cybersecurity as a critical national security issue.

The fact that a series of computers were involved in an attack, Reitinger said, "doesn't say anything about the ultimate source of the attack." "What it says is that those computers were as much a target of the attack as the eventual Web sites that are targets," said Reitinger, who heads DHS cybersecurity operations. "They're just zombies that are being used by some unseen third party to launch attacks against government and nongovernment Web sites."

Targets of the most widespread cyber offensive of recent years also included the National Security Agency, Homeland Security Department and State Department, the Nasdaq stock market and The Washington Post, according to an early analysis of the software used in the attacks. The Associated Press obtained the target list from security experts analyzing the attacks. They provided the list on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the investigation.

Other experts in cyber assaults said the incident shined a harsh light on the U.S. government's efforts to protect all of its agencies against Web-based attacks. James Lewis, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said that the fact that both the White House and Defense Department were attacked but didn't go down points to the need for coordinated government network defenses. "It says that they were ready and the other guys weren't ready," he said. "We are disorganized. In the event of an attack, some places aren't going to be able to defend themselves."

The wave of cyber assaults are known as "denial of service" attacks. Such attacks against Web sites are not uncommon and are caused when sites are so deluged with Internet traffic that they are effectively taken off-line. Mounting such an attack can be relatively easy and inexpensive, using widely available hacking programs, and they become far more serious if hackers infect and tie thousands of computers together into "botnets."

Joe Stewart, director of malware research for the counterthreat unit of SecureWorks Inc., said there's no indication yet of a claim of responsibility hidden anywhere in the program behind the attacks. Stewart and other researchers are analyzing the code for clues about the attacker's identity. Stewart noted that the attacks on U.S. government sites appeared to expand after the initial assaults over the holiday weekend failed to generate any publicity. He said the "target list" contained in the program's code only had five U.S. government sites on it on July 5, but were broadened the next day to include nongovernment sites inside the U.S.

The following day, the South Korean Web sites were added. "It seems to me they thought the first round wasn't successful ... they felt they weren't getting enough attention because nobody was talking about their attacks," Stewart said.

The cyber assault on the White House site had "absolutely no effect on the White House's day-to-day operations," said spokesman Nick Shapiro. He said that preventive measures kept whitehouse.gov stable and available to the general public but that Internet visitors from Asia may have experienced problems. All federal Web sites were back up and running, Shapiro said. A State Department spokesman said the agency's site was up but still experiencing problems. A Web site for the U.S. Secret Service had experienced access problems but did not crash, the agency's spokesman said.

The cyber attack did not appear, at least at the outset, to target internal or classified files or systems, but instead aimed at agencies' public sites, creating a nuisance both for officials and the Web consumers who use them.

Ben Rushlo, director of Internet technologies at Keynote Systems, said problems with the Transportation Department site began Saturday and continued until Monday, while the FTC site was down Sunday and Monday. Keynote Systems is a mobile and Web site monitoring company based in San Mateo, Calif. The company publishes data detailing outages on Web sites, including 40 government sites it watches. According to Rushlo, the Transportation Web site was "100 percent down" for two days, so that no Internet users could get through. The FTC site, meanwhile, started to come back online late Sunday, but even on Tuesday Internet users still were unable to get to the site 70 percent of the time.

Dale Meyerrose, former chief information officer for the U.S. intelligence community, said that at least one of the federal agency Web sites got saturated with as many as 1 million hits per second per attack — amounting to 4 billion Internet hits at once. He would not identify the agency, but he said the Web site is generally capable of handling a level of about 25,000 users. Meyerrose, who is now vice president at Harris Corp., said the characteristics of the attack suggest the involvement of between 30,000 to 60,000 computers. The widespread attack was "loud and clumsy," which suggests it was carried out by an unsophisticated organization, said Amit Yoran, chief executive at NetWitness Corp. and the former U.S. government cybersecurity chief. "This is not the elegance we would expect from sophisticated adversaries." Officials agreed, however, that the incident brings to the forefront a key 21st century threat. "It tells you that cyber attacks are real. It's a very serious problem and one of the more serious facing us, along with terrorism, and China and Russia are the main threats," said Rep. Dutch Ruppersburger, D-Md., who was briefed on the incident. (Source: AP.)

'Cyber Attack's Goal Is to Freeze Finance, Media' (Jul 2009) Another distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack was launched on the Public Administration and Security Ministry's Web site yesterday (9 Jul), the third day of a cyber terrorist attack on the country's IT infrastructure. Chances for additional attacks are high since they have been carefully orchestrated daily while the targets have changed. Security experts warn that the attacks could be a prelude to more cyber terrorism and lead to disaster in cyberspace.

DDoS attacks yesterday hit the ministry's electronic government page and the Web page of Kookmin Bank, the e-mail servers of the Web portals Naver and Daum, and the homepages of Auction.co.kr and Chosun.com around 6 p.m. In several regions, access to those sites were denied or slowed. Considering the two previous attacks, the latest incident is expected to continue through 6 p.m. today.

The first attack hit 26 Web sites and began around 6 p.m. Tuesday, lasting for 24 hours, while the second one also lasted for 24 hours and began around 6 p.m. but struck 16 sites. Chosun.com, Naver e-mail and Auction.co.kr have been attacked since the first round. Kookmin and the e-mail pages of Paran and Daum, and the ministry's electronic government are on the list of additional targets in the second round.

As the three DDoS attacks were carefully orchestrated, more say the attacks constitute cyber terrorism scrupulously organized from the planning phase. In online communities including bulletins for security experts such as former hackers, a string of comments have been posted, with one reading, "The attacks are a prelude to the freezing of media and financial systems." One expert said, "The attack could seek to conceal possible attacks on other major systems," adding, "The threat attracted massive attention instantly, but little real damage was done." Amid the online threat, the Korea Communications Commission asked Internet service providers to selectively block access from "zombie" PCs mobilized for the attacks. (Source: Donga Ilbo.)

NIS: Cyber attacks reportedly carried out via 86 IPs in 16 countries (Jul 2009) The recent rounds of cyber attacks on South Korea's key government and private Web sites are believed to have been carried out in 16 different countries, Seoul's top spy agency was quoted as saying Friday (10 Jul). The attacks were reportedly tracked to 86 IP addresses from countries including the United States, Japan and China, legislators said after a closed-session briefing by the National Intelligence Service (NIS). North Korea was not among the 16 countries, the legislators said. (Source: Yonhap News.)

Firms Offer Software to Fight Korean Virus (Jul 2009) Two antivirus companies offered free software to combat a rogue software program that has been attacking U.S. and South Korean Web sites since July 4. The cyber attacks again caused temporary disruptions at South Korean Web sites on Thursday, though not as badly as earlier in the week. The new wave of attacks appeared to stem from a re-engineered version of the virus that incorporated a new target list, said Marcus Sachs, director of the SANS Internet Storm Center, an Internet early-warning group. There were no known additional attacks Thursday (9 Jul) on U.S. Web sites.

Providing an early clue to the attacks' origins, both versions of the virus show indications they were modified with a Korean computer, Mr. Sachs said. U.S. and South Korean investigators continued to investigate the attacks' origins, including possible connections to North Korea. In recent days, the virus has attacked the Web sites of several U.S. agencies, including the Treasury and Transportation Departments, other agencies and companies, including Amazon.com Inc.

In South Korea, it disrupted the site of the presidential Blue House, the National Assembly and others. The program hasn't resulted in the theft or leaking of data, but it has displayed the vulnerability of governmental and corporate networks to attack. The re-engineered virus was designed to attack 11 new targets, including the Web site of the South Korean antivirus company AhnLab Inc., according to the U.S. computer security firm VeriSign.

The Web sites of several companies, including that of Kookmin Bank, South Korea's largest by asset value, were hit shortly after 6 p.m. Korea time. Many identified as targets were working normally Thursday night. Some companies ran programs to counter the attacks after authorities had warned that some prominent local sites could be made inaccessible.

Versions were sent via email to tens of thousands of people with "Independence" as the sender's name and "Memory of" in the subject line. Both AhnLab and antivirus company (Source: WSJ.)

Hunt On for the Culprits Behind Crippling Cyber Attack (Jul 2009) Computer security companies on Sunday said the culprits behind last week's cyber terror attacks were North or South Koreans or at least people who are very familiar with South Korean affairs. AhnLab, Hauri and other IT security companies said the computer viruses that began executing their commands at midnight Friday were programmed to destroy 37 different types of files. Among files targeted for destruction were the "Hana Word" word processing program created in the mid 1980s by Hongjin Data Service and the "Hunminjeongeum" word processing program by Samsung Electronics.

Until the mid 1990s, ordinary South Koreans as well as the military and government agencies used "Hana Word," which was replaced by newer programs more than a decade ago. "Hunminjeongeum" is also program no longer used by ordinary people but remains the official word processing program within the Samsung Group. Moon Jong-hyun, a staffer at IT security firm Inca Internet, said, "Since the virus targeted South Korean programs that are no longer used by most people, the hacker was either North or South Korean or someone who knows South Korea very well."

It will not be easy for the government to track the source of the distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks that paralyzed the Internet in Korea all last week. First of all, the virus used to launch the DDoS attacks were programmed to delete their path of infection, and the viruses used in the fourth wave of attacks covered their tracks by destroying the hard drives of the so-called "zombie computers" that were hijacked to launch the attacks.

The National Intelligence Service believes North Korea was behind the latest attacks, but it is extremely difficult to prove this. North Korea does not use the official Internet domain address ".kp" that was allotted by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. The North was apparently allotted the .kp domain in 2007 at its embassy in Germany, but the domain name is now owned by a German by the name of Jan Holtman. And it usually operates websites either by leasing lines from China or from overseas.

But the NIS is said to know many of the Internet protocol addresses that belong to North Koreans. One intelligence officer said, "Our investigation involves comparing and analyzing the IP addresses of North Korean hackers we are aware of and the IP addresses that were used during last week's attacks." The NIS is looking at individual North Koreans being behind the attacks.

Ha Tae-keung, the head of Open Radio for North Korea, said, "The incident in May when a hacker broke through the defense system of a South Korean bank and stole cash, appears to have been the work of a North Korean." But Ha added there must have been a person in South Korea who made the theft possible. One government source said, "There is the possibility that North Korea sympathizers in South Korea may have been involved in the latest attacks, which involved the creation of tens of thousands of 'zombie computers.'"

Experts say if the NIS is able to pinpoint the South Korean collaborator, then North Korea's involvement can be confirmed as well, but it will be difficult to prove this using technical analysis alone. Meanwhile, things are returning to normal. An official at the Korea Communications Commission said, "There appears to be no signs of a fifth wave of attacks approaching." As of 6 p.m. on Sunday, a total of 928 computers had been reported damaged from the attack virus. (Source: Chosun Ilbo.)

Cyber Attack 'Came from Britain, Not N.Korea' (Jul 2009) The source of a crippling cyber attack targeting Cheong Wa Dae and other key websites in South Korea and the United States was a computer in the U.K., analysis shows. Although it remains unclear exactly who was behind the distributed denial of service attacks, they were orchestrated from a master server with an IP address in England. The Korea Communications Commission said Tuesday Vietnamese computer security company Bach Khoa Internetwork Security told the Korea Information Security Agency that the master server behind the attacks was located in the U.K.

After the DDoS attacks began, KISA had sent samples of the computer virus to 16 member nations of the Asia Pacific Computer Emergency Response Team, which includes Vietnam. The KCC then passed on the information to the National Intelligence Service, state prosecutors and the police, while an international investigation has been launched.

British authorities are said to have been notified and have launched a probe of the server using that IP address. KISA speculates that the master server, which uses a Windows 2003 operating system, spread the virus through 125 host websites across the world. Damage was reported in 166,000 computers in 74 countries, including South Korea, the U.S., China, Japan, Canada, New Zealand and the U.K. In South Korea alone, around 78,000 computers were infected. Hwang Chul-jeung, the head of network policy at the KCC, said, "Either the server in England had been hijacked or another master server may have been used." (Source: Chosun Ilbo.)

Mystery surrounds hackers' identity (Jul 2009) For the moment, no one is entirely sure who set up and executed the attacks on government and corporate Web sites in South Korea and the United States on July 7 and 8. Initially, South Korea’s National Intelligence Service claimed North Korea was the mastermind of the distributed denial-of-service, or DDoS, assaults.

One possible clue, or possibly a red herring, emerged on Wednesday. The Korea Communications Commission and the Korea Information Security Agency announced that the master server, or control tower, of the massive attack was “deemed to be located in Britain.” The tip-off came after Bkis Internet Security, a Vietnam-based firm, said it had identified eight servers that controlled the so-called zombie computers and had learned that they were taking orders from a ninth machine apparently based in Britain.

DDoS floods Web sites with requests from a collection of zombie computers, making them inaccessible to the public. Hackers create zombies by remotely hijacking vulnerable computers via e-mail or malicious codes without the owners’ knowledge. The zombies are known to be controlled by a master server.

But not everyone agrees with the apparent British link. The Financial Times reported yesterday in its Asia edition that sub-servers of the attacks took orders from a master server controlled by a virtual private network in Florida belonging to a business partner named Digital Latin America. The firm is under business partnership with Global Digital Broadcast in Britain and although the computer owned by GDB was located in Britain, the supposed control server was in Florida. “There’s been no consensus on the most basic questions, including how the perpetrators issued commands to the computers used in the attacks,” said the FT article.

Korea’s communications commission, a unit spun off from the now non-existent Information and Communication Ministry, has yet to come up with any official stance following the FT article. “We are still probing the case,” said a spokesman. Asked if the investigation still lists North Korea as a possible perpetrator, an official at the information protection team declined to comment.

Web sites at 11 government agencies, banks, portals and private businesses including the Blue House and the Defense Ministry were compromised from the night of July 7 until the next day. Fourteen U.S. government sites, including those of the White House and the New York Stock Exchange, were also knocked out during the same period. (Source: Joongang Ilbo.)

'DDoS Malware Was Produced in Korea' (Jul 2009) The powerful Internet attack that crippled South Korean computers earlier this month may have been initiated by local hackers after all, according to a police report issued on Monday (26 Jul). The National Police Agency's cyber crimes unit said the malicious software used for the recent distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks were put out by two "Web hard" online storage sites, which manage commercial peer-to-peer transactions of files.

Authorities, including the Korea Communications Commission (KCC) and the National Intelligence Service (NIS), have been struggling to track down the source of the cyber criminals. However, police investigators say that 21 of the 27 "zombie" computers they examined, which were infected and compromised by the malicious codes, were infected from programs originating from the two online storage sites. Although the malicious software was distributed from Korean sites, the cyber attackers used four separate servers based overseas to control the programs after they reached computers. "The DDoS attackers hacked two Korean Web sites, based in Seoul and Busan, and switched the program update files of the sites with their malicious codes," said a police officer. "Users of these online storage sites unknowingly downloaded the malicious programs, thinking they were updating the programs for the peer-to-peer transactions. We found four foreign servers that we believed were used to issue the attack orders."

A DDoS attack occurs when multiple systems are flooded with traffic that overwhelms their bandwidth or resources. More than 80,000 South Korean computers were affected by the series of DDoS attacks that started on July 7, while the United States and China were also attacked, albeit less ferociously. The malicious software used in the recent attacks was mostly "botnets," or software robots that run autonomously to initiate the DDoS attacks. The botnets compromise the infected computers and are manipulated by the command and control (C&C) system set up by the hackers.

A total of 432 servers based in 61 countries were used by the hackers for C&C operations in the recent attacks, police officials say. Through the C&C servers, the hackers attempted to steal information from the infected computers and used the devices to spread the malicious codes to other computers, and eventually, programmed the zombies to self-destruct. According to data provided by German law enforcement authorities, about 98 percent of the 55,500-plus zombie computers that communicated with the C&C server based in Germany were Korean computers, the police agency said. (Source: Korea Times.)

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14% of Households Live in Poverty (Jul 2009) The number of poor households has mushroomed amid stagnant growth over the past six to seven years, with 14 out of every 100 urban households now living below the poverty line. In a report released Monday, the Korea Development Institute said the ratio of poor households in urban families of more than two members has been on the increase since 2001, hovering above 14 percent for three consecutive years. The report defines poor families as those whose average monthly income is less than 50 percent of the median family income, for instance families of four with an average monthly income of less than W1.77 million (US$1=W1,312) as of 2008.

There were fewer than 10 percent poor households until the late 90s, but the percentage rose to 12.8 in 1999 when income disparity grew in the wake of the Asian financial crisis. The ratio fell back to 10.5 percent in 2000 but then rose steadily to 14.2 percent in 2006. It was 14.4 in 2007 and 14.3 percent in 2008. The proportion of middle-class households, meanwhile, is declining. Families with an income between 50 percent and 150 percent of the median family income took up 65.5 percent in 1999, rising to 68.5 percent in 2000, but then fell to 62.7 percent in 2007 and 63.3 percent in 2008.

Yu Kyung-joon, a senior research fellow at the KDI, said, "In the 2000s, economic growth dropped and more fruits of growth went to those who are not poor." Korea has a higher poverty rate than advanced nations. In an OECD analysis of its 30 member states, Korea ranked sixth at 14.6 percent as of 2006, behind the U.S. (17.1 percent) and Japan (14.9 percent) but well ahead of Germany (11 percent), Switzerland (8.7 percent) and the U.K. (8.3 percent). (Source: Chosun Ilbo.)

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Lottery Sales Reached 0.4% of GDP in 2008 (Jul 2009) Research shows that Korea's lottery sales reached 0.4 percent of gross domestic product last year. According to the Ministry of Strategy and Finance, the country's lottery sales amounted to US$3.4 billion, ranking eighth among the thirteen countries that were included in the report. Greece was the country with the most lottery sales last year, reaching 2.2 percent of GDP, with Japan ranking the lowest at 0.2 percent. However Korea had the lowest purchasing amount per person out of the countries surveyed. (Source: Chosun Ilbo.) (SITE NOTE: The correlation between hard times and increased sales of lottery tickets reflects the growing economic troubles in Korea.)

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Seoul Sees Heaviest Rainfall Since 1940 (Jul 2009) Seoul was hit by heavy downpours and strong winds all day Tuesday. The metropolis saw 140.5 mm of rainfall as of 10 p.m., using the rainfall in the Jongno area as the standard. It has suffered accumulated rainfall of 635.9 mm since late June, when the rainy season started. That was the heaviest for this period since national liberation in 1945, but the third heaviest since weather forecasts began in Korea in 1908, following 1940 (989.2 mm) and 1930 (731.6 mm).

And the downpours show a different pattern from the consistent rainfall of past rainy seasons, with a few sunny days, followed by heavy squalls on a single day. This month, Seoul had more than 90 mm of torrential rains on July 2, 9 and 12 but had less than 1 mm or sunshine on other days. Rainfalls also showed a micro pattern, with some metropolitan areas getting more than 100 mm of rain per day and others less than 10 mm. Experts attributed the abnormal pattern to climate change. Jin Gee-geom, the chief of the weather forecast bureau of the Korea Meteorological Administration, said, "Global warming makes the weather's ups and downs very steep."

Dr. Kim Tae-kook of the Korea Water Resources Corporation said, "Before this year's rainy season, the weather was relatively dry. But with global warming bringing abnormal changes to the Earth's atmosphere, droughts and floods come alternately as if the shifts changed." The central part of the Korean Peninsula sustained rain damage, with Gwacheon in Gyeonggi Province recording 266 mm, Chuncheon in Gangwon Province 223.5 mm, and Songpa District in Seoul 206 mm as of 8 p.m. The KMA said as a seasonal rain front moves south on Wednesday, some areas in the south will see more than 200 mm of rainfall. (Source: Chosun Ilbo.)

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Preparations for Naro space launch on track (Jul 2009) Researchers are putting the final touches on the launch of Korea's first space rocket scheduled for July 30. Naro, or Korea Space Launch Vehicle-1, will carry a domestically-built experimental satellite into a low earth orbit. It will be fired at the Naro Space Center, the country's first space launch site, between 4:40 p.m. and 6:40 p.m., weather permitting. A successful launch would make Korea the 10th country to send up a satellite of its own making from its territory.

About 200 Korean and Russian researchers are working on the landmark project at the spaceport in Goheung, South Jeolla Province. Final tests with tracking and control systems will be conducted today. The two-stage rocket is 33.5 meters long, weighs 140 tons and has a thrust of 170 tons. The liquid-fuel first stage was provided by Russia's Khrunichev State Space Science and Production Center. The solid-fuel second stage was developed by the state-run Korea Aerospace Research Institute. (SITE NOTE: The 33.5-meter, 140-ton KSLV-1 will carry an experimental satellite, a 100-kilogram device named "Science and Technology Satellite No. 2,'' jointly designed by the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology and the Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology. The Khrunichev Center, which is providing the technology for the Korean space project, developed the 25.8-meter long lower assembly. The Korea Aerospace Research Institute designed the solid-fuel upper part of the rocket, which will hold the satellite.)

The 100-kilogram "Science and Technology Satellite 2" was built jointly by the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology and the Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology. It has a two-year lifespan.

The upper part - consisting of the second-stage rocket, the satellite and the nose fairing that protects it - will be assembled Saturday and put together with the lower part Monday. The rocket will be moved to the launch pad July 28.

The Korean and Russian partners have agreed to carry out an additional launch next April. If either of the first two launches fails, they are to conduct a third launch under the contract. Korea has spent 502.4 billion won ($393 million) on the project, with about 40 percent of the expenditure paid to the Russian institution. Korea plans to launch a 1.5-ton multi-purpose commercial satellite on a fully indigenous rocket, named KSLV-2, possibly in 2018. It also plans to develop a lunar orbiter by 2020 and a lunar probe by 2025. (Source: Korea Herald.) (SITE NOTE: On 17 Jul technical problems forced a delay in the launch of South Korea's first space vehicle the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology said Thursday. The ministry is expected to announce a new date on Friday (17 Jul).)

