ROK and Inter-Korean relations January 2016

ROK and Inter-Korean relations

January 2016

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Ex-PM gets suspended term
Former Prime Minister Lee Wan-koo speaks to reporters in front of the Seoul Central District Court, Friday, after he was found guilty of having received 30 million won ($27,000) from Sung Wan-jong, a business man who killed himself last year. Lee was sentenced to eight months in prison suspended for two years. / Yonhap By Jhoo Dong-chan Former Prime Minister Lee Wan-koo was sentenced to eight months in jail, suspended for two years, after being found guilty of taking bribes from a businessman who committed suicide. He was also ordered to pay 30 million won ($27,000) in forfeiture. According to the Seoul Central District Court, Friday, Lee was convicted of accepting 30 million ($27,000) in cash from Sung Woan-jong, the late former chairman of the construction company Keangnam Enterprises, at his election office in 2013 [Corruption]
Committee aims to raise awareness of SK’s responsibility for Vietnam War wrongdoing
Posted on : Jan.27,2016 18:21 KST Kim Woon-seong and Kim Seo-gyeong, creators of the statue of the young girl representing the comfort women across from the Japanese embassy in Seoul, recently made the statue “Vietnam Pieta” (left) as a gesture of apology for civilian massacres committed by ROK troops during the Vietnam War. Copies of the statue, 1.5m high and made of bronze, are planned to be erected in both South Korea and Vietnam this year. (by Kang Jae-hoon, staff photographer) A citizen-established peace committee is raising funds to install memorial statues in SK, Vietnam, and to draw attention to massacres committed by ROK troops On a historical tour of central Vietnam two years ago, a former history teacher surnamed Han, 50, saw a memorial service for Vietnamese civilians massacred during the Vietnam War. After the service, there was supposed to be a feast and a time to share food, but the villagers were short on funds. Han began to think that South Koreans who took part in the war were also responsible for holding these memorial services and that they ought to contribute to the costs as well. So Han started saving money little by little, and when he had 500,000 won (US$415) he donated it to the Committee for the Establishment of a Korean-Vietnamese Peace Foundation. There is a growing sense among South Koreans that their country - which fought alongside the US in the Vietnam War - ought to apologize for the civilian massacres that took place during that war. [Vietnam] [Civilian] [Moral confusion]
Driving Test to Get Tougher
Driving tests are to get harder, the National Police Agency said Wednesday. The driving test is widely seen as too easy since the road test requires candidates to drive just 50 m after starting the engine.
Many Chinese people have taken advantage of the Korean driving test, which is much easier than in their own country so there are even tour packages for them to get their licenses here. The Korean driving license is recognized in most provinces in China. The mandatory training hours will increase from two to four hours and test-takers will be required to drive over 300 m. The pool of questions used for the paper test will be expanded from 730 to 1,000. A minimum of six hours' training on the road will also be required. The police plans to implement the revised rules as early as the end of this year. With the changes, the cost of driving lessons, now approximately W400,000, is expected to rise by W70,000-80,000 (US$1=W1,203). "After the driving test was made easier in June 2011, the pass rate soared from 69.6 to 92.8 percent," a police spokesman said. "We're going to evaluate comprehensive skills that drivers need on the road to ease concerns about road safety and the aptitude of drivers." [Bizarre]
Member of Cheonan investigation taskforce given suspended sentence
Posted on : Jan.26,2016 18:08 KST Member of Cheonan investigation taskforce given suspended sentence A district court has given a suspended sentence to Shin Sang-chul, former manager of a website called Surprise and former member of the joint military and civilian taskforce that investigated the sinking of the Cheonan corvette. Shin had alleged that the South Korean government and military had faked the cause of the Cheonan’s sinking. On Jan. 25, Hon. Lee Heung-kwon, a judge in criminal division No. 36 at the Seoul Central District Court, convicted Shin on charges of defamation according to the Act on Promotion of Information and Communications Network Utilization and Data Protection, etc. and sentenced him to eight months in prison, with the sentence suspended for two years. [Cheonan] [Coverup] [Repression]
NK nuke test overshadows Park's unification vision
