Daily Kor for November 24, 2009: Goodbye, Mr Chips's pervy colleague.

Bad news if you're hoping that Beijing will turn off the spigot on the gravy train and force DPRK's leadership to make an honest living (well, they could just as easily end up stepping up their dishonest living... methamphetamine, arms, counterfeit money, etc.). That's because PRC Defense Minister Liang Guanglie is in Pyongyang meeting with his counter part, Kim Youngchun, getting all kissy-kissy with the big-hatted one and expressing his (and China's) undying love and support for North Korea. Nice.

Good news if you're hoping for some reform in the South Korean schools. Regulations are being passed that will make it easier to fire teachers who have engaged in sexually molesting their students but who were not prosecuted (and what the hell is up with that?). Ditto with teachers who perform corporal punishment, take bribes from parents, or fudge grades. Sure, no rules or laws will ever get rid of these things completely, but in a face-saving hierarchical society like the ROK, it gives a pretext for uneasy teachers to reject these things: "I could lose my job, Mrs Kim." Of course, the new rules also leave teachers open to blackmail and other abuse by kids who would go so far as to fabricate allegations, but that's another matter.

1. PRC and DPRK defense ministers stress strength of alliance and undying love (links here)
2. US Chamber of Commerce urges President Obama to take action on trade pacts with South Korea and other countries as a way to boost jobs at home (Reuters via WaPo, Yonhap)
3. Teachers who are caught sexually molesting students but who are not prosecuted will be dropped from rehiring lists (Korea Times, Joongang Daily)
4. Record high 7 million tourists visit South Korea this year (Korea Herald)
5. Health ministers from Japan, PRC, and ROK agree to step up efforts to ensure food safety following concerns over pesticide-tainted dumplings, called mandu or gyoza (AFP)
6. Consumer sentiment in November drops slightly from seven-year high in October (Reuters, Bloomberg, Yonhap)
7. ROK President Lee Myungbak promises to double aid to Africa (Yonhap, Korea Times, Korea Herald)
8. National Assembly committee extends ROK Navy's anti-piracy mission off Somali coast by one year (Korea Times)
9. Seoul Metropolitan Council halts plans to ban cell phones in schools (Korea Times, Korea Herald)
10. UN Development Program plans to resume projects in North Korea next year (Yonhap)
11. Two lawmakers, one each from Democratic Party and Democratic Labor Party, fined for violence in the National Assembly during passage of FTA with US (Yonhap)
12. Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries says South Korea aims to develop kelp as an anergy resource by 2013 (Yonhap)
13. Three killed in crash of forestry helicopter (Yonhap)
14. Obama lauds Korean parents for their enthusiasm for educating their children (Yonhap)
15. An embarrassed US President Obama tells Japanese PM Hatoyama he welcomes Tokyo's expanded role in a changing Asia, but he's just not ready for a metrosexual relationship (AFP)

Swine flu discrepancies

The Expat. I mean this as a serious discussion question, so I hope I get serious answers. In the K-blogs we frequently read what a waste of time and/or failure swine flu prevention measures are in South Korea.

If that is the case (or even if it isn't), why does the United States have a per capita death toll eight to ten times higher than in the ROK? Specifically, the most recent mortality numbers in South Korea are 82 (though that has probably gone up at least into the 90s or even triple digits), while the last widely released figure in the US was a couple weeks ago at 3900.

That's nearly fifty times the number of deaths, but the US is only six times larger than South Korea in population, so with those numbers, we're looking at an 8-to-1 ratio when we compare per capita rates.

South Korea's relative isolation could be a reason, but Hawaii is equally as isolated (almost everyone comes in and out through airports which are equipped to check for people carrying fruit in their bags), but the ratio still holds. Is South Korea under-reporting? Is the US over-reporting? Are the ROK regulations really working?

What explains the discrepancy? Discuss. (Incidentally, the catalyst for this question was a remark at Ask The Expat, but I've been mulling this as a discussion topic for some time.)

