Stay classy, Joey.

A few days ago I saw in the Los Angeles Times the story of an eighteen-year-old Korean-American student at USC who had died after suddenly passing out in her dorm room. It caught my eye in part because the woman's name is similar to that of a friend's younger sibling.

While it was not her, the tragedy of the story gripped me nonetheless, and in my head I played out possible scenarios of causation, including alcohol poisoning and the object lessons this. (For the record, the article lists no cause for the death nor any reason to speculate drugs, alcohol, or any other self-inflicted cause; I only thought of that possibility because of empirical knowledge with such outcomes.)

With binge drinking an unfortunately prominent activity in South Korea and among some Koreans outside of South Korea, the K-blogosphere is always ripe for a fresh warning of the signs of alcohol poisoning (see the latter half of this post), so I went back a few days later to check on updates on the story. Still no updates, but in the comments section I found something entirely different that compelled me to write about it anyway.

From commenter "Joey":

this is horrible. I didn't know fan death existed in America too! My heart goes out to her family.

Well, Joey, your heart apparently doesn't go out to her family enough for you to forgo taking a wholly gratuitous dig at South Koreans in an article about their loved one's tragic death. I mean, really, Joey? You're just adding impishly imbecilic insult to unfathomable injury by your glib comment. ("Joey's" comment was only one of eight, so it wouldn't be hard to notice.)

It really makes me wonder what makes some people tick. What kind of people possess such antagonism toward Koreans that they ignore the humanity of their target group? I was all set to write a post on Internet anonymity in light of this New York Times article, with a requisite nod to this Marmot's Hole post from 2006 that suggests a concomitant problem among South Korean netizens, when along came this object lesson.

In the pantheon of insensitive anonymous drive-bys on the Internet, "Joey's" isn't all that outrageous. It wasn't nearly as egregious as what happened in this post about the brutal rape and murder of a Korean-American woman in Los Angeles, which quickly deteriorated into a maelstrom of bigotry and lewdness which saw long-time troll Mizar outed in the worst of ways (I explain this in more detail here).

But just imagine what these people's families or friends might feel when one of them inevitably runs across this crude response to their cherished one's death. Imagine how you might feel?

Hey, LG! Need a recognized celebrity with a famous face to do an endorsement?

How about Charles Manson? He'll apparently do anything to get his hands on an LG flip phone.

Maybe someone should slip him an iPad and put him on a "Think Different" billboard.

Yee ha! Free Trade Agreement re-agreed!

Good news for President Obama, President Lee, most folks in South Korea, loads of folks in the United States, and me (and probably you, too).

From AP, via WaPo:

The U.S. and South Korea have reached an agreement on a free trade deal sought by the Obama administration to boost American exports and create tens of thousands of U.S. jobs in the largest trade pact in more than a decade.

Negotiators reached a deal on outstanding issues related to the automobile industry, which have been a sticking point in the talks, said a person close to the discussions. The person spoke on condition of anonymity in advance of an official White House announcement.

South Korea is agreeing to allow the U.S. to lift a 2.5 percent tariff on Korean cars in five years, instead of cutting the tariff immediately. The agreement also allows each U.S. automaker to export 25,000 cars to South Korea as long as they meet U.S. federal safety standards and allows the U.S. to continue a 25 percent tariff on trucks for eight years and then phase it out by the 10th year. South Korea would be required to eliminate its 10 perent tariff on U.S. trucks immediately.

The "chicken tax" (the US's anachronistic 25% tariff on imported pickup trucks) still stands, and that could mean no Bongo trucks in Middle America, while the streets of Seoul will be filled with Hillbilly Hummers (aka, the Ford F150). Yee ha, indeed.

And of course, this doesn't mean we're out of the woods yet. While Obama will probably have little real problem getting the FTA through a Republican-dominated House of Representatives and a barely Democratic-controlled Senate, President Lee will face the full force of the chinboistas and maybe the dung-flinging farmers (who are not entirely chinboista-sympathetic) when he tries to get it through the National Assembly. After all, their voice is their only veto.

This could get as big as the Mad Cow candlelight madness of 2008. Expect it to get at least as ugly as the protests against the Chile-Korea FTA (which often saw more farmers than chinboista).

