Is the mainstream media finally coming around on "The Kim Who Wasn't There"?

[originally posted here and here]

As someone who has long insisted (please read link first) that the ascension of Kim Jong-un, the son of Dear Leader Kim Jong-il, is not the done deal that it has been made out to be in the press, I am tickled that the Washington Post and the New York Times are finally recognizing that they may have collectively jumped the gun. From the NYT:

When he was introduced to the public in September, Kim Jong-un appeared destined to succeed his father, Kim Jong-il, as the leader of the irascible, destitute and nuclear-armed nation. But a growing number of experts in Seoul are beginning to question whether he has been fully certified, despite his elevation to high military rank and the urgency created by his father’s poor health.

“There are some minor but real reasons to ask if we are rushing our judgment about Kim Jong-un,” said Andrei Lankov, a professor and North Korea expert at Kookmin University in Seoul.

“The regime seems to be making preparations for the succession, but they haven’t reached the point of no return,” Mr. Lankov said. “Next year, they could very well say, ‘Kim Jong- un? Oh, he’s just one of 20 other generals.’”

Certainly, the Kim family has worked hard to make the succession appear inevitable. Despite having had no field experience in the military, the youngman was made a four-star general Sept. 28. His father also gave him two powerful posts in the ruling Workers’ Party.

Father and son appeared together the following week, reviewing a military parade in Pyongyang. The parade was shown live by several foreign broadcasters, a first for the notoriously secretive nation.

What the cameras showed was a rotund young man with an uncanny physical resemblance to his grandfather, Kim Il-sung, the founder of North Korea. Jowls, smile, posture, tunic, haircut — all nearly identical, right down to the dainty and perfunctory way he clapped his hands.

But that is where the learning curve ended, and experts have been confounded by the younger Mr. Kim’s low profile in the ensuing months. Interviews with scholars, analysts, diplomats and recent refugees suggest that Mr. Kim, much like his country, largely remains a riddle. “We know more about distant galaxies than we do about North Korea,” a Western diplomat said privately.

A hundred days after his elevation, the regime’s powerful mythmaking apparatus has hardly mentioned the heir apparent, to the surprise of most North Korea watchers. Ordinary citizens seemingly know little about him, and his personal biography still contains the same large, unexplained gaps it has since he was first mentioned as a potential successor: he studied as a teenager in Switzerland, or so it seems; he speaks several languages, or maybe just the one; he’s married, or perhaps he’s single; he dearly loves his oldest brother, or has plotted with Chinese agents to have him killed.

To the surprise of many North Korea watchers? Well, not this one! I've been saying as much for four months.

And not Barbara Demick, who bravely admits she doesn't know what's going on (no one does), and who suggests that last fall's "coming out party" for Kim Jong-un to which the Western media was invited (which was actually a reaffirmation that Kim Jong-il is in charge) just means that "he's daddy's favorite."

I've been saying since September that the North Korean media reports (i.e., KCNA) do not match the picture being painted by the Western media — which is scrambling to report something on this guy they know nothing about and thus easily falls into the trap of reporting each other's speculations as factualistic and truthy — and by groups of brave North Korean defectors and rogue on-the-ground "journalists" (NOTE: I had inadvertently omitted that word when I first posted this) which inadvertently satiate a hungry know-nothing South Korean, Japanese, and Western media with stories they want to believe.

(Nor do the facts on the ground support a Kim Jong-un ascension. Kim Jong-il is still "healthy" — Western speculative reports of his imminent demise notwithstanding — and has been for some time, even though the Western media thought they could report him almost-dead to death. Meanwhile, the big story that's probably really happening is being largely ignored: that Beijing is pressuring Pyongyang to adopt economic reforms being followed in Northeast China that could alter the nature of the country and integrate the DPRK with neighboring Chinese provinces and make North Korea more palatable to the PRC leadership, what I am calling the Manchurianization of North Korea.)

If Kim Jong-un is to be made a leader that the North Korean people are expected to follow, the case will be made in the hagiographic pages of the official mouthpieces: the KCNA and the Rodong Shinmun. If he's not being deified there, then any claims that he has already been anointed should be questioned.

Anyway, I'm glad the NYT seems to be getting it now (and only several months later). I was also a little tickled by this sentence regarding the mystery surrounding Kim Jong-un's age:

It is still unclear whether he turned 28 or 29 on his birthday this Saturday.

Ha ha! Welcome to Korean age.

