Outpost of Tyranny loses to Outpost of Tyranny

UPDATE:
Despite the real possibility of a repeat of such violence when former colonizer Japan plays former colony North Korea on the latter's home turf in June, it was reported today that there are no plans to change the venue of next June's World Cup qualifier from Pyongyang to somewhere else. Look for sparks (and bottles) to fly, especially if Japan defeats NK. And don't forget, you heard it here first on nora knows nada?!

ORIGINAL STORY:
North Korea doesn't like losing, especially if it means they won't be heading to next year's World Cup in Germany. Iran beat North Korea 2-0 in Pyongyang to take the outright lead in their World Cup qualifying group.

The match ended with angry scenes. Match officials were unable to leave the pitch for twenty minutes after the game on Wednesday as furious North Korea fans hurled bottles, rocks, and chairs in frustration.

Sounds like they're emulating the Chinese in more ways than one.

North Korean soldiers and police had to step in to restore order at Kim Il-sung Stadium after defender Nam Song-chol was sent off for shoving a Syrian. The game was held up for five minutes following Nam's dismissal as bottles rained down onto the stadium's running track.

Fortunately, the question of how South Koreans would react if they were to lose a qualifier at home will have to remain hypothetical for now, as Korea beat Uzbekistan 2 to 1.

Kim Jŏng-il + Bush meeting in Moscow?

News that the Fear Leader Kim Jŏng-il will attend Moscow's Victory Day celebrations in May has raised the prospect that the North Korean leader will run into the leader of the free world, George W. Bush.

In 2002, Bush said the following about the North Korean strongman: I loathe Kim Jong Il. I've got a visceral reaction to this guy, because he is starving his people. And I have seen intelligence of these prison camps -- they're huge -- that he uses to break up families and to torture people. It appalls me.

So what would a Bush-Kim meet-up be like? Smiles and hand-holding? Or will Dubya sucker-punch the guy?

Japan expresses regret (not what you think)

Japanese Senior Vice Foreign Minister Ichiro Aisawa expressed regret to South Korea today.

"Expressed regret?" you may ask. "About the brutal occupation of Korea? World War II? The Comfort Women?"

Sorry, no. Mr. Aisawa has said he "truly regrets" the landing by sixty Korean tourists and journalists on South Korean-controlled Tokto in the East Sea (aka Sea of Japan). Except he called the place Takeshima. Japan also lodged a protest through their embassy in Seoul.

"How can this be?" you might ask. If you've been following Korea-related blogdom, you will have heard a whole bunch of people say that the Japanese don't even really care about this issue. Well, apparently someone in government does, and Kyodo is talking about it.

And this to me shows that the finger-chopping, flag-stomping and burning, blood vessel-bursting posturing isn't what's needed. That kind of thing just makes Korea look ridiculous or irrational. What's needed is to deal with this from a position of strength, since South Korea has long occupied the islands.

In other words, do what Japan cannot do and show that this really is an integral part of Korean territory. Allow tourists, make all of Ullŭng-gun County (a national monument since 1982) a national park, have regular visits by Korean officials, invite sympathetic Japanese citizens to visit the islets, etc.

Korean critics of so-called "quiet diplomacy" rejected this course of action because it lacked emotional satisfaction. Well, here is proof that this is what will really get to the powers-that-be in Japan.

Till death do us part? 55% say "Sure, why not?"

After a bunch of hoopla a year ago over Korea's soaring number of divorces, it appears that the divorce rate is slipping.

2003's 167,131 divorces fell by 27,731 to 139,400. Meanwhile, 2003's 305,000 marriages rose by 6000 to 310,900.

Divorces in a given year divided by marriages that same year still gives us a whopping divorce rate of 45% in 2004! Still, this is down sharply from the mind-boggling 55% divorce rate in 2003.