More on the FTA agreement having been reached over at The Marmot's Hole, where a lively discussion will no doubt ensue.

Bomb, bomb, bomb... Bomb, bomb Pyongyang

The latest tough-talker in the talking tough parade is Kim Kwanjin, the Minister of Defense-designate, talking tough at his parliamentary confirmation hearings.

From the Los Angeles Times:

President Lee Myung-bak's choice for new defense minister said Friday that South Korean jets will bomb North Korea if Pyongyang stages an attack similar to last week's deadly artillery barrage.

The tough words came as Lee's government suffered intense criticism that the response to the North's Nov. 23 shelling on a South Korean island was weak, and over a stunning revelation that the South's spy chief dismissed information in August indicating North Korea might attack the front-line island.

Lee's nominee, Kim Kwan-jin, told a parliamentary confirmation hearing that North Korean aggression will result in airstrikes. He said South Korea will use all its combat capabilities to retaliate.

"In case the enemy attacks our territory and people again, we will thoroughly retaliate to ensure that the enemy cannot provoke again," Kim said. The hearing is a formality as South Korea's National Assembly does not have the power to reject Lee's appointment.

Yeah, I'll believe it when I see it. Such talk is dangerously cheap, and apparently very easy to come by. Why, take a look at what was said in December last year, months before the Ch'ŏnan was sunk and Yŏnpyŏng-do [Yeonpyeong] was shelled:

Tensions have remained high in the Yellow Sea since a brief but intense gunfight on November 10 left a North Korean patrol boat in flames. There were deadly naval gunbattles there in 1999 and 2002.

The South's navy expressed regret at its neighbour's announcement [that North Korea would open fire in the "disputed" waters south of the NLL] and pledged it would "sternly" handle any provocations.

"We express grave concern as the threat ... raises unnecessary tension between the Koreas," a statement said late Monday.

"Our military is fully prepared to protect the NLL and it will sternly respond to North Korea's provocations."

Is "thoroughly retaliate" the new "sternly respond"? We're only encouraging further escalation if we talk tough but do nothing.

The link from last year is from the December 22, 2010, Daily Kor, which fell on National Haiku Day, so all the day's headlines were in haiku form. This was the headline from that story:

To the NLL

sails the dauntless ROK* Navy

Defend it, they shall 

* pronounced "rock" for that perfect 5-7-5 structure

Inspired by this very Zen-like circular repetition of the events of the world, here's a haiku for today:

New Min-Def says we,

"will muster more than bluster!"

Just more empty words?

Yeah, yeah, Kushibo. Don't quit your day job.

FTA negotiations: "Cows and cars" is now just cars?

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that automobile tariffs are the last remaining sticking point in the renegotiations of the negotiations on the KORUS Free Trade Agreement:

U.S. and South Korean negotiators meeting to revive a stalled trade pact are down to one main sticking point, say people familiar with this week's negotiations—leaving the biggest U.S. free-trade deal in nearly two decades hinging on an economically negligible but politically potent issue.

The deal now comes down to whether South Korea will agree to give the U.S. four or five years to phase out the 2.5% tariff it levies on Korean-built cars, these people say, rather than cutting the tariff immediately, as Seoul has sought.

The article notes that normal currency fluctuations — like when something bad happens in China and then a day or so later when investors realize that South Korea is not in China — can themselves make such a small percentage irrelevant.

And here's an enthusiastic hat tip to Ben Muse and his Korea-US FTA blog, which has been doing a fine job of keeping up with the latest news while I've been preoccupied with schoolwork and Yŏnpyŏng-dong. Always happy to support a fellow Freak Stater.

UPDATE:
And the FTA renegotiations have succeeded!

Kate Bosworth schools America on the tough lives of Korean celebrities

The uber-cute Kate Bosworth is making the rounds, promoting her upcoming cowboys-and-ninja movie The Warrior's Way, in which she stars with Korean heartthrob and Taegŭkki: The Brotherhood of War star Jang Dong-gun [chang tonggŏn, 장동건].

This includes a stop on the show of some woman I've never seen nor heard of, to talk about her co-star who is "the Brad Pitt of Korea*."



The above video is just a teaser, and it's not the most sophisticated of Korean social commentary, but it would explain why we have so few celebrities in South Korea, say, showing off their red mango.