Daily Kor for January 7, 2011

I guess South Korea losing the hosting rights for the 2022 World Cup means that FIFA doesn't need Chung Mongjoon to kick around anymore, so he's gone. And Bosworth is gone, off to Beijing and hopefully not to make some deal with the Chinese that will undermine the the unusual resolve of Washington, Seoul, and Tokyo to stand together against Pyongyang's calculated belligerence.

The other big news — literally — is that Asiana Airlines is ordering some Airbus A380 Dreamliners. On the one hand, I wonder if they wouldn't possibly have bought some Boeing 787 aircraft instead, had the long delayed KORUS FTA already been in effect. On the other hand, I wonder if this means that Incheon International Airport will become even more of a hub when it necessarily has to expand in order to service these massive planes (LAX is spending some $1.1 billion for such improvements).

1. In FIFA vote, Chung Mongjoon loses vice-presidency to Jordan's Prince Ali Bin al-Hussein (WSJ, Yonhap, Korea Herald)
2. Seoul rejects Pyongyang's offer for unconditional talks to ease tensions as "propaganda" charm offensive (Reuters, AP via WaPo, BBC, Xinhua, Bloomberg)
1. US envoy Bosworth moves on to Beijing (WaPo, AP via WaPo, UPI)
3. National Police Agency says Google is illegally collecting email and other data from unsecured wireless networks in South Korea (AP via WaPo, Yonhap, Korea Times, Korea Herald, Joongang Daily)
4. Asiana Airlines purchases six Airbus A380 aircraft to be delivered between 2014 and 2017, at cost of US$1.78 billion (Reuters, AP via WaPo, Korea Times, Joongang Daily) 
5. Seventy thousand ROK troops to be deployed to fight spread of foot-and-mouth disease (Yonhap)
• South Korean quarantine authorities to begin vaccinations of animals (Yonhap)
6. Pyongchang completes bid file for 2018 Winter Olympics (Yonhap, Korea Times, Korea Herald)
7. Seoul City Council goes ahead with controversial plan free lunch for all students (Yonhap)
8. Bank of Korea to focus on price stability in 2011 (Yonhap)

9. Beijing admits pandas are just unemployed laborers in bear suits (AFP)

Hyundai and Kia are riding high, but Detroit has stepped up their game

Coming out of 2010, from which Hyundai and Kia emerged with a whopping 21.7% increase in sales from a year earlier, the other big story is that Detroit has finally surpassed its Japanese competition to regain the number-one slots. Part of this is the ugly truth that even at $3/gallon fuel, many Americans still want to drive meaty gas guzzlers, but another side of it is that American carmakers are responding to a skeptical market.

Oh, and then there is that other factor. While a couple years ago, Toyota Motors seemed unstoppable, it turns out that it was Toyotas themselves.

From the Los Angeles Times:

For the first time in years, American nameplates such as Chevrolet and Ford outsold the Toyota brand in the U.S.

Sales of trucks and sport utility vehicles, which are American manufacturers' bread and butter, are on the upswing. Rental companies and commercial fleets, which favor domestic products, have been doing some heavy buying.

"Another factor is that the domestics are bringing out strong new offerings in other segments," said Jeremy Anwyl, chief executive of Edmunds.com, the auto information company. "We have yet to see a coherent response from the Japanese.

"Toyota has had a brand image crisis, while Honda has taken a very conservative approach to market share," Anwyl said, and "may have left sales on the table."

Overall, Toyota Motor Corp. was the only major auto company to see sales decrease from 2009.

Well, if even Americans are starting to look at Chevys more favorably, maybe the plan to rebadge Korea-made GM Daewoo vehicles as Chevrolets isn't such a nonstarter after all. (Actually, I kinda like the idea, and it does remind me of way back when in Korea, when you could see Korea-made Fords plying the streets of Seoul.)

And speaking of Korean cars, this is what the above article had to say about Hyundai/Kia's changing fortunes:

Audi of America, Hyundai Motor Co. and its sister company, Kia Motors Corp., and Subaru of America all set U.S. sales records and gained market share despite the slow pace of auto sales overall. Volkswagen of America had its best year since 2003.

Analysts were impressed by the growth at South Korea's Hyundai and its Kia sibling. They sold a combined 894,496 vehicles in 2010, up 21.7% from the prior year and very close to Nissan's total of 908,570.

"We used to call the top makers the big six — the domestic three and the Japanese three — and now all of our analysis is based on the big seven and includes Hyundai," said Jesse Toprak, an analyst at TrueCar.com.

