Have you been filing your taxes?

Apparently a lot of people living in South Korea or other countries fail to file their taxes. The IRS is not only onto this problem, they seem to be offering avenues to get the problem cleared up without any penalty.

In a nutshell, if you don't owe any money thanks to the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion or foreign tax credits (two ways to avoid paying US Federal taxes if you live full-time in Korea), then the penalty is zero, but you need to get it squared away.

A great deal of information can be found at this website.

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Korean companies in the Superbowl

As I linked to a couple days ago, Korean corporations' ads apparently bought up some fifteen percent of the ads aired during the Superbowl, an event nowadays known almost as much for its hilarious, clever, or heartstring-tugging commercials as it is football.

The big three — Hyundai, Samsung, and Kia — are already household names, but they refuse to rest on their laurels as they compete with the likes of Honda, Toyota, Chevrolet, and Apple, most of whom also had ads during the Superbowl.

Anyway, they mostly have lived up to the challenge...



The above Kia Optima "Dream Car" ad features Adriana Lima, a Monster Island favorite. She was also in another favorite ad for Teleflora, which brought the message if you give her flowers, she'll give something in return:



Okay, then. To recap: Kushibo likes Adriana Lima, who, despite being an uber-rich super model, will have sex with you if you buy her a dozen roses. It's not that complicated.

And Hyundai has its workers — whom they seem to be emphasizing are American — singing the theme song to Liancourt Rocky to show they have that can-do spirit:



This Hyundai Genesis Coupe ad, while clever, is appalling from a Public Health perspective:



Just get out and do the danged CPR already!

The Hyundai Veloster ad also makes me wonder about issues of animal cruelty, and the public health dangers of raising exotic pets:



But that's just me. This Hyundai Elantra ad, tooting its own horn for having been chosen North American Car of the Year for 2012, was not in the Superbowl, I think (I missed a huge chunk of the game), but was Superbowl-adjacent:



Ditto with this one for the Hyundai Genesis, now in a new, even more powerful formula:



Samsung has an amusing ad that makes a lot more sense if you've seen their series of ads mocking people who wait in long lines for the latest Apple iTeration (see how I did that?):



For a round-up of all this year's ads (and previous years'), go to this handy-dandy Hulu site, which links viewers' favorites.

I'll just end this with my favorite for the year:



It's supposed to be a Volkswagen ad, but you tell me if dogs barking the evil imperial march isn't related to at least one of the Koreas.

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South Korean drugs increasingly North Korean in origin

It looks like some politicians are waking up to the potential for drug trafficking from North Korea to become a serious problem:

Yoon, who sits on the National Assembly Foreign Affairs, Trade and Unification Committee, said trafficking along the North Korea-China border was increasing and that some 57 percent of the 8,200 grams of foreign-produced methamphetamine seized in the South in 2010 came from China. “It is estimated that a large part of that comes from the North,” he said.

“The imported drugs not only directly harm people in South Korea and China, but they are a deadly threat to the social fabric.”

The North has long been known as a source of narcotics trafficking around the world.

If the prevalence estimated by Yoon holds true, the infiltration of the drugs not only complicates matters for police but could also represents the influence of Pyongyang’s shady security apparatus in the South at a time of lingering tension.

Yoon pinpointed the notorious Office 39 of Pyongyang’s ruling Workers’ Party, which specializes in a range of illicit economic activity to support the regime, as overseeing the operations and that key sections of the army had been charged with production and distribution.

The bureau is regarded as a slush fund creator for the late ruler Kim Jong-il and a key financial support system for Pyongyang’s elite.

He said the three provinces of Northeast China — Liaoning, Jilin and Heilongjiang — had become hotbeds for trafficking the North’s drugs. Reports say it is facilitated by groups from both Koreas as well as China that often work together.

Do we want to be awash in a sea of tweakers? Maybe pot-smoking English teachers are looking pretty good right now. (I kid! I kid! Please don't send me letters.)

One would hope that China would have woken up to this problem by now (since it spills over into their territory as well) and try to put a stop to it (or at least rein it in).

