ROK and Inter-Korean relations
May 2012
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S.Korea to Build 500-600 More Missiles
South Korea plans to increase the number of ballistic and cruise missiles with a view to incapacitating North Korea's nuclear weapons and long-range missiles in an emergency. The government and military aim to spend some W2.5 trillion (US$1=W1,170) over the next five years to secure 500-600 new cruise and ballistic missiles.
A government source on Sunday said, "Given the mounting threat of provocations from the North since Kim Jong-un took power, the Defense Ministry reported to President Lee Myung-bak last month a plan to increase missile capabilities in response to asymmetric threats from the North."
[Military balance] [Buildup]
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'Hallyu,' Korean wave, will not last 5 years
By Kim Susan Se-jeong
“’Hallyu’ will cool down in four years.”
Six out of 10 foreigners believe the recent popularity of Korean culture -- K-pop, movies and drama series, or soap operas -- will cool down in the next few years.
Sixty percent of 3,600 people in nine countries, including China, Japan, Thailand, the United States and France, were doubtful that Hallyu will see lasting international success, according to a survey by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Korea Foundation for International Culture Exchange (KOFICE).
Hallyu, which started with the popular Korean drama “Winter Sonata” in 2002 and continues with Girls’ Generation, is still hot all over the world. Thus, Koreans, who were drunk on the international Korean culture craze, were shocked at the survey results.
The main reason foreigners doubted Hallyu’s continuing success is because they are becoming “tired of standardized contents,” as 20.5 percent of respondents agreed.
Sexualized dances, lyrics and clothes are common among K-pop “idols,” or teen singers. Korea drama series repeatedly revisit topics like adulterous affairs, revenge and secrets around the characters’ birth or identity, making it difficult to move a desensitized audience.
[Hallyu]
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Korea plans to 'drastically' beef up missile arsenal against NK
Defense ministry has requested 2.5 trillion won ($2.1 billion) over the next five years to "drastically" beef up its missile arsenal to better cope with missile and nuclear threats from North Korea, a military official said Tuesday.
The budget request was made at a meeting of relevant ministers on fiscal policy, headed by President Lee Myung-bak on April 28, the official said, days after the South's military unveiled a new cruise missile that can hit any target in North Korea.
"The Ministry of National Defense requested budget funds to drastically strengthen its missile arsenal to cope with threats by North Korea, at the conference on national finance on April 28," the official said on condition of anonymity.
[Military balance] [Buildup] [Missile]
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[Special series- part 1] North Korea’s nuclear program
May 18 debate provides forum for progressives and conservatives to trade views on the North
» Five experts on North Korean affairs. From left to right, Kang Tae-ho, Lee Jong-seok, Moon Chung-in, Kim Young-hui, Yoon Young-kwan and Kim Tae-woo. (by Lee Jeong-ah, staff photographer)
By Jung Hyuk-june, staff writer
Inter-Korean relations and unification policy may be the area where the so-called “politics of extremes” stand out sharpest. Conservatives and progressives differ widely in their views on North Korea, and many have sought to use the issue for domestic political ends.
May 18 saw a debate on “A New Direction for Unification Policy to Promote Social Harmony,” jointly organized by the Presidential Committee on Social Cohesion (chaired by Song Suk-ku) and the Hankyoreh Social Policy Research Institute (chaired by Lee Chang-gon). The aim was to bridge a yawning gap in views on inter-Korean and unification-related issues, locating a new policy direction that both conservatives and progressives can get behind. Attendees of both persuasions agreed that any unification should be gradual and based on consensus rather than one side “absorbing” the other. It was also generally agreed that problematic provisions in the National Security Act should be amended quickly.
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[Special series- part 2] North Korean Human rights
May 18 debate provides forum for progressives and conservatives to trade views on the North
By Kim Kyu-won, staff reporter
Experts were divided on North Korean human rights. Conservatives said human rights were universal and should not be restricted by any conditions. Progressive experts argued that efforts to improve the North Korean human right situation are unlikely to have any real effect unless consideration is given to inter-Korean relations.
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[Special series- part 3] Korean unification
May 18 debate provides forum for progressives and conservatives to trade views on the North
By Jung Hyuk-june, staff writer
When it came to two different methods of unification-absorption and gradual consensus- both progressive and conservative panelists came out unanimously in favor of the latter. There were, however, subtle differences of opinion within this unanimity.