Hyundai has made the leap from a brand for people "who couldn't buy or afford anything else" to one that offers vehicles "people choose to buy based on the merits of the products," he said.

I think I'll print this out and post it in the window of my mother's Santa Fe.

Samsung Series 7 tablet an iPad killer

I had given serious thought to visiting this year's Computer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, since I would have been visiting relatives there anyway. But alas, Kushibo got too busy and was already too poor, so I stayed in Honolulu and roasted in 80° weather instead.

But had I gone, I might have seen Samsung's new Series 7 tablet, which looks like it is taking serious aim at the iPad.

From the Los Angeles Times:

Samung unveiled its Series 7 tablet at CES, featuring a slide-out, full-size keyboard and running Microsoft Windows 7.

The Series 7 tablet, with its keyboard, is looking to capture spending dollars from consumers who aren't sure whether they want a tablet or a netbook, offering a few features of each.

An almost iPad-sized 10.1-inch touch screen, with a resolution of 1366 x 768 pixels, sits on top of the tablet's keyboard, which, once exposed, allows the screen to lock into place, making the device look much like a netbook.

The truth is I wouldn't buy a non-Macintosh unless there were a way to run MacOS on it (and the nice folks at the Apple Store would somehow service it). In fact, my next computer will likely be an 11-inch MacBook Air, which satisfies my desire for an ultra-lite portable computer, as long as I still have my iMac back in the residential unit to act as a home base. But I had also considered getting an iPad and a bluetooth keyboard instead, and this latest from Samsung seems to have successfully melded some of the best aspects of those two experiences. Were I in the market for a Windows machine, this would be one I'd take a serious look at. And no, no one paid me to say that.

Daily Kor for January 6, 2011

In this image: Kids human rights being infringed upon.

That's right, teachers and administrators who decide that schools are a place of learning and that cell phones distract from that — even if used just during lunch period or recess (do Korean kids get recess?) — are violating their human rights, according to the National Human Rights Commission of Korea.

Kushibo is a traditionalist who believes that (a) kids don't need their cell phones and it's not infringement on their human rights to stop them from doing whatever the heck they want whenever they want and (b) cell phone games and communications even during lunch break can disrupt the learning process and normal social interactions. The only positive outcome I can see from cases like this is that they distract from the NHRCK's efforts to spread HIV infection across South Korea.

1. Japan to propose unprecedented military ties with South Korea (NYT, UPI, BBC, AFP, Joongang Daily, Chosun Ilbo, Donga Ilbo)
• South Korea wary on prospect (WSJ)
2. US envoy on North Korea arrives in South Korea to discuss possible resumption of negotiations and six-party talks (LAT, AP video, UPI)
• South Korea to propose conditions for resumption of talks (Yonhap, People's Daily, Korea Times)
3. North Korea calls for unconditional talks with South (AP via WaPo)
• South Korea rejects overture as not "sincere enough" (Bloomberg, WSJ)
4. Former President Kim Youngsam promises to donate all personal wealth to eponymous foundation (Yonhap, Korea Times, Joongang Daily)
5. State human rights council says student ban on using cell phones during non-class hours is infringes students' human rights (Yonhap) 
6. Foreign car sales jump 49 percent in 2010 (Korea Times)
7. Apartment prices in Seoul drop 2.9 percent in 2010 while chŏnse rises 7.2 percent (Joongang Daily)
8. New statistics show that economic gap between two Koreas remains wide (Yonhap, Joongang Daily)
• Kushibo's comment: Duh (Or doi, if you prefer)
9. Samsung announces record investment and hiring as it seeks chokehold global domination bigger share of pie (AP via WaPo)
10. Hyundai Steel hikes export prices (Reuters)
11. Hyundai Motors has best year ever in US in 2010 (Joongang Daily)
12. Cost of foot-and-mouth disease outbreak expected to reach W1 trillion won (Donga Ilbo)
13. Financial Supervisory Service to check check banks' exposure to project-financing loans amid concerns about weak domestic property market's impact on the financial sector (WSJ)
14. New report says South Korean military still gayest in the world (Jane's)

Daily Kor for January 4, 2011

The new year is looking very good. We've got the KOSPI at an all-time high, Kia and Hyundai riding a 10-percent rise and anticipating 10 percent more, and President Lee cautiously looking for a balance between diplomacy and strength as it deals with North Korea. All this good news in the first week of January can only mean one thing: It's all downhill from here. (Just kidding... wouldn't want to jinx anything.)