Software Glitch Blamed for Aborted Rocket Launch (Aug 2009) A software glitch was the reason Wednesday's launch of Korea's first space rocket was aborted at the last minute, the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology said Thursday. The ministry said it will seek to fix the problem and launch the Korean Space Launch Vehicle-1 nicknamed Naro before next Wednesday. But the date is uncertain since it may take more time to assess the impact the problem could have on the entire launch process.

Vice Education and Science Minister Kim Jung-hyun visited the Naro Space Center in Goheung, South Jeolla Province on Thursday. "Korean and Russian technicians conducted a comprehensive evaluation until late into the night and discovered that there was a software problem during the launch process gauging the pressure level inside the high-pressure tank," Kim said. "Since we discovered the problem in the launch sequence that needs to be rectified, if the rectification work goes smoothly we should be able to conduct another launch before the 26th." (Source: Chosun Ilbo.)

S. Korea to conduct last-minute check on first space rocket (Aug 2009) Preparations are now underway to launch rocket that was delayed on the day of Kim Dae-jung's death due to a software glitch. South Korea was to move forward with a final "rehearsal" in preparation for the launch of its first space rocket this week, the government said Monday. The Ministry of Education, Science and Technology said a comprehensive check on the Korea Space Launch Vehicle-1 (KSLV-1) will be carried out throughout the day so engineers can examine all mechanical, fire control and electronics systems. The launch time has tentatively been set at 5 p.m. Tuesday.



The rocket was moved from the assembly building on Sunday after the debugging of a faulty software system that caused the launch to be put off last week. It has been erected on the launch pad and connected to various electrical and hydraulic cables. The liftoff of the KSLV-1, also called the Naro-1, has been delayed a total of seven times since 2005, with the last postponement taking place last Wednesday with just under eight minutes remaining on the countdown clock. "Everything related to the launch will be fully simulated with the exception of the fuel and oxidation agents that are to be injected two hours before launch," said a government official. He said, however, that there is no guarantee that the blastoff may not be again delayed if a problem is found at the last minute. "There is always a chance that things may occur that cannot be anticipated when the rocket is being prepared for launch," the official said, pointing out that the countdown of India's GSLV was stopped with just a second left on the countdown clock, while the launch of Japan's H2A in Sept. 27, 2003 was stopped in the last minute.

Depending on the outcome of the tests and weather conditions, an exact time for the launch should be set before the liftoff on Tuesday. The Naro-1 stands 33m tall with a diameter of 2.9m. Its main first stage liquid-fuel rocket, made in Russia, can generate 170t of thrust. The second stage rocket, made in South Korea, can generate 8t of thrust and is designed to place a satellite into orbit.

Mission controllers, meanwhile, said that security has been tightened around the Naro Space Center, located 485km south of Seoul. Navy and Coast Guard ships are keeping watch on all maritime traffic, and plans are in place to divert all commercial airline traffic near the time of the launch. (Source: Yonhap News.)







Rocket Fairing Failed to Separate (Aug 2009) Korea's first space launch rocket failed to put the Science and Technology Satellite-2 into its targeted orbit when one of the protective satellite covers known as the payload fairings failed to separate, scientists have concluded. The fairings were manufactured by Korean firms based on a design drawn by the Korea Aerospace Research Institute, with Russia providing technological support.

"As a result of an investigation by the joint Korean-Russian flight test committee, we presume that after the blastoff, the first and second-stage rockets and the satellite separated successfully," Second Vice Minister of Education, Science and Technology Kim Jung-hyun told reporters at the Naro Space Center on Wednesday. "But the launch failed to put the satellite into orbit due to the fairing’s failure to separate."

Kim said even though it ignited, the second-stage rocket could not accelerate to adequate ascent speed because the second fairing, which weighs four times as much as the STSAT-2, stayed on. "We presume that the satellite failed to enter the Earth's orbit and fell to the Earth," he added.

KARI showed video footage filmed by the camera in the second-stage rocket on the day of blastoff. It shows the second fairing still alongside the satellite at the upper end of the second-stage rocket right after the first one separated.

Asked why he did not mention the problem at a press briefing held right after the blastoff on Tuesday, Kim said, "We were unable to reach a conclusion based on circumstantial evidence alone and were supposed to evaluate the entire situation based on complete data."

The ministry did not say whether there will be another launch. According to the contract, there are to be two launches of the KLSV-1 or Naro rocket, this time and next May. If one of the two attempts fails, Korea is supposed to get another first-stage rocket from Russia without additional charge.

"Under the contract, we're responsible for the fairings, but the two sides will find a solution jointly because Russia is in charge of general technological support," Kim added. (Source: Chosun Ilbo.)

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'Korea, Sparkling' Slogan May Be Dropped (Jul 2009) Korea is likely to stop using "Korea, Sparkling," as its official tourism slogan in the near future as many specialists question its effectiveness as a motto representing the nation's identity. "The vast majority of experts expressed consistently negative views about the slogan. They said it sounded like a brand name for carbonated or sparkling water, not a catchy tourism slogan," said Euh Yoon-dae, chairman of Presidential Council on Nation Branding, Wednesday. (SITE NOTE: When they first put it on posters we thought -- who thought up that stupid slogan. It is Konglish thinking -- meaning it makes sense to Korean mental imagery, but is nonsense to English-speaking nations. As this was intended as national branding for international tourism, it was such a waste of money.)

During a meeting with 20 lawmakers affiliated with a National Assembly study group, Euh said his committee would let brand specialists conduct research on the effectiveness of the slogan first and then make the results public. "The general public will ultimately decide whether the nation should continue to use or scrap the slogan," said the chairman. Some experts say criticism will be unavoidable if and when the government decides to stop using the slogan because of unwise budget spending and possible confusion from foreigners who are considering Korea as a tourist destination.

The Korea Tourism Organization (KTO) has promoted Korea tourism overseas with "Korea, Sparkling" since it was coined in 2007 as the nation's culture and tourism slogan. Shim Jeong-bo, executive director for public relations department at the KTO, declined to comment on the issue. "It's inappropriate for me to comment on the issue now because KTO has not been officially informed about it. I think we will be able to answer the question after an official announcement is made," Shim told The Korea Times.

During the meeting, committee Chairman Euh also mentioned the possible change in the national slogan. Currently, "Dynamic Korea" is used. "Experts' views are divided over its effectiveness. They share the view that the term of dynamic has a lot of positive meanings though," he said. Euh continued some experts said it was a proper slogan matching Korea's identity very well, however, others noted that while it was very effective back in 2002 when World Cup fever swept the entire nation, it doesn't quite match present-day Korea. Those who prefer replacing the current one note that a more effective slogan should contain words representing Korea's technology power.

A recent public opinion poll found 12 percent of foreigners abroad cite strong technology capability when they think of Korea. The survey of 4,214 people living in 25 countries was conducted from last November through January. Despite the division, Youn Jung-in, director for planning and coordination of the branding committee, said that many experts may prefer using Dynamic Korea even after a new national slogan is chosen. (Source: Korea Times.)

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At least 4 dead, 2 missing in torrential rainstorms (Jul 2009) At least four people have been killed and two are missing, following severe storms in southern regions of the country yesterday. A landslip in Masan, South Gyeongsang, killed a 58-year-old male surnamed Kim at 9:20 a.m. yesterday. Another landslip swept a house in Changwon, South Gyeongsang, and killed a 33-year-old man, also surnamed Kim, at 8:30 a.m.

A 66-year-old female farmer surnamed Jeon in Hadong County in South Gyeongsang drowned later in the morning and a 54-year-old female surnamed Shin in Yeonsan-dong, Busan, died when she was buried in a landslip at 10:40 a.m. A man surnamed Hwang in Gwangyang, South Jeolla, went missing when he was caught in a sudden landslip, and a man surnamed Lee in Imsil County, North Jeolla, was swept away by an overflowing stream.

Meanwhile, over 290 elementary schools in Busan temporarily closed down yesterday. At 8:30 a.m. over 50 residents in a 15-story apartment in Busan had quickly evacuated when a massive landslip hit.

Some 36 houses in South Jeolla were flooded, and 81 hectares (200 acres) of farmland, 131 hectares of salt pan, and four salt storehouses in Shinan County, South Jeolla, were swept by flooding, which caused property damage estimated at 300 million won ($237,000).

The rain has been exceptionally heavy. Busan has had its highest rainfall since records began in 1908. Over 900 millimeters (35 inches) fell between June 20 and yesterday. Seasonal rain arrived on the Korean Peninsula on June 20.

Suncheon in South Jeolla and Masan in South Gyeongsang came under nearly 1,000 millimeters of rain during the same period. Suncheon has had its heaviest rainfall since 1973 and Masan since 1986.

Seoul had 635.9 millimeters of rain during the period whereas Gyeonggi and Gangwon areas had over 600 millimeters. One expert said global warming played a crucial role bringing record-breaking precipitation in the southern regions. “Global warming has caused temperature rises in sea water, leading to greater evaporation,” said Ha Kyung-ja, a professor of regional environmental system engineering studies at Pusan National University. Meanwhile, Seoul remained relatively calm yesterday, sunny all day without rainfall. (Source: Joongang Ilbo.)

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'Ingam' Personal Stamp to Disappear in 5 Years (Jul 2009) The administration will abolish the 95-year-old system requiring the use of a registered legal seal, called "ingam" in Korean, for crucial contracts by the end of 2013, the Presidential Council on National Competitiveness said Wednesday.

The system has been used since its introduction in 1914 by the Japanese colonial government. Individuals must register their own legal seals at administrative offices. Without a seal, no property transaction, borrowing or other important private contracts are possible. "The ingam was an effective tool to ensure the safety of transactions, but has became more vulnerable to forgery," the council said in a report to President Lee Myung-bak. "Costs for registration and issuance of certificates have also increased sharply as crimes related to the seals also jumped. We need to adopt a better system."

Over the next five years, an electronic certification system will replace the traditional seal. The new system is much safer and convenient to use, and will help save 450 billion won annually in taxpayers' money, said Kang Man-soo, the council's chairman. Individuals can use the electronic system when they make contracts on property, automobiles and loans, Kang said. The government has been operating a taskforce since March to map out measures to improve the certification system. Policymakers are now working closely with private firms to develop the system, according to the council. (Source: Korea Times.)

The system of using an impression on a certificate, a method of confirming one's identification before making financial transactions, will be reduced by 60 percent this year and the system will be completely abolished in five years. With President Lee Myung-bak presiding over the 15th meeting of the Presidential Council on National Competitiveness held at the Blue House yesterday, council members agreed to replace the certificates with electronic authentication in two stages.

In the first phase, the government is planning to abandon seal impression requirements on 125 out of 209 administrative procedures by the end of the year. Matters related to property, such as the registration of the real estate, will use the original identification system for the time being. Instead of an actual person making a seal impression, the government will also allow someone else to submit a letter of public authentication to verify the actual person's identification if he cannot appear himself. Starting next year, the government will widen the use of an electronic authentication system as an alternative to replace the seal system.

The old system has been used for 95 years since it was first introduced during the Japanese colonial period in 1914. Currently, 32.8 million Koreans, accounting for 66.5 percent of the population, have registered seal impressions. A total of 48.4 million certificates, worth of about 29 billion won ($23.4 million), were issued last year. (Source: Joongang Ilbo.) (SITE NOTE: We even have an unregistered seal to stamp the pay envelopes for record-keeping purposes. The cost for a cheap stamp is about 5,000 won and the ink pad (a small plastic case with red paste in it) costs as little as a 1000 won. However, the inconvenience of the ingam system is easy to see as you need that stamp whenever you do any kind of transaction with the "dong" office -- from getting an ID card to new house registration paperwork. The point is that it really isn't needed since the computer system now enters the data. Computer forgeries are common-place meaning that the "ingam" system has outlived its usefulness and needs to go.)

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Tenants Face Hard Times From Rising 'Jeonse' Payments (Jul 2009) Whether or not home prices will rise is an issue that can be debated. But there seems to be no dispute over whether or not rent prices will. According to real estate agencies Wednesday, ``jeonse'' is rising rapidly in Seoul as demand continues to outstrip supply. Jeonse is Korea-specific term that refers to the lease term of a house. Instead of paying a monthly rent, tenants disburse a lump-sum deposit, or jeonse, at the start of a contract.

Landlords are required to return the deposit, which amounts to around 30-50 percent of the property's value, at the end of the contract, which usually expires after two years. Koreans use the unique format instead of employing Western style rents. ``Tenants are lining up to sign jeonse deals but landlords do not want lease homes on the present jeonse terms,'' said a real-estate agent in southern Seoul. ``Accordingly, jeonse levels have rocketed this year. In some southern Seoul areas, prices have jumped 30 percent during the past six months,'' he said.

The agent listed two reasons responsible for the rise in jeonse in the capital city ? low interest rates and a lack of new apartment supply. ``You know, homeowners have chalked up handsome profits in the past based on the jeonse system. Hence, they loved the format,'' the anonymous agent said. ``However, low interest rates prompted them to change their mind. So now they are tilting toward monthly rents. This leads to increases in jeonse,'' he said.

The Bank of Korea has kept the benchmark interest rate at a record low 2 percent over the past few months to grapple with the lingering financial crisis. Market interest rates are upside of 2 percent, which is relatively low compared to past years.

In addition, a dearth of new apartments is aggravating the problem. Real Estate Bank, a local property consultancy, said the number of new apartments built in Seoul this year is expected to be around 37,000, substantially down from last year's 50,000. The figures are expected to fall further to about 21,000 next year and 16,000 in 2011.``The economic turmoil discouraged a host of construction companies from building new apartments in Seoul and its vicinity. Therefore, supply is not enough,'' a Real Estate Bank executive said. ``Things will remain similar for the time being as the number of new apartments in Seoul is likely to decrease. We need to take a set of measures to prevent a jeonse fiasco,'' he said. (Source: Korea Times.) (SITE NOTE: Around military bases there is a system of monthly rent with one month deposit. This system is being accepted in those areas where there is an apartment glut and it is hard to rent apartments for long-term leases. Some owners are willing to forgo the "jeonse" (key money) payment simply to rent the premises.)

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August 2009

N. Korea Blasts SK-US Military Exercise -- Ho..hum... (Aug 2009) North Korea yesterday blasted the South Korea-U.S. joint military exercise Ulchi Freedom Guardian as a "maneuver for nuclear war and war of aggression," warning of "merciless retaliation and a full-fledged war of justice." The North’s Korea Central News Agency quoted a spokesman for the Panmunjom Mission of the (North) Korean People’s Army as saying in a statement, “Through these nuclear war exercises, the American master and his servant seek to openly call for escalating their sanctions and pressure on the Democratic People`s Republic of Korea." "If they tighten sanctions and push confrontation to an extreme phase, we will react with a merciless retaliation of our own style and an all-out war of justice.” The statement sparked fears that Pyongyang might try to escalate its military threats against Seoul since softening them from April. In March, the North disconnected inter-Korean military communication and blocked overland transportation to and from the Kaesong industrial complex and the Mount Kumgang resort area three times. Since 2006, Pyongyang has denounced Ulchi Freedom Guardian every year as a “preliminary war of northward aggression” and a “nuclear test war,” threatening to counter with “preemptive military action” and a “merciless retaliatory strike.” The drill is a command post exercise conducted through computer simulation without mobilization of military troops. It is carried out under Operational Plan 5027 drawn up by the South Korea-U.S. Combined Forces Command to defend against a preemptive strike by the North. (Source: Donga Ilbo.) (SITE NOTE: This is the old Ulchi Focus Lens that has been going on every year and every year we hear the same blather...)

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2 People Die of Influenza A Over the Weekend (Aug 2009) Two people died over the weekend from Influenza A (H1N1), health authorities said yesterday. The Health, Welfare and Family Affairs Ministry’s central influenza control center confirmed that a 63-year-old woman being treated for Influenza A and acute respiratory syndrome died yesterday. This followed the death of a 56-year-old man Saturday from acute pneumonia and septicemia arising from complications from the flu after visiting Thailand.

Since the woman had never traveled abroad, health authorities say she likely contracted the disease from an unidentified neighbor. She experienced cough, fever, throat and muscle aches July 24 but received no specific treatment until July 30, when she visited the emergency room of a university hospital in Seoul due to worsening respiratory problems. When she did not get better even after taking antibiotics for bacterial disease, doctors began giving her Tamiflu from Aug. 4. She was moved to the intensive care unit after being confirmed to have Influenza A by the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Aug. 8.

The official cause of her death was multiple organ failure, pulmonary edema and acute respiratory syndrome. Her husband and medical doctors all tested negative for the virus. The 56-year-old man was admitted to a hospital after being diagnosed with bacterial pneumonia after experiencing high fever and respiratory trouble Aug. 8. After testing positive for Influenza A Saturday morning, he soon died of pneumonia and septicemia. In the wake of their deaths, health authorities strengthened their initial response. Though they only gave antiviral drugs to patients with fever and other respiratory symptoms, they decided to give drugs to those respiratory symptoms and run virus tests. They also plan to expand testing to all pneumonia and acute respiratory syndrome patients by immediately releasing 500,000 doses of Tamiflu, or 10 percent of the government’s stock. With 57 new cases of Influenza A reported yesterday, the number of infected people has grown to 2,089 in Korea, with two of them dying over the weekend. (Source: Donga Ilbo.)

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Death of Kim Dae Jung (Aug 2009) Kim Dae-jung: A Life of Trials and Steely Determination The life of former President Kim Dae-jung was too full to describe in a few words. His tumultuous 85 years are so intertwined with Korea's modern history that it is impossible to talk about the nation's hardship and glory without mentioning Kim's name.


Former President Kim Dae-jung during his days at Mokpo Commercial High School

Trials and Tribulations

Kim was given the nickname "honeysuckle," and it is difficult to find a better way to sum up Kim's life than the flower, which endures the harshest of winters and blossoms in early summer.

Born in January 1924 in South Jeolla Province, Kim was the second son of a poor farmer. He graduated from Mokpo Commercial High School (Jeonnam Jeil High School today) and married his first wife Cha Yong-ae in the port city. It was Mokpo that elected him twice as a lawmaker following his victory in the general elections in 1963.

Until he rose to the presidency, Kim's political career was characterized by one tribulation after another. His six years in prison and 10 years under house arrest are testament to his endurance. Kim often said he had four brushes with death. In September 1950, he was captured by communist soldiers and escaped from Mokpo prison just before he was about to face a firing squad. In 1971, he suffered a mysterious and near-fatal car accident as he was campaigning in support of a New Democratic Party candidate running for a seat in the eighth National Assembly.

When President Park Chung-hee declared measures in October of 1972 to reinforce his authoritarian rule, Kim was unable to return from Japan and remained there in political exile. He rallied anti-Park forces in Japan, prompting Park to have him kidnapped by the Korean Central Intelligence Agency in downtown Tokyo. KCIA agents apparently intended to drown him in the middle of the East Sea but were forced to abort the mission under pressure from the U.S. government.

Instead, Kim was brought back to Korea and put under house arrest at his home in Seoul. There, he began his pro-democracy movement. In 1976, he was arrested on charges of leading the proclamation of an anti-government manifesto and served a two-year prison term. He was released in 1978 but immediately put under house arrest again.


Clockwise from top left, former President Kim Dae-jung in his days as a lawmaker; running against Park Chung-hee in the 1971 presidential election; on trial for rebellion in 1980; and abducted in 1973.

Kim enjoyed a brief "spring of democracy" following the assassination of Park in 1979, but the new military government that rose to power in 1980 accused him of sedition and conspiracy and in January of 1981, the Supreme Court sentenced him to death. However, international efforts to save him and widespread coverage of his plight in the international press forced the government to commute the sentence to life in prison and then to 20 years imprisonment. He spent two years and seven months in jail.

In December 1982, Kim was exiled from Korea for the second time. This time, he headed to the U.S. He suddenly returned to Korea in February 1985, just ahead of the general election, but was placed under house arrest again. He was finally able to resume political activities following the June 10 pro-democracy demonstrations that swept the country in 1987. ? Failure and Comeback

Kim is seen as a successful politician because be became president, but he had to endure countless defeats and setbacks, as well as the painful process of recovery to reach that point. Even in his darkest hour, his political will never wavered.

His bid for the presidency in 1971 was as an important opportunity to consolidate his status at the center of Korea's political establishment for the next 30 years. He ran for president four times since then and was finally elected as Korea's 15th president in December 1997. It was the first ever peaceful transfer of power for the Republic of Korea since its establishment. (Source: Chosun Ilbo.)

VIDEO: Kim Dae Jung life

The 15th president (1998-2002), Kim left his mark in the development of Korean human rights and democracy through his long-time struggle against dictatorship in the name of democratization. He was also awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his great contributions to peace on the Korean Peninsula by bringing about the June 15 inter-Korean summit and Joint Declaration.

From the time he became the opposition party candidate for president in 1971, Kim was a major figure in the democratization struggle, struggling against dictatorship until Korea’s eventual democratization. He faced death numerous times, being sentenced to death under the Park Chung-hee and Chun Doo-hwan dictatorships, yet he did not submit and walked the single path of democracy. When he was elected president in December 1997, he brought about the first peaceful transition from ruling party to opposition party rule in Korea’s history. Moreover, by convening with North Korean leader Kim Jong-il the first inter-Korean summit in June 2000, he transformed the existing inter-Korean relationship of confrontation into one of reconciliation and co-existence. In December of the same year, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of his achievement. He was the first Korean to be awarded the Nobel Prize.

Kim’s death also serves as the end of the so-called “Three Kim Era” that dominated Korean political history for 30 years since the 1970s. Two of these Kims - Kim Dae-jung and Kim Young-sam - symbolized the struggle for democratization, with their relationship forming during the dark ages of 1970s and 1980s through the struggle against dictatorship. The Three Kim-era also includes a dark legacy, too, of a neo-feudal political party system characterized by the master-retainer relationship and the worsening of regional sentiment. Kim’s death leaves behind the task of overcoming this legacy to create a new democratic political order suitable for the 21st century. (Source: Hankyoreh.)