According to the report, personality difference account for half of all divorces, while financial reasons are the culprit in 14.7% of all cases. Adultery is responsible only for 7%, which must mean that adulterous spouses are simply not getting divorced. "After I married my husband I realized I was a lesbian" still didn't register on the survey, although this may be a factor in the rising number of people not marrying at all.

The report also mentions that 1 out of 12 marriages are "international marriages," with Korean men preferring Chinese, Vietnamese, Japanese, Filipina, or Mongolian brides.

Korean women prefer Japanese, American, Canadian, and Bangladeshi men, who are reported to be major hotties.

Inch'ŏn Airport voted second best

John Kerry will tell you it's no fun to come in second, but the folks at Inch'ŏn International Airport (also known as "Incheon," but not pronounced 인치안") are probably thrilled at this news.

Me personally, I love this airport. It's rarely crowded, it's neat, it has easy parking, it has almost anything you would want to find (except no Thai food).

Where F-4 art thou, visa?

I think the F-4 visa itself warrants a dedicated post, so here it is.
To review, "K" suggests I can "moonlight" in Korea because I "have the right blood":

Nora, kiss my ass. The only reason you can “moonlight” is because you have the right blood. In a non-racist country, you would be as illegal as these two Canadians. Your argument rests on a belief in racial purity. That’s what this is about. You hate dumb-ass foreigners that come here and break laws? Korea has laws? Maybe you should tell that to Hyundai or Samsung or LG, all of whom regularly hire illegal teachers. Maybe you should tell that to Kim “I love Pyongyang” Dae Jung and his corrupt sons. Maybe you should tell that to the thousands of hagwon owners that hire illegals every day and don’t care about the quality of education provided as long as they have a white face in the classroom. Maybe you should tell that to the thousands of Koreans illegally crossing the border into the US right now. Maybe you should tell that to the adjoshis that kick the shit out of women just like you on the streets of Seoul every day. Koreans lecturing Canadians about law. Ha.

Shakuhachi says I am "allowed a free ride because of [my] ethnicity":

While I wouldnt put it the way he does, K has a point. Nora, you talk about all these teachers and yet ignore the fact that if they were Kyopo like you they wouldnt have visa problems at all. The only difference between you and them is that you are allowed a free ride because of your ethnicity, whereas other Americans (and in this case Canadians) cannot. Maybe in some way you think you ‘deserve’ the special priviledge you have that your ‘fellow Americans’ do not. Cant you spare some compassion for whitey?

Gluestick suggests that I want to throw the book at non-kyopos:

Nora \”moonlights\” … when foreigners. (non nora type foreigner.. aka non kyopo) do moonlighting she wants to throw the book at them.

For someone who doesn't have F-4 status, I know this is a contentious issue. I know several people who should have it but don't.

For the record, not everyone who is kyopo gets an F-4 visa. In fact, it is not related to blood but citizenship. Specifically, it is available only to those who were South Korean citizens (i.e., citizens of the Republic of Korea) after 1948 but gave it up, or the descendants of such people.

That means that if your family emigrated to the US before 1948, you're screwed. If you were born in the US or Canada, say, but your patriotic Korean mother and/or father decided not to give up their ROK citizenship but also didn't put you in the hojŏk, you're also out of luck. About 20% of Western kyopo can't get the coveted F-4 visa. Ethnic Koreans in China or the former Soviet Union can hardly get it at all.

Furthermore, it's not about "racial purity." People who are half Korean or a quarter Korean (even an eighth Korean) can get an F-4 if they are the descendant of someone who gave up ROK citizenship after 1948.

Now that I've disposed of the notion that it's based on blood or racial purity, the next question to ponder is whether or not it's fair. That's a lot tougher.

The ROK government decided it could benefit by attracting educated kyopo from Western countries back to Korea. They chose to do this by making it much easier for them to work freely, which is why they created the F-4 visa in the first place.