1. In New Year's address to nation (full text), President Lee Myungbak opens door to possible peace talks with North Korea while vowing not to let Pyongyang "covet even an inch of our territory" (Yonhap, AP via WaPo, BBC, UPI, Reuters, Bloomberg, Korea Times, Joongang Daily)
2. On first day of trading in new year, South Korean stocks rise to all-time high (WSJ, Korea Times, Joongang Daily)
• Goldman-Sachs says KOSPI will rise 32 percent in 2011(Bloomberg)
3. South Korean manufacturing accelerates in December to highest level in seven months (AFP)
• KRW expected to strengthen 7.2 percent to 1050 won per dollar (Bloomberg)
4. Military brass eye battle-ready troops as top priority for 2011 (Yonhap, Korea Times)
• Kushibo's note: Um, shouldn't that have been the priority since, like, 1950?
• Antisubmarine defenses also boosted (Joongang Daily)
5. After strong 2010, Hyundai and Kia eye 10 percent rise in sales in 2011 (Reuters, WSJ)
6. Korea's National Health Insurance Corporation posts W1.3 trillion (US$1.1 billion) loss in 2010 (Korea Times)
7. Kim Jong-il says coveted Ronald McDonald footwear contract will lead North Korea to economic prosperity in Juche 100 (Yonhap)

Are you ready for some (Western movie about) football? (UPDATED)

The latest from Pyongyang is that North Korean television broadcast the 2002 hit movie, Bend It Like Beckham on Boxing Day (December 26). This was reported by none other than Martin Uden, the British ambassador to South Korea, who happened to be in North Korea that day (note to Sarah Palin: North Korea is the evil one, unless you're China; it's the US and its nasty little Civil War that has "the North" as the good guys and "the South" as the bad guys, though I half-suspect knowing that is not what got Ms Palin confused).

From the New York Times:

But on Sunday, The Associated Press reported, North Korean television audiences were given a rare break from this routine when the British comedy “Bend It Like Beckham” was shown there. The film, which stars Parminder Nagra as a young woman from a Sikh family with dreams of soccer stardom; Keira Knightley as her best friend; and Jonathan Rhys Meyers as the dreamy coach they both have eyes on, was shown over the weekend by the arrangement of the British Embassy. According to the BBC, a message was shown during the film saying that the broadcast was done to mark the 10th anniversary of diplomatic ties between North Korea and Britain.

Well, I'll say that this is one sure sign why it's important to have some diplomatic ties with the likes of the Pyongyang regime: Without the British ambassador tweeting about his nightly schedule, how else would we know about such groundbreaking sociopolitical events in a land where TV Guide fears to tread?

One wonders what the average North Korean must have been thinking when they saw a bunch of Westerners — without horns, even! — in the role of protagonist. This could be a game changer for the elite in Pyongyang who may see this as a signal that the West is no longer an enemy to be dehumanized. Not sure what the people in the provinces think of it, if they saw it at all.

Despite my skepticism about the rise of Kim Jong-il's third son, I concede that this may be a sign that the ascension of Kim Jong-un is in full force. Plucked from a ski lodge in Switzerland, Kim Jong-un has prolly been sitting around Glorious Palace #4 going, "This place is boring and there's nothing on TV!" to which a few dozen handlers and sycophants responded by getting the least offensive Western movie they could find that had girls in it. When the last eight minutes of the movie — the part where the heroines of the movie fulfill their dream of moving to America — is cut, it's a fine film suitable for the people and the revolution.

And while we're at it... just how do we know this was Bend It Like Beckham the movie? Wouldn't it be just like the Dear Leader — addicted as he is to multitudes of forced labor so he can have shows like the Arirang Games — to stage an entire re-enactment of the movie with live actors.

This is from the scene in the movie 
where the Parminder Nagra's proletarian 
character, oppressed by the capitalists,
can't afford a soccer uniform so she 
wears a discarded headscarf instead.

(Hmm... I was kidding about that, but now it has me thinking... we haven't seen Parminder Nagra since "ER" ended.)

The implications of this first-ever showing of a live-action Western film are endless. Why this film? Why not Raiders of the Lost Ark or Escape to Witch Mountain? Why any Western film? Why now?

Television has supplanted religion as the opiate of the masses, and the regime may have decided that pre-approved Western pop culture may be the most effective way to win back hearts and eyeballs that have grown tired of news reports glorifying the Dear Leader and are instead watching bootleg DVDs smuggled in across the Yalu.