Kim Dae Jung Dies (18 Aug 2009) Former President Kim Dae-jung, a giant in South Korea's shift to democracy who won the 2000 Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to forge a reconciliation with the prickly communist North, died on Tuesday at the age of 85. Kim, popularly known by his initials "DJ," died of cardiac arrest brought on by massive organ failure. Staff at Yonsei Severance Hospital that has treated him since July 13, when he was admitted for pneumonia, did not attempt cardiopulmonary resuscitation to revive him. "We chose to let the deceased go in peace," Yonsei hospital chief Park Chang-il told a news conference.

News of his death brought an outpouring of condolences, including from those who disagreed with the liberal leader on how to deal with reclusive North Korea, which has for decades been a destabilizing factor for Asia's fourth largest economy. "We lost a great political leader today. His accomplishments and aspirations to achieve democratization and inter-Korean reconciliation will long be remembered by the people," conservative President Lee Myung-bak said in comments released by his office.

The former political prisoner, once sentenced to death under one of the country's early military rulers whom he relentlessly opposed, was elected South Korea's president in December 1997 on his fourth attempt. It was the first time in the country that power had shifted from a ruling party president to one from the opposition and firmly established democracy in a country that had spent its early years under a succession of autocratic rulers. Kim was the architect of the "Sunshine Policy" of engaging communist North Korea which led to an unprecedented warming of ties between the foes. In the culmination of his efforts to improve relations with the North, Kim flew to Pyongyang in June 2000 for a historic summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-il.

The meeting and his idea of prodding the North forward with the promise of incentives and reducing the strain of eventual unification through economic integration won Kim the Nobel prize. His liberal politics and policy of rapprochement with the North was taken on by his successor Roh Moo-hyun who held a second summit with the North Korean leader Kim Jong-il in 2007. But in his final year, he watched as voters turned against a decade of liberal policies he had inaugurated by electing the conservative Lee, whose hard line toward the North saw relations plunge back into the freezer.

And in May, Kim's successor as president, Roh, committed suicide amid a graft probe. "This year has been especially hard for us as we have lost earlier in the year yet another political leader, former President Roh Moo-hyun. We feel as if we have lost both root and spirit of our democracy," the opposition Democratic Party said.

Analysts said Kim's death may help bring the rival Korea's back to dialogue, especially following conciliatory moves by the North in recent days that included a promise to reopen its border with the South, suggesting to some that tension may be subsiding. "DJ meant something to them and North Korea is likely to react and move in light of this news," Koh Yu-hwan of Dongguk University in Seoul said. Yang Moo-jin of University of North Korean Studies said Pyongyang will likely send a delegation that could "turn around recent hardened conditions between North and South Korea."

At home, it was Kim's life-long struggle against repressive authoritarian leaders that defined him and made his name a household word and inspiration for generations. A devout Catholic and an inspiring speaker in both Korean and English, he shuffled when he walked due to injuries suffered to his legs in an assassination attempt in the 1970s when a truck rammed his car off a road. Even as skepticism grew of Pyongyang's intentions when it defied warnings and conducted its second nuclear test and a series of rocket launches, Kim told Reuters in one of his last interviews he was optimistic the North would eventually disarm. "Some people say North Korea has no intention of giving up its nuclear weapons, but that is not true," he said on June 23. (Source: News Daily.)



Kim Dae-jung to Be Given State Funeral (Aug 2009) The state funeral for former President Kim Dae-jung will be held Sunday following six days of mourning, when he will be laid to rest at the National Cemetery in Dongjak-dong in southern Seoul. Only one state funeral has been held since the founding of the Republic of Korea, that of Park Chung-hee in October 1979. But Park was assassinated while he was president, whereas this will be the first state funeral for a former president.

The government in an extraordinary Cabinet meeting Wednesday night decided to give Kim a state funeral. It takes place at 2 p.m. Sunday in front of the National Assembly. All flags will fly at half mast. Prime Minister Han Seung-soo will head the organizing committee.

The government recommended a public funeral citing the precedents of former Presidents Choi Kyu-ha and Roh Moo-hyun, but Kim's family and the main opposition Democratic Party demanded a state funeral instead. The government was unable to reach a decision until Wednesday afternoon, but President Lee Myung-bak accepted the demand, according to a government source. (SITE NOTE: In addition, Kim Dae-jung will be laid to rest in the National Cemetary in Seoul, despite difficulties with space. Provisions had been made for future presidents in the Daejon National Cemetary, but Kim's family insisted on Seoul.)

Former first lady Lee Hee-ho thanked the government, according to DP lawmaker Park Jie-won. "The government decided to hold a state funeral by respecting the wishes of the bereaved family, to honor the achievements of the late former president and to promote social unity," Minister of Public Administration and Security Lee Dal-gon was quoted as saying in the Cabinet meeting. "A six-day mourning period was agreed in light of the difficult economic conditions facing the nation."

By Wednesday night, some 10,000 people had visited Yonsei Severance Hospital to pay their last respects, and 10,000 more offered their condolences at an altar set up in front of Seoul City Hall. Tens of thousands of others paid their last respects at 115 memorial altars set up across the country. (Source: Chosun Ilbo.) VIDEO: Mourning



src="http://play.tagstory.com/player/TS00@V000354157@S000000200" width="400" height="345" name="V000354157" allowScriptAccess="always" allowFullScreen="true" quality="high" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer"> VIDEO: Kim Dae-jung Mourning and Funeral Procession

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Yu Recalls 136 Days of Hardship in N.Korean Detention (Aug 2009) The South Korean freed on Aug. 13 after 136 days of being held incommunicado in North Korea went on hunger strike at one point and was forced to sign a false confession that he was a spy, the government revealed Tuesday. Yu Seong-jin, an engineer with Hyundai Asan, was arrested in Kaesong on March 30 and released to coincide with a visit to Pyongyang by Hyundai Group chairwoman Hyun Jeong-eun.

The government said Yu had written several letters to a North Korean woman working at the joint Korean Kaesong Industrial Complex, whom he had met around 2005. In some of them, he criticized North Korea's political system, including the private life of leader Kim Jong-il and the situation of North Korean defectors.

"Another main reason for his detention was that Yu had talked to those around him about his close relationship with another North Korean woman whom he had met in Libya where he worked for Daewoo Construction in 1998," the government said. The woman was reportedly called back to North Korea later on suspicion of attempting to defect to South Korea.

Yu was summoned to the North Korean immigration office on March 30, where he was arrested. He was held at the Janamsan Inn in downtown Kaesong. Interrogations usually took between 30 minutes and two hours a day in the morning and afternoon. In some cases, they continued until midnight or 1 a.m. the following morning.

Investigators from Pyongyang reportedly wanted Yu to confess what he had said, what motives he had, and who was behind him, accusing him of "criticizing the supreme leader" and attempting to talk the woman into defecting. They also questioned him about the nature of his relationship with the woman in Libya between 1998 and 2000 and about whether he was involved in helping her to defect, the government said.

Yu denied his charges at first, but when the investigators presented evidence including the letters, he admitted them and wrote a confession. Investigators forced him to make a false confession that in Libya he had worked at the instructions of a South Korean intelligence agency. In protest, he even went on a hunger strike on April 23-25 but failed to stick it out and submitted a false written confession around May 17.

The investigators did not torture him in detention but interrogated him for long periods making him sit upright on a wooden chair. Investigators and security guards also shouted at and insulted him, forcing him a dozen times to get on his knees for three to five minutes. "They treated him inhumanely to the point of not turning off the lights when he had to sleep," the government added. (Source: Chosun Ilbo.) (SITE NOTE: The irony of the situation is that North Korea submitted a bill for Yu's lodgings in a cheap hotel at $100 a day or about $141,000 dollars. Hyundai stated it would pay the charge from the insurance that all companies must have while working in Kaesong.)

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Birth, Marriage Rates Fall on Economic Uncertainty (Aug 2009) Despite the government's efforts to boost the national birthrate, the number of newborn babies has declined for 16 consecutive months. The number of marriages has also dropped for nine months in a row, partly due to the economic slowdown. According to demographic figures for June released by the National Statistical Office on Monday, the number of babies born in June totaled 34,200, down 800 or 2.3 percent from 35,000 in June last year. With the exception of 2007, the propitious year of the golden pig -- babies born in the year of the golden pig are said to become rich -- the number of newborn babies has continued to drop since March 2003. The number of marriages fell to 25,900 in June, the ninth month of declines since October 2008 and down 4.8 percent from 27,200 in June last year. An official at the NSO said it seems that many people are postponing their marriage plans and childbirth because of the poor economic outlook. (Source: Chosun Ilbo.)

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Girl bands flourish on S. Korean pop music scene, groomed for more than singing (Aug 2009) They are young, leggy and attractive, their music light and perky, and their dance moves easy to learn. What's more, there are enough of them to please any picky fan. From Girls' Generation to WonderGirls, 2NE1, KARA, After School and 4Minutes, girl groups are blooming on the South Korean pop music scene. Never has the industry, long dominated by boy bands, experienced such strong "girl power" before.

"In the past, one or two similar bands swept fans and earned massive popularity, while the rest disappeared quietly after a month or two. What we are experiencing is a brand new phenomenon in which several girl bands are sharing fans and popularity among themselves," said culture critic Kim Hong-in.

Debuting in 2007, the nine-member Girls' Generation has been dominating the music industry with one hit song after another. Their song "Gee" topped local music charts for nearly 10 consecutive weeks earlier this year, an unprecedented record for a female pop group. The members, aged 18-20, claim female and male fans of all ages, from teens to mature people in their 50s.

The WonderGirls have rivaled Girls' Generation since 2007 and recently debuted in the U.S., proving domestic success can indeed lead to international fame. Releasing an English version of their hit song "Nobody" in June, the five-member band earned recognition by joining the U.S. idol group Jonas Brothers on a concert tour.

Others have jumped into the market and are climbing up fast, setting themselves apart with their concepts. After School, like the name, uses a schoolgirl image, while 2NE1 claims to be the best of hip-hop.

Korea has had popular girl bands before. S.E.S and Fin.K.L, once the gems of two rival entertainment firms here, are considered pioneers of mega-hit girl bands, debuting in the late 1990s and creating the so-called "nuna budae," referring to the throngs of male fans who followed their idols everywhere.

Unlike their successors, however, those girl bands were limited in concept; they were either sexy or innocent. Such limitations eventually bored fans as both the band members and their fans grew older, and members had to turn to acting, emceeing and other areas of entertainment.

New girl groups, however, are not waiting until they've exhausted their musical heydays. They appear in TV dramas, movies and variety talk shows soon after their debuts, doing comedy skits and some serious acting at the same time, approaching their fans in literally every way. "I was a huge fan of Fin.K.L back in high school and still believe no band can be as pretty and cute as they were," said Yoon Suk-won, a 30-year-old office worker. "But I somehow feel much closer and affectionate toward the new girl groups because I get to see them so often on television. They seem much more open and funny."

Another unique trend is the fact that girl bands are adored by a broad range of ages, media critic Lee Chan-ho said. "Girl bands may be for boys, but movie stars and show hosts can be idolized by much older men," he said. "The broad range of fans will be a future asset for the girl bands, as it will guarantee them longer popularity."

But it may not be all talent. Behind these young women are entertainment powerhouses who pour money into total makeovers and train them to become "multi-entertainers" long before their debuts. Yuna, a vocalist in Girls' Generation, for instance, took acting classes along with singing and dancing lessons years before her debut. She proved her years of training were worth it by landing a lead role in a daytime TV drama last year. Son Dambi, a solo singer who released a digital single album with After School, also took acting lessons for almost four years before making her debut on the prime time TV drama "Dream." "These days, singers can no longer just rely on their popularity in the music market to make their way into different entertainment sectors. They need real talent, effort and preparation," said Chung Hae-chang, Son's agent.

The expansion of the digital music market is considered another contributing factor to the popularity of girl bands. Their fans -- mostly teenage boys -- are usually much less willing to open their pockets to buy their idols' albums or concert tickets compared to girl fans. But with the expansion of the more moderately priced digital music market, an increasing number of people willingly spend money on buying songs, making girl bands equal to boy groups in terms of generating profit. "Because idol groups rely on digital single albums now, it takes them a lot less time to create an album and provides them with more opportunities to appear on television and train in other skills," said culture critic Kim. "The market situation is one of the main contributors to the prevalence of girl bands."

Ha Jae-geun, another critic said today's trend has "long been predicted." "Boys and men have long waited for new girl groups they can love and adore. I'm sure many have wondered, 'How come there are only boy bands, and girls get to have all the fun?'" he said. "It is still too early to say this 'renaissance' of girl bands will continue in the fleeting music market," he added. "One thing is for sure. These girl groups must maintain their originality and come up with new concepts at the same time to keep fans interested." (Source: Yonhap.)

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September 2009

Brutal rape of 8 year old has nation up in arms (Sep 2009) The rape case of an 8-year-old girl is rattling the nation. Following the attack by a 57-year-old man, the victim lost 80 percent of her colon and genital organs. The rapist is now in prison, serving a 12-year sentence recently confirmed by the Supreme Court.

When this fact recently came to light, some 400,000 citizens filed a petition asking that the man serve a maximum penalty and financially compensate the damage caused. Even President Lee Myung-bak has entered the fray. The nationwide outrage erupted after a Tuesday current affairs show on KBS-TV featured the girl’s case while dealing with sexual assaults on children.

Shocked by the savagery of a crime that had not been disclosed before, citizens posted details of the assault across cyberspace. They even posted the offender’s name, photos and address, though those have yet to be verified. In a single day, more than 200,000 signed the petition on the portal Daum seeking harsher punishment against the offender.

This is what can be printed publicly: On the morning of last Dec. 11, police say Cho Du-sun kidnapped 8-year-old Na-young, who was on her way to school in Ansan, a city southwest of Seoul. He took her to a toilet in a nearby church, strangled and beat her unconscious, then raped her. He also tortured the girl in other ways, according to police and prosecutors. Na Yong-min, a detective who was working at the Ansan Danwon Police Station, said his female colleagues cried when they heard the details.

Following the attack, Na-young underwent eight hours of surgery. But it was too late. Many of her lower organs are completely dysfunctional. After being notified, police arrested the man. Although prosecutors sought a life sentence, the Ansan branch of the Suwon District Court sentenced him to 12 years. After that, he must wear an electronic anklet for seven years. The court said it took into consideration that Cho was drunk, and thus was “weaker mentally and physically.” Under the Korean law, when an intoxicated person commits a crime, the court can reduce a sentence.

Despite the light sentence, Cho appealed, claiming it was too harsh. A higher court dismissed his request, upholding the initial ruling, and on Sept. 24 the Supreme Court confirmed the decision. Prosecutors and police said Cho persistently denied his crime. “Even though Na-young’s blood was discovered on Cho’s shoes and clothes, he insisted he didn’t remember anything,” said Detective Na. “He was such a bald-faced liar.”

When appearing at the Seoul High Court, Cho dyed his hair and wore spectacles to disguise himself, apparently so that Na-young wouldn’t be able to recognize him, police said. According to the police, Cho served three years in jail under charge of injury resulting from rape in 1983 and has committed 14 other offenses, which have landed him in jail for another seven years and four months.

The public electronic bulletin boards in the Blue House and the Gender Ministry and Justice Ministry were flooded with thousands of postings by citizens demanding legal change and stricter law enforcement not only for Cho but other child molesters. Many requested he receive the death penalty or life in prison, saying the 12-year prison term was preposterous. “I have never imagined visiting the Blue House home page and making a Web posting,” said Gang Geum-ja, one of the outraged citizens. “But this time, I had to. Korea should carry out a public death sentence at least on child sexual offenders. Human rights groups should say nothing because when you consider what he’s done, he is not a human.” Park Yoon-soo, a mother of two preschoolers, said she couldn’t sleep for nights after she found about Na-young’s case. “I think Korea’s law enforcement agencies are excessively generous to sexual offenders. Despite years of petitions from the general public, laws haven’t changed. I wonder what’s wrong with this society.”

Although the death penalty is still on the books, it hasn’t been utilized in Korea for 12 years. The government and human rights group have sought to abolish it. Overwhelmed by the public uproar, President Lee said at a Cabinet meeting on Wednesday that his “heart hurts at the misery.” “I have even come to think such people [sexual offenders] should be imprisoned for life,” he said, adding he was aware it won’t be easy to raise (Source: Joongang Ilbo.)

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October 2009

Traffic Congestion Builds Ahead of Chuseok (Oct 2009) Seoul Station and Gangnam Express Bus Terminal were full of excitement on Thursday as people gathered in transportation hubs to travel to their hometowns ahead of Chuseok, one of Korea's biggest holidays. Traffic congestion was already forming on some parts of the main expressways as people started to leave Seoul to visit relatives in other provinces. Although the highways were free of traffic during the morning hours, most of the sections from Seoul to the outskirts of the metropolitan area became crammed after noon.

According to Korea Expressway Corporation, after 6 p.m. it was expected to take 8.5 hours from Seoul to Busan, seven hours to Gwangju and around five hours to Daejeon. KEC officials expected 390,000 cars to leave Seoul up until midnight Thursday and the congestion to continue through Friday morning. Main train stations, bus terminals and airports were packed with people carrying gift bundles in one hand and tickets in the other, heightening the holiday atmosphere. (SITE NOTE: I remember 20 years ago when one of my students took almost two days to get back from Pusan. Later it improved to 16 hours, and then finally the number is down to 8.5 hours. Getting better.)

All seats on regular trains heading to Busan every 15 minutes from Seoul were sold out as well as all of the evening and most of the overnight train seats. Officials at Gangnam Express Bus Terminal said although regular bus seats were already filled, the terminal was putting temporary buses on the schedule for more reservations. The Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs predicts that 5 million people will be on the move each day from Thursday to Monday and 26 million in total. (Source: Chosun Ilbo.)


N. Korean defectors sailed far out to sea to avoid radar detection (Oct 2009) Eleven North Koreans who recently defected to South Korea aboard a small boat in the East Sea had detoured through international waters to avoid being detected by the North's radar, a government source said Sunday. The asylum seekers -- six women and five men -- came aboard a 3-ton wooden boat off the east coast on Friday and are now undergoing questioning by South Korea's Coast Guard. Nine are family members who expressed their desire to defect to the South, while the other two had yet to make their decisions, it said earlier.

Investigators found that the North Koreans departed from the Kimchaek port on the North's east coast on the night of Sept. 27 and sailed as far as 250km southeast into international waters to avoid the North's radar, the official involved in the inquiry said, requesting anonymity. "The North Korean boat appears to have departed the port late at night under the guise of a fishing boat," the official said. "It sailed as far from the coast as possible not to be caught by the North Korean military radar and then turned toward (South Korean) waters."

The North Koreans told South Korean investigators they had prepared for the defection for about one year, officials said earlier. The Coast Guard towed the boat to the port town of Jumunjin on the east coast. The alleged defections occurred at a sensitive time, when North Korea was reaching out to improve ties with South Korea's conservative government.

More than 16,000 North Koreans have defected since the 1950-53 Korean War. Most of the defectors first flee to China and pass through Southeast Asia before arriving in South Korea. Defections by sea are rare. Twenty-one North Korean asylum seekers arrived by wooden boat in the port of Incheon, west of Seoul, in 2002. The defectors -- 14 males and seven females -- were members of three families. In 1987, North Korean doctor Kim Man-chol's family of 11 came to South Korea via Taiwan after reaching Japan in a small boat. The family of Yo Man-chol, a former North Korean People's Security Ministry captain, defected to the South via Hong Kong in 1994. (Source: Yonhap News.) (SITE NOTE: North Korea demanded that the 11 defectors be returned to North Korea.)

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Magpies Become Urban Irritant (Oct 2009) The magpie, once adored as a bird of good fortune, has turned into one of misfortune, not just for farmers by ruining their crops but also for utility firms by causing damage to electricity transmission cables. The damage caused by magpies was estimated to have cost 40 billion won in 2008, the National Institute of Environmental Research said Tuesday. The problem stems from their nesting habits. Many magpies make their home with tree branches in power towers where electricity cables converge.

Magpies were previously considered as harbinger of good news, appearing in many folk stories. Folklore had it that, when a magpie cried, a good visitor was bound to come. But later they became an annoyance for farmers as they ruined harvests.

Magpies aren't the only birds undergoing a reversal of fortune. Pigeons used to be cherished but they have become irritants as they carry fleas and other harmful germs. Seoul City is considering using chemicals to block their reproduction.

Meanwhile, wild boars are also going down a similar path. The population of wild boars increased in 2007, to 3.8 boars per square-kilometer, far above the government recommended 1.1. They intrude into local farms and residential areas, damaging facilities and eating crops. The institute says that the massive development of mountainous areas and farms has reduced the habitats for the animals, driving them into residential areas.

"It is an irony that 'good friends' are becoming 'enemies' to humans," Rep. Kang Sung-chun of the governing Grand National Party said. "Wildlife is precious. But we need some hands-on management to prevent them from causing damage to people's lives," he added. (Source: .)

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5 Die of Flu Infection Monday (Oct 2009) Five people infected with influenza A (H1N1) died Monday, the highest daily report of casualties from the fast-spreading pandemic. Two handicapped children ? a nine-year-old boy and an 11-year-old girl ? died while being treated for H1N1. Autopsies are being conducted to determine whether they died of the new flu or other causes. According to the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Family Affairs, the deaths of three more people ? a 14-year-old middle school student and two women in their 70s were confirmed to be flu-related.

If the latest victims' deaths are confirmed to be H1N1-based, the death toll will rise to 25 ? the first death was confirmed on Aug. 15. The ministry plans to vaccinate 35 percent of the country's 49 million population, with those deemed highly-vulnerable including medical staff given priority. The first round of vaccinations will start today.

Meanwhile, the government is stepping up efforts to get influenza A (H1N1) vaccines to hospitals in time to deal with an increasing number of people who want to get inoculated. But with rumors of a shortage in stockpiles, the health authorities may have to prepare not just for the pandemic itself but also people panicking. Hundreds of people were seen lined up in front of public healthcare centers and designated hospitals throughout the weekend to get vaccinated against the new flu. ``Last night, I felt really cold and coughed a lot. Normally I would think it was just a cold but after hearing news about the flu, I became very nervous,'' 30-year-old Lee Eun-young said after she returned from a hospital Saturday.