Chinese and North Korean defense ministers pledge to strengthen military ties

As the BBC reports, Chinese Defense Minister Liang Guanglie is in Pyongyang right now making nice with co-communist blood ally and buffer against American imperialism, North Korea. For those of you keeping score at home, China pulled North Korea's nuts from the fire in the first year of the Korean War, entering the conflict just as South Korean and US-led United Nations forces could see the Amnok (Yalu) and Tuman (Tumen) Rivers. [UPDATE: The story is also carried by AFP, AP via USA Today, and the Chosun Ilbo]

China does not want — ever — for there to be an American client state on its border, and they are doing what they can to prop up Pyongyang, and visits like this may be intended to keep Pyongyang in line. Particularly since a Washington envoy (Stephen Bosworth) is coming a couple weeks after that.

The last thing Beijing wants is for Pyongyang to make some unexpected deal that loosens their grip on the DPRK. Things like, say, declaring all of Shinŭiju a hermetically sealed free-trade zone with a Chinese-born Dutch governor. Things like that.

Anyway, enough of my opinions; this is what the BBC had to say:

China has been a firm ally of the North since they fought together in the Korean War against the South.

Analysts have noted, however, that China appears increasingly willing to push the boundaries of its special relationship with the North to support the nuclear talks.

China fears a huge influx of refugees if the North Korean state collapse, and has little desire to see a nuclear-armed state with an uncertain political succession on its border.

Mr Liang told a reception by Pyongyang's defence chief Kim Yong-chun that the bilateral relationship was "sealed in blood" when he and other Chinese troops fought the Korean War on the North Koreans' side.

"No force on earth can break the unity of the armies and peoples of the two countries and it will last forever," Mr Liang said, according to KCNA, the North Korean news agency.

"It is the fixed stand of the Korean army and people to invariably consolidate and develop the DPRK (North Korea)-China friendship, which has stood all trials of history," Kim Yong-Chun said.

The defence chiefs then had "comradely and friendly" talks, according to the report.

No force on earth? Not even hunger or a sense that you're going to die anyway if you do nothing?

Daily Kor for November 23, 2009: Minds of killers

Link to all Daily Kor posts

I'm no fan of capital punishment, but if a convicted mass murderer on death row wants to off himself and do it quietly (i.e., not take anybody else out with him), then I'm not going to raise objections. Well, I guess if he hadn't provided the authorities with all the details of who he killed so that families could get closure, I suppose that would be a reason to object. Anyway, the in-cell suicide by hanging of forty-year-old Jeong Namgyu is all over the Korean media and is being carried by most major international media as well.

In other mass murderer news, Pyongyang is trying to entice Seoul back to the negotiation table vis-à-vis Kŭmgangsan tours by promising to let ROK officials tour the scene where a South Korean tourist was killed. Nice.

On a happier note, the iPhone will be available to folks back in South Korea starting on November 28. Expect some lines, even if the iPhone doesn't turn out to be the oh-my-god-hugest-thing-ever gadget in South Korea (South Korean phones have long been able to do the neato stuff that iPhones can now do, so the thrill and excitement just isn't there in large amounts).

Oh, and heed my warning about buying it (short version: don't). In a nutshell, the iPhone may let Anglophones finally do what Korean speakers have been able to do for years, but you'd better make sure that iPhones in Korea can do all the cool things that make an iPhone cool. Trust me on this. Take a breather and wait a bit, but go to the Apple Store and play with it. Hey, that rhymes.