Why BILB? Perhaps it reinforces the idea of sticking to conservative family values and hard work in the face of decadent American culture (though it also encourages emigrating as fast as possible from your own repressive culture).

It also may be intended to shatter stereotypes of Westerners living lives of luxury. Like many North Koreans, the Keira Knightley character is malnourished to the point of having the breasts of a boy. Not to mention the butt of someone with no butt.

And of course we must hold out the possibility that the choice of movie was just a colossal misunderstanding: The authorities may have thought Bend It Like Beckham was some sort of torture manual.

UPDATE:
I should have done my post on this the moment I saw the story instead of some days later. By then I got confused about where Ambassador Martin Uden was when he tweeted this (I've crossed out my incorrect interpretation above). In this new UK Foreign Office blog piece he talks a bit more about the development.

Yikes!

And just so we're clear, this is Fahrenheit. 10°F would be -12°C. Double yikes.

Ah, that's better.

Seriously, if it makes anyone feel better, skin cancer is through the roof here. (And get used to this kinda of thing now that I've discovered how to do screen capture with my iPhone.)

Daily Kor for January 3, 2011

It's a slow news day, but that's hardly a surprise since half the nation may still be hungover. Lots of news stories about what people think will happen in 2011, but the Kushibo News Service tends not to consider that news. Unless it's bold, or ballsy, or wholly unexpected (but realistic), or it's a slow news day.

What's newsworthy to me is that it's apparently so cold in Seoul that the Han River is freezing up. Yeah, yeah, I know, that happens at some point every year, but it's still fascinating to me. Meanwhile, I slept with a fan on. (I guess I shouldn't brag about the weather, or else it won't be just English teachers who hate me.)

1. Korea Asset Management Corporation (KAMCO) to buy W5 trillion (US$4.4 billion) in bad loans from banks and assets from companies undergoing restructuring (Reuters)
2. South Korea set to join the $1 trillion club (in terms of total trade) in 2011 (Joongang Daily)
• South Korea becomes seventh largest exporter (Korea Times)
3. 100 thousand South Korean activists gather at Imjin-gak near DMZ to protest against North Korea's leaders (AP via WaPo, Yonhap)
• Cardinal Cheong calls on North Korea to improve its human rights (Korea Times)
• Kim Jong-il reportedly hid himself in underground bunker during ROK-US joint military exercise in late November and early December (Korea Times)
4. Kwangju court orders national government to pay W1.9 billion (US$1.7 million) in fabricated spy case from 1971 (Yonhap)
5. Seven more cases of foot-and-mouth disease reported (Yonhap)
6. United States Sports Academy names celebrated South Korean figure skater Kim Yuna 2010 Female Athlete of the Year (NBC) 
7. In Iowa straw poll, former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin chosen as candidate most closely resembling GOP logo (Fox) 

Daily Kor for January 2, 2011: Happy Nuke Year!

Happy New Years, this time for everyone. I wish I could have been one of the 80,000 who gathered downtown for the Poshin-gak Pavilion bell-gonging (also here), but oh well.

1. North Korea warns that war would "bring nothing but nuclear holocaust," while vowing better ties with South Korea (AP via WaPo, Bloomberg, WSJ, CNN)
• North Korea also calls for economic revival ahead of centenary of Kim Ilsung's birth (Yonhap)
2. Two dead and fifteen missing as North Korean cargo ship sinks in Yellow Sea (Yonhap)
3. ROK President Lee upbeat about peace and economy in 2011 (Yonhap, Korea Times)
4. Ruling and opposition lawmakers jointly propose "unification tax" (Yonhap)
5. In New Years message, Japanese PM Naoto Kan vows economic partnership agreements with South Korea, EU, and Australia (WSJ)
6. South Korean exports rise for 14th straight month (Bloomberg)
• Trade surplus reaches record $41.7 billion in 2010 (Yonhap)
7. North Korean rulers reportedly building more palaces in preparation for Kim Jong-un's rise (UPI)
8. In speech to We're Waiting club in Omaha, Nebraska, former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin demonstrates how fisting can be an acceptable alternative to sinful vaginal intercourse (Fox)

New Years in Waikiki

Lots of people here. I guess something is supposed to happen.

UPDATE:
Oh, I guess it was this. A ship off-shore was shooting off a very nice fireworks display just as the clock struck midnight.