Perhaps it is unfair to exclude ethnic Koreans in China and the former Soviet Union (although having never been connected to South Korea, one could argue they have no legal rights to reside here). And I definitely think that well-established, long-term residents with no ethnic Korean tie should also be allowed to stay with the same freedoms.

But is South Korea the only advanced country that does this? The United States gives preference on the basis of blood to the family members of people who have already landed in the US. It gives preferential to certain countries over other countries. I believe citizens of the Philippines have an easier time emigrating to the US as a nod to their status as a former American colony.

Are these things so different? And if not, are they so wrong? US immigration policy is based on a number of complicated factors, and it is applied based on things that are arguably racist. Not so different from the Korean situation with the F-4 and other policies.

Do I feel bad about having an F-4? No. I think it's great. I hate making the visa run to Fukuoka. I have helped people who did not think they were eligible to get an F-4 visa to actually get one. I also think it's great that Immigration finally offered similar status to non-Koreans married to Korean citizens (F-2?).

But my having an F-4 visa doesn't justify someone without an F-4 to go and break the law. When I had an E-2 or a D-something, I worked the appropriate number of jobs, no more. I got permission for all the stuff I did. It's really not that hard, and there's no reason why someone should spend two years working illegally in this country. None. It's not fair to everyone else who is following the rules and trying to make an honest living. That was my point from the beginning.

The Nompire Strikes Back

You might wonder, "Why are you doing this, Nora?" Well, I think some of these accusations need to be answered, while some make a great thread all by themselves. Plus, it's fun to point out how silly other people sound.

I've already responded to some of these posts, so I'm mostly going to focus on the little ambush. Starting with "K," who wrote:

Nora, kiss my ass. The only reason you can “moonlight” is because you have the right blood. In a non-racist country, you would be as illegal as these two Canadians. Your argument rests on a belief in racial purity. That’s what this is about. You hate dumb-ass foreigners that come here and break laws? Korea has laws? Maybe you should tell that to Hyundai or Samsung or LG, all of whom regularly hire illegal teachers. Maybe you should tell that to Kim “I love Pyongyang” Dae Jung and his corrupt sons. Maybe you should tell that to the thousands of hagwon owners that hire illegals every day and don’t care about the quality of education provided as long as they have a white face in the classroom. Maybe you should tell that to the thousands of Koreans illegally crossing the border into the US right now. Maybe you should tell that to the adjoshis that kick the shit out of women just like you on the streets of Seoul every day. Koreans lecturing Canadians about law. Ha.

Actually, the fairness or unfairness of F-4 visas is a topic in and of itself, which I will address here. But none of my argument rests on me believing in "racial purity" or "having the right blood."

Let's put that red herring aside and focus on not holding the hagwon owners that hire illegals responsible: nothing could be further from the truth. I made that very clear in another post where I said the whole illegal problem and all the damage it has caused (especially to those teachers and hagwon owners who are trying to remain legit) is a three-way between unscrupulous hagwon owners, rule-breaking "teachers," and incompetent/clueless government officials.

In fact, our little company is trying to do something about this. We are setting up a "project" that will bring honest teachers and honest universities and institutes together, with the government helping out by putting teeth into the laws that are supposed to protect the foreign teachers.

As for former president Kim Daejung and his sons, or the Hyundai, LG, or Samsung people, that is so irrelevant as to be foolish to bring it up. Do the circumstances of Enron, Martha Stewart, Tom DeLay, Michael Jackson, or OJ Simpson justify wrongdoing in America? Do they make America a lawless country? Would I be right to bring those cases up if someone were to talk about illegal immigration in the US? Of course not. Again, it's a red herring by someone whose argument is all over the map.

Kromozone added:

If you rework all of her statements replacing “unqualified teachers” with “visaless Koreans in the US” and “teaching” with “operating dry cleaners” you can get a taste for how bad it really is!

I do think "K" and Kromozone may be on to something when they write about "the thousands of Koreans illegally crossing the border into the US right now." I'm not really sure it's "thousands" crossing right now, but there are a lot. I'm also not sure if the people working in the dry cleaners are often illegal.

