The Economist on South Korea's test hell

The Economist has an article that addresses that perennial issue of what to do about the sunûng, South Korea's grueling college entrance exam.

With so much of their future riding on it, the test causes all sorts of distortions, not just its outsized academic influence but the gobs and gobs of money spent on prep and the opportunity costs of the time invested studying it (particularly among those who delay entrance for a year or two instead of opting for a "lesser" school). 

Its continued existence indicates its societal value (i.e., providing a reasonably objective equalizer) but also the failure of reform: for as long as I've lived in South Korea, "fixing" the test has involved mostly tweaking at the edges and not an effort to sit down and work out a new testing regimen that is fair and still holds onto those societal values without being such a huge juggernaut.

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What Asia leads the world in

I thought that this snarkily accurate graphic was fairly interesting (HT to Marc). I've blown up the East Asia portion for relevance.

Apparently Taiwan leads the world in being forced by a bigger China not to be recognized as a country.

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Police and emergency workers not to be held responsible in death of girl following Asiana Airlines crash

Ye Meng-yuan [left] and Wang Linjia [right] were
two of the three killed following the Asiana Air crash.

Saying that the aftermath of a Asiana Airlines jet smashing its tail into the end of the runway and then spinning around and crashing was a "very chaotic scene," local prosecutors decided not to file charges against anyone for striking a 16-year-old Chinese girl who was killed by a rescue truck.

Ye Mengyuan's family's lawyers will still likely focus on whom they refer to as "the responsible parties," which will certainly include Asiana Airlines and the pilots for the death.

Frankly, this doesn't sit well with me. Emergency response personnel are supposed to be trained to handle "extraordinary circumstances." And it doesn't bode well that they have run over a passenger on the tarmac on a bright and clear day when they know there are hundreds of passengers escaping burning wreckage.

And then there's this response by San Francisco Fire Chief Joanne Hayes-White, reported in the Los Angeles Times:

"If not for the professional recute, triage, treatment, and transport operations that were conducted by all involved agencies, it is likely that there would have been a greater loss of life," she said.

It seems almost calculated as if to say that having saved so many others makes it acceptable that they killed (not failed to save, mind you, but actually killed) this other one.

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Hyundai zombie mobile

If you're a fan of The Walking Dead (as I have become), you may have noticed the frequently featured Hyundai Tucson, purchased by Maggie before the end of the world, and often driven by her boyfriend Glenn, another Korean person/place/thing prominently featured on the show (theirs is a relationship that could be the subject of its own post here at Monster Island).

Surely this is product placement, but given that TWD is proudly filmed in Georgia and Hyundais are proudly made in Georgia, it's an easy match.

Anyway, that's what I had in mind when I read about this defensive vehicle for the zombie apocalypse, a Hyundai Santa Fe Sport, re-engineered (surely in violation of warranty) for driver survival when the dead start rising up and become walkers, biters, or what have you. Similar to the Veloster they revealed earlier this year.

Very cool. I want one, and maybe I'll get one. It could come in handy in Honolulu.

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More North Korean photos to drive Elgin nuts

See what you will about North Korea and its leadership, but they certainly give Japanese otaku something to do:

Never shy about promoting the benevolence and power of president Kim Jong Un, North Korea's state media recently released this image of the young leader:



At first blush, it appears to be a fairly tame photo of Kim doing president-y things with his cadre of lieutenants. But as Kotaku suggests, upon closer look, the photo seems to have been manipulated with Photoshop. Note the strange shadows (or lack thereof)...

The title of this post, as you may be aware, is in reference to The Marmot's Hole guest blogger R. Elgin going nuts over Kim Jong-un's now-dead father also freakishly defying they physics of shadows (I was user-81 in the thread).

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Dick Tracy-measuring contest

Apple is rumored to be coming out with one, but Samsung has beaten them to the punch: A computer on your wrist. Samsung's commercial is exquisite in its powerful simplicity that evokes an unstoppable evolution. The technological fantasy of past movies, television shows, and comics (hence this posts's title) is now a reality.



Now that the Samsung Galaxy smartwatch is out there before the iWrist, iWatch, iHand, or iWhatHaveYou, Apple will look like an also-ran when (and if) they ever come out with theirs. Of course, that isn't the worst thing in the world; after all, Samsung followed Apple into the world of smartphones and tablets, and they're doing just fine.

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The spy who wrote me

Choe Sanghun of the New York Times writes about a book penned by a former North Korean spy that lifts the veil on the inter-Korean spy game. The article, at least, makes an interesting read, but I haven't gotten hold of the actual book yet.

Some will say that this book is just part of President Park's anti-North propaganda campaign, but to me, the recruitment and utilization of chinboistas rings true — and goes a long way toward explaining the anti-US and anti-government moves of the left when they bring us things like the Mad Cow protests. (And I will not fault President Park for her intransigent stance against the DPRK since, after all, it was their operatives who killed her mother.)

