Monday, May 28, 2012

Daily Kor for Monday, May 28, 2012: Memorial Day edition

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On this Memorial Day (in Korea, but not yet here in the US), I'd like to highlight a bit of somewhat Korea-related news: the final voyage of the USS Iowa. The decommissioned battleship that saw action in World War II and the Korean War has set sail (figuratively) for its final destination in Los Angeles, where it will become a museum.

As anyone who has visited Pearl Harbor can attest, military vessels-turned-museum pieces are very cool. In Honolulu we have the USS Missouri (which I haven't visited yet) and the Bowfin (a WWII-era submarine which I finally got to see a year ago with a group of Japanese tourists). On Memorial Day, however, I will be returning to Magic Island for the annual lantern floating festival. I guess this is Buddha's Birthday weekend, so that is a nice tie-in.
  1. North Korean state media reiterate claim that drought conditions are imperiling rice crop (UPI, Korea Herald)
    • Rodong Shinmun urges North Koreans to use every ounce of water possible to irrigate rice paddies (Yonhap)
  2. Saudi Arabian Mining Company awards $1.5 billion aluminum refinery contract to Hyundai Engineering & Construction (Reuters)
  3. Land & Transport Ministry says construction firms with record of bribery will receive penalty points in future government contract bidding (Yonhap
  4. Visitors to Yeosu Expo during three-day Buddha's Birthday weekend break 100K-per-day visitor mark for first time on Sunday (Yonhap)
  5. Twenty-year-old South Korean student Jin Kwon-young is "highest ranking undergraduate" at Harvard University commencement ceremony (Yonhap, Korea Times, Korea Herald)
    • With no intended irony whatsoever, Jane Han of the Korea Times writes about why US colleges reject Korean applicants, concluding that "in the eyes of admissions officers, students from Korea look as if they came off an assembly line"
  6. Korea Republic wins spot in women's volleyball at upcoming London Olympics (AP via WaPo)
  7. North Korea's Real Doll factory goes into full production (Xinhua)

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