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The story has all the ingredients of a Hollywood blockbuster. Two beautiful girls in peril, an evil North Korean dictator holding them captive and, riding to the rescue, Slick Willy himself, former President Bill Clinton. As journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee collapsed, sobbing tears of joy, into the arms of their relieved families after being pardoned from a sentence of 12 years’ hard labour in North Korea, their palpable relief was perhaps enhanced by the flood of lucrative film, book and interview offers that came pouring in. [Snip] As of last night, the bidding war for the first...

"Indonesian Tribe adopts Hangul" I kid you not (and it kind of makes sense). But, something about this story strikes me as a bit perverse. As in, it feels as if the South Korean government is taking advantage of this poor innocent Indonesian tribe.

The last couple posts were largely written from the perspective of me trying to put forth what I thought Clinton's summit meant now and what it could mean in the future. But, for today's post -- and I'm trying very hard to refrain from posting for the sake of posting, I'm going to have to criticize probably the worst editorial I've come across in a long time and try to undo the disservice to the American public that the New York Times has just committed. It's definitely worse than the fairly recent editorial from the Los Angeles Times on which...

All right, we have had some fun speculating over which double standing in for the deceased Kim Jong-il entertained Bill Clinton, but there are serious issues to address. Clinton returned from Pyongyang with two American women journalists who had been foolish enough to wander around the North Korean frontier until they were abducted by the Reds. Tough, ladies – you knew the risks, that’s how it crumbles. That would have been the hardball response of a US administration that cared about America’s standing in the world. Instead, we got the Ofrah routine: Bill feeling the victims’ pain, doing the big...

WASHINGTON -- Was it a warm hug? Or more of a reluctant embrace? Affection was in the eye of the beholder when former President Bill Clinton descended the airplane steps Wednesday in California, triumphant from his rescue of two U.S. journalists held in North Korea, and greeted his former vice president, Al Gore. The two men had a bitter falling-out during Mr. Gore's failed 2000 presidential bid and their relationship subsequently suffered through a series of testy moments. Mr. Gore, whose Current TV employs the reporters, applauded as Mr. Clinton climbed down the steps at Bob Hope Airport in Burbank,...

Sergeant Charles “Leo” Wilson returns home to Ava, Missouri tonight. He has been escorted by the Patriot Guard Riders. (Thank you!) Ken just heard about this on the way home from work today. Ava is our home town. Upon checking the Funeral Home web page, we discovered that his niece was in our graduating class and Ken worked with his nephew. The funeral will be Saturday and God willing, we will be there. Thanks, once again, to all our veterans and their families. We don't have words to adequately tell how we appreciate your sacrifice. Link below gives more information...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - After his talks with reclusive North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, Bill Clinton sure has a story to tell. And one of the first in line to hear his tale is President Barack Obama. "I suspect that President Clinton will have some interesting observations from his trip and I will let him provide those to me," Obama told MSNBC on Wednesday. The former president was chosen by the North Koreans from among four possible envoys proposed to them to try to gain freedom for two American reporters sentenced to 12 years of hard labor in North Korea. Other...

South Korean police commandos mounted a dramatic helicopter-borne raid Wednesday to end a sit-in by strikers at a troubled auto plant, braving a hail of missiles and firebombs. Police rappelled down ropes from helicopters onto the roof of the paint shop at Ssangyong Motor, the last building still occupied by unionists fighting mass layoffs at the debt-stricken firm. Other officers inside three containers lifted by giant cranes landed on a roof adjoining the paint shop. Two helicopters dropped tear gas on the strikers. Two workers fell from a three-storey rooftop while trying to stop the commandos from landing, media reports...

President Clinton has arrived in Pyongyang to rescue jailed US journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee using "maximum force". He has vowed to pay "a little visit" to North Korean leader Kim Jong-il. Clinton will also attempt to "solve problems" caused by North Korea's nuclear program. Clinton leaped into the sea from his unmarked, low-flying transport plane, seconds before it crashed into a cliff. He swam to shore in the early hours of the morning, silently killing a Korean guard, who, seconds before, had been scoffing at the "decadent" United States, then stealthily crept his way into the heart of...

While in principle I've always been a supporter of John Bolton even when he fell out with the George W. Bush administration when the administration did its sudden U-turn on its North Korean policy, I wouldn't believe it to be as bad as Bolton makes it out to be (yes, it's a form of appeasement, but to rigidly be against a policy just because of it's name is a strike against common sense and an exercise in sheer stupidity) and considering how things currently are I think its realistically the most the U.S. can ask for. Yes, while sending another...