1. Man convicted in 2007 of murdering 13 people and robbing, raping, and assaulting 20 others hangs himself in his cell while awaiting execution (BBC, Telegraph, Korea Times, Yonhap, Korea Herald, Joongang Daily, Reuters)
2. North Korea proposes inter-Korean dialogue that may include Seoul officials being allowed to visit site of tourist shooting in Kŭmgangsan area (Bloomberg, Yonhap, Xinhua, Joongang Daily)
3. Korea Telecom announces November 28 date for start of iPhone sales (AP via NPR, Bloomberg, Reuters, Korea Times, Joongang Daily)
4. State-run Korea Development Institute predicts growth of 5.5 percent in 2010, the highest in eight years (Reuters via CNBC, Bloomberg); KDI prediction for 2009 is 0.2 percent growth (Yonhap)
5. KDI proposes hiking key interest rate next quarter (Korea Times)
6. At ceremony in Kwangju marking start of Four Rivers Project, ROK President Lee Myungbak says the massive and controversial undertaking will produce "more-than-expected" value akin to Ch'ŏnggyech'ŏn River restoration in Seoul (Yonhap, Korea Herald) 
7. Health insurance premiums to rise 6% (Korea Times); Health Minister to visit Japan to coordinate efforts to curtail H1N1 pandemic (Korea Times)
8. Police reveal identity of PRC national responsible for Saipan shooting, say South Koreans were not specifically targeted (AP via WaPo)
9. North Korean strongman Kim Jong-il reportedly visits nation's security force headquarters in bid to further tighten his control, wears matching gloves with gray-beige parka (AFP)
10. US Senate unanimously approves Robert King as President Obama's special envoy for North Korean human rights (Korea Times, Yonhap)
11. Zambia massacres North Korea, 4-1, in international match seen as preparation for upcoming World Cup in South Africa (BBC)
12. Association of ob/gyn specialists holds rally against abortion (Korea Times)
13. Amnesty International chief meets with families of protesters killed in fire during clash with riot police in Yongsan Ward in January and promises to watch government handling of case carefully (Yonhap, Korea Herald)
14. Pyongyang orders Mass Games participants carrying dark blue placards to spread across North Korea in effort to thwart Google Earth spy satellites (AFP)

ROK Supreme Court reveals roster of foreign nationals in family registry system

The Supreme Court appears to be trying to play up the growing presence of foreign nationals in Korea, or as they say "improving public awareness of the demographic transition," by highlighting the hundreds of thousands who now appear in the family registry system:

Men from advanced nations and women from developing countries mainly accounted for Korea's increasing number of multi-cultural couples, according to the Supreme Court Sunday. This is the first time a family relations roster of multi-racial families has been made public.

The survey showed that 143,107 men and 134,831 women of foreign origin from 10 nations are part of multi-cultural families with proper family registration.

Looking into the nationality of foreign males, American nationals topped the list with 73,512, followed by Japanese (39,900), Chinese (17,494), Canadians (3,369), Germans (2,894), English (1,596), Australian (1,532), French (1,143), Pakistanis (836) and Taiwanese (832).

For the women there's definitely a different picture:

In contrast, the survey found more than 85 percent, or 115,934, of the foreign-born wives were from developing countries such as China, Vietnam, the Philippines and Cambodia.

Currently, 70,878 Chinese women, or 52.5 percent, topped the list of foreign-born wives of Korean husbands, followed by Vietnamese (30,621), Japanese (12,355), Filipinas (6,355), Americans (3,572), Cambodians (2,913), Thais (2,762), Mongolians (2,405), Uzbekistanis (1,555) and Russians (1,415).

It doesn't give any indication whether these "foreigners" have ROK nationality or not, which would not make them foreigners at all. They are also referred to as people from such-and-such country, which would allow for naturalized Koreans to be included.

This is, of course, a very different situation from as recently as a few years ago when, I believe, foreign males who were married to ROK national women and chose not to get ROK citizenship themselves could not even be on a family registry.

Indeed, it's easy to see if you've been in Korea for any serious amount of time exactly which direction the trajectory is headed. Troglodytes who might berate a Korean woman in public because she's with a foreign man are remnants of an old order, not representatives of the current one. Of course, that's small consolation if you're on the receiving end of that.

The Joongang Daily also has the story, but with a somewhat silly headline.