By Kang Seung-woo President Park Geun-hye's "unification bonanza" initiative seems to be losing momentum, especially as inter-Korean relations became tense again after North Korea's fourth nuclear test. What's worse, the decreasing public support for the vision, as well as neighboring countries' policies toward the repressive state is not helping her push ahead with the ambitious plan. In her New Year's News press conference in 2014, Park said Korean unification would be an economic bonanza not only for the two Koreas but also for allies and neighboring countries. Since then, accompanied by her trust-building process on the Korean Peninsula designed to help pave the way for unification, the initiative has served as the backbone of her unification policy. However, Pyongyang's unexpected nuclear test on Jan. 6 has strained relations between the two Koreas and holding up inter-Korean humanitarian cooperation. In addition, her little remaining time in office is casting a cloud over the unification vision amid growing tensions. She has just entered her fourth year in office, and her tenure is scheduled to end in early 2018. "The North Korean nuclear test has made inter-Korean reconciliation during Park's term impossible," said Cheong Seong-chang, a senior analyst at the Sejong Institute, a local think tank. "The nuclear test is also the North's rejection of President Park's unification program and diplomacy, urging the South Korean government to give up on its efforts and come forward for unconditional dialogue with the North." [Unification] [Park Geun-hye] [Test]
KTU loses appeal, threatened with loss of legal status after 17 years
Posted on : Jan.22,2016 18:26 KST Korean Teachers’ and Education Workers’ Union president Byun Sung-ho (center) presses his lips together during a press conference outside the Seoul High Court in Seoul’s Seocho District, following a court ruling denying the union’s appeal to reinstate its legal status, Jan. 21. (by Lee Jeong-a, staff photographer) The Korean Teachers’ Union had earlier been declared unlawful for refusing to remove 9 dismissed teachers from the union; will appeal verdict to Supreme Court The Korean Teachers’ and Education Workers’ Union (KTU) lost its appeal to have its legal status recognized after government notification that it is no longer considered a lawful union. With a court injunction suspending enforcement of the notification also lapsing, the union is now threatened with the loss of its legal status 17 years after its first recognition as a lawful union in 1999. Judge Hwang Byung-ha of the seventh administrative division of Seoul High Court upheld the first court’s initial verdict against the KTU on Jan. 21 in an appeals case against the Minister of Employment and Labor to demand the overturning of the government notification. The ruling also restores the validity of the notification, which had been suspended until sentencing - leaving the union without its legal status once again. [Repression]
President warns against illegal protests
By Yi Whan-woo President Park Geun-hye vowed Monday not to tolerate illegal protests in what is viewed as a warning intended for the country's largest umbrella labor union, which threatened last week to take to the streets to protest the government's labor reforms. "An act that leads to social chaos is no good for the government or individuals," Park said during a meeting with her senior secretaries at Cheong Wa Dae. "I'll take stern measures against those who will be held responsible for mobilizing and stirring up illegal demonstrations." She cited the Federation of Korean Trade Unions (FKTU) which has been debating whether to organize a general strike after deciding on Jan. 19 to walk out of trilateral talks involving the government and management. [Repression]
Independence, Peaceful Reunification and Grand National Unity – the Fundamental Principles of Korean Reunification
It has been long past half a century since Korea, a homogenous nation with a 5,000 year-long history, was divided into two by foreign forces. Even the name of the country, Korea, that was admired as “the land of morning calm” is now being addressed as “north Korea” and “south Korea” for the past 70 years. The tearful scenes of long-awaited reunion and heartbreaking farewell of separated families from the north and the south can be seen nowhere else in the world. National reunification has become the most burning desire for the Koreans who have lived with painful sorrow for such a long time. It is not only the Koreans but also peace-loving people over the world who desire early reunification of Korea that will open up a new era of peace and prosperity on the peninsular and in the region. [Unification]
Iran comes as mixed blessing to Korean builders
By Choi Sung-jin The upcoming reopening of the Iranian market may prove to be a double-edged sword for Korean contractors, industry sources said Wednesday. Iran's pent-up demand for building social infrastructure and oil plants is a boon for order-thirsty construction companies, they said. However, if Tehran aggressively resumes exporting crude oil to revitalize its economy, it could lead to an aggravation of the overseas construction market. The Iranian government is expected to place orders worth $60 billion or more this year for building new gas and oil plants and modernizing the existing ones, according to industry officials. [Iran deal] [Oil price]