August 4. 2009, Juche 98 Bill Clinton Arrives Here Pyongyang, August 4 (KCNA) -- Bill Clinton, former president of the United States, and his party arrived here Tuesday by air. They were greeted by Yang Hyong Sop, vice-president of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly, and Kim Kye Gwan, vice-minister of Foreign Affairs. A little girl presented a bouquet to Bill Clinton.

North Korea is helping the military regime in Burma construct a sophisticated nuclear facility, according to two high level defectors interviewed by Australian researchers. The two defectors, knowns as Moe Joe, an army officer trained in Russia to be a member of a Burmese "nuclear battalion", and Tin Min, an accountant who claimed to have knowledge of nuclear infrastructure projects and shipments of material from North Korea. The claims are unconfirmed but are being taken seriously by Burma specialists after a series of recent revelations of military ties between the two pariah states. Russia agreed to help Burma build a...

President Obama is worthy of admiration for his efforts to improve relations with America's adversaries Iran, North Korea and a few others. But for most of those states, it's time to give it up, and the Obama administration appears to realize that. I agree. There's no point in trying carrots or stick diplomacy with Iran or North Korea. Diplomacy has failed. I do wonder, however, how the writer plans to deal w NKorea's nukes and Iran's nukes+terrorist ties? Just live with it, and wait for something to go wrong/hope that "sane" people like Kim and Ahmadinejad can be trusted w...

JEJU, South Korea — Former US president George W. Bush said on Saturday the five nations involved in nuclear disarmament talks with North Korea must send a unified warning against Pyongyang's continued defiance. In a speech before a group of South Korean business leaders here, Bush said "true verification" would be essential even if the communist state promised to dismantle its nuclear programmes in accordance with UN resolutions. "The five nations must send a unified message to North Korean leaders" that if they continue defying UN resolutions, there will be consequences including economic sanctions by the United Nations, Bush said....

The Obama administration lacks a foreign policy ideology as a matter of ideology. Speaking recently at the Council on Foreign Relations, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton asserted, “Rigid ideologies and old formulas don’t apply.” The defining principle of President Barack Obama’s foreign policy is engagement with adversaries -- expressing respect for legitimate grievances, apologizing for past wrongs and offering dialogue without preconditions. Six months on, how fares the Obama doctrine? Concerning North Korea and Iran, the doctrine is on its deathbed. North Korea responded to administration outreach by testing a nuclear weapon, firing missiles toward allies, resuming plutonium reprocessing and...

But anyways, for me, it wasn’t that great. At least, for playing “문명” (Civilization, if you don’t have a Korean font installed). But, you see, as an English teacher there I saw a parallel. The funny thing is that you would think that Korea would have the largest market for books teaching Koreans English from a Korean perspective. But, I cannot tell you how many times I came across expensive, no, very expensive textbooks published by large American or British companies that were published to teach the domestic market (Americans or the British) English. In America, the last time I...

The recent discovery of the armor of Silla Dynasty cavalrymen has provided proof of the existence of these mythical men. GYEONGJU - The warrior’s body and bones are long gone, decayed into the soil. But the armor that once protected him from enemy swords and arrows has survived the passage of time and has been revealed for the first time in 1,600 years. The armor of the heavily protected cavalrymen of the Silla Dynasty (57 B.C. - A.D. 935) - proof of which has previously existed only in paintings - was discovered in the ancient tombs of the Jjoksaem District...

It was 56-years ago today that the U.S. and North Korea signed the armistice that ended active combat in America’s forgotten war. More than 36,000 Americans gave their lives defending South Korea from invasion first by the communist North and then by the Red Chinese Army. [...] And therein lies the lesson: Official U.S. policy toward aggression by the Soviet Union and Communist China wasn’t clear after the end of World War II in 1945 until an anonymous article appeared in the journal Foreign Affairs in 1947. The article advanced a doctrine of containment by the U.S. of communist expansion,...

U.S. President Barack Obama has declared Monday, July 27th, as National Korean War Veterans Armistice Day. The White House released the proclamation Saturday, a day before the armistice ending the Korean War was signed in 1953. Obama said that by virtue of the authority vested in him by the Constitution, he proclaims July 27th as National Korean War Veterans Armistice Day. He urged all Americans to observe the day with ceremonies honoring and giving thanks to distinguished Korean War veterans. He also asked federal departments, interested groups, organizations and individuals to fly the flag at half-staff in memory of fallen...