The ministry is considering shutting schools temporarily to contain any rapid transmission, as more than 41,500 students in 870 schools nationwide have been infected with the flu virus, as the rate of transmission has been growing fast. On Oct. 22, there were 1,109 people confirmed with the flu in Seoul alone. ``There are so many students infected with the disease, even I am scared of the flu,'' said an elementary school teacher in southern Seoul. The number of patients is expected to rise at a dramatic pace as flu viruses are more active at low temperatures. ``We are receiving phone calls from early in the morning to late at night. Many people are simply worried, but considering the deaths as a result of inadequate primary care, we have listen to every symptom they have,'' said a healthcare center staff member in Gangnam, southern Seoul, adding the office is ready for the vaccinations, which will start today.

The vaccines were delivered to large hospitals Monday afternoon from domestic drug maker Green Cross Korea. The health ministry said inoculations will be administered first to medical staff, patients, the elderly, pregnant women and infants. (Source: Korea Times.)

3 More Koreans Infected With New Flu Die (Oct 2009) Another three people are confirmed to have died while being treated for new influenza A, the Korean government said Tuesday as concerns are growing that the contagious disease might be turning into a pandemic here. The deaths came one day after five patients were reported to have died due to the H1N1 virus on Monday, the largest death report on a single day. The dead are a 76-year-old woman, a 26-year-old woman and an 84-year-old man in Gyeongsang Provinces, the Ministry for Health, Welfare and Family Affairs said. The exact cause of their death including possible impact from the H1N1 virus is still under investigation, it added.

The death report came as anxiety is mounting that Influenza A is fast spreading here in South Korea. The disease has claimed the lives of 25 people here until Monday since its infection was first reported in May. The government is scurrying to stem the spread of the disease by seeking to vaccinate 35 percent of the country's 49 million population. The first round of vaccinations started on Tuesday for those highly vulnerable to the disease including medical staff. (Source: Korea Times.)

Nearly 30,000 new flu cases confirmed (Oct 2009) Nearly 30,000 patients infected with the H1N1, a subtype of influenza A, were newly confirmed last week, with the nation's first round of vaccinations scheduled to start today. A 14-year-old boy with asthma, who lived in Gyeonggi Province, died yesterday, bringing the nation's death toll from the disease to 21, according to the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Investigations were also underway into the additional deaths of two disabled children, who died yesterday, possibly from their flu infections at a hospital in Daejeon, health officials said.

According to the weekly influenza surveillance report issued yesterday, the number of influenza-like illness patients was 9.27 per 1,000 inpatients last week, up 62.9 percent from the previous week. "The flu virus is rapidly regaining strength here. All patients with high fever and respiratory problems are recommended to be administered with antiviral drugs, even though they are not included in high risk groups," said Choi Hee-ju, director of health policy at the Ministry for Health, Welfare and Family Affairs. "There will be no problem in securing enough stockpiles of antiviral drugs. The government plans to have Tamiflu for 20 percent of the total population available within the year," Choi added.

Mass infections at schools also continued to increase last week, with a total of 870 new cases, according to the weekly report. "As the vaccine takes effect two weeks after injection, young students who will get vaccinated in mid-November should pay greater attention to hygiene until December," Choi said. Despite the declaration of a national emergency by the U.S. government on Saturday, health officials said that the nation is not considering raising its alert level or closing schools.

In a meeting with senior presidential secretaries yesterday, President Lee Myung-bak also asked for all-out efforts against the spread of the disease, turning down the proposal that he and other close aides be inoculated first against the flu virus. "The Presidential Office limits access of ordinary people. As all visitors are examined before entry, it seems safer than any other place. It will be appropriate for people at higher risk to be vaccinated first," President Lee was quoted as saying by presidential spokesperson Park Sun-kyu. (Source: Korea Herald.)

South Korea sees high H1N1 recovery rates -- The government maintains 'caution' status for H1N1 as the mortality rate stays at 0.03 percent (Oct 2009) It has been confirmed that the number of people infected with new influenza A virus subtype (H1N1) has reached over 100,000 people, however, 99.97 percent of those infected have made full recoveries. According to a statement by the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Family Affairs (MHWFA) on Oct. 30, 34 out of an estimated 100,000 people that have been infected by H1N1 have died, thus the mortality rate is 0.03 percent.

An official from MHWFA said, “Since these statistics do not include those who have received medicine for the H1N1 flu without confirming whether they have been infected, the actual number of people who have recovered after being infected could be higher.” The estimated total number of people who have have taken anti-viral medications such as Tamiflu is over 200 thousand.

Oh Myung-don, professor at the Seoul National University Hospital, said, “The mortality rate from H1N1 is lower than that from seasonal influenza, and this has been confirmed not only in South Korea but also around the world.” Professor Oh added, “There is no need to excessively worry over the H1N1.” Another MHWFA official said, “The government will continue keep the alert status for H1N1 on ‘caution,’ and we do not have plans to upgrade it to ‘serious’ for the time being.” He added, “We may decide to upgrade the status if it is deemed necessary after further evaluating flu mortality rates and rates of infection.” (Source: Hankyoreh.)

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Childbirths Fall for 18th Straight Month (Oct 2009) Fewer babies were born in South Korea in August compared with a year ago in the 18th consecutive month of the downward trend amid delayed marriages and a slow economy, according to a reported released by Statistics Korea, formerly the National Statistical Office (NSO). The report said about 36,200 babies were born in August, down 4.2 percent from the same month a year earlier, marking the 18th consecutive year-on-year decline in childbirth since March 2008, when births declined 4.6 percent.

"It seems that a trend is taking root that people delay marriage or have fewer babies even after getting married," an official said. "The slumping economy also seems to be playing a part to discourage baby births." The number of marriages fell 2.1 percent in the same month, with about 23,200 couples tying the knot, the report showed. This marked the 11th consecutive month of shrinkage. The rate jumped in August due to the base effect of fewer divorces filed the same month a year earlier due to a government regulation aimed at discouraging family break-ups.

Last June, the government introduced a new regulation under which couples with young children have to wait for three months before being allowed to proceed with a divorce, a move that delayed filings for the following few months. The number of divorces filed surged 54.7 percent to 9,900 in August, compared with 6,400 a year ago, according to the report. Meanwhile, population mobility increased for the second consecutive month. A total of 671,000 people changed their legal residences in September, up 4.3 percent from a year ago, the report showed. (Source: Korea Times.)

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Yongsan Protesters Jailed for Firebomb Deaths (Oct 2009) Seven people who took part in a protest in Yongsan in January were sentenced to five to six years in prison by the Seoul Central District Court on Wednesday. Nine protesters involved in the incident were indicted for starting a fire that killed five demonstrators and one police officer in a clash at a property redevelopment project. The two others received suspended sentences. The court announced the direct cause of the fire was the Molotov bombs thrown by the protesters. The incident started as a sit-in on a building rooftop in Yongsan, central Seoul, by residents demonstrating against a redevelopment project, and led to violent clashes between police and protesters. (Source: Chosun Ilbo.)

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Military Under Fire After Man Defects to N.Korea (Oct 2009) The military is under a hail of criticism over a man's flight to North Korea on Monday through a stretch of border guarded by the 22nd Division in Goseong, Gangwon Province. This is the same area where an unidentified man defected to North Korea in September 1996. The Joint Chiefs of Staff on Wednesday dispatched a team to investigate the incident, check the preparedness of soldiers and to find out whether they were guilty of negligence. (SITE NOTE: Kany was wanted for assault for attacking his employer with a hammer at the pig farm where he worked. On another note, it is most likely the Division commander who was due to retire in a few weeks will be reprimanded. The military yesterday said five officers will be fired and border guards will face disciplinary action for their failure to prevent a civilian from defecting to North Korea this week. The 22nd Army Division was in charge of defense in the area where Kang Tong-rim, a 30-year-old South Korean man cut through barbed wire to cross the border to the North. Kang previously served his mandatory military service under the 22nd Army Division. The division commander had just a week left to retire, after which he was expected to await a possible promotion, according to military sources. Kang cut a 30 centimeter by 40 centimeter hole through the wires dividing the two Koreas to defect to the North on Monday, according to Pyongyang’s state-run broadcaster on Tuesday.)

? Military Could Have Known Earlier

What the JCS has found out so far is that a man appears to have defected to North Korea, judging by the direction of the hole cut through the border fence, and that the military found out about the breach only after hearing about it through the North Korean media. "It's unheard-of for a breach in the fence to remain undetected for more than a day, since the fences are patrolled 24 hours a day," said one military officer.

Yet if the man, identified as Kang Tong-rim, defected to North Korea through the military demarcation line on Monday as the North Korean broadcast says, this means that South Korean patrols failed to find the breach for a whole day. "This is impossible," the officer said. That would suggest that soldiers discovered the breach not an hour after the North Korean broadcast but at a much earlier point but did not report it for fear of punishment. The military intends to investigate the possibility.

? Slack Discipline

Kang strolled past a checkpoint that keeps civilians from reaching the border area some 10 km from the military demarcation line, cut through the fence and entered the demilitarized zone, which is strewn with land mines. The military completely failed to detect or deter Kang from moving through the area. After embarrassing breaches of the border fence in 2004 and 2005, the military set up thermal detection devices along the border. The area guarded by the 22nd Division was using the devices, but they failed to detect Kang and their utility is now in question. There have been three breaches of the border fence so far -- in 1996, 2004 and 2005.

? Border Protection

In border surveillance, one platoon usually handles a 1-1.5 km stretch of the fence. During the day, the fence is guarded from an observation post with a clear view by a two-man team. At night, the size of the patrols is adjusted according to the situation. Wedged between the links on the fence are rocks or cans so that any movement makes a noise. "The distances between observation points vary from 30 m to 300 m, but 1-1.5 km stretches are monitored during the day and 400-500 m stretches are monitored at night," said a Defense Ministry official. "The problem is that depending on the area, the fence could be located along deep ravines that create blind spots."

To deal with such problems, the ministry is seeking to install sensors on the fences, in which case soldiers will no longer have to patrol the fence on foot but check for potential breaches on monitors at a surveillance center further back. The system was tested by the Fifth Division, but the results are said to have been less than satisfactory. "Machines can only augment what people can do," said on officer. "The only solution is for our sentries to be more alert." (Source: Chosun Ilbo.)

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Education for Espionage (Oct 2009) by robert neff on October 30, 2009
,br> Education is often touted as a powerful weapon against poverty, but apparently in South Korea it is a tool for espionage.Mr. Lee, a former professor who taught political science at an unnamed South Korean university, has been charged with spying for North Korea. While attending a university in India in 1992, Lee was allegedly approached by a North Korean agent and agreed to spy for the Norks. In addition to having been a professor, Lee was also a former military officer, an adviser to the presidential National Unification Advisory Council and at the government-run Education Center for Unification. Lee gave confidential information, including the locations of key South Korean military facilities and an army operations manual – all of this stored on discs, computers and portable drives that he delivered to his North Korea handler while traveling in China, Cambodia, Singapore, and Thailand. He was even able to secretly travel to North Korea in 1994 and join the North Korean Workers’ Party. You can read the article here.

South Korean university lecturer accused of spying for communist North Korea

October 29, 2009 - 5:22

A South Korean university lecturer accused of spying for North Korea since the early 1990s has been indicted on espionage charges, prosecutors said Thursday. The suspect, identified by the surname Lee, was charged with giving North Korea confidential information, including the locations of key South Korean military facilities and an army operations manual, prosecutors in Suwon, south of Seoul, said in a statement.

The 37-year-old man, who taught politics at a South Korean university, was arrested on Sept. 11 and indicted Tuesday for violating South Korea's National Security Law, the statement said. If convicted, he could face the death penalty.

There have been several espionage cases in South Korea in recent years. A year ago, a North Korean posing as a defector was convicted and sentenced to five years in prison on espionage charges.

Lee began spying for North Korea in 1992 after meeting North Korean agent Ri Jin Woo while studying at the University of Delhi in India, prosecutors said. He stored "vast amounts of confidential military information" on compact discs, portable drives and laptop computers, which he relayed to Ri during meetings in China, Cambodia, Singapore, Thailand and elsewhere, they said.

Lee gathered the information while working as an army officer, an adviser to the presidential National Unification Advisory Council and at the government-run Education Center for Unification, prosecutors said. He also joined North Korea's Workers' Party in 1994 after making a secret trip to the North, they said. South Korean law prohibits its citizens from making unauthorized trips to communist North Korea. The two Koreas remain in a state of war because their conflict ended in a truce, not a peace treaty, in 1953. (Source: AP.)

But he is not the only educated officer in trouble.

Earlier this month, a former South Korean General, identified only as Kim, was arrested on suspected espionage for the Swedish defence and aviation company Saab. According to Yonhap, Kim used his enrollment in a university graduate course to access classified information in the library at the Korea National Defense University. Kim is alleged to have photographed documents and used them to write detailed reports in English and delivered them to Saab officials between August 2008-May 2009. These documents pertained to Korea’s multimillion-dollar KF-X stealth fighter development program. Naturally Saab denies any wrongdoing. (SITE NOTE: This is only for money. Saab has been playing the aircraft sales game in Korea for 20 years. I still remember the Saab Aviation sign in the Changhang Ferry Station back in 1990. It was then trying to get the contract for building the Korean Fighter Program -- which General Dynamics eventually won with its KF-16 factory in Sochon. Saab knows the rules for operating in Korea -- money greasing the palms makes things work better. Korea is still rated in the top ranks as the most corrupt countries of the world.)

It seems almost ironic considering that an article in Flightglobal in 2007 claimed that Saabs presentations to Korea’s Agency for Defence Development “focused on possibly technology transfer.” I bet the South Koreans were thinking the transfer of technology was going to come from Sweden and not the other way around. Defense News has an excellent article on the incident here. Of course these are not the only incidents of university positions being used as cover. In 1996 Chung Soo-il – a.k.a. Muhammad Kansu of the Philippines was arrested for spying for North Korea. He was a professor at Dankook University where he taught Arabic Studies. His history is indeed interesting and unfortunately all of the links about this spy are no longer operative except the excellent blogging of Kalaniosullivan at Kunsan. – make sure you read his material. In 2000, as part of Korea’s celebration of Liberation from Japan, Chung and 3,585 other inmates were granted amnesty. (SITE NOTE: Though we wrote this over six years ago, the conclusions are still valid -- and being proven correct with each revelation of spies around us. But what is even more bothersome is that in the intervening years, Michael Chang, former Katusa and his wife who worked at Yongsan and then became an American, was revealed to have been a North Korean spy from BEFORE he entered the military. What is worse is that though he is in Korean jails, his wife and the rest of his family in AMERICA have NOT been investigated. Sadly, America is treating this as a South Korean problem.)

Koh Young-bok, a prominent professor at Seoul National University and known as the “founder of sociology” in Korea, was arrested as a spy in 1995. Five others were arrested with him, including a married couple from North Korea. Not that this has anything to do with the professor but the woman killed herself with a capsule of cyanide gas – according to the article: ”She was taken to a bathroom escorted by a female investigator. While trying to wash herself she suddenly took out the capsure from deep inside her……” Read the article if you want to find out what “deep inside” really means. (Source: Marmot's Hole.)

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Seoul, Washington round out plans to handle N. Korean regime collapse: source (OPlan 5029) (Oct 2009) South Korea and the U.S. have completed joint action plans to respond to a regime collapse and other internal emergency situations in North Korea, a ranking government source said Sunday. The so-called "Operational Plan (OPLAN) 5029," drawn after years of bilateral consultation, dictates respective military responses by Seoul and Washington to several types of emergency situation in the communist North -- a civil war, an outflow of weapons of mass destruction (WMD), the kidnapping of South Korean citizens, a mass influx of refugees or a natural disaster, said the source.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, the source also noted that South Korea's military will play a leading role in enforcing OPLAN 5029, with the exception of the elimination of nuclear weapons and related facilities that will be handled by the U.S. "South Korea and the U.S. had long worked on Concept Plan 5029 to prepare for a regime collapse and other internal emergencies in North Korea. Since its inauguration last year, the Lee Myung-bak government has pushed to convert the concept plan into an operational plan and it was recently completed," said the source. "If the South Korea-U.S. combined forces intervene in North Korea's internal instabilities, the South Korean military will assume the leading role in consideration of neighboring countries, while the U.S. military will be responsible for the removal of the North's nuclear facilities and weapons."

He noted that South Korea and the U.S. will continue to complement and develop specific details of OPLAN 5029. The two countries have expressed concern that the outbreak of an internal emergency in North Korea could lead to the transfer of its WMDs and relevant technologies to terrorist groups or other countries.

The two Koreas remain technically at war as the 1950-53 Korean War ended in a truce, not a peace treaty. South Korea's 655,000-strong military, bolstered by 28,500 U.S. troops, confronts North Korea's 1.2-million-strong force along the world's most heavily militarized border. (Source: Yonhap News.) (SITE NOTE: Oplan 5029 is KOREA's plan when it takes over the war-fighting command in 2012. Roh Moo-hyun fought this Oplan tooth-and-nail and now it is fact because the USFK will NOT back down from the 2012 turnover date.)

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Redeployment of Troops to Afghanistan Taking Shape (Oct 2009) More Korean workers will be sent to form the Provincial Reconstruction Team in Afghanistan, and hundreds of Korean troops and police will protect civilian aid workers there. The move is seen as Seoul's decision to redeploy troops to the war-torn country after withdrawing them in 2007.

A spokesman for the Foreign Affairs and Trade Ministry in Seoul said yesterday that an "appropriate" number of troops and police officers will be dispatched to protect the team and its facilities. "The guard troops will not engage in combat activities other than exercising the right to defend the PRT and its own safety," the spokesman said.

The number of staff on the team and security personnel was not released, but is unlikely to exceed 500. Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan told the National Assembly that the number of personnel on the team will be around 130, while at least 200 guard troops will be sent to Afghanistan. A government official also said the number will be in the hundreds, including civilian and military personnel.

Candidate locations for the reconstruction team include Kapisa, a province near Kabul; the central region of Daykundi; and Nimroz, a western province bordering Iran and where no reconstruction team is operating in. Seoul could also take over the reconstruction work of another country in another province. A government official said the 25-member Korean medical team at Bagram Air Base in Kabul will be increased to 85, adding that the reconstruction team will get 50 additional workers. Therefore, the number of Korean troops to be sent to Afghanistan will likely be determined depending on the needs of some 50 civilian experts and the reconstruction team's facilities. (Source: Donga Ilbo.) (SITE NOTE: The initial group was only to train Afghan police at the academy -- away from any fighting.)

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November 2009

North and South Korean warships in naval skirmish (Nov 2009) The clash comes at time when relations between the divided nations appeared to be thawing following several months of increased tensions caused by North Korea's decision to test a second nuclear device earlier this year.

Initial reports said that there were no casualties from the exchange, which took place after a South Korean warship fired shots across the bow of a North Korean naval vessel that had crossed the disputed border, according to the Yonhap news agency in Seoul.

The North Korean vessel then returned fire according to an unidentified government source in South Korea, who declined to provide further details. "A North Korean patrol ship crossed the Northern Limit Line and did not cease when we fired warning shots," the defence source added.

North and South Korean navies fought deadly skirmishes along the western sea border in the Yellow Sea in 1999 and 2002. Last month the North's navy accused South Korea of sending warships across the border to stir tensions, warning that the "reckless military provocations" could trigger armed clashes.

The incident comes as the US President Barack Obama prepares to begin a five-day visit to Asia during which the issue of North Korea's nuclear disarmament is expected to be among leading item on the agenda. North Korea has said it is prepared to return to stalled Six Party talks on its nuclear disarmament, but is seeking direct talks with the US as a pre-condition to rejoining talks.

However in recent days Pyongyang announced it had produced more weapons-grade plutonium, in a move which analysts said was typical of the cat-and-mouse diplomacy that the North uses to extract concessions from the international community. A United Nations report published last month estimated that the North is feeling the severe impact of UN sanctions imposed last June after the second nuclear test, with some 8 million people, or a third of the population, suffering serious food shortages. The South Korean won retreated on the news of the skirmish, however stock and bond markets held firm. (Source: Telegraph UK.)

Koreas clash in Yellow Sea, blame each other (Nov 2009) A North Korean naval boat returned home "wrapped in flames" after a brief but fierce skirmish in South Korean waters off the west coast on Tuesday, Seoul officials said. North Korea disputed the account, saying in a statement that the South must apologize for sending warships into its waters and shooting at its boat as it was returning to port after a routine patrol.

No South Korean sailors were killed in the clash that erupted shortly after the North's patrol boat crossed the Northern Limit Line (NLL) at 11:27 a.m. in the Yellow Sea, officials here said. The shooting lasted about two minutes, R. Adm. Lee Ki-shik told reporters here, with the South Korean boat taking about 15 shots from the North Koreans, who apparently fired about 50 rounds. "This is a regrettable incident in which the North directly aimed at the South. We protest sternly," Lee said.

South Korea retaliated by firing back with its onboard guns, Lee said. Other South Korean officials said they could not immediately verify how many rounds were fired from their side. "We fired heavily on the North Korean vessel," a Navy official said earlier, speaking on condition of anonymity. In a 1999 skirmish near the NLL, South Korea suffered no casualties, but six of its sailors were killed when North Korea attacked in 2002.


Skirmish 10 Nov 2009

South Korean Prime Minister Chung Un-chan told lawmakers during a televised parliamentary session that the North Korean boat returned across the border while "wrapped in flames." He also said the incident was "accidental." President Lee Myung-bak convened an emergency national security meeting, calling for "calm" in dealing with the situation. "The president instructed the military to react decisively, yet calmly to make sure the situation does not further deteriorate," Lee Dong-kwan, a presidential aide, said in a release.

The South Korean Navy sounded a warning twice before the North Koreans crossed the NLL -- a de facto border drawn at the end of the Korean War -- and three times afterward, according to Lee Ki-shik. The naval boats were a little over 3km away from each other when they exchanged fire, Lee said, stressing the South Korean Navy followed standard operating procedure before the shooting erupted.