N.Korea Drops 1 Million Propaganda Flyers
North Korea has scattered at least 1 million propaganda flyers over South Korea since Jan. 12, the Defense Ministry here said on Monday. The military and police have retrieved about 100,000 of the flyers, ministry spokesman Kim Min-seok said, an estimated 10 percent of the amount dropped. The North Korean Army has floated large balloons carrying the flyers across the Imjin River every day in response to the South resuming propaganda broadcasts at the border after the North's nuclear test early this month. They are equipped with small detonators that cause the balloons to burst in mid-air and shed the leaflets. Most have been found in Seoul and surrounding Gyeonggi Province. "The massive scale of the operation suggests that the North had prepared the flyers in advance, anticipating the resumption of the loudspeaker broadcast campaign after the latest nuclear test," a military officer here speculated. [Propaganda] [Response]
N.Korean Hardliner to Helm Office Dealing with S.Korea
Kim Yong-chol Kim Yong-chol The elderly North Korean hardliner behind the sinking of a South Korean Navy corvette in 2010 has apparently been appointed to lead the Workers Party office dealing with cross-border affairs. The appointment of Kim Yong-chol (70), formerly head of the General Bureau of Reconnaissance, to helm the United Front Department, provides more fuel to speculation that military hardliners are gaining the upper hand in internal powers struggles. Kim Yong-chol replaces Kim Yang-gon, who died in a mysterious car accident late last year, according to government sources here Monday. Born in Ryanggang Province in 1946, Kim Yong-chol graduated from Kim Il-sung Military Academy and rose to the position of chief of the General Bureau of Reconnaissance in February of 2009.
Academic paper details cost of President Lee Myung-bak’s cronyism
Posted on : Jan.18,2016 17:12 KST Favoritism shown to Korea University alums and Hyundai Engineering and Construction, among others, may have cost country up 0.32% of GDP Doctoral dissertation called “Political Connections and Allocative Distortions” recently submitted to the London Business School by David Schoenherr A recently submitted academic paper argues that former president Lee Myung-bak’s connection with Korea University and Hyundai Engineering and Construction influenced the area of public procurement during Lee’s presidency, resulting in between 0.21% to 0.32% of damage to the yearly gross domestic product (GDP). In a doctoral dissertation called “Political Connections and Allocative Distortions” recently submitted to the London Business School, David Schoenherr concluded that companies connected with Lee, who had previously studied at Korea University’s business school and served as the president of Hyundai Engineering and Construction, were given special treatment in the area of public procurement during Lee’s time in office, which created a distortion in the allocation of resources. In the dissertation, Schoenherr provides two definitions of companies that were connected with Lee. First, there were those whose president at the time that Lee became the head of the Grand National Party (today’s Saenuri Party) in Aug. 2007 was a graduate of the Korea University business school or a former employee at Hyundai Construction and was not replaced in the first half of 2008. Second, there were those whose CEO in the first half of 2008 was a graduate of the Korea University business school or a former employee of Hyundai Construction. [Lee Myung-bak] [Cronyism] [Corruption]
NK gives first official response to SK’s resumption of propaganda broadcasts
Posted on : Jan.18,2016 17:14 KST Calling them a “totally irrelevant provocation,” NK Foreign Ministry spokesperson defends recent nuclear test, but says a peace treaty with the US is still on the table North Korea attacked South Korea’s recently resumed loudspeaker propaganda broadcasts on Jan. 15 as a “totally irrelevant provocation” that has “nothing to do with” the former’s recent nuclear test. The comments in a statement by a spokesperson for the North Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs mark the first response from an official government agency since the broadcasts were resumed on Jan. 8. “The South Korean puppets’ resumption of psychological warfare broadcasts is a totally irrelevant provocation that has nothing whatsoever to do with the normal process of us following our parallel development course [of economic and nuclear development],” the spokesperson said on Jan. 15. “Our hydrogen bomb test was merely a normal procedure to achieve that parallel development course,” the statement continued.