North Korea 'executes Christians'By Andre Vornic BBC News Page last updated at 15:15 GMT, Friday, 24 July 2009 16:15 UK Human rights groups in South Korea say North Korea has stepped up executions of Christians, some of them in public. The communist country, the world's most closed society, views religion as a major threat. Only the founder of the country, Kim Il-sung, and his son, Kim Jong-il, may be worshipped, in mass public displays of fervour. Despite the persecutions, it is thought up to 30,000 North Koreans may practise Christianity secretly in their homes. A report by a number of...

A Christian woman accused of distributing the Bible, a book banned in communist North Korea, was publicly executed last month for the crime, South Korean activists said today. The 33-year-old mother of three, Ri Hyon Ok, also was accused of spying for South Korea and the United States, and of organizing dissidents, a rights group said in Seoul, citing documents obtained from the North. The Investigative Commission on Crime Against Humanity report included a copy of Ri's government-issued photo ID and said her husband, children and parents were sent to a political prison the day after her June 16 execution....

Just a little, tongue-in-cheek piece about weird North Korean statements/behavior: http://www.ohnoyoudidntsaythat.com/nutty-north-koreans-say-clinton-by-no-means-intelligent-a-schoolgirl-old-lady-shopping

PHUKET, Thailand | So much for diplomacy with North Korea. The Pyongyang government and the Obama administration's chief diplomat Thursday escalated a war of words, with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton telling Pyongyang it has "no friends" and North Korea calling her "vulgar" and criticizing her appearance. Representatives of both nations were at an annual Asian security summit that the countries have used in the past to engineer high-level encounters. This year, the two traded insults and even found themselves competing for the same stage to address the media. The back-and-forth further diminished hopes that the Obama administration will...

She is vulgar and stupid, and looks like an old biddy with a shopping trolley. They, on the other hand, are friendless and infantile, and best treated in the same way as tantrum-prone children. This is not a family squabble, but a recent exchange of insults between two of the leading players in one of the world’s most intractable diplomatic conflicts: the Government of North Korea and Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of State. Yesterday their verbal joust reached new heights when both made public statements attacking the other. Mrs Clinton, at a meeting of foreign ministers on the Thai...

SEOUL, South Korea — Like most people, Park Chan-sung goes about his daily life when North Korea conducts nuclear tests or fires up missiles: He starts making effigies of Kim Jong Il and posters with anti-North Korea slogans, calls the media and sets his props on fire. Park is what you would call a professional protester. The irony with Park begins with his name. "Chan-sung" in Korean means "agree," but Park spends most of his time protesting against something. He has made it his job to represent the conservative voice of South Korea. Park is well aware that he has...

WASHINGTON, July 23, 2009 – The U.S. military plays a role in the monitoring of North Korean actions that may violate a U.N. Security Council resolution that prohibits North Korea from weapons proliferation, a senior Pentagon official said here today. The United Nations has banned North Korea from exporting its weapons technology -- such as its missile expertise – to other countries. The North Korean government, which also is suspected of developing nuclear weapons, has conducted several ballistic-missile tests in recent weeks. “The United States is fulfilling its obligations,” spokesman Bryan Whitman told Pentagon reporters, as part of U.N. efforts...

The southwestern city of Gwangju will launch a new research facility on kimchi as a part of efforts to globalize Korea's culinary trademark. Gwangju faced intense competition from other cities to house the new R&D center. ``We decided in the end to give Gwangju this unique privilege because it is a region that prides itself on superior expertise on kimchi,'' said Prof. Roh Jae-sun of the Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Development at Seoul National University. Roh headed a state committee organized to select the venue of the institute. Wanju of North Jeolla Province, Goesan of North Chungcheong Province...

It's the worst year in history for the industry: Two Detroit companies went bankrupt, and even the Japanese are losing money. But nothing stops those Koreans. Hyundai and Kia are expanding their lineups, a new Kia plant is to open in Georgia, and they are setting most ambitious goals. Their cars may not be the best, but they are improving--many get on the "recommended" list in Consumers Reports--and they are getting major help from the home country's weak currency. The two are connected under the name Hyundai Kia Automotive Group. Hyundai is larger and owns a 39% controlling stake in...