"백십 percent!" at The Sonagi Consortium

Follow THIS LINK for the post by Adeel.

Daily Kor for November 22, 2009: Our dear leader is not the Dear Leader

Story #1, about the South Korean monks visiting North Korea for a chesa for the founder of their order, is a repeat from yesterday, when the monks had headed off for Kaesŏng. But I liked the picture below so much, that I decided to run it again, post-ceremony. Indeed, the room pictures below may be the only one in North Korea where the dominant portrait is not the Dear Leader or the Great Leader. This all makes me wonder how much or little religious freedom this isolated group has.

As usual on the weekend, it's a slow news day: Government offices shut down, reporters don't report on reportable things, and criminals stay home and watch OCN with their kids. It also doesn't help that yesterday's Daily Kor was several hours later than usual, with some of yesterday's stories rightfully belonging in today's news roundup. So if you're really Jonesing for some news, go check out yesterday's edition.

1. Buddhist monks from South Korea join ceremony marking the 908th anniversary of the death of Ch'ŏnt'ae Order founder in Kaesŏng, North Korea (AP via WaPo)
2. Fresh from his tour of the Far East, US President Barack OBama says Asia trip was about jobs and calls for more American exports to Asia as a way of expanding US employment, a possible prelude to a support of the ROK-US free-trade agreement (WSJ, Bloomberg)
3. Deadly fire in Pusan indoor shooting range on November 14 claims twelfth victim as 37-year-old Japanese tourist dies from burns (Yonhap)
4. Two North Korean diplomats arrested in Sweden for smuggling 230,000 packs of Russian cigarettes (Korea Times)
5. North Korean state news media blames Seoul for lack of progress in bilateral ties (Yonhap)
6. Naver reveals that 98.2% of Anti-English Spectrum's online members are English teachers keeping an eye on the "racial" group (Yonhap)

WSJ: United States cedes Saipan to Korea

Click the screen grab below for a larger and clearer read, but come back for the explanation.

Yep, it's right there in the Wall Street Journal: "Gun Rampage on Korean Island." Expect a Tokto-like conflict on the Interweb to last well into the next century.

Seriously, though, you'd think that the people at the Wall Street frickin' Journal would know their geography a bit better. Reminds me of the time I was helping a colleague get into dental school in the US after a planned bachelor's degree in biology from the University of Guam. "Nope," one dean told us by email, "We only accept baccalaureates from American schools." He was a tad embarrassed when we told him later that, indeed, Guam is a part of the United States and U of G is an accredited American university.

UPDATE:
Oh, it looks like some other people noticed this as well, and added some sentiments similar to mine (note also that commenter Mallory Watkins's default silhouette is the head of a man):

Having tracked the news about this story pretty thoroughly that day, including the AP stories that appeared on various sites, I'm pretty sure this was the WSJ's headline and not AP's, even if the body of the article is AP's.

This may have been a partial screw-up on the part of the AP reporter as well, I guess. Often with such articles about far-flung parts of the US, like Samoa or Guam or Saipan, the reporters will subtly refer to it as a "US island" or "American territory," but they didn't here. Perhaps the writer was confused as to why the South Korean Foreign Ministry was issuing a press release on it, and so he/she assumed that Saipan was, indeed, a Korean island.

To be fair, though, from 1922 to 1945, Saipan and Korea were officially both part of the same country.

When criticizing Korean over-reaction to Japanese claims on Tokto, some Americans I've talked with emphatically point out that "in America we'd never get so upset about something like this." True and unsurprising, given that, case in point, the US has so many islands we can't even be bothered to keep track of them all.

Daily Kor for November 21, 2009: Bye Bye Barry

Wow. Obama arrives for two days and it's like they used up all the news. Seriously, if it weren't for Yonhap staying open, I'd have like two lines in today's edition.

Most of the stories are about North Korea, which seems to have gone into overdrive on Saturday. When reunification comes, we'll be able to put that work ethic to good use.