Those who think I am a mindless cheerleader for Korea would be surprised to know that I am appalled that the number is so high. In fact, like the illegally working "teachers" in Korea, the illegally residing Koreans in America are making things worse for Koreans trying to fly right.

That's right. By opting to do things illegally, they make the entire community look like a bunch of lawless flakes. More directly, they prevent Korea from getting visa-free entry status into the United States. I've played translator for a lawyer cousin in California who doesn't speak Korean at all, helping him to make sense of what some of his Korean-speaking clients have done to stay in America, usually illegally. He's obliged to help them, but I'm not, and I'll tell you it disgusts me the way some people will lie and cheat to get in and stay in the US when there are people following the rules and waiting patiently over here. I know that sounds harsh, but it's my law-and-order side.

Later, william wrote this:

Noda, ahem Nora is probably Atypical Korean-American who enjoys all the benefit that American/Western culture has provided for her and her family in the U.S.,

I would like to point out that it was my parents' hard work that gave me the benefits I enjoyed.

yet is most viscious in ad hominem attack against the Westerners, and never once give them the benefit of doubt.

Never once gave the benefit of the doubt? My posts about these two Canadians are full of giving the benefit of the doubt. The truth is, I don't know if they started the fight or not, just that they are in hot water. I offered very sound advice based on that. In fact, I was one of the few people offering advice.

I will not be politically correct. I will say that with all things being equal, I would still consider Western culture superior than Korean culture. However, with all the contentious posts I’ve read from Nora, I bet she would beg to differ.

Yes, I would differ. Unlike this Westerner (and many of the Koreans he probably despises), I don't feel a need to decide one society is superior to another or not. I can think of many Western things that Koreans ought to emulate, but I can also think of a number of Korean/Asian things that Westerners would do well to emulate.

The funny thing is that Nora herself can’t wait ’til she get out this little hell hole called “Korea” and go back to the good old U.S. of A. Isn’t she pathetic?

Yeah, I'm just so pathetic. Of course, this William person has no idea what he's talking about, basing this on -- if anything -- what I wrote on my blog about being in exile from the neocon-run United States. What I was referring to was that I cannot bring my long-time girlfriend, a Korean national, back to the U.S. with me, even though I would like to go back for work and study. I've achieved most of what I set out to achieve here and would like to move on.
Now I know that a lot of you out there in blogdom may not think too much of same-sex marriage. I know a lot of you might think that so-called "civil unions" will do the trick, but unless we (the USA) are willing to give green card status to the foreign-national partners in civil unions, then they will never be fair. If we were a male-female couple at the same stage of our relationship, we'd be married and maybe on our way to having kids together, but the laws as they now stand prevent that.
Anyway, that is what is holding me back: finding a way for her to come with me to the US so we can be together. It's not because the US is so great light of democracy we aspire to return to. Quite the opposite, in fact. Thanks for asking.
Hey, wait a minute... did you just call Korea a "hell hole"? So you're willingly sticking around in a place you think of as a "hell hole"? What does that say about you?
Oh, I should also mention that long before this Canadian thing erupted (a whole two weeks earlier, an eternity in blog years), William had gone and bashed me at Marmot's Hole when the Marmot gave my new blog a plug. His welcome gift:

NOra seems like babbling fool. Conservative, moderate, or liberal Republican? The only thing that these labels indicate is your lack of understanding of the issues.
So, you “believe in low taxes, limited government interference, and strong national security?” Are these mutually inclusive in your thinking? What a naiver girl.