“The real provocations that are driving the Korean Peninsula to an extreme are being perpetrated by the US and the South Korean puppets against us,” the spokesperson added. “We are focusing all our energies on building a strong economy and have no interest in the situation escalating, nor any need to provoke others.” [Propaganda] [Provocation]
“Vietnam Pieta” statues to memorialize civilian victims killed by ROK in Vietnam War
Posted on : Jan.16,2016 19:59 KST Kim Woon-seong and Kim Seo-gyeong, creators of the statue of the young girl representing the comfort women across from the Japanese embassy in Seoul, recently made the statue “Vietnam Pieta” (left) as a gesture of apology for civilian massacres committed by ROK troops during the Vietnam War. Copies of the statue, 1.5m high and made of bronze, are planned to be erected in both South Korea and Vietnam this year. (by Kang Jae-hoon, staff photographer) The artworks, by the couple who created Seoul’s comfort woman statue, will be installed in both South Korea and Vietnam Memorials are being erected in Vietnam and South Korea as a way of apologizing for the massacre of civilians by ROK soldiers during the Vietnam War and to provide solace to the victims. The memorials will be cast from a statue called “Vietnam Pieta” (the Vietnamese title means “The Last Lullaby”), a name echoing an artistic genre that shows the Virgin Mary holding the dead body of Jesus. The statue was created by the married couple Kim Seo-gyeong, 51, and Kim Woon-seong, 52, the same artists who did the statue of the young girl symbolizing the comfort women that was set up in 2011 across from the Japanese embassy, in Seoul’s Jongno District. After peace education is provided and funds are raised from the public, copies of “Vietnam Pieta” are to be erected both in South Korea and in a region of Vietnam where civilian massacres took place. “This year, memorial services are being held on the 50th anniversary of massacres in several villages in central Vietnam,” a spokesperson for the Committee for the Establishment of a Korean-Vietnamese Peace Foundation said on Jan. 15. “We are in contact with the Vietnamese government and each village in an attempt to send them ‘Vietnam Pieta’ to coincide with these services as a gesture of apology and consolation.” The committee is working to raise awareness of South Korea’s historical responsibility in the Vietnam War. [Vietnam] [War crimes] [Park Chung-hee]
Editorial] President Park fails to offer solutions to NK problem in New Year address
Posted on : Jan.14,2016 17:31 KST President Park Geun-hye gives her New Year’s address, Jan. 13. (by Lee Jung-yong, senior staff photographer) South Korean President Park Geun-hye delivered her New Year address, and her US counterpart Barack Obama gave his State of the Union just an hour apart on Jan. 13. There was no intention to have their schedules overlap so closely, but the fact that they gave major speeches at nearly the same time drew close attention here and abroad. In particular, people had been hoping for them to use their first public addresses since North Korean leader Kim Jong-un carried out a fourth nuclear test on Jan. 6 to state official positions as leaders of two of the countries most closely impacted by it. But Obama made no mention at all of North Korea’s nuclear program, while Park failed to offer anything new in the way of solutions. In terms of looking for answers on the issue, both addresses were a disappointment. Obama’s failure to even mention North Korea’s testing of what it claims to have been a hydrogen bomb suggests he doesn’t plan to change anything about Washington’s current policy of so-called “strategic patience.” It’s also being speculated that the US plans to use the North Korean nuclear issue as an excuse to beef up its current coordination with South Korea and Japan to keep China in check with the deployment of additional strategic assets on the peninsula and other shows of force. With Washington and Beijing showing more disagreement over the solution to the problem than after the third nuclear test in 2013, we should be objectively assessing whether the US’s priorities are less about fixing the situation than on keeping China under control. [SK NK policy] [China confrontation]
Pyongyang continues low-intensity response to loudspeaker propaganda
Posted on : Jan.15,2016 17:47 KST A leaflet dropped in northern Gyeonggi Province by the North Korean military as part of its response to the South’s resumption of loudspeaker propaganda broadcasts. (provided by the South Korean Ministry of National Defense) NK drops leaflets criticizing President Park into South, but refrains from military threats of the sort made during last August’s loudspeaker broadcasts On Jan. 14, the North Korean military once again sent propaganda leaflets into South Korea. Along with scattering the leaflets and dispatching a drone on Wednesday, this is part of what constitutes a low-intensity response by Pyongyang. The approach is quite different from last August, when the North responded more forcefully to South Korean propaganda broadcasts from loudspeakers on the DMZ - with an artillery barrage. [Propaganda] [Response]
Seoul in a Bind Over N.Korean Propaganda Flyers
North Korea floated propaganda flyers to the Seoul metropolitan area for a third day running on Thursday, leaving the government here at a loss how to respond. The South Korean military has already printed up its own propaganda leaflets to be floated across the border in response but is so far holding off because that could violate the armistice agreement. The military here said the North floated balloons carrying leaflets from the northern side of the Imjin River on Wednesday night and early Thursday morning, the same point where they had launched them the previous two days. [Propaganda] [Response]
N.Korea Retaliates with Own Broadcasts at Border
North Korea on Tuesday started its own propaganda broadcasts across the border with South Korea blaring out messages criticizing South Korea. The move comes in retaliation for South Korean broadcasts restarted last week in response to the North's nuclear test. A senior Defense Ministry official here on Tuesday said North Korea started loudspeaker broadcasts at around a dozen locations along the front line. But the loudspeakers only have a range of 1 to 3 km, so the propaganda message is barely audible on the South Korean side of the demilitarized zone.
