Free Republic

SEOUL (Reuters) - Two Koreans used weed clippers and a knife to lop off fingers on Monday outside the Japanese embassy in Seoul to protest at Tokyo's claims on a group of desolate islands that South Korea (news - web sites) insists is its territory. Reuters Photo Park Kyung-ja, a 67-year-old woman, and Cho Seung-kyu, 40, each chopped off a finger during a rally at the embassy gates. The long-simmering dispute over the islands, called Tokto in Korea and Takeshima in Japan, flared as Tokyo and Seoul were celebrating the 40th anniversary of diplomatic ties. Park and Cho struggled with...

Dictator celebrates as North Koreans starve (Filed: 17/02/2005) Kim Jong-Il celebrated his birthday in exuberant fashion yesterday, despite worsening food rations among his people and international condemnation of his nuclear ambitions. Children's dance displays, synchronised swimming, fireworks and Kim's personal touch - flower shows featuring the Kimjongilia, a form of magnolia specially bred to bloom early in his honour - marked the 63 years of North Korea's "Dear Leader". An army dance ensemble performed a concert featuring numbers such as General on a Galloping White Horse and a female solo, I Do Not Know a Warmer Bosom. Pyongyang's central square...

A South Korean missionary here speaks of introducing Jesus in a "low voice and with wisdom" to Muslims, the most difficult group to convert. In Baghdad, South Koreans plan to open a seminary even after Iraqi churches have been bombed in two recent coordinated attacks. In Beijing, they defy the Chinese government to smuggle North Koreans to Seoul while turning them into Christians. South Korea has rapidly become the world's second largest source of Christian missionaries, only a couple of decades after it started deploying them. With more than 12,000 abroad, it is second only to the United States and...

Gymnastics federation: Hamm's gold the result of scoring error By EDDIE PELLS, AP Sports Writer August 21, 2004 ATHENS, Greece (AP) -- Paul Hamm's gold medal just lost its luster. A scoring mistake at the all-around gymnastics final cost Yang Tae-young the gold that ended up going to Hamm, the International Gymnastics Federation ruled Saturday. The South Korean got the bronze instead. Three judges were suspended, but the results will not be changed, the federation said. The South Korean Olympic team will ask the Court of Arbitration for Sports to determine if Yang deserves a gold medal. ADVERTISEMENT ``We want...

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates - Three Japanese and eight South Koreans were kidnapped in Iraq on Thursday, according to media reports. The Arabic TV station al-Jazeera aired video of the Japanese blindfolded. The South Koreans were detained by unidentified "armed men" in Iraq but one was later released, the South Korean Yonhap news agency reported, citing an unnamed Foreign Ministry official in Seoul. The report gave no further details. The Foreign Ministry told The Associated Press it did not know who was responsible for the capture of the South Koreans. In Tokyo, lawmakers said the Japanese were kidnapped by a...

Nugent sues Muskegon officials over concert cancelation The Associated Press 8/21/2003, 7:11 p.m. ET DETROIT (AP) — Michigan rocker Ted Nugent filed a lawsuit in federal court Thursday, claiming organizers who canceled a June performance wrongly accused him of making racist comments. Nugent claims that accusations made by city officials and others, and the cancelation of the June 30 concert, damaged his reputation and career, according to a statement issued by his attorney. The lawsuit names the City of Muskegon; Mayor Stephen Warmington; City Manager Bryon Mazade; Meridian Entertainment, the concert's promoter, and others as defendants. "In a world of...

North Korea on Saturday called for unity of all Koreans, accusing the United States of seeking to drive a wedge between Seoul and Pyongyang, as the two Koreas prepare to engage in a busy week of talks. South Korea has said that it will use a flurry of upcoming inter-Korean meetings, including talks involving senior cabinet ministers, to urge the North to pay heed to international calls to give up its nuclear ambitions. "It is an issue of particular importance to achieve great national unity now that the US imperialists seek to deprive the South Koreans of their sovereignty, hinder...

Seven million Koreans facing starvation By Jasper Becker in Beijing 05 January 2003 The United Nations food agency warned yesterday that supplies for some seven million people, a third of North Korea's population, will run out early next month without furtheraid. The news could worsen the crisis over North Korea's nuclear threats. "We only have firm commitments for 35,000 tons. This will be finished in early February, and then we might have to close shop," said Gerald Bourke, the spokesman for the UN World Food Programme (WFP) in Beijing. South Korea stopped food deliveries two months ago, after Pyongyang admitted...

SEOUL: South Korean activists on Sunday attacked the White House computer server with electronic mail bombs to protest the aquittal of two US soldiers accused of killing two schoolgirls in a road accident. Meanwhile four people were arrested breaking into a US army base and riot police were stopped 300 protestors from marching on the American embassy in Seoul. South Korean hackers and Internet users launched the bombs at the server at 0300 GMT, an activist said. But the cyber attack was "largely ineffective due to an advanced filtering system at the White House," he said, vowing to stage a...

SEOUL — A 12-minute video released on the Internet shows several confused and frenetic scenes among a South Korean crowd, South Korean police and three U.S. soldiers who say they were mobbed by protesters on Saturday. View the video at: http://voiceofpeople.org/tv/movie/020914_usarmy.wmv The sometimes jerky and fast-paced footage shows two soldiers running to the guarded entrance of a university hospital, an apologetic and clearly distressed third soldier at a hospital bedside, and South Korean riot police sparring with South Korean protesters. “I’m sorry. I’m very sorry. I’m very sorry. I’m sorry,” says Pvt. John Murphy to Suh Kyung-won, a former South...