SEOUL, July 21 (Yonhap) -- North Korea is expected to soon propose a reunion event for families separated by the Korean War, posing a dilemma for South Korea's conservative government, a progressive magazine published in Seoul forecast Tuesday. Family reunions between the two Koreas, set up after the first inter-Korean summit in 2000, have been suspended since a round of mail exchanges took place in February last year. The North has since cut off government-level talks and refused to arrange the reunions to protest against South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, who adopted a tougher stance on Pyongyang's nuclear program and...

Here I was in a rather small capital of Northern Ireland, which is still and probably always will be a part of the United Kingdom --an opinion of which I don't have. But anyways, it's a city hall! And, on the grounds of this city hall (it's a small city with a population of some 267,500 according to the NISRA), there's a memorial that dedicates the lives of those that fought and died in Korea nearly sixty years ago. All because of the words of one man -- Harry Truman (who single handedly decided to intervene in the Korean War;...

SEOUL, July 18 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's health authorities said Saturday that they have confirmed 92 more cases of influenza A and will discontinue counting the total number of flu infections here amid the rapid spread of the virus. The new patients, including 28 people from a high school, an elementary school student and a staff member with an international choir competition, tested positive for the H1N1 virus after showing flu-like symptoms, the Ministry for Health, Welfare and Family Affairs said in an emailed statement. A teacher and 27 third-graders in a high school in Gyeonggi Province, south of the...

Former South Korean President and Nobel laureate Kim Dae-jung has been placed on a life support system at a Seoul hospital, Yonhap News Agency reported Thursday. Officials at Seoul's Severance Hospital said the life support system was installed around 3 a.m. as he had difficulty in breathing. ``But the former president's condition got better and his illness is not life-threatening,'' a hospital official was quoted as saying. Kim has been hospitalized after exhibiting symptoms for pneumonia since Monday.

I don't need a calendar to know it's summer. I know it's summer time when newspapers and blogs worldwide start discussing, analyzing and criticizing Korea's history and ongoing medicinal consumption of boshintang (dog meat soup). A blogger for the LA Times newspaper posted a blog about the ongoing debate in South Korea over the consumption of dog meat. Members of a South Korean animal rights group called Coexistence for Animal Rights on Earth along with an American animal rights group called In Defense of Animals (IDA), sponsored a protest asking the South Korean government to make the killing of dogs...

EOUL — Estimators expected to begin assessing flood damage at K-16 Air Base on Wednesday after two days of heavy rain flooded half a dozen buildings with as much as three feet of water. Ten inches of rain fell Sunday at K-16 by some estimates, flooding two barracks, an administrative facility, a hangar and three other office buildings, said Chuck Markham, Area II director of the Department of Public Works. Eleven soldiers were moved out of their barracks due to flooding, and three non-tactical vehicles also were damaged. The water receded on Monday, but the base flooded again on Tuesday...

The U.K. was the likely source of a series of attacks last week that took down popular Web sites in the U.S. and South Korea, according to an analysis performed by a Vietnamese computer security analyst. The results contradict assertions made by some in the U.S. and South Korean governments that North Korea was behind the attack. Security analysts had been skeptical of the claims, which were reportedly made in off-the-record briefings and for which proof was never delivered. The week-long distributed denial of service attack involved sending multiple requests to a handful of Web sites from tens of thousands...

Hackers extracted lists of files from computers that they contaminated with the virus that triggered cyberattacks last week in the United States and South Korea, police in Seoul said Tuesday. The attacks, in which floods of computers tried to connect to a single Web site at the same time to overwhelm the server, caused outages on prominent government-run sites in both countries. The finding means that hackers not only used affected computers for Web attacks, but also attempted to steal information from them. That adds to concern that contaminated computers were ordered to damage their own hard disks or files...

You see the Chinese flag has five stars. Each of the five stars represents an ethnic group that is supposed to compose the Chinese nation. These five stars represent the Han Chinese, the Turks of Xinjiang, Tibetans, Manchurians, and Mongolians. The ideology is so that just like you have Chinese-Americans in the United States, you have a Chinese nation of multiple ethnic groups, including Koreans. But, they don't get a star (But, of course, the crucial difference would be that Chinese-Americans willingly migrated to the United States whereas those five groups outside of Manchurians, who for all practical purposes no...

Secrecy makes contingency planning hard SEOUL — Little is known about the secretive country considered the most closed society in the world. Crossing into North Korea, analysts say, you could expect to find crushing poverty, widespread hunger and a massive military that includes nearly one in three of the communist nation’s citizens. Beyond that, it’s anybody’s guess. "It’s such an isolated society that we only have ... glimpses of what’s going on," said Brig. Gen. Richard Haddad, commander of Special Operations Command Korea. Should U.S. forces ever be called on for a mission inside North Korea, it is the unknown...