Government reduces number of Kaesong workers to minimum
Posted on : Jan.12,2016 17:58 KST Critics say the move, the latest hard line response to the North’s nuclear test, will increase tensions and mostly hurt SK companies Following North Korea’s fourth nuclear test, the Park Geun-hye administration has been taking a number of measures against the North that are more likely to increase inter-Korean tensions than to keep the situation under control. The administration seems bent on making a stern response. When the government announced on the morning of Jan. 7 - the day after the nuclear test - that it would be placing restrictions on the South Korean workers allowed to visit the Kaesong Industrial Complex, it emphasized that this was an “initial response” designed to ensure the safety of citizens. But that same afternoon, the government took a harder line with its decision to resume psychological warfare against North Korea through propaganda broadcasts from loudspeakers stationed at the DMZ. [Kaesong] [Tribute]
The myth of the North Korean threat
A military balance between North and South – despite the uncertainties the evidence is overwhelming
Tim Beal
January 13th, 2016 Gauging a potential opponent’s military capability is a very inexact business. A simple counting of boots in the barracks can be extremely misleading. History is replete with instances of miscalculation and of cases where god was not on the side of the big battalions. Young Alexander of Macedon headed off east in 344 BCE and defeated the much larger Persian Empire, being rewarded with title Alexander the Great, and ultimate accolade of a retrospective virgin birth. Did he know the odds, and would it have made any difference?
The same applies to North Korea. All those figures of tanks, ships, and planes are fairly meaningless if there is a critical technological gap between the opposing weapon systems. Just how big is the gap between North and South? It is difficult to be absolutely sure and it will vary from sector to sector. The North did, after all, put a satellite into space before the South, and with its own rockets rather than imported ones. But the ability to import is a key advantage the South has. Few countries can make advanced weapons – even the Chinese struggle to build engines for fighters. Arms imports therefore provide a robust measure of the military technology of the two Koreas. According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute South Korea, over the last 20 years spent 43 times as much as the North on arms imports, $25 billion in 1990 dollars against $0.6 billion. In 2014 South Korea was the world’s largest importer of arms. A comparison of military budgets tells a similar story. Estimates vary, but in 2013 the director of the South’s Defense Intelligence Agency was quoted as saying that despite their military budget being some 33 times that of the North “If South Korea fights alone, North Korea has the superior fighting strength, so South Korea would lose.” In order to win, he claimed, they needed the United States And that brings us to the elephant in the room, and a subsequent article. [Military balance]
N.Korean Army Uses Smoke and Mirrors to Confound Watchers
The North Korean military increasingly releases disinformation via its communication network to avoid wiretapping by South Korea. A government source said on Monday that it is getting more difficult for intelligence authorities to get information because the North has been improving its tactics since the two sides exchanged fire across the border in August. "When the North fired shells across the demilitarized zone after the box mine attack earlier, the South could quickly respond to that, and it seems that made the North conclude that the South Korean military could monitor its solders' movements thorough wiretapping," the source said. Lawmaker Yoon Hu-duk of the Minjoo Party said in a parliamentary audit in September he was told by officers during a visit to a frontline Army unit that they had detected signs of North Korean preparations for provocation on the morning of Aug. 20, the day of the fire exchange. The military put soldiers on alert after catching the communication through wiretapping. Since then, the North Korean military often releases disinformation for the ears of South Korean eavesdroppers. In a radio communication with another unit, a frontline North Korean unit might repeatedly say it is moving to a certain area, but the South Korean military finds out later using its own reconnaissance equipment that the unit has not moved at all. But a military spokesman here claimed South Korea is rarely fooled and has been keeping close watch on the North Korean Army since its fourth nuclear test by obtaining information "in a variety of ways." [Intelligence] [SIGINT]
Korea's foreign reserves 'not enough to stave off crisis'
By Choi Sung-jin The Korean government has dismissed the possibility of another currency crisis hitting the nation, claiming the country has sufficient foreign reserves. But a recent research paper says this may not be the case. "As of 2014, the nation's actual foreign reserves of $363.6 billion fell $79.7 billion short of assuring the nation can get over a possible currency crisis," says a Korea Economic Research Institute report. The report, by following the standards set by the Bank of International Settlement, defined the sum of three elements _ cash that can settle a quarter of annual import, short-term external liability and one-third of foreign investment in stocks and bonds _ as "foreign reserves needed in times of crisis." Applying that standard, Korea should have $443.3 billion in foreign reserves, $79.7 billion more than it had as at the end of 2014. China, Thailand and Brazil had larger foreign reserves than necessary in times of crisis, the report said.