Professor Yun Yeong-gwan said, “Rapid unification by absorption is totally undesirable, as it presents a danger of military clashes and would be a big economic burden.” He continued, “Because unforeseen circumstances could arise, we need to prepare for rapid unification, but making such plans public is not desirable.”
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[Special series- part 4] South Korea’s National Security Law
May 18 debate provides forum for progressives and conservatives to trade views on the North
By Kim Kyu-won, staff reporter
“We must delete articles that can be abused in the short term, and abolish [the law] in the long term by linking it to our relations with North Korea.” This was the conclusion reached during the day’s discussion of the National Security Law (NSL).
Korea Institute for National Unification President Kim Tae-woo was the first to raise his hand. “In a situation when North Korea only recently sank the Cheonan warship and shelled Yeonpyeong Island, we must maintain the National Security Law,” he said. “I can accept discussions of amendment that have the potential to be misused and abused, such as those on praising [North Korea] or non-disclosure. We must regard North Korea as having two faces, as a dialogue partner of the same race, and as our main military enemy.”
[NSL]
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South Korea-North Korea Relations:
Plumbing the Depths
Aidan Foster-Carter
University of Leeds
Covering inter-Korean relations for Comparative Connections throughout the past decade has been a roller-coaster ride, given the peninsula’s changeable political weather. Even so, the current state of affairs is unprecedented. Pyongyang has always been a master of threats and insults, but it has spent the whole of 2012 hurling ever ruder and angrier jibes at ROK President Lee Myung-bak; plumbing the depths even by North Korean standards.
[Vituperation] [Spin]
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Gwangju massacre still echoes for loved ones
Justice still not been served on 32nd anniversary of Korea’s Tiananmen
By Jeong Dae-ha, Gwangju correspondent
Former civil engineer Lee Gang-jun, 51, lost his twin in May 1980. His brother, older by five minutes, was like his other half. Gang-su had passed his high school equivalency test and was getting ready for his college entrance exam when he joined the demonstrations in Gwangju on the 18th. Gang-jun himself joined on the 22nd, and ended up meeting his brother while watching over the armory at the old South Jeolla Provincial Office, where the citizens’ army leadership had been staying.
Like many Korean siblings, the Lee brothers share one of the same given names.
“My brother was bringing oxygen cylinders over to the clinic from Gwangju Military Hospital,” Gang-jun said. On the evening of May 26, the day before the New Military Group launched its bloody crackdown, the twins said goodbye, each pleading with each other to “be careful.” It was the last time they ever saw each other.
[Kwangju] [Dictatorship] [War crimes]
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More evidence implicating president in illegal surveillance
Document mentions, “A separate unofficial line with unalloyed loyalty to the VIP”
By Hwang Chun-hwa, staff writer
A document uncovered on May 16 makes it clear who and what the public ethics division of the Prime Minister’s Office was created for. The division is at the center of an extensive network of illegal surveillance of civilians. Since the scandal popped off in March, the Blue House and President Lee Myung-bak have denied involvement. It is now coming to appear that the public ethics department may have existed to act on behalf of President Lee.
[Lee Myung-bak] [Surveillance]
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Lee Myung Bak's Spate of Invectives against DPRK under Fire
Pyongyang, May 17 (KCNA) -- A spokesman for the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea gave the following answer to the question raised by KCNA on Thursday flaying the malignant invectives let loose by traitor Lee Myung Bak against the DPRK at the recent talks of China, Japan and south Korea:
During his recent visit to China Lee recklessly cried out for "close counter-action" and "effective reaction" at the talks, claiming that the north's nuclear test and "additional provocation" should not be allowed under any circumstances.
He made desperate efforts to include a paragraph pulling up the DPRK in a joint statement. He was busy going different places to let loose invectives against the DPRK.
The spate of vituperation let loose by the traitor even in China, not content with the hideous high treason committed by him in south Korea clearly shows what die-hard confrontation maniac he is and what wicked and despicable traitor he is.
[Vituperation]
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Third high-altitude spy plane delivered for deployment
The Air Force has taken delivery of a third advanced surveillance plane from U.S. aircraft giant Boeing on Thursday, officials said, to strengthen South Korea's capacity to carry out aerial surveillance of North Korea.
The Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) said in a statement the Air Force will soon deploy its third E-737 Airborne Early Warning and Control plane, dubbed "Peace Eye" in South Korea.
