Posts under ‘Korea’

Korea has been bleating about being the hub of this, that and everything for more than five years. The only discernible result is that it has successfully transformed itself into the Hub of Planning Stillborn Hubs. Next up on the agenda is the regionalization of hubba hubba, per this Joongang Ilbo report on [...]

The Associated Press has an interesting piece up about the 40th re-union of the crew of the ill-fated USS Pueblo, now (still)  displayed by the NORKS as a war trophy and an incitement to anti-Americanism more than 40 years after the NORKS seized the unarmed vessel in international waters on January 23, 1968.

The NORKS moved [...]

Andrei Lankov’s latest, in his ongoing series of interesting columns about Korean history in The Korea Times, is about the assassination and historical status of Korean terrorist “freedom fighter” Kim Gu.

One of the things that Lankov fails to mention, though, is that Kim Gu himself  - who looks more like the Mad Hatter from Alice [...]

I laughed so hard when I read about it this morning that I knew I wanted to write it up, but I was too busy until tonight - places to go, people to see, bidness to get done — and, in the meantime, the Marmot already has publicized the story of the downtrodden pimps with [...]

According to the World Health Organization, via VOA News, suicide is the fourth leading cause of death in South Korea. World Health Organization figures show that in 2004, South Korea’s suicide rate was almost 24 per 100,000 people. That is more than double the rate in 1985 - of nine per 100,000.  According to a [...]

Over at 우물안개구리 (Frog in a Well), Jonathan Dresner makes some cutting remarks about Edward Luttwak’s characterizing the Korean War as a “sideshow” in the post-WW2 crusade against communism while Luttwak tries favorably to compare the Shrub in his manifestation as Guy de Lusignan to President “The Buck Stops Here” Truman.  I’m not [...]

Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more,
Or close the wall up with our Expat dead!
At home there’s nothing so becomes a man
As modest stillness and humility;
But when the blast of soju-kimchi breath blows in our faces,
Then imitate the action of the tiger:
Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood.
Henry V (5.3.44-51)(w/ apologies to [...]