Daily Kor for Friday, June 10, 2011

I've been living in Seoul off and on since I was a teenager, and I recall way back when leftist activists were killing themselves by jumping off buildings or lighting themselves on fire. That always seemed like such a horrific tactic. But while I could understand it for something emotional like democracy, I never got it for something like, say, tuition increases or suppression of union activity (story #3). The cynic in me thinks that such people are egged on by the upper echelons of their hierarchy, and if it turned out that they were actually "pushed," it wouldn't surprise me one bit. Okay, rant over.

On a more positive note, I wonder what would happen if the North Korean taekwondo athletes visiting America's most historic metropolises (story #7) were to run into Sarah Palin on her maybe-maybe-not presidential campaign. Maybe she'll have a nice long chat with them about muskets and horses, since she has a bit more free time than she'd planned.

1. Pyongyang threatens to disclose recorded conversations with Seoul officials in which the latter supposedly begged for a high-level summit and offered bribes (AP via WaPo, Yonhap, Korea Times, Joongang Daily)
2. Prosecutors indict twelve players and others, most from Taejŏn Citizens, in widespread match-fixing scandal that has rocked Korean soccer (Reuters, BBC, Korea Times, Joongang Daily)
3. Hyundai halts production of Sonata and Grandeur/Azera after worker in Asan commits suicide in protest of suppression of union activities (AFP, Reuters, Yonhap, Korea Times, Korea Herald)
4. Producer prices rise at annual rate of 6.2 percent in May, the slowest rate in four months (Bloomberg, Yonhap)
5. Credit card spending up 21.1 percent in May from a year earlier due to rise in prices and increases in online shopping (Yonhap)
6. Responding to criticisms from President Lee Myungbak, Health Ministry allows twenty-eight over-the-counter medications available only at pharmacies to be sold in supermarkets and convenience stores (Joongang Daily) 
7. North Korean taewondo athletes visit the US cities of Boston, New York, and Philadelphia (Yonhap)

8. On the Philadelphia leg of her One Nation bus tour, former Governor Sarah Palin explains to a young visitor that the Liberty Bell was used by a popular taquería chain to trick the British into making a run for the border (UPI)