Indeed, the streets of Waikiki were crowded with revelers, many who started to get very sh¡t-faced and very stupid. It was like Shinchon on, well, any other night.

We made our way to Denny's, which unlike Honolulu's other 24/7 offerings, was actually open. Our group shared a fudge brownie à la mode and a slice of New York-style cheesecake with strawberries.

Apparently half of Waikiki got the same idea sometime after we did, as the place got quite crowded by 1 a.m.

Happy third-world new year from Honolulu

Kushibo is turning into an old fogey, I guess. This is my first New Years in Honolulu and I'm starting to regret it already. Apparently the good people of Honolulu celebrate the new year by taking illegal fireworks — noisy and dangerous illegal fireworks — and light them off for hours and hours before the clock strikes midnight (and who knows how long afterward).

The picture above is the thirtieth firework in a row that the neighbors decided to light in the middle of the street, usually just blocking traffic but occasionally causing a driver turning the corner and not expecting sparks flying in the middle of the street to have to swerve and nearly hit parked cars.

It's only 10 p.m., but this has already been going on for hours. And if it were only just like Fourth of July in Orange County, I wouldn't complain, but the noise is non-stop and I can't even work. Various people keep lighting off minor explosives with enough concussion to set off car alarms nearby. I'm not joking about that; it has happened at least ten times on this street since 7 p.m. This is a residential area, not some busy party zone (we are thinking of heading to Waikiki for the seaside fireworks).

Mind you, all of this is illegal, yet nobody is doing anything about it, and apparently a lot of people think it's perfectly okay. It has prompted a study partner, "M," who is from Japan, to remark that, "New Years is an excuse for Americans to do whatever they want."

Perhaps. I guess at twenty-four, she's an old fogey as well. In Japan (or at least her part of Japan), the new year is rung in somewhat quietly. In Korea, too, if you want the noise and excitement, you go and find it. Here in Honolulu, it finds you.

Maybe I'm being too sensitive to this, but it has really gotten on my nerves. I can't work anymore. Loud explosions keep going off overhead and up and down the street. There is a thick layer of smoke hovering in the air, with a chemical stink. It's like a war zone, minus the dead bodies (but there are a few crying babies and shell-shocked kids and adults).

Oh, look, someone has lit a fire and launched it from a balloon. It's now heading over Interstate H1.

UPDATE (January 1, 2011 Hawaii time):
I was a bit wrong about all the fireworks being illegal now. The sweeping ban starts January 1, 2011, so some apparently were still legal before midnight last night (but the loud booming ones were illegal then as well, according to the police I talked to). Much of the craziness last night with all the neighborhood pyrotechnics was because it was a last hurrah. Having never been in Honolulu for New Years, I had no idea if last night's shenanigans was typical, but a few told me it was a bit more than usual. But only a bit.

Daily Kor for January 1, 2011

Today marks the 115th anniversary of the Gregorian calendar becoming official in Korea. It's still 2010 here in Hawaii, but I know a lot of people have crossed over into 2011, so I thought the above greeting, snagged from the Yonhap site, would be an appropriate message.

I'll probably ring in the new year at Waikiki, which is probably less interesting than what Kim Jong-il did on the 31st: checking out the tank division that is the vanguard of the Sŏn-gun (Military First) policy. 2011 promises to be an exciting year.

1. Defense strategy specialist Retired General Ahn Kwangchan named to head newly created national crisis management office (AP via WaPo, Yonhap)
2. More than 100,000 ducks and chickens culled after outbreak of H5N1 bird flu virus (AHN, Bloomberg, Reuters, Yonhap, Korea Times, Joongang Daily)
• Three additional outbreaks of hoof-and-mouth disease confirmed (Yonhap)
3. South Korean authorities to gain access to Swiss bank accounts in effort to crack down tax evaders (Yonhap)
4. Government allows newspapers to start up cable TV channels (WSJ, Yonhap, Korea Times, Joongang Daily, another Yonhap)
5. Police arrest Pyongtaek bakery shop owner behind dead-mouse-in-cake hoax aimed at hurting rival during height of Christmas cake sales (Yonhap, Korea Times, Joongang Daily)
6. National Police Agency to set up task force to deal with "habitual drunks" who obstruct police business and public order (Yonhap)
7. Pyongyang faxes new year's greetings to those likely to support sending aid to North Korea (UPI)
8. In speech to We're Waiting club in Jackson, Mississippi, former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin demonstrates how fellatio can be an acceptable alternative to sinful vaginal intercourse (Fox)