VIDEO HERE.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The Group of Eight summit in L'Aquila, Italy, offered some world leaders the opportunity to squeeze in a visit to meet with Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican. The pope then used the occasion to present leaders with a special copy of his first social encyclical, "Caritas in Veritate" ("Charity in Truth"), which the Vatican released July 7, the day before the G-8 summit began. Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd met with the pope in a 25-minute closed-door meeting July 9. Australia is not part of the Group of Eight industrialized nations, but was among the...

A fresh wave of cyber attacks that slowed U.S. and South Korean websites this week hit more targets on Thursday, a Web security firm said, while the South's spy agency has said the hacking may be linked to North Korea. The impact of the attacks, aimed so far at dozens of sites including the White House and the South's presidential office, was seen as negligible, experts said, but served as a reminder that Pyongyang has been planning for cyber warfare.

SEOUL, July 9 (Yonhap) -- South Korea on Thursday came under a third round of cyber attacks, with the nation's key government and private Web sites reporting temporary paralyses or severe access disruptions, government and industry officials said. Half a dozen Web sites operated by key government bodies, including the National Assembly, defense ministry, foreign ministry and the National Intelligence Service reported access delays and failures starting around 6 p.m., said the officials. Kookmin Bank, the mass-circulation Chosun Ilbo, leading computer vaccine firm Ahn Lab Inc. and the United States Forces Korea also said their Web sites underwent temporary access...

"C'mon now ***. Let the real men do the thinking and the real woman the cooking...."

SEOUL, South Korea - A state official says seven South Korean Web sites are under renewed cyber attack. Ku Kyo-young from the state-run Korea Communications Commission said the latest assault began around 6:30 p.m. (0930 GMT, 5:30 a.m. EDT ) Thursday. He said one of the affected sites belongs to the government, the other six are private. Some are still working normally despite the attacks.

Microsoft Windows has enjoyed a virtual monopoly on the global computer operating systems market for the last 30 years. But one Korean company has dared to challenge the software giant. TmaxSoft launched Tmax Window in an attempt to create viable competition in the OS market. More than 300 researchers have developed the system over almost five years. The company claims that Tmax Window has a high rate of compatibility with Microsoft software titles and the chairman of the company says the system is more stable and suitable for many users. Microsoft has been criticized for unfairly stifling competition by packaging...

SEOUL (AFP) — Almost three-quarters of South Korean male office workers feel uncomfortable when female colleagues show too much leg or cleavage in the workplace, a survey has revealed. A poll of 1,254 employees by the job portal site CareerNet found that 74 percent of men felt upset with the attire of their female co-workers. Some 56 percent of them cited micro-miniskirts as their chief complaint, while 51 percent objected to excessive cleavage.

A few days ago, I read this article "Spies 'infiltrate US power grid' ", and I thought, "Wow, that's hardly a surprise," but I blew it off. I disregarded it-not because Michael Jackson's funeral was on TV, or because I was preparing/partying/recovering from 3 days of straight BBQ party for the Fourth of July. No, I blew it off because we all suspected this kind of thing was always happening, always possible, and it's like the threat of nuclear war: awful, not something one wants to think about, and we kind of already know the consequences. Today, multiple papers are...

SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korean authorities issued a cyber security warning on Wednesday after the Web sites of several major government agencies and financial institutions were disabled by apparent hacker attacks. The Web sites of the presidential office, Defense Ministry, and the National Assembly were saturated with access requests generated by malicious software on Tuesday, crippling server response to legitimate traffic, South Korea's Communications Commission said in a statement. "The attacks consisted of massive harmful traffic to specific sites causing access slowdown or disablement, and some national institutions, banks and media sites have been targeted," it said. Some government Web...

It was a most unusual Fourth of July holiday. While we, the American people, were celebrating the passage of the Declaration of Independence on the Fourth of July, 1776, our only nationally-elected leaders, the President and Vice-President, seem to have forgotten its meaning.

SEOUL, South Korea – North Korea fired four missiles off its eastern coast Saturday, South Korea said, in what was likely to be seen as a message of defiance to the United States on its Independence Day holiday. The launches, which came two days after North Korea fired four short-range missiles, could further escalate tensions in the region as the U.S. tries to muster support for tough enforcement of the U.N. resolution imposed on the communist regime for its May nuclear test. South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said three missiles were fired early Saturday and the fourth at about...