Loose change for March 17, 2010

 Economic news 

• The Joongang Daily has a report on how ActiveX, the bane of international users of the Korean Interwebs, is gaining attention as a costly problem for Korean companies.
• The ROK government is going to up the amount of resources available to help South Korean youth get jobs overseas — because Lord knows they're not finding them at home.

 North Korea news and stuff 

• Writing in the Chosun Ilbo, Kang Cholhwan highlights the recent case of Robert Park, saying that North Korean interrogators are turning to sexual abuse and seduction as a means to get what they want. I'll take the latter, thank you. (Sexual abuse is a serious issue, but I'm much less sympathetic if someone willingly walked into North Korea and had his feelings hurt when they tried to seduce him with sexy women.)

 Other Korea-related stuff 

• The Joongang Daily has an article focusing on "art on a natural canvas," also known as tattooing and also generally illegal in South Korea. 

• Ahead of President Lee's visit to Japan, Tokyo is being urged to announce compensation for the so-called "Comfort Women," those forced into sex slavery to service Imperial Japanese soldiers. With the LDP out of power — and a sympathetic ear found in PM Hatoyama — this actually has a chance to go through. The Korea Herald, however, is not optimistic, and the Chosun Ilbo says Tokyo should "come clean" about past deals.

 Americana and miscellany 

• Retired Air Force Lt General A.P. Clark, the commander who was captured by the Nazis and led a celebrated breakout of a German POW camp that was the inspiration for the film The Great Escape, has died at the age of ninety-six.  
• The Los Angeles Times has a focus on the US Board on Geographic Names, which deals with requests for name changes of American geographic features. Interestingly, one of them is to change "Gulf of Mexico" to "Gulf of America."
• The House of Representatives may try to pass health care without voting on it — er, without voting on it again. That is, they might use a legitimate but infrequently used procedure to move through the Senate bill.
• The Angels Flight funicular in downtown Los Angeles, dubbed "the smallest railway in the world," is back in business after being shutdown following a fatal accident in 2001.