Gotta say, I've liked Kate Bosworth ever since Blue Crush, and she comes across as hella smarter than Jessica Simpson.

* I'm reminded of a line by Lisa Simpson: "Anything that's the 'something of something' isn't really the anything of anything." Not that I'm knocking Jang Dong-gun, whose choice of Romanizing his name — dong gun — is about as phallically powerful a celebrity/newsmaker moniker I've heard since Dick Pound. 

Did ROK military actually kick some butt during Yŏnpyŏng-do attack?

With much of the South Korean public angry that North Korea seems to have gotten away with murder, perhaps it was a good time for the Ministry of Defense to trot out some satellite pictures that painted a less one-sided picture of North Korea's attack on the South Korean island of Yŏnpyŏng-do [Yeonpyeong] last month.

From AFP:

Satellite images indicate North Korea might have suffered considerable casualties when South Korea returned fire after the North shelled its frontline island last week, a lawmaker said Thursday.

The National Intelligence Service (NIS) presented to parliament an image taken by the South's own satellite and another one collected by an unidentified foreign commercial satellite.

Kwon Yong-Se, a ruling party lawmaker who chairs the intelligence committee, told reporters after the presentation that about 10 shells landed near the North's military positions on Mudo island.

The South's shells mostly landed between two clusters of barracks about 100 metres (330 feet) apart and some came close to one of the clusters.

"One of the shells hit the rear of the barracks. It is possible to assume considerable casualties occurred," Kwon said.

In light of the fact that the impact circle of the South's indigenous K-9 self-propelled guns is 50 metres, the impact is believed to have been considerable, Kwon said.

To my knowledge, North Korea has given no indication of whether it suffered any casualties or damage whatsoever, so a lot of this seems speculative.

And while indiscriminate shelling of barracks may not have been the most strategic of responses (or the most ethical, I suppose), it would (if true) send a message to the Pyongyang regime that they cannot emerge from such brazen attacks unscathed.

And that would be serious if they actually cared about the little people even in their own country.

No World Cup in South Korea in 2022

"The way things are going, we're not even sure they'll still be there," said FIFA.

Ah, just kidding. But FIFA did take a look at South Korea's bid, with its message that a Korea World Cup in 2022 could reduce regional tensions, and they decided it would be easier to achieve peace in the Middle East.

Qatar got the 2022 games, making it the first time the games will be hosted in the Middle East.

From Bloomberg:

Qatar will host the 2022 World Cup, overcoming concerns about high temperatures and lack of infrastructure to become the first Arab country to hold the most-watched sporting event.

Soccer ruling body FIFA announced the decision in Zurich today. The U.S., Australia, Japan and South Korea were the unsuccessful candidates. Russia was chosen to host the 2018 edition. The U.S. estimates that the tournament is worth $5 billion to the hosts.

Qatar, projected by the International Monetary Fund to have the world’s fastest-growing economy this year, plans to more than double the number of hotel rooms, build nine stadiums and refurbish three others and construct a rail and metro network for the tournament.

“It will probably be the fastest-growing economy in the world for a sustained period,” said Akber Khan, a director at Al Rayan Investment in Doha. The World Cup “will significantly accelerate massive infrastructure building in Qatar.”

Well, of course it will. Because a country with 1/30th population of South Korea probably doesn't have all those soccer stadiums in the desert left over from any previous global sporting event. Maybe they'll share with the neighbors, like Korea did with Japan in 2002.

Seriously, though, it will be nice to see the potential for regional cooperation at work in that volatile part of the world.

Pets left on Yŏnpyŏng-do being tended by animal welfare groups

I thought this Reuters story was kinda touching:

Hungry dogs and cats roaming the streets of the remote South Korean island shelled by North Korea last week, some of them injured, are being fed and tended to by animal welfare groups. ...

Most of the 1,600 residents of mountainous Yeonpyeong have fled, leaving their pets behind, but animal welfare groups have taken them food and administered first aid.

"We helped dogs with serious cuts from shell splinters," Park So-yeon, a member of Coexistence of Animal Rights on Earth (CARE), told broadcaster YTN Tuesday.

"We also saved dogs with broken legs and little dogs attacked by other stray dogs."