An excerpt:

In May 1990, he and a colleague left the port of Nampo aboard a vessel disguised as a Japanese fishing boat, stopping in China to pick up supplies from a North Korean cargo ship before entering international waters. There, the agents set off in a submersible to the South Korean island of Jeju.
The pair operated in the South for the next five months, sending coded reports to Pyongyang, using radios hidden in a mountain by earlier agents. At midnight, an announcer on Pyongyang Radio would read their handlersf instructions in a series of five-digit numbers. Mr. Kim and his bosses used the text of a popular South Korean novel to decipher one anotherfs messages.

In October, the two agents returned to Pyongyang by submersible, carrying with them one of the two South Korean dissidents they had recruited as spies, whiskey and wristwatches as gifts for their bosses, and far more precious cargo, a North Korean woman who had operated as an agent in the South for 10 years.

Read the rest on your own.

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The secret to world peace is pistachios and Dennis Rodman

Who knew that a major US industry — in this case the pistachio growers of America — would have an entire publicity campaign surrounding What Americans Know About Korea™?



We already had Psy hawking pistachios during the Superbowl, with I guess some connection between his fluorescent suits and the color of the little nuts, and now Dennis Rodman and his buddy Kim Jong-un, most famous recently for his trips to North Korea to promote peace between the DPRK and the USA.

Fortunately for the Wonderful Pistachios campaign, K-pop has brought all kinds of Korea images to the American public. Maybe the next commercial will have the guy from oldboy cracking open a few of those nuts with his hammer.

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Fire destroys Itaewon block

The details are still a bit sketchy, but it appears from this 10Mag.com piece that a decent-sized block of shops (and restaurants?) in Itaewon about half a dozen buildings to the west of the iconic Hamilton Hotel has burned to the ground:

Nearly a block of Itaewon near the Hamilton Hotel caught fire earlier this morning at approximately 7:15 a.m. As of 9:00 a.m., the fire appeared to have been extinguished and investigations are currently underway to determine the cause of the fire. There have also been no reports of injuries. Currently, the area between Itaewon station and the entrance to the main strip (Noksapyeong station direction) has been closed off and neither automobiles or buses are being allowed through.

I'm not sure how deep that fire was, but on the side street directly behind there (which runs behind Hamilton Hotel as well) there's a whole slew of bars and eateries that are a key part of the Itaewon rejuvenation (heck, the hipster renaissance of Yongsan altogether). While my first thought is that I praythat no one has gotten injured or killed, I'm also hoping the restaurant row was unscathed. We'll have to check 10Mag.com and the English-language dailies for more details tomorrow.

One can't help but look at this picture and wonder about the parking situation in Itaewon's back streets might have affected the firefighters' response. Judging from the pictures, most of them are along the main drag, spraying water across the non-burning structures so that it will fall downward onto the burning buildings. Was this because parking regulation violators had their cars along the side of the streets so that the fire trucks and other emergency vehicles couldn't approach? This is a perennial problem, but one that could be dealt with far more effectively.

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OC Weekly highlights "rare" Korean-American boxer

The OC Weekly has a piece on boxer Daniel Kim (not to be confused with actor Daniel Dae Kim). Being the first Korean-American boxer (in the Southland [i.e., Southern California] at least) is major barrier-breaking:

He also notes that by stepping into the ring, he's stepping outside the cultural norms and social expectations placed on Korean Americans.

"Growing up, I was left with a strong impression that pursuing a future as an athlete was impossible or a waste of time," he observes. "Professionally boxing as a Korean American allows me to challenge these cultural and social sentiments while proudly representing Korean and other Asian Americans in a domain where we are vastly underrepresented and often taken lightly."

Although South Korea has produced its share of boxers, immigrant Korean parents and 1.5-generation parents would prefer their kids to be brain surgeons than brain injured, so boxing is not terribly big in the Kyoto community. But if Daniel Kim starts making it big, who knows?

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Hume's Bastard, RIP

I just got word that a long-time, low-key fixture in the K-blogosphere has passed away. Joseph Steinberg, formerly of Pusan and perhaps better known as Hume's Bastard to those at The Marmot's Hole, died this weekend in Texas.

He left occasional comments here at Monster Island (such as at this post on the anniversary of the Rodney King riots), but I also knew him in person, even if only briefly. Back in 2004, I worked with him for a short while on get-out-the-vote campaigns (mostly absentee ballot registration for US citizens) when he was based in Korea's #2 city.

I remember him as a cynical and somewhat argumentative fellow, but he was also honest and sincere. His wife was nice, too.

Requiescat in pace, Mr Steinberg.

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Tokyo awarded 2020 Summer Olympics

A lot of Japanese are quite ecstatic, now that Tokyo has been chosen over Madrid and Istanbul to host the 2020 Summer Olympics. It will have been fifty-four years since Japan last hosted the summer games in 1964 (but only twenty-two years since they hosted the 1998 Nagano Winter Olympiad).

Tokyo was considered the "safe choice" to host the games, since Turkey has the civil war going on next door in Syria and Spain is going through considerable economic difficulties. Japan's Prime Minister gave assurances that the still on-going Fukushima nuclear disaster will not pose safety concerns.