1. US President Barack Obama hints that American troops in South Korea could be deployed to Afghanistan (Korea Times)
2. North Korea slams UN human rights resolution as "nothing but a trite political plot" (Bloomberg)
3. Thirteen monks from Ch'ŏnt'ae Order head for DPRK city of Kaesŏng for joint ceremony with North Korean monks (AP via WaPo)
4. North Korea proposes talks with South Korea aimed at finding a way to resume suspended Kŭmgangsan tours (Yonhap, Korea Times)
5. South Korean exports rise 28.8% in first twenty days of November compared to a year earlier (Reuters via Forbes, Yonhap)
6. ROK Prime Minister Chung Unchan calls for crackdown on illegal private tutoring in order to reduce household burden of private education (Korea Times)
7. Group of American experts on Korean affairs heads for Pyongyang to meet with key officials in North Korea's nuclear program (Yonhap)
8. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton offers "significant benefits" to North Korea in exchange for committing to verifiable, irreversible denuclearization (Yonhap)
9. Samsung Engineering wins $2.9 billion bid for electricity and waste management projects in UAE, its largest order ever (Korea Times)
10. ROK President Lee Myungbak visits P'yŏngch'ang to offer full government support in that county's bid to host 2018 Winter Olympiad (Korea Times)
11. South Korea falls four notches to #52 in FIFA world rankings (Yonhap)
12. Obama's latest faux-pas in Asia: GOP congressmen criticize President for teaching South Korean leader "extreme terrorist fist jab" (Fox News)

Guest bloggers and part-time bloggers wanted

I am interested in getting bloggers or would-be bloggers who would like to post occasionally here at Monster Island or at Sonagi Consortium, my earlier attempt to do the same which never really got off the ground (for lack of trying).

I'm looking for people who might be able to fill in for me to do the news when I'm traveling, people who want to do a weekly feature, or those who would like to use Sonagi Consortium as their own irregular soapbox that might still attract eyeballs. All SoCon posts will have a go-to link here.

I'm not looking for people who agree with me and everything I say; in fact, I'd like a little diversity of opinion, but respectful and thoughtful stuff.

I'm hoping that blog-less people like, say, cm or yuna or Won Joon Choe, or even inheartblueballs if he doesn't bring the avatar, even those like sonagi or wangkon/Edward who already have access to The Marmot's Hole as guest bloggers but might have some not-ready-for-primetime stuff they'd like to put up. Regulars here like LastnameKim or Shinbone would also be welcome.

Email me if you're interested.

Meanwhile, over at Consumer Reports...

There is a discussion going on over at The Marmot's Hole about whether American cars deserve their sucky-ass reputation. Seouldout gives some impressive stats that I tried to wade through, but I couldn't find the details. Specifically, where do South Korea's top sellers rank in JD Powers or Motor Trend?

South Koreans bought South Korean-made cars for two reasons (though the two reasons were not always present in each person): they were cheaper and they were Korean. Nowadays, South Koreans who can afford more expensive cars might still choose South Korean cars because they're not just better than before, but because they're now supposedly among the best. Why spend as much or more on a Honda or Toyota when you can buy a Hyundai Sonata that will not just be about as good but also a lot easier and cheaper to fix? Same with a Ford or a Chrysler.

At any rate, Consumer Reports, which I used to buy my Acura back in college, is still the most comprehensive approach to getting a reliable, affordable, and safe vehicle. This is what they have to say about the topic:

Asian brands still dominate

The major Japanese brands and South Korea's Hyundai and Kia make plenty of reliable vehicles. Of the 48 models with top reliability scores, 36 were Asian. Toyota accounted for 18; Honda, eight; Nissan, four; and Hyundai/Kia and Subaru, three each.

On the whole, Japanese vehicles are consistently good. All Hondas and Acuras were average or above. Toyota, with its Lexus and Scion brands providing a broader product range, had just one vehicle that was below average in reliability, the Lexus GS AWD.