Television footage showed a dog snapping eagerly at food on a street scattered with shattered glass and lined with damaged buildings. Others ate from bowls set inside doghouses.

Island residents said there were an estimated 200 dogs and cats on the island. Animal welfare workers said they had helped about 50 dogs and 10 cats so far.

"If you abandon dogs, and they produce puppies without peoples' care, they will become wild dogs. Then you will have to cope with a social problem with many stray dogs all around Yeonpyeong," said Jo Hee-kyong, head of the Korean Society for Animal Freedom.

While I have no doubt that some of the dogs on Yŏnpyŏng-do are poorly treated by North American standards (e.g., tied on short leashes, not getting out to walk, or even whacked on the head occasionally by inconsiderate owners), there has been a sea change in terms of attitudes toward pets. The fact that they're trying to rescue cats underscores that very point (not only because the animal rights folks are concerned about cats, but especially that there are people on the island who own them — the traditional folklore about cats sucking up the souls of recently departed people made them to freaky for most people to keep as pets up until recently).

This dog is okay; it's just sunning itself. Seriously.

World Cups

In a sign that maybe we're not really going to war with North Korea, Paraguayan model Larissa Riquelme (see here and here) has flown all the way to Seoul to go on three dates with three lucky men. [HT to KB]

"I traveled all the way across the Pacific and all I got was
sexually harassed by some stupid ajŏshi dropping a cell phone down
this lousy shirt."

I'm theorizing that this woman's immense popularity may stem from English-challenged Netizens imagining that "Riquel" in Riquelme refers to something nasty she's asking to have done to herself.

"Riquel me, baby! Riquel me hard!" Well, it makes sense in my head.

US-ROK naval exercises end; War profiteers complain drills were anticlimactic

Okay, we've apparently averted another war. At least for the next few weeks or so, when the ROK and US are thinking of planning some more exercises.

PBS Newshour on the WikiLeaks diplomatic cable dump

PBS's Newshour is, in my opinion, the single best layperson's source of comprehensive, objective, nonpartisan, and dispassionate analysis of the important political, economic, and social issues facing the United States (and much of the world). That, Sesame Street, and low-calorie cranberry-walnut muffin recipes is why we should support public broadcasting.

But I digress. The purpose of this post is to point you toward two Newshour pieces on the recent WikiLeaks dump of some quarter million diplomatic cables, something I've written about elsewhere at Monster Island (e.g., China's attitude toward North Korea and Tea Party Nation wanting to assassinate the WikiLeaks founder). Needless to say, the leak has a lot of people up in arms, including Secretary of State Hillary Clinton:

Let's be clear: This disclosure is not just an attack on America's foreign policy interests. It is an attack on the international community, the alliances and partnerships, the conversations and negotiations that safeguard global security and advance economic prosperity.

Now, I'm aware that some may mistakenly applaud those responsible, so I want to set the record straight.

There is nothing laudable about endangering innocent people, and there is nothing brave about sabotaging the peaceful relations between nations.

Well, it's hard to tell from her facial expression that she's actually up in arms, but her eyes were a bit wider and her voice slightly sterner, so I'm going to run with that.


The first Newshour piece provides a good overview that will bring you up to speed. Even if you're familiar with the issue, it's a good listen/viewing that includes a snippet of an interview with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who is not an American, explaining his motivation:

I'm a combative person. So, I like crushing bastards. It is deeply personally — personally, deeply satisfying to me.

Truly. Madly. Deeply.


The second Newshour piece includes discussion with Zbigniew Brzezinski, former National Security Adviser under President Jimmy Carter who now works at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, and Stephen Hadley, who had the same job under President George W. Bush and is now at the United States Institute of Peace.

Mr Brzezinski at one point suggested that this might be "catastrophic but not serious," but he also suggested the ominous possibility that anti-US spy agencies may have been spoon-feeding Mr Assange information designed to embarrass the US and its allies in adversarial governments and/or disrupt its policies:

It's not a question of worry. It's, rather, a question of whether WikiLeaks are being manipulated by interested parties that want to either complicate our relationship with other governments or want to undermine some governments, because some of these items that are being emphasized and have surfaced are very pointed.