International community, experts voice concern over resumption of propaganda broadcasts
Posted on : Jan.10,2016 11:27 KST The Park Geun-hye administration’s decision to resume loudspeaker broadcasts into North Korea as of noon on Jan. 8 in response to the country’s fourth nuclear test is being blasted as a strategic blunder. The key charge is that Seoul is only complicating the international response instead of focusing its energies on stronger coordination through United Nations Security Council (UNSC) sanctions and other international means. [Propaganda] [Provocation]
S.Korea Resumes Propaganda Broadcasts Across DMZ
The government on Thursday laid out its responses to North Korea's nuclear test a day earlier. They include resuming propaganda broadcasts across the heavily armed border, which Seoul believes are a particular irritant to the regime. "The North's nuclear test violated its obligations and commitments to the international community and failed to honor the Aug. 25 agreement" between the two Koreas, said Cho Tae-yong of the Office of National Security after a meeting of the National Security Council. [Propaganda] [Provocation]
Koreas should build confidence for summit
Minister says comfort women deal exceeds Kono Statement By Oh Young-jin, Yi Whan-woo More confidence should be built through regular dialogue before an inter-Korean summit is considered, Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se said in a recent interview with The Korea Times. Yun said the Dec. 28 agreement on comfort women — former sex slaves under Japan's colonial rule — was more important than any prior pertinent agreement in various aspects, but its success depends on Japan's faithful implementation. "We need to remind ourselves that there is a lack of regular dialogue," Yun said, when asked about prospects of a summit between President Park Geun-hye and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. In his New Year address, Kim left open the possibility for such a meeting, when he said, "I am ready to sit down for a talk with anybody who wishes to speak honestly for peace and unification." The minister indicated no haste for a third summit after the two in 2000 and 2007, respectively, saying, "It is important to nurture favorable conditions for substantive dialogue ... the right track is the fast track." [Rebuff] [Comfort women]
North Korean leader says open to talks
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un delivers a New Year‘s address in Pyongyang, Friday. This image was captured from a broadcast shown on Korean Central Television. / Yonhap By Kim Hyo-jin North Korea is expected to maintain a conciliatory stance toward South Korea this year, and keep inter-Korean talks alive, analysts said, Sunday. On Friday, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un said during his televised New Year's speech that he is "open to talks with anyone" wishing for peace and unification without mentioning the repressive state's nuclear weapons program. "The North Korean leader showed his willingness to continue inter-Korean talks in his New Year's speech. He expressed hopes to maintain the conciliatory mood made after the Aug. 25 deal," said Chang Yong-seok, a senior researcher at the Institute for Peace and Unification Studies at Seoul National University. [Overture]
Drinking culture in Korea centuries past
People sleeping on the streets around 1900-10 / Courtesy of Robert Neff collection By Robert Neff New Years has arrived and many people will celebrate it with friends and family. Undoubtedly, alcohol will play a large part of this celebration ? especially beer. It is unclear when beer was introduced into Korea but more than likely it involved Western warships. One drinking incident took place in August 1875 when a British warship ? sailing along the coast of Korea ? was visited by a group of local Korean dignitaries. The Koreans were given a tour around the ship and then, in a sign of friendship, drinks were exchanged. The senior Korean offered makgeolli to his host who described it as "whitish in colour and sour in taste." The British captain answered by commanding a keg of pale ale to be brought out and served to the Koreans who gave "no signs of pleasure or disgust" while drinking it. A decade later, a couple of Englishmen stopped at a Korean inn located halfway between Jemulpo (modern Incheon) and Seoul. Wanting to be friendly, the men shared three quarts of German beer with the inn's Korean customers. Most of the Koreans "expressed their high opinion of the liquor" but one man "took but one mouthful and ejected it with an expression of extreme disgust." Perhaps what I heard as a boy is true: beer is an acquired taste. Koreans were no strangers to alcohol ? especially makgeolli. An American missionary wrote in the late 1880s: "The drink curse is widely prevalent in Korea … [and] Maudlin sots or drunken brawls, with men tugging at each other's top-knots are, alas, a common sight upon the streets." Commentary about Koreans and alcohol often appeared in the letters and diaries of visiting Westerners. [Alcohol] [Beer] [Makgeolli]