The North's Korean People's Army said in a statement released through official media that a "group of warships of the South Korean forces hastily took to flight" after violating the NLL. The "combat-ready" North Korean patrol boat "lost no time to deal a prompt retaliatory blow at the provokers," the statement said, carried by the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) and monitored in Seoul.

South Korean Defense Minister Kim Tae-young said in a parliamentary session that "no additional moves" by the North Korean military were detected north of the heavily armed border. South Korean analysts gave mixed views about North Korea's possible motive behind the incident, which took place only a week ahead of an Asian trip by U.S. President Barack Obama. "It appears to be a move to raise tension ahead of Obama's visit to South Korea," said Yoo Ho-yeol a North Korea professor at Korea University in Seoul. "North Koreans believe tension helps them strengthen their bargaining power."

Ryu Gil-jae, professor at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul, disagreed, saying the incident appeared aimed at testing the South Korean government. "North Korea would have test-fired missiles if it had wanted to vex the U.S.," he said. "The Yellow Sea clash is more of a message to the South that it should be taken more seriously."

The clash came amid an accelerating thaw between the Koreas, whose relations turned frosty following the inauguration of South Korean President Lee Myung-bak early last year. It also came as French President Nicolas Sarkozy's special North Korea envoy was in the communist state for talks with its foreign minister on "matters of mutual concern," according to KCNA.

Slapped with sanctions for its May nuclear test, North Korea has in recent months extended peace overtures to the outside world, while South Korean media speculated the two Koreas were working secretly to set up summit talks. Kang Sung-yoon, a North Korea specialist at Seoul's Dongguk University, said the North Korean attack on the South appears to serve more than one purpose. "It could be aimed at pressuring both the U.S. and South Korea to engage in dialogue with Pyongyang more seriously," he said while warning against reaching a quick conclusion on the issue. "Details regarding the incident should be looked at to understand what the North Korean intent really was," he said. (Source: Yonhap News.)

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Ex-S. Korean generals: Unify wartime commands (Nov 2009) Twenty retired South Korean generals have asked the presidents of the United States and South Korea to reconsider dissolving the countries' joint warfighting command, saying it would weaken their country's ability to defend itself against nuclear-armed North Korea. In a letter sent to President Barack Obama and South Korean President Lee Myung-bak last week, the generals said keeping the current Combined Forces Command would allow South Korea to respond as swiftly as possible to a provocation by North Korea. "The unity of command is one of the most important factors in the battlefield," said retired CFC deputy commander Gen. Kim Jae-chang, one of several retired generals who co-wrote the letter. He said the CFC is the most developed joint command system in the world and is South Korea's best hope for defending against an external threat.

Kim said the generals want the two presidents to discuss the issue when they meet in Seoul on Nov. 19. The CFC is scheduled to dissolve on April 17, 2012, and be replaced by separate U.S. and South Korean commands. After that date, South Korea would assume control of all U.N. military forces in the country during a war, including the 28,000-strong U.S. military presence.

Kim said having dual commands isn't effective in modern warfare and would create a "serious outcome" if North Korea launched a surprise attack on the South, as it did in 1950 to start the Korean War. "We need a commander, one commander, to react, to assess the situation immediately and to decide the best course of action and to react immediately," he said.

While South Korea is capable of leading U.N. troops during war, Kim said, the retired generals want the CFC to remain intact until the threat of an attack from North Korea disappears. All who signed the letter are former deputy commanders of the CFC — the highest-ranking South Korean general position in the current command structure — and members of the Korea Retired Generals and Admirals Association. Kim said the letter contends that tension between North and South Korea will reach its highest point in the next five to 10 years as leadership in the communist regime changes. Kim Jong Il is widely believed to be preparing one of his sons to succeed him, and questions about the elder Kim's health have arisen in the past year and a half.

More than 600,000 active-duty troops from both countries fall under the authority of the CFC, which is led by a U.S. four-star general, with a South Korean four-star general as deputy commander. In wartime, those numbers could swell with U.S. troops from outside the peninsula and the activation of 3.5 million South Korean reservists, according to U.S. Forces Korea. "It is very well organized — I think better than NATO in Europe," Kim Jae-chang said.

Kim said the threat from North Korea has grown more serious since South Korea and the U.S. set the 2012 date for the transfer of operational control, often referred to as OPCON transfer. "The current North Korea situation is very unstable, and in such a condition, I really want the two leaders to renew this agreement," he said, citing North Korea's second nuclear test in May. A spokesman for South Korea's president said Lee had received the letter, though he did not know if the two presidents would discuss it during their visit next week.

A spokesman for South Korea's Ministry of National Defense said Tuesday that both the U.S. and South Korea will continue to support the 2012 OPCON transfer date. U.S. Forces Korea declined to comment. Current USFK and CFC commander Gen. Walter Sharp said in August that South Korea would be ready to direct a war against North Korea in 2012 if hostilities erupted. "We still have a ways to go — we completely realize that — but we have 2½ years to get it right," he said after an exercise testing South Korea's ability to lead troops in wartime scenarios. (Source: Stars and Stripes.)

S.Korean Navy on High Alert in West Sea (Nov 2009) The South Korean military on Sunday evacuated gunboats in the West Sea after detecting signs that North Korea activated the radar for surface-to-ship missiles deployed on the Ongjin Peninsula in Hwanghae Province."Around 1 p.m., we detected signs of the North activating radar for surface-to-ship missiles and coast artillery batteries deployed at Cape Jangsan and on the coast south of the cape," a military source said. "We evacuated 1,200 ton-class naval patrol boats and speedboats near Daecheong and Yeonpyeong islands from the range of the missiles and coast artillery pieces to safety."

Radar for missiles or coast artillery is usually activated to launch an attack or carry out a live firing exercise. It was not known why the North activated it. An officer with the Joint Chiefs of Staff said, "The North has activated radar for surface-to-ship missiles and coast artillery during exercises in the past, but we evacuated the ships to safety as we feared that the North might seek to retaliate" after a skirmish in the West Sea on Nov. 10.

The chief of the North Korean military delegation to inter-Korean generals' talks sent a message to his South Korean counterpart on Friday warning of "military measures" in the wake of the skirmish. "There exists only the maritime military demarcation line drawn by us in the West Sea. From this moment on, we are going to take merciless military measures to defend it," the message said, referring to a unilaterally drawn sea border south of the official Northern Limit Line.

The North Korean military radar was activated for about an hour, and there were no signs of it being activated again, the source added. The South Korean military has been on alert for a retaliatory attack or an armed provocation in the demilitarized zone.

Between January and May, when it ratcheted up tensions, North Korea carried out a drill firing about 1,000 artillery shells near Yeonpyeong Island. South Korea has deployed near the NLL two 4,500 ton-class destroyers, both equipped with the Korean-made ship-to-ship cruise missile Haeseong with a range of 150 km, patrol boats, and a 1,800 ton-class convoy ship. The Air Force has also reportedly intensified patrol and reconnaissance activities over waters near Incheon and Yeongjong Island. (Source: Chosun Ilbo.)

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4 More People Die of New Flu (Nov 2009) Four more people have died in South Korea from the influenza A (H1N1) virus, including a 25-year-old woman not belonging to a high-risk group, health authorities said Tuesday. The fresh deaths brought the country's total death toll from the new flu to 52.

A 79-year-old man and two other women, aged 76 and 56 ? all classified as high-risk patients ? also died and were diagnosed with H1N1, Yonhap News Agency said, quoting the central disaster relief headquarters. There are fears the number of victims may continue to rise, as officials were looking into at least nine other deaths suspected of being caused by the new flu.

The relief headquarters, which acts as a control room for national efforts to combat the spread of the disease, was set up last week under the Ministry of Public Administration and Security after the government raised its pandemic alert status the highest level. (Source: Korea Times.)

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Korea's Birthrate Remains at World Bottom (Nov 2009) South Korea still has one of the lowest birthrates in the world, according to a report released on Wednesday by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) through the Planned Population Federation of Korea (PPF). The country's total birthrate was 1.22, following last year's lowest rate at 1.2.

The report, titled "World Population Prospects 2009," ranked Bosnia and Herzegovina at bottom at 1.21 this year. But the PPF said South Korea in fact ranked lowest given the birthrate was 1.19 according to a census by the National Statistical Office last year. "South Korea in fact has the lowest birthrate given that the UNFPA report estimates the birthrate based on data over the last five years."

But even 1.22 is far lower than half the world average of 2.54 and also lower than the average among developed countries of 1.64. South Korea ranked 26th in terms of population with 48.3 million this year. But if the low birthrate continues, the population is expected to drop to 44.1 million by 2050, plummeting to 41st.

Meanwhile, North Korea ranked 52nd with a fertility rate of 1.85, and 47th for population with 23.9 million. If their populations are combined, the two Koreas would rank 19th with a combined population of 72.2 million.

The world population stood at 6.83 billion this year, up 79.7 million from last year. China is the most populous nation with 1.35 billion, followed by India (1.2 billion) and the U.S. (314.7 million). But India will emerge as the most populous nation with 1.61 billion by 2050, with China following behind with 1.42 billion.

The world average life expectancy was 65.8 years for men and 70.2 years for women. South Korea ranked 32nd in terms of average life expectancy for men at 76.2, and 17th for women at 82.8. (Source: Chosun Ilbo.) (SITE NOTE: The bottomline is that Korea remains a "non-viable" society -- meaning it is dying unless it can attract ethnic Koreans into South Korea -- and that ain't happening.)

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Lee-Obama Talks to Focus on NK Nukes, FTA (Nov 2009) President Lee Myung-bak and U.S. President Barack Obama will hold a summit today in Seoul on North Korea’s nuclear threat and ratification of the bilateral free trade agreement.

The Korean presidential office of Cheong Wa Dae yesterday said both leaders will hold an intense discussion over President Lee’s “grand bargain” proposal, or a one-step agreement to deal with Pyongyang, at the summit. They will also discuss how to advance ratification of the free trade deal, which has stalled since it was signed in September 2007. President Lee will urge both sides to ratify and implement the accord soon given that two years has passed since the singing of the agreement.

The two leaders will also speak on cooperation to combat climate change and South Korea’s hosting of next year’s Group of 20 summit. Not to be discussed, however, will be Seoul’s dispatch of forces to Afghanistan and retaking of wartime operational control from Washington in April 2012. Presidents Lee and Obama will hold a joint news conference after the summit instead of releasing a joint statement.

The two leaders had their first summit on the sidelines of the G20 summit in London in April, followed by one in Washington in June. After visiting China for four days, Obama arrived at the U.S. Air Force base in Osan, south of Seoul, around 7:40 p.m. yesterday. Over his two-day visit to South Korea, Obama will hold talks and a luncheon with President Lee today. Obama will head home after speaking to U.S. forces stationed in South Korea. (Source; Donga Ilbo.)










Obama and Lee Myeong-bak in Seoul


Obama at Osan AB

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EDUCATION: MASSIVE UPHEAVAL

Lee set to shake up education ministry (Dec 2008) President Lee Myung-bak is set to replace ranking education ministry officials who have been accused of being left-leaning and of failing to carry out the conservative president's reform policies, officials at the presidential office Cheong Wa Dae said on 17 Dec. On 16 Dec, the seven highest-ranking officials of the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology -- except its minister and vice minister -- offered to resign en masse, saying they want to give their subordinates opportunities for promotion. But Cheong Wa Dae officials confirmed on 17 Dec that the resignation offers by the education ministry's top officials reflected Lee's intention to reform the policies of his liberal predecessor, Roh Moo-hyun, who promoted egalitarian education policies.

Since his inauguration in February, Lee has advocated elitism and fair competition across the educational sector. The presidential office said that Lee's policy moves -- revising left-leaning textbooks, reinforcing English education, hiring more native English-speaking teachers and amending college entrance exam structure -- have so far fallen through in the face of systematic resistance from top ministry officials. "The mass resignations of top education ministry officials signaled the start of a sweeping reform of the ministry," said a Cheong Wa Dae official, noting Lee will soon name one of his most trusted aides as vice education minister. "It is difficult to push ahead with various educational reforms instructed by President Lee, as long as a large number of left-leaning officials who had gained rapid promotions during the previous liberal governments remain in key ministerial posts," said the official. (Source: Yonhap News.)

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Elementary and Middle Schools

Record Low Class Size in Elementary Schools (Jan 2009) As the amount of students decreases due to the low birthrate and a growing number of new schools open, the number of students per elementary-school class has dropped below 30 for the first time. The Korean Educational Development Institute said on Tuesday, "The average number of students per class was 29.2 last April." It has never dropped below 30 since education statistics began to be compiled in 1962.

The Ministry of Education, Science, and Technology said the figure had dropped significantly since it announced plans to reduce the number of students per class at elementary, middle, and high-schools to below 35. However, the figure varies by region, exceeding 40 in some cases while falling short of 20 in some rural areas. The number of students per middle or high-school class were 34.7 and 35.1, respectively in 2007. The figures at elementary and middle-schools in OECD member countries were 21.5 and 24 in 2006, approximately 10 less than the average at home. The figure was less than 20 for elementary schools in European countries, with Luxembourg, Ireland, Greece, Switzerland, and Denmark recording 15.8, 18.4, 18.9, 19.4, and 19.5, respectively. (Source: Chosun Ilbo.)

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High Schools

High schools struggle to survive in a changing era (Jan 2009) Busan High School, a public, general education high school in Busan, was once known as a prestigious school with a nearly 100-year history. Until the 1970s, some 200 Busan High School students each year entered Seoul National University, the nation’s top-ranking university. It was natural that middle school students in the region competed fiercely to gain BHS admission.

However, after the high school equalization system took effect in 1974, the school’s fame started to fade. Located in the city’s old downtown, the neighborhood around the school began to degenerate and many students moved to newer areas. In 2008, when the school celebrated its 96th anniversary, only one student was admitted to Seoul National University.

At the start of the new year, the school geared up to restore its reputation. It initiated a drive to raise 10 billion won ($7.61 million) from alumni to upgrade its facilities and the quality of education. “We cannot afford to lose any more competent students to new private high schools, not to mention existing science and foreign language high schools,” said Park Kyu-chan, the principal of Busan High School. “Our alumni fund will improve the school and rebuild our reputation. In order to compete with schools on a national scale, we must attract excellent students.”

General education high schools in Korea are engaged in a war of survival. The foes are 100 private high schools to be established by 2011 and existing special-purpose high schools. The recent introduction of an online system that posts school’s academic achievements, such as grades and how many students proceed to university, has only added to their headaches.

General education high schools in the Seoul area are feeling especially hard-pinched. Starting in the second half of this year, students will apply to the high school of their choice, forcing schools to compete for enrollment. In a bid to endure, general education high schools are working to differentiate themselves from competitors.

Hwanil High School in central Seoul’s Jung District - home of the only student to get a perfect score on last year’s College Scholastic Ability Test - has already launched a special program to improve students’ academic performance through intense programs after school and during vacations and by grouping classes by ability.

Suri High School in Gunpo, Gyeonggi Province, is operating a literature and creative writing program - the first of its kind in the country - in which students study and write poetry, novels and essays. “The specialized program is part of our efforts to draw students,” said Moon Mi-hyang, a teacher at Suri High School.

Meanwhile, faced with demands from general high schools that the government provide financial assistance to those in poor surroundings compared to independent private high schools, the Education Ministry will route a government subsidy originally intended for private schools to existing general education high schools. The average annual subsidy per school is 2.4 billion won ($1.8 million), indicating a total investment of 240 billion won for general education high schools since the funding was intended for the planned 100 independent private high schools. (Source: Joongang Ilbo.)

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More High Schoolers Drop out of School (Jun 2009) A growing number of juveniles quit school due to a failure to adapt themselves to school life, financial difficulties and family issues. The Ministry of Education, Science and Technology announced Monday that some 34,000 students, accounting for 1.74 percent of all high school students, gave up their studies as of February this year.

The number of high schools students who left school has continued to increase from 23,076 in 2006 to 27,930 in 2007 and 32,943 in 2008. The dropout rate was 1.73 percent in 2008 and 1.57 in 2007. The ministry said that poor academic ability and emotional instability caused 43 percent of the juveniles to leave the schools. About 31 percent of them quit due to financial difficulties and the divorce of their parents.

For middle schoolers, the number of students who quit school stood at 19,681, 0.52 percent of the total. It was 18,132 in primary schools, 0.98 percent of the total. Returning ratio of students was 14 percent, but some 30 percent of those who returned left again. The ministry said it will strengthen counseling systems in cooperation with other related ministries at each school to prevent juveniles from being derailed. Under the plan, secondary schools across the nation will hire 1,614 counseling teachers and have some 11,000 parents to voluntarily counsel students who need help. Also, 180 counseling centers, run by each regional city and province office for underprivileged juveniles, are planned to be opened by 2011. On top of this, the ministry has decided to ease regulations on the establishment of alternative schools and build a total of 25 of these by 2011. (Source: Korea Times.)

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Colleges

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Private Education -- Hagwons and Private Tutoring

What’s Shaking at Hagwons These Days? (Apr 2009) A study has found that 67% of hagwons nationwide are charging lecture fees greater than that reported to local education offices. Another study found that 85% of parents struggle to pay the fees.

On the 14th the Ministry of Education, Science, and Technology announced the results of the two studies, conducted from October to January of 1,500 parents and their 1,516 children attending 500 hagwons in 16 areas. The studies’ titles are “Current State of Hagwon Costs” and “Feelings of Students’ Parents” .

According to ??? ??, 90.5% (485) of the 500 hagwons are charging lecture fees not in accord with those reported to the education offices, and 66.8% (358) charge higher fees than they report.

20.9% charged 1.2 to 1.5 times the reported figure, followed the 19.8% that charged 1.5 to 2 times as much, the 19% who charged less than 1.2 times as much, the 16.5% who charged 2 to 3 times as much, and the 15.6% that charged 3 to 5 times as much.

8.1% charged no less than five times the reported figure.

74% of foreign language hagwons, 73.8% of exam prep hagwons, 61% of arts hagwons, and 52.3% of piano hagwons charged more than reported.

100% of hagwons in Gwangju and 97.1% of those in Daegu did so, while just 15% of those in Kangwon-do did. Of the 109 in Seoul, a somewhat above-average 72.5% (79 hagwons) did so.

60.4% (324) charged higher than reported fees for exams and teaching materials, and 38.8% charged the same as reported.

The ??? ?? report found that 85.3% of respondents struggle to pay the lecture fees.

The number calling the fees burdensome increased with the number of children (98.6% of those with three or more, 89.5% of those with two, and 78.9% of those with one), but at least 80% in every socioeconomic group reported them to be burdensome, showing them to trying for those at every income level.

But only 36.5% said they would quit the hagwon or move to another because of the fees, while 54.6% would pay for more if they could afford it.

Those who said they were spending less on private education than other families outnumbered those who said the opposite by a two to one ratio, 33% to 14.8%.

37.9% pay the fees by bank transfer, 31.8% do so by cash, and 26.5% use credit cards, but 12.3% of those who use credit cards have been disadvantaged by doing so.

The Ministry analyzed the increasing rate of misreported lecture fee found by the studies stems from the inability of parents to understand the complex hagwon bills. Also, the Ministry explained, even as lecture fees go up demand fails to go down, and at the same time demand increases with economic status and affordability.

The Ministry plans to confirm, through local education offices, the veracity of extra fees charged by the hagwons in the study and to reduce the disordered system of recording the payment of those fees.

Accordingly the Ministry said it will require hagwons to place their fees on the websites of local education offices as well as keep records of all payments, whether made by cash, credit, or otherwise. Also, the main hagwon organization is also pressing a legal case that, if they win, may mean more students in their classes. The Korean Association of Hagwons announced on the 14th it will file a constitutional appeal that mandatory after-school lessons are unconstitutional.

The KAOH held a press conference a Yongsan office today where it announced that, “constituional law and the basic educational law make elementary and middle school education compulsory, but these schools are offering after-schools lessons which are more expensive than hagwons.”

The offering of paid after-school lessons by elementary and middle schools, which are compulsory educational institutions, violates the law, the organization claims, and discriminates against students unable to pay for them because of economic troubles.

The KAOH also asserted, “with schools invading the territory of private education, the freedom to work of hagwon instructors is being infringed. Schools are not operating as proper schools and hagwons are having trouble operating as proper hagwons, leading inevitably to a worsening of national education.”

But the current action, and its assertion that the government is threatening hagwons’ existence by expanding after-school classes, is viewed differently in educational circles.

After the liberalization of school freedom last year, some city and provincial schools were allowed to include private businesses in their after-school lessons, but in fact few hagwons have been invited. (Source: Korea Beat: Naver.)

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'Hagwon' May Close Before 10 PM (Jun 2009) ``Use all available means to cut private education costs for parents with schoolchildren and normalize public education.'' Days after President Lee Myung-bak gave this instruction to Cabinet ministers, the Korea Education Research Institute proposed a 7-point action plan in a seminar organized by the governing Grand National Party (GNP) Friday to slash private education costs.

>Under the plan, hagwon will be banned from offering lessons to students after 10 p.m., universities will not consider academic achievement scores during the first year of high school in recruiting students and schools will be required to activate after-school programs for students. The proposal also calls for better evaluation of teachers, an increase in the number of art and sports schools and improvement in the quality of lessons provided by the Education Broadcasting System, a nationwide television network, to draw more viewers. ``These are new guidelines for education officials and lawmakers in pushing for educational reform,'' said Jin Soo-hui, head of the Yeouido Institute, a GNP think tank. ``The governing party will hold rounds of discussions in the coming weeks to find ways to meet demands from teachers and parents, as well as students.''

According to sources from the GNP, the architects of the reform plan included Rep. Chung Doo-un and Kwak Seung-jun, chairman of the Presidential Council for Future and Vision, President Lee's closest aides. Rep. Chung recently criticized the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology for ``foot-dragging'' on reform, saying, ``President Lee believes a rising burden on parents for public tutoring is the biggest national issue.''