In 2006, South Korea reached a US$1.6 billion deal with Boeing to buy four modified versions of the high-altitude surveillance aircraft. The first two planes were delivered to the Air Force last year.
The DAPA said that under Boeing's supervision, Korea Aerospace Industries, a local aerospace company, manufactured the radar system and other electronic parts for the third E-737.
[Military balance] [Buildup]
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Understanding NK’s motivations
What looms over our heads are ominous signs of military clashes. The state must do what it can to prevent the worst.
May 15,2012
A couple of days ago, I received an e-mail from an American journalist. He is someone who is trying to understand the true intentions of the pariah state in Pyongyang. But he was nevertheless shocked by a recent video from North Korea’s national television agency that was picked up by CNN. In the footage, an angry mob of North Koreans hung an effigy of President Lee Myung-bak, had it ripped apart by dogs and run over by a tank. They then threw rocks at the dismembered head.
[Buildup] [Inversion]
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Korea pursues 'hallyu' initiatives
Choe Kwang-shik, minister of culture, sports & tourism
30 language institutes will be set up around world every year
By Do Je-hae
As part of efforts to boost the staying power of “hallyu” or the Korean wave, the government plans to set up language institutes around the world — 30 or more every year.
[Softpower] [Hallyu]
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'Ex-head of truth commission abused authority to ban book'
Lee Young-jo
By Lee Tae-hoon
The Seoul Central District Court has ruled that Lee Young-jo, the former head of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission must pay 24 million won in compensation for abusing his authority to ban the distribution of a government published book, one of its translators said Friday.
“It was a long, painstaking legal battle,” said Kim Sung-soo, executive director of Transparency International-Korea. “I am relieved to find that justice eventually prevails.”
Two translators, Kim and Park Eun-wook, and Mike Hurt, the final copy editor of the book, filed a lawsuit against Lee for defamation in 2010. The three will receive 8 million won each from him for psychological damage that they suffered for falsely being accused of producing substandard translation work.
[Lee Myung-bak]
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N.Korea Turns Wrath on Lawmaker Chung Mong-joon
North Korean state media have turned their wrath on South Korean presidential hopeful Chung Mong-joon, a former chairman of the ruling Saenuri Party who recently declared his bid. In a commentary on Thursday, the propaganda website Uriminzokkiri said, "During a so-called press conference on Sunday, Chung Mong-joon made absurd remarks viciously slandering our dignity and system."
Chung, a scion of the Hyundai family, had warned of a fresh armed provocation from the North. "The regime is highly likely to conduct a third nuclear test soon," he said. He also described the hereditary succession in the North as "anachronistic.
[Double standards] [Kim Jong Un]
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Seoul Losing Patience with N.Korean Campaign of Abuse
The South Korean government says North Korea "has gone beyond reason" in its daily diet of verbal abuse of the Lee Myung-bak administration in the state media.
It is now a daily routine for North Korean military units to practice shooting and bayonet charge using pictures or effigies of Lee as targets. The North's official KCNA news agency last Friday reported on the People's Internal Security Forces, or armed police troops, letting dogs loose at a military dog training school so that they bit effigies of Lee and South Korean Defense Minister Kim Kwan-jin.
This picture from the official KCNA news agency shows North Korean children attacking a caricature of South Korean President Lee Myung-bak in their classroom in Pyongyang. This picture from the official KCNA news agency shows North Korean children attacking a caricature of South Korean President Lee Myung-bak in their classroom in Pyongyang.
Late last month the news agency carried a vivid report of the damage Lee effigies sustained at organized rallies in various regions.
[Buildup] [Inversion]
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Korea to Sign Export Deal for KT-1 Aircraft to Peru
Korea and Peru will sign a US$200 million deal next month for the export of the KT-1 trainer aircraft. Korea will export a total of 20 planes. It is the third export deal for the KT-1 after Indonesia and Turkey, and the first defense export to a South American country.
Government officials on Wednesday said the deal comprises 10 KT-1 trainers and 10 KA-1s, an upgrade to a light attack plane. Originally, the deal was expected to be reached around Thursday, when Peruvian President Ollanta Humala visits the country, but the final signing has been put off as some details like technology transfer are left to be discussed.