[Column] The reunification guessing game
Posted on : Jan.3,2016 09:34 KST John Feffer Liam Neeson recently donated $1,515 toward Korean reunification. The actor, who will be playing General Douglas MacArthur in an upcoming movie about the Korean War, wanted to do something to signal his support for improved inter-Korean relations. Along with his donation, Neeson predicted that the two Koreas will reunify within the next five years. Everyone has his or her own prediction for Korean reunification. Futurologist George Friedman thinks it will happen before 2030 while Ian Bremmer of the Eurasia Group believes that reunification may be just around the corner. The CIA predicted that reunification will take place in 10-15 years - but that was in its global survey published in 2000. Oops! Indeed, the CIA‘s crystal ball rarely reveals the future very accurately. It failed to anticipate the collapse of the Berlin Wall, the disintegration of the Soviet Union, or the Arab Spring uprisings. [Unification]
N.K. leader open to unification talks
Updated : 2016-01-01 13:59 North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has called for improved relations with South Korea, saying he is open to candid talks with Seoul on unification. In his New Year's message delivered live on television Friday, Kim called on Seoul to honor an inter-Korean deal reached in August to defuse military tension. "We are willing to have talks in an open-minded manner with anyone who wants peace and unification," Kim said. "South Korea should honor the spirit of the inter-Korean agreement in August. Seoul should refrain from doing acts that hurt the conciliatory mood." [Overture] [Unification] [Media]
Pyongyang's S. Korea policy architect dies
Death may negatively affect S-N ties By Kim Hyo-jin Kim Yang-gon, a senior North Korean official who was in charge of inter-Korean affairs, died in a car accident Tuesday, the North's state media announced Wednesday. He was 73. Kim was secretary of North Korea's ruling Workers' Party and the head of its United Front Department (UFD), reported Pyongyang's state-controlled Korean Central News Agency (KCNA). No details of the accident were provided. Citing him as the "closest revolutionary comrade" of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, KCNA said the central committee has appointed a state funeral committee with the nation's leader as its chairman. The funeral will be held today, it added. His sudden death came weeks after inter-Korean high-level talks ended in mid-December with no progress having been made in improving ties, chilling the conciliatory mood expected after an inter-Korean deal reached Aug. 25 [Kim Yang Gon] [SK NK Negotiations]
Talks Between the Leaders of North and South Korea
Konstantin Asmolov The 1st round of talks between the leaders of North Korea and South Korea took place from December 11 to December 12 in the Kaesong Industrial Complex. The discussions between the two Korean countries were held pursuant to the exacerbation of relations in August 2015, when as part of the solution to the predicament, high-level negotiations were arranged along with a meeting for separated families. The latter, as there are few people of such age still alive, is an important, yet mostly ceremonial event. Consequently, a lot was expected from the negotiations, due to them being carried out at the relatively high level of vice ministers. The South was represented by the Vice Minister of Unification (the office responsible for inter-Korean affairs) Hwang Boo Gi, while the North was represented by Vice-Director of the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of the Fatherland, Jon Jong-Su. However, the talks ended up with no visible results, and not even a final statement has been made public. In addition, there was no date appointed for the next round of discussions. While outlining the course of events, the parties stressed different agendas. According to North Korea, the failure of the talks occurred “because of incorrect positions and approaches by the South”, that was expressed in reaction to refusal by Seoul to discuss the resumption of South Korean tourists trips to Mount Kumgang in next March or April. At the same time, as the leading North Korean newspaper “Rodong Sinmun” stated, during the course of consultations the representatives of the South constantly “referred to the need to obtain the consent of the United States” and because of such dependency the inter-Korean dialogue becomes meaningless. First appeared: http://journal-neo.org/2015/12/29/talks-between-the-leaders-of-north-and-south-korea/ [SK NK negotiations] [US dominance]

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