Daily Kor for February 24, 2010

Sometimes the Lee administration — actually the entire Hannara Party — seems to get its playbook from conservative Republicans. Indeed, there are some similarities, particularly the hardline policy on North Korea, but it seems that this means also that very American Republican issues are being grafted onto the Korean context where they're not necessarily the best match.

Two issues below — abortion restrictions in South Korea's don't-ask-don't-tell wink-and-nod de facto abortion legality and the steady march toward banning the death penalty — seem to be out of place in South Korean society today.

1. ROK and US nuclear envoys each meet with Chinese counterpart in Beijing to discuss six-party talks (AP via WaPo, Yonhap)
2. South Africa tells UN Security Council it intercepted North Korean arms shipment headed for central Africa in November 2009 (Reuters via WaPo)
3. South Korea opens multicultural prison in Chonan specifically for foreign convicts (BBC, Korea Herald)
4. ROK Constitutional Court to decide whether to keep death penalty in criminal code (Yonhap, Korea Herald)
5. Doctors caught performing illegal abortions three times to lose membership in Korean Association of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (Korea Times)
6. Hyundai Heavy Industries signs $1.4 billion deal to develop gas facilities in Myanmar (Korea Herald)
7. International urban design conference opens in Seoul (Yonhap)
8. South Korean exports expected to rise 20 to 30% in first quarter of 2009 (Yonhap)
9. Government opposed to state-run firms raising retirement age (Korea Times)
10. SUNY Stony Brook opens IT research facility in Inchon (Korea Herald)
11. Spending on private education rose in 2009, despite government efforts to rein it in (Yonhap)

12. Canada's loss to US in ice hockey "inevitable result of failed universal health care," says Utah's Orrin Hatch in proposed Senate resolution (AP via WaPo)