[Arms sales]
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NK says widow of infamous defector has died
Shin Sook-ja passes away before family can be reunited, or answers given in enigmatic story
By Park Byung-soo, staff writer
The tragic story of Oh Kil-nam and his wife Shin Sook-ja, both 70, is receiving new attention after North Korea’s announcement that Shin has died of hepatitis. Shin’s death ends her family’s complicated story and eliminates chances for a reunion with her husband Oh, who fled North Korea after moving there from West Germany in the 1980s.
Oh went to West Germany for his studies in 1970 and earned a doctorate in economics from the University of Bremen in 1985. He then left the country that year to travel to North Korea with Shin and their two daughters. Disappointed with his experience there, Oh defected from North Korea the following year while in Denmark on orders from Pyongyang to attract exchange students from East Germany.
After defecting, Oh was questioned for more than six months by US military intelligence authorities before being delivered to a West German-administered refugee facility.
[Defector]
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Experts forecast imminent provocations by Kim Jong-un
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is likely to keep tensions with Korea high and continue provocations against the South to help consolidate his power, experts in Seoul forecast Thursday.
Kim would also be very reluctant to pursue reform or open his isolated country out of fear such steps could lead to the collapse of his regime, Koo Bon-hak, a professor of Hallym University Graduate School of International Studies, said at a Seoul forum.
Kim has made frequent inspection trips to military units in an apparent attempt to bolster his support from the military since he took over the country following the December death of his father, long-time leader Kim Jong-il.
"Instead of relying on the United States, South Korea should try to secure independent deterrence against North Korea" to cope with the North's provocations, Koo said at the forum on the North Korean situation, organized by the private Sejong Institute think tank.
[MISCOM] [Inversion] [Buildup]
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South Korean report details alleged abuses at North Korea’s prison camps
By Chico Harlan, Thursday, May 10, 5:30 AM
SEOUL — A South Korean government-funded human rights group has released a series of raw firsthand accounts of North Korea’s political prison camps, Seoul’s first comprehensive attempt to catalogue the atrocities that Pyongyang denies take place.
The 381-page report, based on about 200 face-to-face interviews with defectors who survived the camps, is a significant step for a South Korean government that has long remained quiet about the human rights abuses of its neighbor.
The report, issued last week with little fanfare, provides a record of what its authors say are specific international human rights violations, including where and when they occurred. Although names have been redacted, the report has biographical information on North Korean agents and prison guards who allegedly oversaw the abuses, providing the potential foundation for Seoul to one day convene a tribunal that prosecutes those responsible.
[Human rights] [Manipulation] [Prisoners]
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S. Korea fully prepared for 'further provocation' from NK: FM
Foreign Minister Kim Sung-hwan said Wednesday South Korea is fully prepared to cope with any "further provocation" from North Korea amid concerns the communist regime may soon conduct a new nuclear test.
The security situation on the Korean Peninsula has grown increasingly tense after North Korea's unsuccessful launch of a long-range rocket last month, drawing new sanctions from the U.N. Security Council. There is growing concern that the North could soon engage in new provocative acts, including a nuclear test or border violence.
"Our government is getting everything in a state of readiness to cope with any further provocation from North Korea," Kim told a breakfast meeting hosted by the Korea Institute for Maritime Security, a private think tank, without hinting at any specific actions being planned by the North.
[Buildup] [Inversion]
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N.Korea Says High-Profile S.Korean Is Dead
Shin Suk-ja with her daughters Shin Suk-ja with her daughters
North Korea says the wife of Oh Kil-nam, a South Korean whose bizarre adventure in North Korea shone light on the viciousness of the regime, has died of hepatitis. "Shin Suk-ja, the ex-wife of Oh, died of the hepatitis that she suffered since 1980s," said Ri Jang-gon, a representative for North Korea at the UN in Geneva, in a letter to the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances.
Oh says Shin (70) was the reason he allowed himself to be lured from West Germany, where Oh was studying for a PhD, to North Korea in 1985. North Korean agents told him they would provide free treatment for Shin's hepatitis, but once they arrived in North Korea they were sent to an indoctrination camp, and the following year Oh was sent to Denmark to recruit other South Koreans but instead applied for asylum there.