In fact, I think that the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami provided a pretext to award Japan the games. I don't mean that in a disparaging or condescending way: The Olympics are often awarded to encourage or reward worthwhile goals (both Japan and South Korea were awarded the games in part to highlight their respective post-war recoveries).

Besides concerns over radiation, one other point going against Japan would have been the old formula of continental rotation, where IOC members tended to eschew awarding the games to a country in the same continent as the previous games; since South Korea is hosting the 2018 Winter Olympics, it would be a tougher sell for next-door Japan to get the games two years later. But this trend was bucked when Russia (in Europe) was awarded the games immediately after Britain (also Europe).

I'm quite happy for Japan. This is a shot-in-the-arm needed for a proud but economically, demographically, and geopolitically beleaguered country, and I hope it provides the psychological boost they so want and need. The New York Times had the same idea:

Winning the Games also appeared to affirm Abe’s efforts to restore Japan’s confidence at a time when it has appeared increasingly eclipsed by neighboring China.

“Japan has seemed to be overshadowed by the rise of China and other developing nations,” said Harumi Arima, an independent political analyst. “These Olympics will give Japanese a chance to feel reborn, to feel for themselves that Japan can still be vibrant.”

Congratulations, Tokyoites and Japanese. I look forward to some very cool Games in seven years.

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Rodman bounces back to Pyongyang to visit

We interrupt the lead-up to the US War in ______™ with news that basketball legend-in-his-own-mind and Kim Jong-un BFF Dennis Rodman has returned to North Korea to meet with The Young General. He emphasized that he was not there to secure the release of Korean-American missionary Kenneth Bae, who reportedly is in a labor camp, not getting Pyongyang Palazzo treatment that former the original Stupogants (Euna Lee and Laura Ling) received.

From AP via Huffington Post:

Former NBA star Dennis Rodman landed Tuesday in North Korea and said he plans to hang out with authoritarian leader Kim Jong Un, have a good time and maybe bridge some cultural gaps – but not be a diplomat.

Rodman was greeted at Pyongyang's airport by Son Kwang Ho, vice-chairman of North Korea's Olympic Committee, just days after Pyongyang rejected a visit by a U.S. envoy who had hoped to bring home Kenneth Bae, an American missionary jailed there. The North abruptly called off the official visit because it said the U.S. had ruined the atmosphere for talks by holding a drill over South Korea with nuclear-capable B-52 bombers.

Rodman said the purpose of his visit was to display his friendship for Kim and North Korea and to "show people around the world that we as Americans can actually get along with North Korea."

This news comes about a week after South Korean media sources said Kim Jong-un's ex-girlfriend had been executed for making porn and distributing Bibles, possibly at the behest of his new wife.

From USA Today:

A jarring report out of North Korea claims that Kim Jong Un's former girlfriend was executed by a firing squad last week.

Chosun Ilbo,an English language newspaper in South Korea, said unnamed sources in China told it that Hyon Song Wol (of "Excellent Horse-Like Lady" fame) was arrested on Aug. 17 along with about a dozen others; Hyon was a singer, and a number of the others were members of the Unhasu Orchestra.

They were accused of making a sex tape and selling it and were shot three days later for violating the country's pornography laws. A source said some allegedly had Bibles in their possession, and all were treated as political dissidents.

The report has not been independently verified by other media outlets. Chosun Ilbo is one of Seoul's main daily newspapers.

While that story got a lot of press, I'm skeptical of its veracity. When the "news" was released, I frankly didn't know what to make of it. It comes from the Chosun Ilbo, a conservative newspaper that reports almost any rumor coming out of North Korea as true. The thing is, defectors who've escaped North Korea (and these are people who deserve our sympathy no matter what they tell their handlers once they reach the South) are incentivized to provide bad stories about what is happening up north, including things like this.

The ex-girlfriend's singing troupe was accused of making porn (a big no-no) and carrying and/or distributing Bibles (another huge no-no), but these two no-nos are rarely ever a go-together. It sounds like a mishmash of defectors' say-anything stories that ultimately points to a mismatch. That's what my gut tells me (but it could be a throw-anything-at-them accusation from North Korean hardliners who

On the other hand, we do know that outrageous things really do happen up there, so this could be true (with the ham-handed reasons for their execution being an example of throw-everything-at-them accusations engineered by North Korean hardliners). So she really might be dead from an executioner's gun, along with all those others in her once-famous singing group, they could all be jailed, or heck, they may be living out their lives somewhere quietly (or even hiding out in China).

I'd still like to hold out hope that the Western-educated and basketball-loving Kim Jong-un really is poised to bring about change and is not allowing (or is at least curtailing) the sociopathic housecleaning of his forebears and handlers.

(Oh, and to tie the first sentence up with the rest of this post, CBS News just had a US Senator saying that dealing with Syria's use of chemical weapons is important to send a message to North Korea. What a perfect bow.)

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