The Nissan and its Infiniti luxury division have been mostly very good despite lapses such as the subpar Nissan Quest minivan. The once problematic Infiniti QX56 and Nissan Armada SUVs are now average, and the same goes for the 4WD Nissan Titan pickup, although its RWD version is still troublesome. Over the last two surveys, the Nissan Versa hatchback has been average while the sedan has been far below average-an oddity.

Subaru has been a very reliable brand, but this year the turbocharged Impreza WRX turned up with a worse-than-average reliability score even though other versions of the Impreza have been average or better, as were all other Subarus.

Hyundai and Kia continue to make reliable cars. The Hyundai Elantra and Tucson, and the Kia Sportage got top marks. The new Genesis sedan was better than average with the V6, average with the V8. The only models that scored below average were the Kia Sedona minivan and Sorento SUV.

I have nothing against American cars. The first car I ever rode in was a Chrysler, and I learned how to drive with that very same vehicle fifteen and a half years later. I drove that same car to college a couple years after that, and I was twenty when my dad called me and asked if I didn't mind him finally selling that car — which was still running just fine! — which everyone in our family felt had sentimental value. By contrast, my mom's more recent Chrysler, a minivan, has been crap. Two of my siblings also bought Chrysler minivans, and they all seemed to fall apart — in dangerous ways — at the same time.

But I'm sensitive to quality changes. I'd heard good things about Buick, which I think could make a serious dent in the Korean marketplace with the right marketing. (Use Cadillac and Buick to tag-team the market: Market Cadillac as a high-quality, upscale vehicle, while offering Buick as a poor man's Caddy.) When I came to Hawaii, my first time living in the US since returning to South Korea after graduating from college, I took a baby-step toward buying an American vehicle: a used Honda manufactured at an Isuzu plant in Indiana. To be honest, this Honda Passport SUV didn't have the greatest of ratings, but it is reliable and it is a good fit for Oahu's crappy roads. That's my nod toward buying American for now.

Anyway, I'd like to see American cars do well in Korea, just like I'm thrilled to see Korean cars doing better and better in the US. But American carmakers have to stop blaming the Korean government for their failures. If they cannot keep up with the Japanese and Germans in South Korea, then there's something wrong with the way they're doing business.

Whining about South Korea's protectionist practices of a decade and a half ago (e.g., audits of foreign car buyers, which was justified by the presumption that people who could afford vehicles with these huge tariffs were those who had gotten money through corrupt means and/or were hiding sources of income) or pre-GATT tariffs that nearly doubled the cost of a car, are just showing not only how out of touch they are with what's really going on in the ROK, but also how they're trying to distort reality so they can make a better case in Washington.

If you need some ideas, email me. Let's talk.

Daily Kor for November 20, 2009: Just Say No

Just say no to Americans trying to renegotiate a deal that's already been signed. Just say no food to North Koreans trying to use nuclear blackmail to get their way. Just say no to suicide. No is a good word; it sets limits.

And by the way, I had no time earlier today to do the news. This is the latest I've ever done it: It's so late that the date at the top is the actual date in Hawaii. Had I done the news instead of my work, I'd have had no job. No is sometimes not such a good word.

1. US President Barack Obama's visit to South Korea continues for second day
• Obama, meeting with ROK President Lee Myungbak in Seoul, embraces South Korean leader's "grand bargain" as a means of dealing with North Korea (LAT, WaPo, Reuters via WaPo, Bloomberg, Donga Ilbo)
• Obama reaffirms his intention to complete long-stalled free-trade agreement with South Korea (NYT, Korea Times); seeks to allay Detroit concerns over FTA (Bloomberg)
• ROK Foreign Minister rules out new negotiations with US over FTA (AP via WaPo, Yonhap, UPI, Korea Herald)
• Obama greets US troops at Osan Air Base, reaffirms security commitment to South Korea (ABC News, AP via WaPo, Korea Times)