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Samsung story stranger than fiction
New journalistic account shares juicy details of Samsung family squabbles
» From left to right, Samsung brothers Lee Chang-hee, Kun-hee and Maeng-hee gather at the funeral of their father, founding chairman Lee Byung-chull in 1987. (Hankyoreh file photo)
By Kim Jin-cheol, staff writer
One night in mid-September 1984, Lee Maeng-hee, eldest son of Samsung chairman Lee Byung-chull, clenched his teeth at his father’s beachfront villa in Busan’s prestigious Haeundae district. At last, two men entered the room. “We’re from the Samsung secretarial office.” Lee Maeng-hee pulled the trigger and shot a Browning six-shooter shotgun into the air. The two men fled.
“Lee Maeng-hee, Prince Sado of Samsung,” recently published by Pyeongminsa, begins like a novel. In fact, the book is a work of non-fiction by 72-year-old Lee Yong-u. Prince Sado was the second son of Joseon Dynasty King Yeongjo. He was rumored to be mentally ill and was eventually killed by members of his father’s inner circle.
The author, as Daegu correspondent for the JoongAng Daily newspaper, formerly a Samsung subsidiary, closely observed Lee Maeng-hee. “I wrote the book because a lot of wrong things were being said about Mr. Lee,” the author told the Hankyoreh on Tuesday. He explained the book’s opening scene by saying, “There have been attempts to isolate Mr. Lee by branding him as mentally ill.”
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NK faxes propaganda messages to Seoul groups
North Korea has sent faxed messages to 13 South Korean civic and religious organizations in recent weeks to criticize South Korea's alleged insult to the North's dignity, an official said Tuesday.
The messages came in response to South Korea's accusation that the North wasted millions of dollars on celebrating the centennial of the April 15 birth of the country's late founder Kim Il-sung, the grandfather of current leader Kim Jong-un.
[Buildup]
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Arrivals of NK defectors drop
A total of 366 North Korean defectors arrived in South Korea in the first three months of this year, down sharply from 566 in the same period last year, the Unification Ministry said Tuesday.
The North Koreans are composed of 119 men and 247 women, according to the ministry, which handles inter-Korean affairs.
Rights activists said the number of new arrivals decreased as the defection of North Koreans has become more difficult due to crackdowns on defectors and increased costs in illegally crossing the border into China.
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‘Ethnic culture space’ developing for North Korean refugees
Research shows intricacies of NK-China border help explain migration patterns
» the Yellow Sea (2010) and the Tumen River (2009)
By Choi Won-hyung, staff writer
As of late, two ethnic groups have been appearing regularly in Korean movies: ethnic Koreans in China, the so-called Joseonjok, and Saeteomin group, meaning ‘the newly-settled people’ but practically referring to the North Korean refugees to South Korea. Such movies as Secret Reunion (2009), the Yellow Sea (2010), the Tumen River (2009), and The Journals of Musan (2010) all show that the new focus is on viewing them as ‘people on the border’ rather than as compatriots.
[Returnees] [Refugee reception]
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NK acts like misbehaving child: president
President Lee Myung-bak on Saturday likened North Korea to a misbehaving child for failing to listen to the advice of other countries in regards to the launching of its long-range rocket.
In a question and answer session held on the lawn of the presidential residence Cheong Wa Dae to mark Children's Day, the chief executive told children invited to the gathering that the global community had unanimously urged the North not to test its rocket.
"Unfortunately the North did not listen to such advice," he said, adding that the country is like a misbehaving child.
[Tantrum] [Buildup]
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President’s elder brother subject of corruption investigation
Lee Sang-deuk is the latest in long line of springtime scandals
By Yeo Hyeon-ho, senior staff writer
When something happens repeatedly, it becomes easy to predict its next recurrence. In Korean politics, corruption among the confidants and relations of the president is such a thing.
Most cases of corruption have come to light in spring. In May 1997, then-president Kim Young-sam’s second son, Hyun-chul, was sent to prison; five years later, in June, then-president Kim Dae-jung’s second son, Hong-up, was sent down too. Both men were accused of taking bribes in exchange for leveraging influence, in violation of the Additional Punishment Law on Specific Crimes. Each of them openly played the role of a “big shot,” becoming universally known as such, for several years. The fact that they were only punished at the end of their respective presidents’ terms in office is probably due, among other things, to the fact that these were “twilight periods” for those in power. The clock of power has ticked heartlessly for all influential figures whenever a December presidential election has approached.
[Corruption] [Lee Myung-bak]
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Rich/poor gap continues to widen
Top 1 percent of earners claiming a larger and larger share of national income
By Ryu Yi-geun, staff writer
The percentage of total national income earned by the top 1% of South Koreans rose sharply in the 2000s, from just over 7% through the 1990s to 12% in 2010, according to a recent study.