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Opposition would repeal Korus FTA if elected

Although, ironically, their man Roh Moohyun was the one who originally pushed for and signed the free-trade agreement with the United States, they seem to be hoping that populist opposition to the pact will bolster their support

From Reuters:

The leader of South Korea's main opposition party, which polls say is headed for a big victory in an April election, said on Wednesday it would repeal a free trade deal with the United States if it wins control of parliament, unless the pact is renegotiated.

Parliament, currently controlled by the ruling conservatives, approved the deal amid rowdy scenes of opposition lawmakers protesting in November, after it was signed in 2007 by the then-government of left-leaning President Roh Moo-hyun. It is scheduled to go into effect in coming weeks.

The deal, which economists say could boost the $67 billion in annual trade between the two countries by as much as a quarter, was a highly emotive legislative issue that left the two sides in deep division, paralyzing parliament.

"The FTA pursued by the (President Lee Myung-bak) government has no regards for our national interest and it is our position that it cannot be left to go into effect," opposition Democratic United Party leader Han Myeong-sook told a party meeting.

"It must be renegotiated before it takes effect to fix the poisonous clauses. Otherwise, we will repeal it in the new parliament session," she said.

Good luck with that renegotiation stuff, now that it has been signed into law. The best you can hope for is individual renegotiation of individual clauses, but even that seems unlikely, and backing out now will be a huge blow to South Korea's credibility when it comes to future trade and economic issues.

Bad, bad move.

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Loose change for February 7, 2012

 Economic and business news 

• South Korean companies were among the biggest buyers of Superbowl ads this year.

• Korea and Turkey are working hard to end their FTA talks early.

• The Korea Herald asks if South Korea should sign an FTA with China. Short answer: no.

 North Korea news and stuff 

• North Korea may be developing kamikaze attack drones that use US technology, and they might use them on South Korean military units.

• North Korea says don't worry about Kim Jong-un's age. It just means he's full of youth and won't die before he's done everything. 

 Other Korea-related stuff 

• A hagwon has been accused of using high-tech means to cheat on various ETS exams. 

• A makkŏlli-producing brewery is to open in Chicago.

 Americana and miscellany 

• USFK's General Sharp thinks the US should make it easier for South Korea to buy military equipment. 

• If you've been missing Payless Shoe Stores while living in South Korea, your wait will be over soon. 

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Something in the water?

According to a gushing report from the PR Newswire (which, by nature, are supposed to be gushing and effusive), South Korea has the world's highest rates of cancer survivability:

The Korean government recently announced that the survival rate of Korean cancer patients had improved from 59.5% in 2008 to 62.0% in 2009, while the cancer mortality rate showed a 19% decrease in 2006 and a 21% decrease in 2008. In addition, the 2011 Health Care Quality Indicators released by OECD member countries indicated that Korea excelled in the treatment of uterine cancer and that its survival rate for stomach cancer, 65.3%, well surpassed those of the USA (26%), Europe (24.9%), Japan (62.1%) and Canada (22%). In addition, the survival rate from thyroid cancer in Korea is 99.7% while that of breast cancer is 90.6%.

Similarly, Korean Ministry of Health & Welfare carried out an interim assessment of the '10-Year Plan to Conquer Cancer' and found out that the plan had exceeded its initial objective in 2011. Thus, the Ministry upgraded the survival rate target by 2015 from 54% to 67% following the deliberation by the National Cancer Management Committee. Cancer survival rate refers to the percentage of people able to survive five years after being diagnosed with and treated for cancer. It actually means the complete recovery rate.

Such excellent survival rates for Korean cancer patients have been due to the continuous efforts of the government to manage cancer and advance the medical technology. Korea has been building its reputation in robot-assisted surgery, a cutting edge cancer treatment technology, which has every year attracted many medical experts from Japan, Taiwan and many other countries to the National Cancer Center to learn the robot-assisted surgical techniques.

If this is true, it certainly bodes well for medical tourism in the country.

Meanwhile, over at The Huffington Post where they are singing the virtues of Korean spas, they seem to be suggesting it really is something in the water.

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Take Ŏnni

If ever there was a sign that North Korea may actually, really, sincerely be poised for a big change, this is it.



No, I'm not kidding.

