They're coming to port! Hide the women... er, the men!

I couldn't help but chuckle out loud at the headline in the Korea Times: 'Love Boat' for Gays to Dock in Busan. I don't know what was funnier, that they awkwardly exoticized as a "Love Boat for gays" or that the headline sounded not-so-vaguely like a warning.

The Korea Herald carried the same story — "Cruise ship with 710 gay men aboard to call at Busan port" — which also sounded a bit like an admonition to stay away. Be afraid. Be very afraid.

Except that the real reason that's so prominent in the KT and the KH is that South Korean society — or at least the youth culture — is increasingly curious or admiring of homosexuality culture, looking at gay culture as hip, cool, and worth emulating... up to a point.

Whether that spells acceptance of actual gay friends or colleagues is an entirely different matter in this country that invented "don't ask, don't tell" when it comes to one's own sexual orientation. That seems to me to very different from the overt homophobic violence that has been commonplace in many parts of the West, even in much of the US today, but it's not acceptance and most gays probably feel compelled to hide that part of themselves from a lot (most?) people they know (not to mention that Korea is not free of violence toward homosexuals either).

Anyway, there's nothing really to quote from the articles since they're just straightforward news of their arrival and departure, which confirms my guess that this is a curiosity and — for the conservatives or the socially squeamish — a warning. I just wonder what they're expecting to happen in Pusan. Maybe they'll all be heading for the phallic-shaped tower.

Daily Kor for November 19, 2009: Summit edition

You'd better watch out (North Korea), you'd better not cry (chinboistas)... You'd better not pout (Korea business leaders pushing for ratification of the FTA), I'm telling you why... O~bama is coming to town!

For the first time since President George W. Bush took office in 2001, we have a US president and a ROK president who are mostly sort of on the same page. And this comes at a time when Tokyo is the ally that's giving Washington a headache. Interesting things afoot.

As the first few links suggest, North Korea and the FTA will be dominant subjects. Maybe for the first time in a while, USFK won't be a hot topic. And that's prolly a good thing.

Meanwhile we have no progress on the cause of the fire in Pusan, with one more death coming from that. The captain of the North Korean tanker was apparently killed, but for some reason this topic just isn't playing out in the K-blogs. If it doesn't involve boobies or evil hagwons, people just aren't interested.

1. US President Obama arrives in Seoul for summit with ROK President Lee Myungbak (LAT, UPI, CNN, Yonhap)
• Obama vows to pass KORUS FTA sometime in 2010 (links here)
• Visit seen as chance to quell trade concerns (Bloomberg, AP via WaPo, Yonhap)
• Coordinating efforts to deal with North Korea seen as top priority (WaPo, WSJ, AP via WaPo, AFP, Reuters via WaPo, Joongang Daily)
• Obama and Lee seek to accentuate the positives of improving ROK-US relationship (AP via WaPo)
• Democratic Congressman Sander Levin from Michigan says South Korea demand "major changes" to FTA for it to pass (Bloomberg)
• ROK business organizations call for swift approval of FTA (Yonhap)
2. Eighteen more fatalities bring South Korea's H1N1 death toll up to eighty-two; total includes 69 "high-risk" patients (Korea Times, Yonhap, Korea Herald)
3. Death toll from fire at indoor shooting range in Pusan rises to eleven as a fourth South Korean succumbs to severe burns (UPI, Yonhap); police still unable to ascertain cause of blaze (Korea Times)
4. South Korea to disclose identity of convicted pedophiles starting in 2010 (AFP, Korea Times, Korea Times op-ed)
5. North Korean captain of hijacked chemical tanker carrying crew of 28 from DPRK reportedly dead from gunshot wounds sustained in attack (links here)
6. South Korea rules out imminent resumption of North Korea tours (Yonhap, Korea Herald)
7. Apple passes final hurdles for South Korean sales of iPhone in the near future (links here)
8. Sale of a controlling stake in Daewoo Engineering & Construction draws three unidentified bidders (Reuter via Forbes)
9. Japan denies Asahi Shimbun report that PM Yukio Hatoyama is planning a trip to North Korea to discuss nuclear disarmament and abducted Japanese (Bloomberg)
10. Rice farmers rally for resumption of food aid to North Korea (Korea Times)
11. Labor Ministry report says women empowerment still unacceptably low; salary of female workers stands at 70% that of male workers (Korea Times)
12. National Tax Service launches crackdown on offshore tax evaders (Korea Times)
13. South Korea loses to Serbia, 0-1, in World Cup warm-up in West London (ESPN)
14. US President Obama issues abject apology to Japanese Emperor for America using embargoes to force resource-poor Japan into war; the truth of modern Japanese history is now restored (Sankei Shimbun)

Ten dead, including seven Japanese tourists, in Pusan fire

In Pusan [부산/釜山, aka Busan], Yonhap is reporting that at least ten people, including seven Japanese visitors and their Korean guide, were killed when a fire raced through the building they were in (Reuters story here). Both Yonhap and Reuters are calling the venue an "indoor shooting range," but the sign on the front says 골프연습장, which might be one of those computerized golf rooms.

On the other hand, an actual shooting range could be above or below that (such things are popular with Japanese tourists here in Hawaii).

I don't want to jump to conclusions, but we've all experienced closed-in and cramped businesses with inadequate or blocked fire exits. Tragedies like this just waiting to happen.