[Inequality]
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Lee’s nuclear push meets obstacle
President Lee Myung-bak, center, looks at the main control room of two nuclear reactors to be built in Uljin, South Gyeongsang Province, Friday, with Kim Jong-shin, president of the Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power Corp., right. Standing next to Lee on his left is Kim Kwan-yong, governor of the province. / Yonhap
By Kang Hyun-kyung
President Lee Myung-bak’s drive to win nuclear deals abroad has met an unexpected, formidable challenge from within as a state-run nuclear operator has been embroiled in malfunctions and corruption cases.
A cover-up of malfunctions and bribery cases not only revealed the moral hazard of officials at the Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power Corp. (KHNC), but also is poised to deal a blow to the credibility of Korea’s nuclear technology and safety.
[Corruption] [Nuclear energy] [Lee Myung-bak]
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Incompetent!
Foreign ministry runs out of tricks to deal with big powers
By Chung Min-uck
Does Korea have diplomacy it can call its own?
If so, the next question would be what has the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade been doing. Whenever a diplomatic row surfaces, it cites strategic ambiguity or quiet diplomacy, implying that it is doing its best behind the scenes.
However, the latest case of Chinese fishermen’s piracy in the West Sea raises questions about whether the ministry has been doing its job properly.
On Monday, Chinese fishermen armed with knives, axes and sickles wounded four fisheries inspectors who were attempting to board their vessel.
Low-ranking Chinese diplomats were called in Tuesday and given a slap on the wrist.
The incident was embarrassing because only on March 26, Korea and China agreed in a summit to find an amicable settlement for illegal fishing by Chinese fishermen in Korean waters, following the murder of a Korean coastguard by a Chinese fisherman who resisted an onboard inspection in December.
This is not an isolated case.
When Japan went ahead and included its claim to Dokdo, Korea’s easternmost islets, in its school textbooks, the ministry reacted as if it was not a big deal, saying that the move had been anticipated.
[Sandwich] [Dilemma]
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Seoul, Pyongyang urged to reduce tension through dialogue
South Korea's largest Buddhist sect on Wednesday called for both Seoul and Pyongyang to resume dialogue to ease tension on the Korean Peninsula as North Korea stepped up harsh rhetoric against the South.
North Korea has warned that it would turn the South Korean government to "ashes" in a few minutes. In return, President Lee Myung-bak vowed early this week a tougher response to any military provocations by North Korea.
In a statement, the Jogye Order expressed concerns over the danger of an "accidental military conflict" between the two Koreas amid the threats.
"With a manner of calm and restraint, the South and the North should enter dialogue as soon as possible to resolve tension," the statement said.
[Buildup] [Religion] [Peace effort]
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More Refugees Than Dissidents in N.Korean Prison Camps
North Korean concentration camps are traditionally associated with prisoners of conscience, but a recent report by the National Human Rights Commission shows that there are more prisoners there who were caught fleeing the impoverished country in search of food or work or those associated with them, than those imprisoned for their political beliefs.
According to the report on North Korean human rights based on interviews with 800 North Korean defectors, the most common reason for imprisonment accounting for 23.7 percent of 278 inmates was escaping in search of food and work.
[Prisoners]
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Heroic general Lee passes away at age of 91
By Lee Tae-hoon
Retired Lt. Gen. Lee Han-lim, the only military commanding officer to publicly declare his opposition to the military coup of 1961, died of natural causes Sunday. He was 91 years old.
Lee enrolled in the Manchurian Imperial Army Academy with the late President Park Chung-hee in 1940 and entered the Japanese Military Academy with him in 1942.
He played a pivotal role in the creation of the country’s first modernized armed forces following the end of Japan’s 36 years of colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula on Aug. 15, 1944.
[Japanese collaborator] [ROK military]
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Human Rights Body Details N.Korean Abuses
North Korean defectors are seen at a prison camp in North Hamgyong Province in footage filmed by an activist group (file photo). North Korean defectors are seen at a prison camp in North Hamgyong Province in footage filmed by an activist group (file photo).
The National Human Rights Commission unveiled its first report on North Korea's rights violation on Sunday. The evidence was obtained in interviews with some 60 of the 800 North Korean defectors who arrived here since March last year.
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