• Obama says he will send envoy to North Korea on December 8 (NYT, CNN, Joongang Daily)
• Obama's visit free of major protests (Washington Times, WSJ)
2. South Korean model Daul Kim found dead in her Paris apartment in what is believed to be suicide (AP via WaPo, BBC)
3. At least six South Koreans are injured in shooting rampage in Saipan (links here)
4. ROK government to tell banks to hold more foreign-currency assets that are easily converted into cash to prevent a repeat of 2008's funding crunch (Bloomberg); banks' long-term foreign currency funding ratios to be tightened (Reuters)
5. South Korea tries to box in KRW with new rules aiming to reduce volatility and apply limits to hedging (WSJ)
6. South Korea to ease investment rules and entry procedures for tourists (Yonhap); Seoul seeks visa waiver with China ahead of next year's Shanghai Expo (Korea Herald)
7. Special committee of the UN General Assembly condemns North Korea and Myanmar for widespread human rights violations (Reuters via WaPo, Yonhap, AP via WaPo)
8. North Korea criticizes South for barring tours to Kŭmgangsan Resort (Korea Herald)
9. South Korean demand for petroleum products rises 9.9% from a year earlier, its fastest rise this year and a sign of economic recovery (Bloomberg)
10. Amnesty International blasts Obama for failing to address human rights abuses of English teachers in South Korea (UPI)

South Koreans targeted in Saipan shooting that killed five?

The reports I've seen are only spotty right now, but AP (via WaPo) is reporting that five are dead after a shooting incident on the island of Saipan, in the US's Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. Saipan and its neighbor Guam are both popular tourist destinations for South Koreans. Quoting AP:

Officials say a gunman opened fire on the Pacific resort island of Saipan, killing four people before fatally shooting himself.

Public Safety spokesman Jason Tarkong says among those killed in Friday's rampage are a 4-year-old boy and a 2-year-old girl.

At least five people were wounded.

Tarkong says the shooter is a contract worker in his 30s or 40s from Asia.

Officials say the shootings occurred in two different areas of the island, starting with a popular tourist spot where the gunman fired a barrage of bullets from his van at visitors from South Korea. A 39-year-old man was critically injured.

The suspect then drove to a shooting range where he killed two men and the two children.

While it's not clear who was killed or where they were from (i.e., locals, Mainland US visitors, foreign tourists, foreign workers, etc.), Yonhap is reporting that six South Korean tourists were hit by gunfire:

Six South Korean tourists were wounded Friday on the Pacific resort island of Saipan when an unidentified gunman sprayed bullets in a daylight attack, officials here said.

It remains unclear whether the attacker specifically targeted the South Koreans, who were visiting a popular tourist spot in downtown Saipan, they added.

We'll probably know more later. Thoughts and prayers go out to the victims and their families. [Update: The story is being carried in the Wall Street Journal, Korea Times, Korea Herald, Joongang Daily.]

Saipan is a part of the US, of course, but its distance even from Hawaii and its proximity to East Asia has meant that it relies on Japan, South Korea, and increasingly China and other places for its economic well-being. Japanese tourists dominate, but South Koreans are also a major presence. Exemption from some Mainland immigration and labor laws means that the CNMI can allow workers from East Asia to come and toil in factories that, at least in the past, were little more than sweat shops.

If the dead and injured are tourists, this could put a crimp in the number of visitors, at least for a while. Japanese and South Koreans go there, in part, because it's the "safe" part of the US, and this certainly undermines that image, unfairly I suppose.

UPDATE:
Not that I'm trying to make light of this serious news story, but it appears the Wall Street Journal, in relation to this story, has labeled Saipan a Korean island.

UPDATE 2:
The Donga Ilbo's Korean-language edition is reporting that the shooter was a Chinese national of Korean ethnicity, or Chosŏnjok ("중국국적 조선족") who was running a shooting range (HT to yuna).