(And yeah, when I was young, we did joke that A-ha was singing "Take ŏnni," or "Take Onmi" (언미 being my friend's kinda hot older sister). They were in fact singing "Take on me," which was just the first in a string of lyrics that made no sense whatsoever.

[Insert joke about North Korea finally catching up with the 1980s here.]

If this accordion quintet takes requests, I'd like them to take on Prince's "1999." I'll even go so far as to make up some suitable lyrics:

I was screaming when I wrote this,
I've never had to run so fast.
But I'm not in the Party, so I was not meant to last.


I started to write more, but it's already about bombs, being ready to roar, war being all around us, and an ominous voice saying, "Don't worry, I won't hurt u, I only want u 2 have some fun."

UPDATE:
The Wall Street Journal has some background on this video that has apparently gone viral over the weekend.

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Obama finally getting aggressive?

I didn't vote for Obama, but with Jon Huntsman having dropped out, I don't see anyone in the Republican field that I'd want over the president.

And frankly, I'm sick and tired of the constant crap-talking of the economy — which almost seems like they've got as their strategy eroding confidence so much that it actually has a negative effect on things and derails the recovery.

So much of it is just fantastical, as if they live in a parallel universe where the downward spiral that began in late 2007 has continued four years later and Obama really is doing absolutely nothing because he's too busy playing golf.

And so I'm glad that the Obama camp has come up with handy graphics like this that show what he has been doing and how dramatically the jobs picture has turned around (Blogger's having trouble showing the interactive part, so you can just click on the link for all its glory).



This interactive graph is a strong antidote to the knee-jerk cry that Obama is bad for the economy and isn't doing anything right. It also is evidence that the stimulus has worked and that the Detroit bailout (which has mostly been paid back) was absolutely the right thing to do. Romney and all of them just don't get it.

Okay, and now I'm done being partisan for the day.

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Has North Korea actually done double the number of tests we've thought?

That's the suggestion being made in Nature, based on isotope readings found around the region:

North Korea may have conducted two covert nuclear weapons tests in 2010, according to a fresh analysis of radioisotope data.

The claim has drawn scepticism from some nuclear-weapons experts. But if confirmed, the analysis would double the number of tests the country is known to have conducted and suggest that North Korea is trying to develop powerful warheads for its fledgling nuclear arsenal.

It might also explain a bizarre statement issued by North Korea's state news agency in May 2010, which said that the country had achieved nuclear fusion. The news was largely ridiculed in the South Korean and Western media — but it was not so quickly dismissed by the small circle of experts who devote their careers to identifying covert nuclear tests. South Korean scientists had detected a whiff of radioactive xenon at around that time, hinting at nuclear activity in its northern neighbour, which had already tested nuclear devices in 2006 and 2009.

While I'm not terribly happy they're developing nuclear fusion, I'm pleased as punch they're depleting their nuclear arsenal through repeated nuclear tests. In fact, in the past, I have advised Western powers to mock them into eliminating their entire stockpile in this manner:

North Korea's preparing for a third nuclear test, supposedly. And I say let 'em! Then taunt them that we thought that was just a bunch of TNT detonated in a mine shaft, so they'll detonate another one to prove us wrong. Lather, rinse, repeat, and eventually all their nukes will be gone. I should be president.

That is, of course, why I keep getting passed over for Assistant Secretary of State of Northeast Asian Affairs.

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Kim Jong-un says he wants to pass gas

... to south Korea, that is.

From Bloomberg:

North Korea’s new leader, Kim Jong Un, supports an agreement to build a natural-gas pipeline from Russia to South Korea via his communist state, the Russian envoy in Pyongyang said.

“All these existing agreements are supported by the new leadership in North Korea,” Russian Ambassador Valery Sukhinin said in a phone interview today from the North Korean capital. “Talks now are taking place between the parties implementing the project, from our side Gazprom, and from the North Korean side, the oil industry ministry.” OAO Gazprom is the state-run Russian gas-export monopoly.

Kim’s father, Kim Jong Il, who died in December, agreed to the gas pipeline at a meeting in August with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev near the Siberian city of Ulan-Ude. Russia said the energy deal was part of efforts to win concessions on North Korea’s nuclear-weapons program.