And I wonder whether, in fact, there aren't some operations internationally, intelligence services, that are feeding stuff to WikiLeaks, because it is a unique opportunity to embarrass us, to embarrass our position, but also to undermine our relations with particular governments.

For example, leaving aside the personal gossip about Sarkozy or Berlusconi or Putin, the business about the Turks is clearly calculated in terms of its potential impact on disrupting the American-Turkish relationship.

On that note, instead of seeing the WikiLeaks dump as a wake-up call to North Korea (as I wrote in the post linked above), he believes the revelations about Chinese leaders' attitudes toward North Korea may have been intended to hurt the US and its relationship with China:

Well, for example, there are references to a report by our officials that some Chinese leaders favor a reunified Korea under South Korea.

This is clearly designed to embarrass the Chinese and our relationship with them.

I don't know if Mr Brzezinski is being too cynical and paranoid, or if I'm just not being enough. If North Korea reacts to the revelations in the WikiLeaks dump by taking an even harder-line approach and resisting most or all of Beijing's efforts to rein it in, then maybe he's on to something.

Tea Party Nation founder on WikiLeaks: Kill him!

One of the things I take away from the Tea Party movement is that it seems so emotional, so disjointed, and so contradictory at times. Okay, I get the idea of less government intrusion, but it so often seems that any government action — even limiting unhealthy foods in public schools — is seen as assailing some God-given right to be obstinate, uninformed, or just plain stupid.

And those contradictions... It's almost as if the Tea Party movement is some magic box that can be anything you want it to be. Or worse, it can be molded into anything that political players behind the scenes want it to be.

The People have Spok! And we're not giving him back
until you meet our list of illogical demands.

And with that in mind, I give you a Tea Party Nation piece by Tea Party Nation founder Judson Phillips on the recent WikiLeaks dump of diplomatic cables, something about which I myself have expressed ambivalence:

Some of the leaked documents identify people in Iraq and Afghanistan that have helped the United States. In some instances, their addresses are given or even GPS coordinates of their houses have been released.

If none of these people have been killed yet, it is only a matter of time.

And now, it is time to tell Assange that we expect him to die.

Some will scream, this is horrible.

No it isn’t.

First, Assange is not an American citizen. He is not entitled to any of the protections of the United States Constitution. He has aided and abetted our enemies. He is encouraging others to leak classified information.

Killing Assange sends a message. Under American law, there is a theory called deterrence. Why don’t I go out and kill someone I really don’t like? Ignoring all other issues, the simple fact that I would spend the rest of my life in prison is enough to convince me killing someone is a bad idea.

Killing Assange sends a message. You are not going to make cyber war on America, which is basically what has happened here.

There are some, even within this movement, who think the United States should have no secrets. That is lunacy. Our country has secrets for a very good reason. We need them. We cannot publish on the front page of USA Today that our diplomats think that the leader of a country is a fool, or that we have bugged their military headquarters or that certain members of the Taliban are actually providing us with information.

We have secrets and we have them for a reason.

Unfortunately, we do not have an American President right now or even people in top leadership in this country that are patriotic or even care about the country. After all, from Obama (releasing the number of nuclear weapons we have) to the Justice Department (allowing our classified interrogation methods to be released), they all support weakening this country.

Assange has nothing to worry about for the moment. But in two years, there will be another administration coming into office. Then, if I were Jullian Assange, I would be very worried.

Never mind that Mr Assange is merely the face of the operation and not the operation itself. This Tea Partier, presumably someone who believes that government intrusion in our lives is generally a bad thing, wants the government (or someone working in support of the government) to go kill someone to send a message. Whiskey, tango, fu¢k!

Fortunately, cooler heads prevail among what I would hope are the true Tea Party thinkers, those who apply the less-intrusion principles more consistently. Bill Haney has this to say:

Hold on! Haven't we all believed, all along, that our government has been lying to us? Don't these documents prove that? All of this is right in line with what many of us have suspected for a long time, but now we have proof in black and white. Let's not threaten him nor celebrate him, but make every effort to root out the evil in our government and return it to the people. These revelations provide us the evidence that we need to overhaul those "public servants" and make them responsive to us.

I'm not sure I'd vote for Bill Haney for national office, but he sounds like a far more sensible person than the founder of Tea Party Nation.