The GNP efforts to reform the education sector are expected to pick up steam, as Cheong Wa Dae is seeking to drastically ease private education costs amid low popularity for President Lee and his key policies such as the four-river refurbishment project. Critics say the move is part of efforts to win more support from ordinary people and appeal to a broader base of voters, with the local elections slated for June next year. ``In the past, students from poor families were able to enter prestigious colleges if they were smart. But the situation is very different now,'' President Lee said during a Cabinet meeting last week. ``We should resolve the issue of rising private education costs to provide equal opportunities to all students.''

Analysts say that to help households cut private education expenditure, the government should improve the public education sector and provide more higher education opportunities to students from needy households. According to the National Statistical Office, household expenditure for children's private education rose to 18.7 trillion won ($14 billion) last year, up 1.3 trillion won or 7 percent from 2007, with each family spending an average of 1.1 million won. The high-income bracket spent much more on sending kids to various after-school learning institutes than those on low income. The top 20 percent of high-income households spent an average of 321,000 won on private education per month in 2008, 6.9 times higher than the 46,000 won spent by the bottom 20 percent. The gap has widened from 5.9 times a year earlier. (Source: Korea Times.)

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'Hagwon' Curfew Ruled Constitutional (Oct 2009) The Constitutional Court, Thursday, ruled in support of education authorities on their current policy of limiting operation hours of private cram schools or “hagwon.” A group of hagwon operators along with parents and students in Seoul and Busan last year filed a petition with the court, claiming the curfew violated educational rights of parents and students.

With the court’s decision, the curfew for private cram schools at nightwill remain in force,which is being enforced as part of an effort to curtail runaway private education costs. Currently, education offices in each city and province are allowed to set operating hours of hagwon by ordinances and their business hours differ by region.

The Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education plans to ban private cram schools from running after 10 p.m., while Busan Metropolitan Office of Education sets the same curfew for elementary and middle school students, but increases it to 11 p.m. for high school students. It has been hard for education authorities to supervise and control the huge number of private education institutes. This year, the government started to crack down on those that violated business hours, offering a financial reward to citizens who reported such cases. Early this year, Kwak Seung-jun, the head of the Presidential Council for Future and Vision, had tried to legalize a ban on private cram schools regarding operation hours, so that all city and provincial education offices set the same curfew at 10 p.m.

At the same time, he proposed mobilizing police to enforce the law. However, his plans faced opposition from lawmakers and the education ministry. Also, both governing and opposition parties criticized him for the remarks, claiming he was not in a position to comment on education reform and the plan was made without consulting the ministry.

The ministry and lawmakers of the governing Grand National Party (GNP) reached an agreement on the current curfew, which allows each education office to set its own according to regional situations, but education authorities have been ordered to tightly supervise any irregularities by hagwon.

At the same time, schools were asked to improve the quality of their education. In this regard, the government plans to provide students with more after-school programs and introduce a teacher assessment system that rewards those who receive good scores and punishes those who are poorly evaluated. The government has designated runaway costs for private lessons for students aspiring to enter top high schools and colleges as a disease that sickens the nation.

A raft of policies are being introduced to fight it. In the latest effort, a close aide of President Lee Myung-bak is pushing for the abolition of foreign-language high schools, calling them the source of all evil. These elitist schools send a large number of graduates to top universities, so middle school students are taking private lessons at an exorbitant cost to enter them. (Source: Korea Times.)

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English Education

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Korea Teachers and Education Workers Union

KTEWU Protest Teacher Dismissal (Jan 2009) Members of the Seoul branch of the Korean Teachers and Education Workers Union (KTEWU or KTU, Jeon Gyo Jo) demonstrate against teacher dismissals in front of Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education. The union has demonstrated for the past 25 days to urge the SMOE to reverse its dismissal of seven teachers who informed students of their right not to take the nationwide scholastic achievement assessment test (ilje gosa) and allowed them to take field trips as an alternative to the test. (SITE NOTE: In 2008, the protest by students was the first of its kind. Because the impact of failing to take the test would affect the rest of their life -- test scores mean a good college and good life -- the punishment was harsh and swift. This follows the SMOE decision in Dec 2008 to unilaterally cancel the contracts with the KTEWU because the contracts allows the teachers to dictate education policy. Since Lee Myeong-bak has taken office, the KTEWU has been under fire because of its progressive roots and negative impacts to the conservative views of Korea. (SEE Revisitionist History.))

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Umbrella Union Leaders Likely to Resign Over Scandal (Feb 2009)Leading figures of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions except chairman Lee Seok-haeng are expected to resign en masse today over a senior executive’s attempted rape of a female member. In addition, the nation`s second-largest umbrella union will reinvestigate the alleged sexual assault in the wake of mounting suspicion of an attempted cover-up by the confederation’s leadership. The Korean Teachers and Educational Workers` Union, in which the victim is a member, will also launch a fact-finding committee in response to growing criticism within the union.

“The entire leadership except chairman Lee, agreed to step down at an emergency meeting Saturday,” a confederation source said. “We have decided to propose the mass resignation of the executive committee and the formation of an emergency committee at the central committee meeting Monday.” Senior confederation members discussed the resignation in a meeting with Lee Friday, but only five offered to step down due to his objection. Lee, who has flatly refused to resign, is not on the resignation list, according to sources. The confederation’s leadership has resigned en masse three times since the organization’s establishment in 1995. In 2005, leaders of the umbrella labor group resigned over a bribery scandal implicating then Vice President Kang Seung-gyu. In addition, the teachers` union held a central executive committee meeting Friday and Saturday in Chungju, North Chungcheong Province. It will launch a committee to independently investigate the attempted rape in response to strong criticism against the reaction of the confederation’s executive committee. (SITE NOTE: Where is the police in this matter? Is this political hype for position infighting?) (Source: Donga Ilbo.)

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Gov`t to Punish Teachers Who Signed Anti-Gov`t Declaration (Jun 2009) The government yesterday (28 Jun) said it will punish 17,189 teachers belonging to the progressive Korean Teachers and Education Workers’ Union for issuing a declaration critical of the incumbent administration. Eighty-eight of the teachers who took the initiative in issuing the declaration or proactively participated will face suspension or dismissal and possibly legal action.

The punishment is the most severe for the union since it was legalized in 1999. A head-on collision is expected since the union is planning to issue a second declaration criticizing what it calls the government’s hard-line stance. The Education, Science and Technology Ministry made the decision to punish the teachers yesterday in an emergency meeting of deputy superintendents in central Seoul.

The ministry concluded that 10 of 33 commissioners on the executive committee, including the union’s head Jeong Jin-hu, took the initiative in issuing the declaration. The ministry asked municipal and provincial educational authorities to dismiss the 10 commissioners and suspend 78 other union members. Other teachers who signed the declaration will get warnings.

The government will ask prosecutors to indict the 88 union members subject to heavy punishment, including 25 members of the union’s headquarters and 16 regional heads. Another 63 union members including the 16 regional heads will face punishment from the ministry and regional educational authorities.

The ministry said the teachers who signed the declaration violated Clause 66 of the Government Officials Act as well as the 56th and 57th clauses. In a news conference in central Seoul, the union said, “In response to the government’s attempt to stifle freedom of expression, we’ll issue a second declaration and organize a signature campaign to be joined by 400,000 teachers.” It also said it will ask prosecutors to indict Education Minister Ahn Byong-man and municipal and provincial superintendents of 16 regions for abuse of authority. The union will hold an emergency meeting of its executive committee tomorrow on formulating countermeasures. (SITE NOTE: During the Roh Moo-hyun administration, the KTEW basically got away with murder -- even teaching North Korean juche materials in the class and foster anti-Americanism. It was teachers running roughshod over the government. The Lee administration is reining them in -- and reminding them that they are public servants and not independent educators. Expect a strike or such demands in the future. Hopefully, it will not descend into the "blacklist" that existed during the Chun Doo-hwan/Roh Tae-woo era.) (Source: Donga Ilbo.)

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Foreign English Teachers and hagwons

New Visa Law Angers Foreign Teachers Here (Jan 2009) Foreign teachers are complaining over the government's new immigration law asking them to submit police background checks and medical documents. The reaction came after the Korea Immigration Service introduced legislation to ban foreigners with criminal records from getting an E-2 foreign language teaching visa. So far, the government has required E-2 visa applicants to submit criminal records and health checkups under the immigration regulations since December 2007, just after the arrest of a pedophile suspect in Thailand who had taught children in Korea. ``The law, which will be put into effect from the end of March, will more thoroughly prevent foreigners with criminal records from coming to Korea than just regulations,'' said Song So-young, an immigration official. The official said the growing number of crimes committed by E-2 visa holders has driven the authorities to set the requirements.

Foreign English teachers, however, say while there is a big push by the Korean government to increase the number of teachers, it should realize that such restrictions will keep qualified teachers away. The Association for Teachers of English in Korea (ATEK) urged the government to scrap the requirements. ``ATEK backs Korea's efforts to simplify the E-2 visa application. Anything that makes it easier, quicker, or more convenient for qualified teachers to come and work is good for both foreign teachers and Korea,'' said Tony Hellmann, spokesman for the association.

A Canadian E-2 visa holder who declined to be named, said the law promotes racism and lacks principle of equity with other foreign nationals coming to Korea for other jobs. ``It's not clear that the increase in crimes by foreigners is due to English teachers. It's not fair that E2 visa holders are discriminated against,'' he said ``Above all, if they showed that E2 visa holders indeed were committing more crimes than other visa holders, people would understand. Right now it seems like misplaced outrage or concern. The government's motivation seems to be confused. Of course, everyone is blaming the Canadian teacher arrested in Thailand last year, but he didn't have a criminal record anywhere.''

Many other foreign teachers at private language institutes also complain that the government should apply the same visa screening rules to foreign English teachers holding other visas as those applied to other foreigners seeking E-2 visas. ``If the government has decided to tighten the issuance of teaching visas because of increasing number of crimes by foreign teachers, what about other foreign teachers holding other types of visas such as F-2 or F-4?'' said an Australian English teacher in Daejeon.The immigration office said every country has its own right and guidelines to decide who they allow to issue visas to. The number of E-2 visa holders stood at some 20,000 last year. (Source: Korea Times.)

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Hagwon fall on hard times as parents try to cut costs (Jan 2009) The famed Korean zeal for education is coming up against a formidable challenger - the economic crisis. The ubiquitous hagwon, or private educational institutes, are falling on unprecedented hard times as parents tighten up the purse strings.

Oh, 40, a housewife living in northern Seoul’s Jungnang District, has one son in middle school and two daughters in elementary school. Oh decided to cut the monthly 3 million won ($2,247) she used to spend on private tutoring, opting to teach the kids Korean and English herself. Her husband will take care of science and math. “We will tutor our own children for at least a year, until the economy gets better,” Oh said.

Cho, 39, who has two daughters in the third and fifth grade, currently lives in Daechi-dong, a hagwon district in southern Seoul. Cho said she moved her daughters to cheaper English hagwon, reducing her expenses from 350,000 won to 220,000 won per month, as her husband won’t be getting the bonus that he usually receives at the end of January. “I tried everything not to have to cut my children’s education expenses. For two months, we stopped eating out and I didn’t go grocery shopping that often,” Cho said.

Such decisions by parents have forced many hagwon out of business. No hagwon in Gangnam, Yangcheon or Nowon, Seoul’s most popular education districts, is safe. In January, for the first time ever, the number of hagwon that submitted business discontinuance letters exceeded 10 in each of the three district offices. A hagwon owner who recently opened a new branch in Daechi-dong, Gangnam, to lure international middle school hopefuls said he is on the brink of shutting down. “I originally thought I could attract about 500 elementary school students for January, but I only have 60 students so far. That’s barely 12 percent of the goal,” the owner said. He said his losses are nothing compared to many other hagwon owners, some of whom have even given their businesses away for free.

University students who earn money by tutoring are also suffering. Kim, a 23-year-old student at Seoul’s Ewha Womans University, no longer has an income.“I had been tutoring a third-year middle school student in math and English for a year. Now I’m worried about how I’m going to make my pocket money, as I’m already having a hard time coming up with tuition.” (Source: Joongang Ilbo.)

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English Teachers' Pay Heading Up (Feb 2009) Jeon Kyung-shik, headmaster of an Ansan-based ``hagwon,'' recently bought two sets of flat-screen televisions to install in the newly vacated studios he plans to offer to his incoming foreign employees. That plus a 10 percent pay raise might help quickly fill the teaching positions, Jeon hopes. He said a few applicants from the U.S. and Canada showed interest, but his hagwon's secluded location, furnished but tiny living suite, 1.8 million-won-a-month ($1,300) salary and a 35-hour work week weren't enough to cut the deal.

``Frankly speaking, even if I were a native English job seeker, I'd probably shoot for a better offer because hagwon are starting to pitch better compensation packages,'' said Jeon, who runs a small-sized English language institute, which now employs three foreign teachers after two left last month. ``Demand seems to be outstripping supply.'' Lee Jae-hee, a senior recruiter at OK Recruiting, a Seoul-based English teacher placement agency, said hagwon are finding it tougher to attract well-qualified professionals, as the government is emerging as the preferred employer among native English teachers.

The Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education said last month that it would hire more foreign teachers so that all English classes offered in Seoul's public elementary, middle and high schools could be taught in English starting 2012. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology said Sunday that it expects public schools to ramp up native English speaker recruitments by 20 percent in 2009, compared to last year. ``Given an option between hagwon and public schools, job seekers typically pick state-run schools,'' said Lee, who places teachers for dozens of private institutes every month.

Shorter work hours, longer vacation, better medical insurance coverage and overall easier working conditions are just some of the reasons, he said, adding that these factors force hagwon to come up with better offers. Lee said a month's salary of 2 to 2.2 million won used to be the ``market standard,'' but now more employers are paying around 2.3 to 2.5 million won.

A recruiter at Park English, one of the largest English teacher placement agencies here, said the competition to secure teachers will likely continue as the pool of native English-speaking teachers shrinks against rising demand. ``The weak Korean won is a turn off for prospective teachers,'' said the agent, who didn't want to be named. She said the dismal job market in the U.S. ? the No. 1 preferred country of origin ? isn't helping to draw interest in teaching positions in Korea. (Source: Korea Times.)

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ATEK Lobbies for Equal Hiring Standards for English Teachers (Feb 2009)

There has been a recent campaign by the Association for Teachers of English in Korea for equal treatment of foreign English teachers in Korea.  Here is an ATEK press release that will hopefully clarify the goals of their campaign:

If you’re following our issues through blog comments and forums, you may have noticed that a significant minority of teachers who identify themselves as on F-series visas say they are opposed to ATEK because we’re going to cause them to have to take drug and HIV tests.

This is completely false, and a misunderstanding of what we’ve been saying, partly because of Korean news reporting, and partly because we didn’t boil our message down to a clear, single sentence the first time. Here it is: The Association for Teachers of English in Korea’s Equal Checks for All Campaign is calling for non-citizen teachers to undergo the same checks as Korean public school teachers; no more, no less.

Korean public school teachers do not take drug or HIV tests. It is discrimination to require non-citizens to submit to such testing. There was no reason to do this, because in the three years prior to the tests instituted in 2007, there were zero arrests of foreigners for use or possession of the drugs tested for. Further, the Korean Constitutional Court has already ruled it unconstitutional to deport a foreigner for having AIDS.

We simply want to be treated equally, without discrimination. We don’t want F-series visa holders to go through more checks; we want everyone to go through the checks that the Korean government uses for the backbone of its education system: the Korean public school teacher. And we want hagwon teachers (both Koreans and non-citizens alike) to also undergo the same tests.  [Tony Hellmann - ATEK Communications Director]

Here is a chart from ATEK that lists the various tests and checks for foreign Visa holders compared to Korean citizens:

Requirements for Teachers	Medical Check	HIV test	Criminal Background Check	Drug Test
E-2 Visa Holders	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
E-1 Visa Holders	No	No	No	No
F-series visa holders (public school)	Yes*	No	Yes*	No
F-series visa holders (hagwon)	No	No	No	No
Korean Citizens (public school)	Yes*	No	Yes*	No
Korean Citizens (hagwon)	No	No	No	No

*Not mandated by the Korean Immigration Service or Ministry of Justice. Mandated by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology for all teachers.

Hopefully this press release clears up some of the confusion out there and better shows what ATEK is trying accomplish with their campaign to bring parity of hiring standards of foreign English teachers with that of native Koreans.  I wish them luck and hopefully this gets worked out.

(Source: GI RoK Drop.)

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Same Old Story: English Teachers Smoking Dope AGAIN (May 2009) Foreign English instructors booked on drug charges Police booked six foreign English instructors on suspicion of using marijuana, officials said Friday, with some allegedly conducting class while under the influence of the drug, Yonhap News reported.

Among those charged were three teachers from Canada, two from the United States and one from New Zealand, all of whom teach English at private institutions or elementary schools in Seoul. Police also arrested a Nigerian man, whose name has been withheld, on suspicion of providing marijuana to the six suspects.

According to police, the drugs were supplied to the suspects by the Nigerian dealer and were imbibed in and around their residences in Itaewon, a neighborhood populated by bars and other late-night establishments. They added that some of the suspects smoked the banned substance before heading to class in the morning.

"The suspects are believed to have routinely used the drug from a young age," a police official said. "We have to tighten visa controls for foreign teachers with medical and criminal records." (Source: Korea Herald.)

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Chosun Ilbo Responds to Foreign Teacher Criticism (Jul 2009) Overflowing criticism has been made by foreign instructors angered by Chosun.com articles which discussed the problems of some unqualifid foreign instructors. Quite a number of foreign instructors, though recognizing the many problems pointed out by the articles, indiscriminately poured out criticism of their creation. Through July 3rd Chosun.com published a series of four articles on problems caused by unqualified foreign instructors.

Immediately after the articles appeared on community websites for foreign instructors a large number of comments were left criticizing them. Some instructors called the articles “racist lies”. Foreign instructor J wrote, “Chosun.com definitely hates foreigners. I wonder if there is a political background to these articles.” G, another foreign instructor, said, “I am so angry. We Americans didn’t criticize Korea when Cho Seung-hui killed people in America, so why are we all being attacked?”

At one website some claimed the articles were fabrications. A Canadian featured in an article of July 2nd was said to have been “created for a foreigner-attacking article when he does not in fact exist.” Eventually some instructors gained the personal information of the articles’ author, and sent sexually insulting and slanderous messages by e-mail and text message.

But there were also foreign instructors who agreed with the articles. C wrote, “everything in the articles is true. When it described instructors who chase after Korean women the articles are completely correct. Please don’t be naive.” H, recognizing the problems from instructors of low character, wrote, “these articles show the true rotten state of the foreign instructor community, full of deception and immoral acts. Because of some immoral instructors, all of us are having our names and reputations damaged, so we have to go out and expel them.”

At the bottom of the article the Chosun included links to 11 previous articles about “the problems of unqualified foreign instructors”. Here’s a sampling of the currently 20-odd netizen comments left at the Chosun.

Kim Dong-gyun: It isn’t a crime in Korea, it’s merely an individual problem of evading regulations regarding qualifications. It’s true that many comments are disrespectful of women, but those women’s bodies aren’t the property of the country or the race, so what do you want? These articles damaged their group image, but white teachers in Korea aren’t objects of racial discrimination, they get as much preferential treatmen as ever.

Jeong Gwan-seop: You dumb foreign instructors. Don’t you know how to behave yourselves when you go to a different country? How would you feel if Koreans came to your country and did what you are now doing in Korea? Maybe you would start mocking those Ugly Koreans. You are the ones who did these things, why were these articles published?

The Cho Seung-hui case is a totally unique one. Other than Cho Seung-hui, what Korean, I mean who committed such a mass murder? But these stupid foreign teachers and instructors in Korea are real problem children. Cases of foreign instructors doing drugs, having fake degrees, and committing sexual molestation happen every week, and you can see that with how often police catch them, so why shouldn’t we talk about it?

Mun Seong-yeon: -- I,m fOcking eather a shit head foreign English lecturer, accordingly I hope such they fOck up from Korea,god damn the white Yankees!….-- Like an X I hope all these shit-for-brains foreign English instructors get out of Korea, fucking white Yankees!

Jo Guk-hyeong: I wonder how many native speaker instructors actually have instructor qualifications and know the education law? Who knows how many of them came here just to make money because they were born in English-speaking areas and can speak English.. They should take English tests just like our Korean tests.. a lot of them couldn’t get 50%.. It’s a problem of English education in our country that we just plow money into importing them saying that putting butter on our lips is good. (Source: Korea Beat.)

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Revisionist History

Five publishing companies agree to revise history textbooks (Nov 2008) In an unprecedented development, the government has succeeded in ordering five publishing companies to revise the high school history textbook "A Modern and Contemporary History of Korea," a textbook that the ministry had approved for use under the previous administration. The latest in a series of controversial moves initiated by the ministry to pressure educators to use its preferred textbook has educators and education officials claiming that the ministry is trying to gain control over education while implementing a conservative curriculum.

Five publishing companies, under pressure from the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, which authorizes and approves textbooks, said they will accept the ministry's demands and "revise all of their history textbooks." Previously, when the ministry had asked the publishing companies to revise the textbooks, the companies responded by asking the textbook writers to decide whether they would accept the demand. The textbook writers objected, accusing the ministry of pressuring the publishing companies, which do not own the textbook copyrights.

The ministry's policy, they said, was unfair because the ministry was trying pass to the companies the political and legal burden of making revisions, canceling the ministry's prior authorization of the books and discontinuing the books' publication. If the ministry goes ahead with the revisions, the writers say they will take legal action. On 30 Nov, the ministry said that five publishing companies said they would revise the textbooks: Kumsung Publishing Co., Doosan Corp., Bubmunsa, Joongang Institute for Better Education and Chunjae Education.

The ministry said it would work with the publishing companies on specific revisions to their textbooks. On 28 Nov, the ministry reported that it had sent an official letter to the five publishing companies on October 30 requesting that they make revisions to 55 points in the textbooks. Some of the publishing companies responded they would make revisions to 26 of the points on the list. However, the ministry found this unsatisfactory and sent another official letter ordering the companies to revise the remaining 29 points on the list as well as other points they had found to be insufficient. In a telephone interview with The Hankyoreh, Kim In-ho, the president of Kumsung Publishing Co,, which was ordered to revise 38 points in its version of the textbook, said, "I have no choice but to regard the ministry's order for revisions as compulsory under the law. There is no room for other choices." Kim said, "As the chief executive of a company with some 4,500 employees, I made a painful decision because managing the company has become difficult due to the textbook issue. I have apologized for scarring the writers and will take legal and moral responsibility" for the decision.

