Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Korea news links for October 28, 2009: Putting the "careen" in Carina

It's been a quiet week in Lake Wobegon. Well, for a minute there it seemed Japan had declared undeclared war on South Korea, smashing one of its destroyers into a ROK freighter, but there were no casualties and the Defense Minister apologized expressed regret, so everyone's happy. Well, everyone except a pig farmer from the southern peninsula, who is so disgusted with South Korea, he defected to the north.

  1. Japanese destroyer accidentally rams South Korean freighter in strait between Kyushu and Honshu; damage to both ships reported, but only minor injuries (NYT, AFP, AP via WaPo, Japan Times)
  2. South Korean pig farmer makes way across heavily armed DMZ to defect to North Korea (links here)
  3. South Koreans go to the polls today in parliamentary by-elections (Yonhap)
  4. South Korea posts a $4.2 billion trade surplus in September, double in September (Yonhap, WSJ)
  5. North Korean diplomat Ri Gun and US diplomats, meeting at a conference in La Jolla, California, hold a "frank but friendly" talk (Bloomberg)
  6. Meeting in Korea, ICANN to announce multilingual Internet address system for websites, including Korean (Chosun Ilbo)
  7. In gesture to US President Obama ahead of his November visit to China, Beijing says it will search for victims of the Guangdong crash of a US Air Force B-29 bomber on an unknown mission that occurred in the opening months of the Korean War (AP via WaPo, Reuters)
  8. As efforts begin for nationwide immunization and ROK health officials appeal for calm, four more South Koreans, two senior citizens, a 26-year-old woman, and a 43-year-old woman, die from H1N1 "swine flu" complications, bringing total to 29 (Yonhap)
  9. Bank of Korea reports that consumer confidence is at an all-time high (Joongang Daily)
  10. High-ranking North Korean defector tells Washington think tank that Kim family succession won't work (Reuters)
  11. Chinese consulate in Houston apologizes for "unwarranted disruption by unaffiliated persons" of a rally aimed at seeking the release of death-row inmate Melvin Tibbs (Dallas Morning News)

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