Cue juvenile farting joke here...

It's been a while since we've talked about the natural gas pipeline that Russian and South Korean leaders want to lay through North Korea, but apparently the Prodigious Progeny is renewing the prospect. And just in time for annual begging-for-food season.

Too bad, for the sake of North Koreans in the lower echelons of society, we can't bring Juneuary to the DPRK.

Anyway, for my thoughts on the wisdom of having such a pipeline (or lack thereof) see here, here, and here. Of course, it's a somewhat different discussion now that Kim Jong-un is in charge: Could construction of a pipeline and the international agreements necessary to build it and maintain it be what is needed to coax North Korea from isolation, or is there still high potential that the Pyongyang regime will use the threat of cutting off the gas supply as a means of squeezing out concessions from Seoul, as they would have done under Kim Jong-il?

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A Mitt of the people

With Mitt Romney stepping in it with $10,000 bets, giddy proclamations that he enjoys firing people, announcements that he doesn't really care about the very poor, and revelations of Swiss and Cayman Island bank accounts, there are concerns that not only does Mittens fail to connect with the average Joe and Jane, but that Joe and Jane may not want to connect to him come November. And thus we can imagine this kind of discussion at the Vote Mitt 2012 headquarters:

AIDE: 
Sir, you are having trouble convincing average Americans who have been dealt a body blow by the economy and the housing crisis that you actually understand the problems they're facing and how to solve them. What you need to do is get out there and spend time with someone like them. You know, some aging, fat bald guy who knows the pain of bankruptcy.

MITT:
I know just the guy!

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Another tacky Chinese knockoff

Although this one is ROC Chinese, not PRC Chinese:



Really, despite the wings and the halo, if this is what Steve Jobs is doing now, you have to wonder if he's in the other place.

And speaking of homages in commercials, I found this amusing:



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Dispirited 76

Imagine this scenario: You've applied for early decision to a favorite college and you get an official email informing you that, yes, you have been accepted, and that means you must, by contract, cancel your application for all the other schools to which you've applied.

Then, a few hours later, after you've excitedly and giddily told all your friends and every family member as far as your great aunts and your cousins once removed, and perhaps already sent those letters to the other colleges, you get an email from the same college saying, effectively, "Whoops, you weren't supposed to get that because we in fact have rejected your application."

That's what happened with seventy-six-applicants to Vassar College.

Now the question is what to do about it. So far, Vassar has seen it fit just to offer little more than a mealy-mouthed apology. To me, instead of telling these students to just suck it up, this is a good chance for the university itself to acknowledge that they, and not those applicants, are the ones who screwed up, and do the right thing. The onus is on Vassar to fix this, not the students who were inadvertently admitted. It's not right to just tell them, as some commenters have, that life sucks and then take no responsibility.

Vassar College models its buildings after those at Korea University.

If Vassar is like the University of California, which I attended for my undergrad studies, then it has some sort of minimum eligibility requirements above which applicants are considered to be "qualified" (this is relevant to affirmative action issues, too, but that's another post for another time). All of those seventy-six who do meet the minimum eligibility requirements should have their acceptance honored.

Those among the seventy-six who do not meet the minimum eligibility requirements should still have their acceptance honored, but they should be sat down with counselors and university officials and have their individually analyzed prospects for success at Vassar explained in great detail (and perhaps this should be done with those who did meet the minimum eligibility). But the final decision whether to matriculate should be up to the prospective student.

An important part of this idea is that all of the seventy-six should be given the option of going to another school with Vassar paying their first semester's tuition at that other school, though no such payment should be made if they choose to go to Vassar instead.

In the end, seventy-six students is merely thirteen percent of the 2012 freshman class: Vassar can turn this liability into a unique opportunity. It will be interesting to see how these seventy-six fare over the next four to five years. In fact, it would be an interesting experiment to test how good Vassar's admissions process is at predicting student success.

The subsequent report could be called "The Spirit of the Seventy-Six." No, I am not joking about any of this. Vassar, go and do the right thing.

[This whole adventure is a pleasant reminder that some American students still have that fervor for higher education that dominates in South Korea but seems painfully lacking as a major driver of behavior in the United States.]

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