Textbook writers, history teachers and historians urged the government to stop pressuring the publishing companies to make revisions and to stop pressuring schools to alter their textbooks, saying that in education, in which students should be taught to become democratic citizens, undemocratic things are happening as though there were nothing wrong. In a joint statement released Sunday, six writers of the Kumsung version of the book, titled "A Modern and Contemporary History of Korea," including Kim Han-jong, a professor of history education at Korea National University of Education, said, "Nobody can accept having a publisher unilaterally change the contents of a book that will have the name of the writer printed on it. It violates the copyright law and significantly undermines the writer's honor."

The group says they will take legal action, adding that the Education Ministry should take responsibility for its "disgraceful" behavior in pressing for the revisions and its involvement in pressuring high school principals to choose its preferred version of the history textbook. Yun Jong-bae, president of the Association of Korean History Teachers, said, "As I watch the government mobilize various forces to achieve its goal of revising the history textbooks and getting schools to select different textbooks, regardless of the chaos it causes, it looks like a military operation. My heart bleeds as the government goes ahead like this, even though historians at home and abroad and history teachers and graduate students in the field of history have raised their voices against the textbook revision." (Source: Hankyoreh.)

Seoul high schools switch history textbooks amid 'left-leaning' controversy (Dec 2008) Scores of Seoul high schools have canceled purchase orders from a major publisher following government criticism that its history textbooks are "left-leaning," officials said on 3 Dec, amid rows over how to interpret Korea's turbulent modern history. History books by Kumsung Publishing Co., now used by more than half of Seoul high schools, have been accused by conservatives of playing down the founding of South Korea and glossing over the North Korean regime. (Source: Yonhap News.)

Court rejects complaints of history text authors (Jan 2009) A Seoul court yesterday denied an appeal filed by authors of a high school history textbook to stop their publisher from modifying and distributing the book, which they said was changed without their consent. Five authors of the textbook, put out by Kumsung Publishing, filed the appeal with the Seoul Central District Court at the end of last year. The ruling made it possible for the book to be distributed in March when the spring semester begins. “The authors signed a contract with the publisher that states ‘if there is a request for a revision from the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, they shall hand over drafts and materials for revision within a certain period and the publisher shall revise the text,’” the court said in the ruling. “The authors agreed to ‘faithfully follow guidelines given by the Education Ministry’ when they applied for verification of the text,” the court said.

The court, however, denied the publisher’s claim that the authors’ right to keep the text as it was originally written was limited because the book is used in schools. This did not prevent the appeal from being denied, however, because of the contract the authors signed. The Education Ministry granted final approval to six revised history texts on Dec. 1, after the publishers made 206 changes, including 53 made in response to controversial guidelines issued by the ministry on Oct. 30. The authors then filed the petition against Kumsung and the government, saying their intellectual property rights had been violated. (Source: Joongang Ilbo.)

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LEE MYEONG-BAK'S GRAND CANAL SCHEME

Pres. Lee Announces River Cleanup Project (Dec 2008) President Lee Myung-bak has said he will pursue a project to clean up four major rivers in the country. "Even if many people criticize a project, we have to pursue it if it can be a big help to the nation," he was quoted as saying by one of his aides in a meeting with about 40 presidential secretaries held at the presidential office of Cheong Wa Dae on 28 Nov.

"It doesn't matter whether it's a project to repair the nation's four rivers or the grand canal project running through the nation. Regardless of the project's name, we should pursue the work as soon as possible since the budget has been allocated." This is the first time for President Lee to publicly stress the significance of the river cleaning project.

The main opposition party has criticized his administration's pursuit of the grand canal project for trying to disguise it under the slogan of "repairing and clearing the nation's four rivers." The Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs Ministry has earmarked 480 billion won (326.7 million U.S. dollars) to repair and clean the Han, Nakdong, Yeongsan and Geumgang rivers. Another aide to President Lee said, "He mentioned the project to repair and clean four major rivers while urging his secretaries to perform the work assigned to them well. But this had nothing to do with the grand canal project." More ruling party members say Korea needs a large-scale construction project to boost the economy. They add a small amount of social overhead capital investment is not enough, and that given economic difficulties, large construction projects such as the grand canal will be helpful. (Source: Donga Ilbo.)

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Seoul-Incheon Canal Construction to Start in March (Jan 2009) The construction of an 18-kilometer-long, 80-meter-wide canal linking the Han River, in Seoul, and the West Sea, will start in March. A total of 2.25 trillion won (about $2 billion) will be earmarked from the national budget. The plan envisions a route for 4,000-ton freighters and ferry services connecting Yongsan, central Seoul, with Chinese ports by 2012. According to the Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs, the plan has been finalized after a 10-year delay due to concerns on its economic viability and environmental impact.

A government official said the canal is expected to ease severe congestion on land routes between metropolitan areas and Incheon, a key port on the West Sea. The route is projected to start near Gaewha-dong, Gangseo-gu, western Seoul, near the Han River, and follow a parallel route along the expressway leading to Incheon International Airport.

The plan was finalized after the Korea Development Institute (KDI) concluded in a recent survey that the canal would be economically viable, with its benefit-to-cost ratio calculated at 1.07, lower than another government-sponsored survey by a Dutch firm that showed it to be 1.76, but economically viable. Construction expenses will be assumed by Korea Water Resources Corp., a government-funded enterprise.

The plan is part of a massive development plan to irrigate, streamline and protect the Han River and three other major rivers across the country, the thrust of the government's ``New Deal'' to stimulate the economy and create more jobs. The so-called Gyeongin Canal project is expected to create about 25,000 jobs and three trillion won in economic spillover effects, the ministry estimated. The government, however, said that it has nothing to do with the Grand Canal project, shelved in the face of strong opposition nationwide.

Under the plan, the canal needs 3.8 kilometers of construction on top of the 14.2 kilometers that have already been excavated in anti-flooding measures. The width of 80 meters is 20 meters narrower than the previous plan. The average depth of the waterway is projected to be about 6.3 meters, which requires additional dredging. By 2030, the canal is estimated to handle the annual transportation of close to one million regular-sized containers; 750,000 tons of steel and related products and 76,000 new vehicles, as well as 1.05 million passengers, it said. The canal will be linked with a ferry and cargo terminal developed as part of the Seoul City's Han River Renaissance Project. ``Once the canal is completed, it will serve multiple purposes, ranging from flood control, cruise tours and logistics, to serving as an artery between Seoul and a new city built in Seongdo, Incheon, bringing change to the industrial and geographical map of the western regions of the nation,'' an official said. (Source: Korea Times.)

More faults found with canal study (Jan 2009) It is gradually becoming apparent that in its study of the economics of its proposed Seoul-Incheon canal, the Lee Myung-bak administration has sexed up the study’s findings, playing down the expected cost of construction and exaggerating the demand for the canal.

In particular, the speed of the river-sea ships (RSS, RS ships) the study talks about for shipping along the canal are slow, making them weak competitors in the shipping industry. “It takes four hours to ship something by truck between Seoul and Busan,” says one shipping consigner. “Who would go by way of the Seoul-Incheon canal when it would take between thirty and forty hours to get to the Port of Busan?” On Friday, the Ministry of Land, Transport, and Maritime Affairs claimed the normal speed of river-sea ships is 35 kilometers per hour and is therefore not much different from regular shipping vessels. According to the ministry, the time it would take to go from Suwon to the Busan East Container Terminal would take 23 hours for a total of 35 hours in shipping time, adding 30 minutes to load 250 containers, and four hours for holding and transfer. European river-sea ships, however, are said to range between 10 to 25 kilometers per hour in speed, and their undersides are wide so as to be able to contain large loads.

One shipping company official noted that Hanjin Shipping tried operating container ships between Incheon and Busan “but stopped several years ago” and said that it “took 31 hours traveling at 27 kilometers per hour.” Considering that Hanjin Shipping’s sea-going container ships moved at 27kph, the Ministry of Land, Transport, and Maritime Affairs is essentially saying that the river-sea ships that would travel along the Seoul-Incheon canal would be faster than container ships. “The bottoms of regular container ships are streamlined, but river-sea ships aren’t, which means that river-sea ships are inevitably slower if they run on the same fuel,” said Hanshin University Professor Lim Suk-min. “You could make them faster with bigger engines but that would cost more fuel and be wholly uneconomical.” In other words, if the Korea Development Institute had based its predictions of shipping demand on river-sea ships, then the canal would make far less economic sense than initially claimed. (Source: Hankyoreh.)

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Grand Canal Scheme by Another Name: S. Korea to spend 22.2 tln won on river restoration work (Jun 2009) South Korea will spend a total of 22.2 trillion won (US$17.8 billion) in the coming years to enhance the water quality and supply systems of its four major rivers, the government said Monday (8 Jun).

The masterplan for the "Four-river Restoration Project" to be completed by 2012 calls for 16.9 trillion won to be used for the main work on the Han, Nakdong, Geum and Yeongsan rivers, with an additional 5.3 trillion won to be allocated to improve water flow and sewerage conditions on smaller-sized waterways.

The Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs in charge of the construction, said the work calls for large-scale dredging operations of river bottoms, building of small dams, catch basins and reservoirs that can store up to 1.3 billion cubic meters of fresh water and greatly raise water quality. It said development work aims to prevent floods, cope with water shortages and create jobs through construction work and better use of resources.

Of the nearly 17 trillion won to be spent, the Nakdong project will get 9.8 trillion won, followed by 2.6 trillion won and 2.5 trillion won in support for the Yeongsan and Geum rivers, respectively. The Han river, which flows through the capital city, will get 2 trillion won. The ministry said the country spends on average 8 trillion won every year to deal with floods, while estimates claim that the country will suffer a water shortage of 1 billion cubic meters by 2016 due to climate change. Water shortages can also lead to sharp deterioration of water quality, having serious repercussion for the four rivers that flow through the country's major cities, industrial centers and key farmlands.

The plan is a finalized version of "green new deal" policy initiative outlined by the government's regional development committee in December 2008 and part of the eco-friendly economic growth program pursued by the Lee Myung-bak administration. Under the plan, 16 new catch basins that can hold an additional 800 million cubic meters of water will be built, with close to 100 reservoirs being refurbished to provide 250 million cubic meters of water for farmlands.

The project will call for two medium sized dams to be built with two existing dams to be connected to better regulate water on the Nakdong River. The river flows through the country's southeastern region and frequently suffers from spring droughts. River banks are to be strengthened, with flood gates to be built on the estuary of the Nakdong and Yeongsan rivers to help prevent floods. The government will build 750 sewerage processing plants and 46 new water treatment facilities to deal with water used in industrial and agricultural complexes.

The water quality of the four rivers will be raised to relatively clean "Grade II" levels that have a biological oxygen demand of less than 3 parts per million (ppm). Such water is capable of sustaining most aquatic life and can be used for recreational purposes. As of 2008, roughly 76 percent of the four rivers have Grade II levels, a figure that will be raised to 83-86 percent by 2012.

State funds will also be used to create "model villages" to attract tourists that will opt for eco-friendly methods to grow farm products with 1,728 kilometers of bicycle roads to be built along the rivers. The ministry said initial work will begin in October, with most of the construction to be completed by 2011, although building of dams and reservoirs will take one more year. (Source: Yonhap News.)

$18 Bil. Plan Unveiled to Refurbish 4 Rivers (Jun 2009) The Lee Myung-bak administration plans to invest 22.2 trillion won (about $18 billion) into refurbishing four major rivers by 2012 to prevent floods and droughts, improve water quality and make waterside leisure facilities. The master plan for restoring the rivers, which is the cornerstone of the Lee administration's ``Green New Deal'' package, was unveiled Monday. ``This is a project to reform the nation's water control and supply system,'' a Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs official said.

The plan had initially targeted refurbishing the Han, Nakdong, Geum and Yeongsan rivers, but it has been expanded to include 14 of their tributaries. Some 16.9 trillion won will be spent on the project by 2012, with first work starting in October. Another 5.3 trillion won will be invested on improving water flow and sewage systems of tributaries. Refurbishment plans for smaller-sized waterways will also be promoted by stages.

To secure water resources, the government will set up 16 reservoirs that can store 1.3 billion cubic meters of water, as the nation expects a shortage of up to 1 billion cubic meters in 2016 due to climate change. Dredging of river bottoms and strengthening riverbanks will also help prevent flooding. The country spends an average 2.7 trillion won annually to rebuild flood damaged areas.

The plan also includes the establishment of 750 sewage processing facilities and 46 waste water plants in order to upgrade water quality to a level where the biological oxygen demand is less than 3 milligrams per liter. The riversides will also be developed as leisure and recreation sites, with about 1,700 kilometers of bike lanes and esplanades.

The government said most of the money for the project had already been allocated and it will secure additional funds through reallocation of the state budget. However, it added that the total cost could reach 30 trillion won if plans for smaller-sized waterways were included, and some projects may be dropped unless a budget is secured. (SITE NOTE: Warning of cost-overruns even before its started? Somebody is not telling the full story.)

Environmental groups have criticized the plan, claiming dredging river bottoms will destroy the ecosystem of the rivers and earth and sand from the operation will make the rivers muddy. They advised the government to study more about environmental impacts before starting the project. They also raised suspicions that the project is a prior step to the construction of a cross-country canal, which the Lee administration scrapped due to public opposition. Government officials denied the allegation, saying the project does not include facilities needed for a canal, such as lock gates and terminals for cargo ships. (Source: Korea Times.)

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President Lee reaffirms scrapping of controversial 'canal project' (Jun 2009) President Lee Myung-bak tried to put an end to a months-long controversy over a disputed canal project Monday, once again promising not to pursue the plan during his presidency. The multi-billion-won project was one of Lee's main campaign pledges in the 2007 presidential election, which he won by the largest margin of votes in recent history. The president was forced, however, to withdraw the project due to strong public opposition amid fears the canal, which would connect Seoul to the southern port city of Busan, would be a waste of money and an environmental disaster.

The controversy was renewed when the government announced in April a detailed river restoration project, which the government's critics claimed was aimed at preparing for the Seoul-Busan canal. "Many have questioned whether the Four River Restoration Project was not in reality a disguise for the grand canal project," the president said in his biweekly radio address to the nation, responding to messages posted on the Web site of the presidential office. "Every time I read these messages, I felt heavy in my heart. This was because it made me realize how tall the wall of public distrust toward the government was," Lee said.

The president said he still believes the canal would be a benefit to the country. "And yet, I have said the government will not launch the grand canal project unless there was a public consensus because this issue could become politicized and lead to national division," the president said. "The government will not pursue such a project during my presidential term," he added.

The president said restoring the country's major rivers would help prevent floods, which cost the nation an average 2.7 trillion won per year in damages and 4.3 trillion won in repair costs. "With the government budget that has been spent on the rivers for the past three years, we can bring the rivers back to life for good," Lee said. (Source: Yonhap News.)

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INTERNET AND MEDIA ISSUES

Gov't calls media workers' strike illegal, defends media ownership deregulation (Jan 2009) The government demanded on 5 Jan that media workers immediately end their strike, refuting their accusations that it is trying to tame and control the nation's media. In an unscheduled joint press conference, the ministers of culture and economy called the strike "evidently illegal" and defended President Lee Myung-bak's sweeping media reforms under which large firms and dominating newspapers will be allowed to own television networks. Hundreds of media employees, including news anchors and show producers of major broadcaster MBC, have been taking turns boycotting their work since Dec. 25, demanding the government nullify the media law reform bill currently pending in the legislature. (Source: Yonhap News.) (SITE NOTE: The progressives claim the LMB government wants to slice up MBC and apportion a greater share of the television media to the big three, Chosun Ilbo, Joongang Ilbo and Donga Ilbo.)

(Jan 2009) Hundreds of media employees who have protested against a government-led plan to allow media cross-ownership said they will suspend their strike and return to work the following day. The media unionists maintained their pressure, however, warning they will walk out again should the government renew its push to settle the media-related bills they have condemned as "authoritarian" and "pro-conglomerate." Media workers, including prominent news anchors of major broadcaster MBC, have been taking turns boycotting their work since late last month, demanding the nullification of President Lee Myung-bak's sweeping media reforms under which large firms and dominating newspapers will be allowed to own television networks. (Source: Yonhap.)

Members of the KBS labor union staged a demonstration to urge the broadcasting company to reinstate employees fired for their opposition to the new KBS president at Democracy Hall at KBS on January 22.

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Judge orders 'Minerva' suspect held for investigation (Jan 2009) A Korean court approved prosecutors’ request to detain Park Dae-sung, a k a Minerva, on charges of spreading false rumors on the Internet, stunning local civic groups and Web users who believe there were no legal grounds to hold the unemployed man who became something of a Web celeb.

Coming a day after prosecutors made the request for detention, the court’s action sparked further debate on whether Park actually intended to harm the public through his personal predictions on the economy and criticism of government economic policy. “The action greatly affected the credibility of the nation’s economy and the foreign currency market,” Kim Yong-sang, the Seoul Central District Court judge on the case said in a statement on Saturday upon granting the prosecutors’ request. “Investigation under detention is necessary given the nature and the significance of the case,” he said. As a result, Park was taken into the Seoul Correctional Detention Center on Saturday.

Prosecutors singled out only 2 of some 200 Minerva postings: his Internet article on Dec. 29 that said the government had sent out letters ordering local banks and major exporting companies not to buy U.S. dollars, and a July 30 posting claiming the Finance Ministry would immediately stop its six-month-old program of exchanging Korean currency into U.S. dollars for government agencies facing a deadline to repay dollar-denominated debts to foreign lenders.

At the time of the first posting, Minerva was just a Web wannabe. But by last December, he had a faithful following and was considered by many to be prescient on things financial. Prosecutors said the two Minerva postings were false. But Lee Seok-hyun, a Democratic Party legislator, said on Saturday that financial authorities indeed summoned heads of local major banks on Dec. 29 and urged them not to purchase U.S. dollars in the currency market. They said they wanted to support a weakening won. “The financial regulators, including those from the Finance Ministry, summoned the heads of seven major banks to the headquarters of Korea Federation of Banks in downtown Seoul and asked them to refrain from buying dollars,” Lee said in an interview with local MBC television station.

Lee said he heard about the closed-door covert meeting from one of the participants, stressing the government is only denying that they have ever sent the order in the form of a letter, as claimed by Minerva. “According to what I heard from the participant, the regulators said, ‘the dollar’s strengthening will make all of us victims, so please refrain from buying U.S. dollars and guide your customers in the same way,’” he said.

In the court hearing session on Saturday morning, Park had a heated exchange with prosecutors. Park admitted he wrote all of the Internet postings under the Minerva ID. But he said he had no intention to harm the public or gain any personal advantage. Most of the Minerva postings contained dire predictions for the Korean economy that castigated Finance Ministry policy makers. They also contained extensive analyses on the financial market and macro economy.

“I wrote the articles for relatively vulnerable people like small investors and small companies,” Park told the press after the court review was completed on Saturday. “I wanted to help the poor and marginalized who suffered in the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis.” But the prosecutors argued Park’s disputed Dec. 29 posting posed a “clear intention to harm the public good.” “A figure like Minerva, who is recognized as a person with access to important information related to the economy and foreign exchange market, should be held responsible for his own remarks and writings,” the prosecutors said in a statement.

Minerva has become a household name in Korea since last fall, when his lengthy postings on the bulletin board called Agora drew avid readers. His stock skyrocketed after Lehman Brothers collapsed a week after he said it would. Also, prominent news anchors and even government officials and financial policy makers here frequently quoted his remarks, further catapulting him into the public limelight.

Prosecutors said yesterday they would continue investigating whether there are other people who wrote the Internet articles behind the alias Minerva, by analyzing some 280 online articles posted under the ID at an anonymous bulletin board at Daum.net. But they said such a possibility is remote, despite growing suspicion among Web users and even financial experts that there were more than one person who wrote under the alias.

Prosecutors also said Park, who has no work experience in finance, wrote most of his articles based on what he gathered from various Web sites and blogs dealing with the economy and business. “At first glance, his articles look very professional and profoundly insightful, but most of them were the result of copying and pasting other articles posted on the Internet,” said one Seoul prosecutor who interrogated him. “At least his Internet searching skills were quite amazing.”

Saturday’s detention warrant for Park also prompted several civic group members and activist lawyers to volunteer to defend him. Those volunteering include Democratic Party lawmaker Lee Jong-gul, former DP member Moon Byung-ho and former presidential candidate Park Chan-jong. (Source: Joongang Ilbo.) (SITE NOTE: The biggest concern is that "Minerva" was acting as a private citizen. By arresting him, the government has trampled on freedom of speech. If what he said was libelous, there are the courts for suing him for his statements as Roh Moo-hyun and Lee Myeong-bak have done in the past. By the courts sanctioning the arrest of Park, the "freedom of speech" clauses are effectively trampled. If allowed to continue, protests that "do damage" to the government could be arrested as well. The possibilities are endless. This arrest needs to be overturned by the KOREAN CONSTITUTIONAL COURT immediately. What makes the matter worse is that the opposition is stating that Park did NOT lie and the government had a meeting with banks on not buying dollars in Dec -- though no letter was sent. An anonymous MOSF source confirmed this.)

Foreigners Puzzled Over Minerva's Arrest (Jan 2009) South Korean authorities are growing more serious over whether ? and how ? they're going to punish popular online guru Minerva after arresting him last Wednesday for spreading false information. But for foreigners and overseas bloggers, the Internet witch-hunt is a ridiculous episode that could only hurt the image of one of the world's most-wired countries. ``Korea is starting to look silly for trying to imprison a blogger,'' said Tom Coyner, who helps advise foreign investors in South Korea as president of Soft Landing Consulting. ``Authorities are taking this too far.''

Park Dae-sung, 31, who wrote more than 200 online postings criticizing the government's economic policies under the alias Minerva, was arrested on charges of undermining the country's financial markets with his dire predictions. The Web commentator is currently detained and being investigated. If indicted and convicted, he could get a jail term of up to five years or a fine of up to 50 million won ($37,000). Minerva's arrest instantly fueled a furor over freedom of speech, as critics blasted the government and prosecutors for tag teaming in a bid to suppress people's basic civil rights.

``You wouldn't see this kind of situation in the U.S. or any other advanced country,'' said Michael Breen, a political and business consultant, who stressed that both the prosecution and the government must learn to uphold people's rights. He said if the authorities are smart, they will investigate and let Park go. ``If they're dumb, however, they're going to go ahead and prosecute him, but Park will be found not guilty,'' said Breen, adding that such an outcome will only do harm to the prosecution.

Robert Koehler, who runs popular web blog Marmot's Hole, raised a problem with the government's handling of the opinionated blogger. ``Maybe they can bring him in for a talk or even sue him, but having the guy arrested just sends chills down everyone's spine. They're setting a precedent,'' said the blogger, who manages a site that attracts 3,500 visitors daily. Koehler said the government is probably paranoid from the massive wave of anti-government candlelight vigils last summer that were prompted by the Internet-driven public. ``Still, that doesn't mean the government could crack down on bloggers in such a way,'' he said, asking, ``How many countries arrest bloggers?'' Maybe Egypt, China and Iran, he said, adding, ``It's not a pretty group. Does South Korea want to be grouped with them?''

On blogs based overseas, users have already started poking fun at the situation. ``I guess [Robert] Shiller, [Laurence] Kotlikoff and [Nouriel] Roubini are next,'' wrote one Yahoo blogger with the username billander88. ``They have to arrest half of university economics professors in the world for economics analysis. Who's next?'' Paul Kedrosky, a U.S.-based venture capitalist and a popular blogger at Infectious Greed, wrote, ``Let [Minerva's arrest] be a warning to Nouriel Roubini.'' Koehler emphasized, ``If prosecutors decide to indict Minerva, they will be shooting themselves in the foot. Critics overseas will think so especially.''

Thirst for Analysis

Discussing the financial pundit's extreme popularity, observers generally said the lack of transparency in Korean society was the biggest contributor to Minerva's quick fame and influence. ``Koreans put excessive faith into anonymous information because they've lost trust in mainstream media,'' said Coyner. ``So Minerva's analytical perception attracted an instant crowd of followers.''

David Mason, a professor at Kyung Hee University, who lived in Korea for more than a decade, agrees. The public fostered a sense of trust for information provided by faceless people because they figured that the government, big companies and reputable media outlets don't give them anything better, he said. Over the past few months, Minerva's analytical style and sometimes prescient forecasts have purportedly affected foreign exchange markets and investment decisions. ``Frankly, the Internet has a kind of traction that mainstream media doesn't,'' said Koehler, adding that there is not much the government can do to offset the reality. ``They just need to become more media savvy, improve communication and debate,'' he said. ``The bottom line is, if one guy online is causing a massive problem on a government policy, it's clear that they're not combating the issue well. (Source: Korea Times.)

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INTERNATIONAL EVENTS

February 2009

Korean Students Largest Ethnic Group in US for Three Years (Feb 2009) The number of Korean students in the United States hit a record high of 110,000 last year, the largest foreign students' group there for three years in a row, a U.S. immigration office said Tuesday (3 Feb). According to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), a total of 110,083 Koreans were staying in America on a student visa as of the end of last year, accounting for 15.2 percent of 722,272 foreign students there. The office said the 6.5 percent rise in the number of Korean students in 2008 was the lowest in four years, compared with double-digit increases between 2005 and 2007. Indian students formed the second largest ethnic group with around 100,000 members, followed by Chinese, Japanese and Canadians, ICE said. Business administration was the most sought-after subject among foreign students, with more than 145,800 students selecting it as their major. (Source: Korea Times.)

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8 Koreans to Be Brought Back From US Prisons (Feb 2009) South Korea has decided to take back eight South Korean prisoners currently jailed in the United States to allow them to serve out their remaining prison terms in their homeland, Yonhap News reported quoting a South Korean diplomat in Washington Saturday. The Seoul government informed the U.S. Department of Justice of its decision last month, according to the diplomat.

The prisoners are among 40 South Korean citizens held in U.S. prisons who say they wish to be relocated to South Korea, citing language, food and cultural differences, the diplomat said. "It is highly likely that they will be sent back to South Korea, although the U.S. federal government and state governments involved must make the final decision," he was quoted as saying. South Korea has so far received only one South Korean prisoner from the U.S. since 2005, when it joined the Convention on the Transfer of Sentenced Persons to bring back South Korean citizens serving in prisons abroad and to extradite foreign nationals in South Korean prisons. About 1,400 South Koreans are imprisoned abroad, including 200 in the United States. (Source: Korea Times.) (SITE NOTE: The concern is whether the prisoners will spend their time in prison according to the US regulations or have their terms commuted under Korean laws. This needs to be monitored closely to ensure the US "justice" is not screwed.)

February 2009

A Korean Invasion Blindsides the U.S. Army -- but in a Good Way (May 2009) Suk Joon Lee, a South Korean immigrant, feared his days in the U.S. were numbered. His ice-cream shop wasn't doing well, and if it failed, his investor visa could be revoked. Then Mr. Lee stumbled upon a Korean-language Web site that described a way out: a program that the Army was about to launch that offered a shortcut to getting U.S. citizenship. The site was created by another Korean immigrant, James Hwang, and it explained in minute detail the steps required to qualify."James knew everything about the program, and he wasn't even in the military," says the 27-year-old Mr. Lee. In February, Mr. Lee, along with hundreds of other Korean immigrants who had learned about the pilot program from Mr. Hwang, descended on Army recruiting centers in New York to enlist.

The program was authorized without fanfare late last year by Defense Secretary Robert Gates to attract temporary immigrants who speak strategically important languages such as Arabic, Farsi and Korean. The bait: The soldiers could immediately apply for U.S. citizenship, skipping the sometimes decadelong process of securing a green card first. So many Koreans have applied, however, that the Army doesn't need them all.

Koreans form the largest group among the 8,000 applicants for the program, launched on Feb. 23. Many have excellent credentials, including degrees in medicine and engineering. Almost all are veterans of South Korea's own compulsory military service. "The quality of these applicants has been phenomenal," says Lt. Col. Peter Badoian, the project officer for the pilot program. "But we didn't anticipate one immigrant community would respond so strongly." The promise of America lures thousands of South Koreans to the U.S. each year. Korean students enroll in U.S. colleges. Others start small businesses in order to get temporary visas.

But many get tied up in bureaucracy.

That's the predicament Mr. Hwang and his wife, Irene, found themselves in. The couple arrived in the U.S. in 2001 on student visas. Both of them are trained physicians. They held other temporary permits, including H1-B skilled-worker visas. After Mrs. Hwang gave birth to a son in California, the couple in 2006 applied for green cards. Immigration authorities approved Mrs. Hwang in eight months. Mr. Hwang's case languished, held up, he says, by a Federal Bureau of Investigation background check that hadn't been completed.

Immigrants who are permanent residents, such as Mrs. Hwang, have long been eligible to join the U.S. military. In May 2007, she enlisted so she could quickly secure U.S. citizenship and sponsor her dying father to remain with her in the U.S. Yet her husband's frustration with the green-card process mounted. "Last year, I was one step away from suing the government" for the processing delay, he says.Then he got wind of a program in the works that would enable temporary immigrants to enlist and become U.S. citizens in six months. Tapping into a Korean-American network in the Army, the Hwangs gathered details about the program months before it was official.

In November 2008, Secretary Gates approved a one-year pilot program that the Army would unveil in New York City within months. Mr. Hwang, who was eager to enlist, felt obligated to share his research with other Koreans in the same bind. "If the program is going to offer people like me the opportunity to stay in the U.S., I thought I should give as many Koreans as possible the chance to learn about it," says Mr. Hwang.

He created a free site (cafe.daum.net/USmilitary). He specified the eligibility requirements for the program: Applicants must have lived in the U.S. for at least two years and have a valid temporary-resident visa. Enlistees with language skills must agree to a minimum four years of active duty, which could very well be in Iraq or Afghanistan, and four years in the Reserves.

Mr. Hwang started leading free study sessions live online to prepare applicants for the standardized military entrance exam. "He would give us a lot of homework," says Mr. Lee, the struggling ice-cream entrepreneur, about the prep classes held three nights a week. Mr. Lee, who has spiky, gelled hair and is partial to pink polo shirts, served two years as a conscript in Korea. He says joining the U.S. Army doesn't daunt him. Neither did the math he needed for the exam. Leafing through pages of algebra, geometry and trigonometry in Mr. Hwang's study guide, Mr. Lee says, "We learned this stuff in junior high in Korea."

But the English vocabulary was tough. Mr. Hwang advised his students to make flash cards. He then quizzed them on the meaning of words such as lament, hasten and mangle. W.S. Yang, a 30-year-old vocational student who followed Mr. Hwang's tutorials from Salisbury, Md., says that sometimes the sessions stretched to 3 a.m. "I would fall asleep in my college classes the next day," he recalls. Another participant, who logged on from Seoul during work hours, got in some trouble when his boss caught him answering Mr. Hwang's questions.

As word spread about the Army pilot program, recruiting offices across the U.S. were inundated with calls and visits from Koreans. "They knew about the program before we did," says Sgt. Joshua Cannon, who runs an Army recruiting center in Los Angeles. In February, Mr. Lee boarded a red-eye flight from Los Angeles to New York so he could be one of the first in line. He handed over his birth certificate, high-school diploma and college transcripts. He answered an "enlistment prescreening checklist" with questions like, "Do you have all your toes?" and "Have you ever had any body parts pierced?" He answered yes on the first, no on the second.

All told, he made three trips to New York and spent about $3,000 in his quest to enlist. He reports for basic training on Aug. 18 and then will train as a dental technician. Mr. Yang of Maryland is looking forward to working as an Apache helicopter repairman. The Army recently expanded the pilot program to Los Angeles, home to the largest Korean community in the U.S. Koreans accounted for 20 out of the 22 applicants who had shown up at a recruiting station in a suburban mall by the second afternoon.

"It's crazy here," says Sgt. Cannon as he tried to help two Koreans and handle a barrage of phone inquiries. The Army continues to process applications from Koreans, but it is unlikely to accept all those who qualify. "The Army also needs speakers of Pashtu, Urdu and Arabic," says Lt. Col. Badoian.

Mr. Hwang says he is committed to maintaining his site, which now includes tips from fresh enlistees. One recent post recommends a particular recruiter in Long Island City, N.Y.; another complains about the long wait for a physical exam.

This month, Mr. Hwang gathered about a dozen of his "recruits" for a celebratory weekend in Las Vegas. But after setting off the Korean enlistment frenzy, he himself won't be signing up. It so happens, he received his green card in early February -- just before the Army launched the pilot program. (Source: Wall Street Journal.)

U.S. Greencards Available to Investors (Jun 2009) Some American companies are trying to attract overseas investment by offering US greencards to wealthy foreigners as an incentive. As part of a pilot program, US Immigration authorities have approved several 'regional centers' -- made up of corporations, organizations or agencies -- that can offer EB5 immigrant visas to foreign nationals who are willing invest their money in a development. VOA reports from Orlando, Florida, where managers of a resort complex near Disney World say they have received interest from potential investors around the world.

Promotional aids are being used to attract international investors to put money into a Florida resort near Disney World. The Lake Buena Vista Resort and Spa is one of 45 entities to be named a "regional center" by the US government. The designation means it has more than 100 greencards available to attract wealthy foreigners to invest US$1 million each in the development. Developer Larry Cohen says domestic economic conditions prompted him to look for money from overseas. "We've had the buyers that have wanted to buy the units, had the desire and the money to do so, but there are no loans available," he said. "And that's where the real crunch came."

Each investor gets two residential units at the resort, each priced at around $400,000, and receives a share of the income generated by tourists staying in them. The government requires each foreign investment to create at least 10 jobs, directly or indirectly. Out of 10,000 EB5 greencards made available annually, 3,000 are allocated to the national 'regional center' pilot program.

Ofer Fridfertig oversees this resort's operations. He says he has received thousands of inquiries. "At least 45 percent of our Internet hits are coming from China," he said. "And we've gotten a lot of questions and requests for information from China." Fridfertig recently traveled to China to try to attract investors interested in U.S. residency. Applications for investment-based greencards shot up in 2008, according to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. A greencard holder can travel freely to and from the United States, and reside in America permanently.

But immigration lawyer Ramachandran Balaraman says interest in EB5 greencards has declined recently due to the global economic slowdown and strength in the US dollar. And he says would-be investors must face scrutiny by US authorities. "The government wants to make sure that whatever you are investing comes from a legal source of funds," Balaraman said. "So it cannot be bad money, it has to be clean money." (Source: Chosun Ilbo.)

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November 2009

Most Dual Citizenship Holders Use Foreign Passports Most Koreans with dual citizenship use American passports when entering or leaving Korea, a survey finds. According to a report released by the Justice Ministry last Friday based on a survey of 514 dual citizenship holders in the country, 80.6 percent of respondents said they use foreign passports when entering or leaving Korea, compared to a mere 14.5 percent who use their Korean passports.

Some 95.1 percent of respondents had American citizenship and 3.9 percent Canadian passports. Some 13.2 percent said they would give up their Korean citizenship if forced to choose, slightly more than the 10.9 percent who said they would give up their foreign citizenship. The majority or 76 percent were undecided.

Most of those who said they would choose Korean citizenship cited their ethnic identity or business in Korea as reasons. Those who would choose their foreign citizenship cited advantages in education or finding jobs or benefits when studying or living abroad.

Asked what they would think of when choosing one citizenship, 41.8 percent of respondents cited education and jobs, followed by living environment with 13.6 percent and business with 13.4 percent.

Under the current law, Koreans with dual citizenship have to choose one citizenship within two years, or those under 20 before they are 22. (Souce: Chosun Ilbo.)

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Fewer Korean Children Go Abroad to Learn (Nov 2009) The number of primary and secondary schoolchildren going abroad for their studies has dropped for the second year running, the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology said Thursday. The number of outbound schoolchildren between March 2008 and February 2009 stood at 27,349, down 319 or 1.2 percent from 2007. In 2007, their number decreased by 1,843 or 6.2 percent. That is still many times the number in 1998, which was a mere 1,562. It exceeded the 10,000 mark in 2002 for the first time and reached a peak of 29,511 in 2006.

The main reasons for the decline are the weak won and abating enthusiasm for early schooling abroad, the ministry speculates. The won weakened nearly 40 percent from W900-1,000 against the greenback in the first half of 2007 to W1,388 on average between December 2007 and February 2008, a period when parents had to decide whether to send their children overseas for studies for 2008.

Parents are also becoming disaffected. A staffer with an agency arranging studies abroad said, "There have been media reports about problems with early overseas schooling, including children getting homesick or becoming confused about their national identity. Many parents have become disillusioned to see celebrities unsuccessfully send their children overseas."

The director of another agency arranging studies abroad said, "The decline in early schooling isn't a temporary phenomenon but a growing trend. Parents who used to be inordinately enthusiastic about early schooling abroad have come to their senses. "The government's efforts also help as it has come up with various measures to meet demand for early international schooling," including the global university complex being built in Songdo, Incheon. Lee Kyung-nam, a ministry official in charge of overseas education policy, said disillusionment was in fact "the biggest reason." (Source: Chosun Ilbo.)

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U.S. Army headquarters to stay (Nov 2009) The United States has scrapped an idea to relocate its key Army headquarters here to Hawaii, in a move meant to reaffirm its commitment to the defense of South Korea, a military source said yesterday. "I understand that the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff and the U.S. Army have accepted the proposal by U.S. Forces Korea that the 8th Army headquarters should remain in Korea as a symbol of (U.S. military commitment) to the defense of the peninsula," said the source.

The United States has been mulling over moving the 8th Army headquarters to Hawaii by 2012, when the wartime operational control of the Korean military is handed over to Seoul. As part of the transformation of its military posture worldwide, Washington has been planning to move the 8th Army headquarters and reshape its body to a new unit named Operation Command Post-Korea. The USFK said in a statement, " The 8th Army never announced a move to Hawaii ... The 8th Army is remaining in the Republic of Korea." (SITE NOTE: You will never know until it is a fait accompli. 8th Army is nothing but an empty shell now with all the units on the west coast closed and returned to the ROK under the LPP (Land Partnership Program) -- but the stall has been on Uijongbu/Dongduchon bases of the 2d ID. The US is digging in its heels on the move to Okinawa that the Japanese want to "renegotiate." What affects Oki affects the ROK -- and the move to Guam is a biggee. The US Army Pacific has been established at Fort Shafter -- so what is the problem? We'll just have to wait and see.)

The South Korean Defense Ministry and the Joint Chiefs of Staff have asked the U.S. military not to relocate the Army headquarters. "The continuing presence of the 8th Army headquarters in South Korea can mean smooth cooperation between Korea and the United States during wartime. As a result, the troop deployment time in case of contingencies can also be reduced," a military official said. In February, USFK commander Gen. Walter Sharp indicated he intended to scrap the relocation plan. At a meeting with Korean lawmakers, Sharp said he had suggested to U.S. Army staff that they should retain the 8th U.S. Army headquarters and that his proposal is likely to be accepted.

Experts say that by having the headquarters remain on the peninsula, the U.S. military can avoid triggering misunderstandings that the relocation of the administrative and supporting unit, consisting of some 150 staffers, could weaken the long-standing military alliance between Seoul and Washington. The 8th Army headquarters is likely to offer administrative support to a new top U.S. military command, called KORCOM, which will replace the current USFK after the operational control turnover in April 2012.

KORCOM, which will oversee the 8th Army headquarters and the 2nd Infantry Division, is expected to be created in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province, next year. The 8th Army fought for South Korea during the 1950-53 Korean War. It has been stationed on the peninsula since 1955 as a main deterrent against North Korea. (Source: Korea Herald.)

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Court Upholds Decision to List Park as Japanese Collaborator (Nov 2009) A Seoul court dismissed Friday an injunction filed by the son of former President Park Chung-hee (1917-1979) to remove the military dictator's name from a forthcoming report on collaborators during Japanese colonial rule (1910-1945) of Korea. ``The parts regarding the former President are based on historical and actual facts, supplied with sufficient references,’’ Judge Suh Chang-won said. ``Including Park is an academic judgment. It is hard to conclude that it oversteps the freedom of forming scholarly opinion.’’

Park Ji-man demanded the removal of his father’s name from the report that includes a list of more than 4,000 Koreans who cooperated with the Japanese. It is to be published Sunday by the Institute of Research on Collaborationist Activities. The report shows that Park once made a pledge of allegiance written in blood to the Japanese army in 1939, testifying that he once described himself specifically as ``Japanese’’ in his writings. ``I have the mindset and spirit befitting a Japanese subject and am willing to give my life,’’ he wrote in a letter to the Japanese Army, hoping to be being recruited.

The court also dismissed an injunction on behalf of journalist Jang Ji-yeon (1864-1921), who worked for the pro-Japanese ``Maeil Shinbo,’’ filed by his surviving family and supporters. ``Listing Jang as a collaborator does not hurt the name or the dignity of his family,’’ the court said. ``The inclusion was made based on historical evidence found in his writing.’’ Jang wrote editorials and articles for the Gyeonnam Ilbo and Mail Shinbo. (Source: Korea Times.)

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Activist Blasts Falsification of Adoptee Birth Records (Nov 2009) "Both my birthday and hometown in Korea turned out to be false. I heard that my mother abandoned me shortly after birth and that my parents had no chance to live together after my father sent me to an orphanage. These stories were also false. Can you imagine how much pain the fabrication of adoption documents gives to adopted Korean children?”

Jane Jeong Trenka, 37, a Korean adoptee who grew up in the U.S. state of Minnesota, said this yesterday to a parliamentary hearing on the revision to an adoption law. Urging an end to what she called “child laundering,” she said, “Family registers of many adoptees were fabricated,” adding, “Because of this, only 2.7 percent of adopted Korean children meet their biological parents.”

An original document stored at an adoption agency said she was in poor condition at the time of adoption because her father gave her up in rage. The document given to her adoptive American parents, however, said she was perfectly healthy and had a good upbringing in Korea. “In many cases, the birthdays of adopted Korean children are recorded differently from what their mothers say,” Trenka said. “Adoption agencies should be banned from fabricating the personal information of adoptees.” She also filed a complaint about such problems with a government commission on resolving the suffering of the people last year. (Source: Donga Ilbo.)

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Dual Nationality to Become Legal (Nov 2009) The Justice Ministry has completed a draft amendment of citizenship laws that will permit Koreans to hold dual nationality in some circumstances. Under the new law, dual nationality holders born abroad will be allowed to maintain both citizenships provided they do not exercise certain rights and privileges using their legal status of foreigners.

The ministry announced the regulations Thursday. Those who obtain foreign citizenship by birth will be allowed to maintain it if they submit a written oath by the age of 22 not to exercise the rights and privileges of foreigners in Korea by using their second passport.

After the age of 22, men will be allowed to maintain multiple citizenship only if they complete their military service here. Under the current law, dual citizenship holders must choose one nationality by the age of 22 and submit a written pledge to give up their foreign citizenship if they choose their Korean nationality. The revision is aimed at blocking a drain on military manpower.

Those caught using their foreign passports to enter international schools or invest in Korea as foreigners will be ordered to choose a single nationality and automatically lose their Korean nationality if they fail to give up their foreign citizenship within a specified period.

The regulations also apply for other groups such as foreigners who have immigrated through marriage with Koreans; highly skilled foreigners; senior citizens living overseas; those who have regained Korean citizenship after being adopted by foreign families; and Chinese nationals who were born and have lived here for more than 20 years.

Under the current law, foreigners have to give up their foreign citizenship within six months after they obtain Korean nationality. (Source: Chosun Ilbo.)

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