Apparently he has an issue with Republicans. Or Republican lesbians. Or moderate Republicans. Or spelling.
Now back to our story. DS later asked:

Nora-I found this statement of yours interesting “i’m an american, thank you very much. and it is funny that some white americans do refer to it as ‘their’ country (not most, though).”
Do you think it is possible for non-Koreans to become Korean in the same way newcomers to the US or Canada become residents of those countries? Do you consider Robert or Peter (Marmot, Oranckay) Korean residents entitled to the same benefits, franchisement and legal protection as say any US resident who’s spent 8 years or longer in the United States?

That's a fair list of questions (although I don't know why I in particular should be responsible for answering them). In some ways I do think it's possible, but I also think that many Koreans have a long way to go before they start accepting ethnically non-Koreans as Korean citizens. Many people barely accept non-Koreans as Korean residents who belong here.
I don't know Marmot or Oranckay, except throught their blogs, and I know little about about their backgrounds, so I can't answer that. If they are married to Korean women, then they should have F-2 visas that allow them nearly as much freedom as F-4 visas, I think.
I got some criticism for "moonlighting," but part of that same bit of work is consulting with the Ministry of Justice. Our company has suggested a number of immigration policy changes, including a "permanent residence"-type status for people who have legally resided here at least seven years without any problems, getting rid of the requirement that people leave the country to change visas, allowing people to withdraw from their contracts without affecting their visa status in the event of clear wrongdoing on the part of the employer, etc.
In the past, this company had promoted streamlining the visa issuance procedures (which they did, so now it takes one day instead of six weeks abroad), having the government issue re-entry permits at the airport (which they now do), and a few other things along those lines (I don't know all of them).

The pièce de résistance came from gbnhj, who wrote:

Regarding Nora Park, Nathan writes that ’she’s never claimed that all foreigners are the objects of her anger–only illegal ones with chips on their shoulders’.
Well, I don’t know about ‘all’ foreigners, but her wrath does extend beyond the sphere of illegal residents. First, go to the March archives to “I’d give her the gold for that”, and view her post dated March 6th 4:45pm. For reasons known best to Nora, she chose to write ‘an asian chick who goes down on you in a bar… okay, so she’s a celebrity, but did this really have to be in the news? i mean, aren’t there enough unqualified gaijin/oegugin teachers coming to this part of the world already?’
No mention was previously made of teachers - in the article, in Marmot’s synopsis, or by other posters. When asked about this, by myself and another poster, she did not explain, but rather discussed
other issues.

In all fairness, I did make a leap here, although gbnhj is omitting some stuff. In the comments section, two people suggested that this attractive woman going down on the foreigner guy in the bar was a reason for them to head to Japan. I think that day I had been having a discussion with some people about the various reasons people come here to teach, and the perceived easy availability of women was one of the reasons cited. Okay, so I made a leap from teachers coming here for this reason to unqualified teachers coming here. My bad. But that doesn't mean that it pervades my every thought.

gbnhj then went on:

Next, on the same thread, view her post dated March 6th 8:57pm. If you scroll over her ID, you’ll find that she has a hyperlink:
http://allyourbasearebelongtous/
My browser will not open this site, and I wonder if it exists. Regardless, by this, one can reasonably conclude that US soldiers are another issue with her. Yet, just as that thread had nothing to do with teachers, nor did it have anything to do with US soldiers.

Kushibo already dealt with this and you already apologized for jumping to conclusions, so all the fun has been taken out of it for me, but I do want to point out that if it was so easy for you to assume something like this (that I have a beef of some kind with US military personnel), then perhaps you have been misreading me from the beginning.
I have great respect for our men and women in uniform (especially our women). They are making great sacrifices here in a country where the press makes it seem as if they are unwanted and unappreciated (they are neither).
My only beef with the military is that it keeps to its homophobic practice of kicking out avowed gay and lesbian people, often after they have served honorably and are getting close to retirement when Uncle Sam will have to start paying their well-earned but hefty pensions.
As for Kushibo coming to my aid, I wish you hadn't done that. No offense to gbnhj, who did apologize for jumping to conclusions, but I thought it was hilarious that he interpreted the link that way. But I'm a subtle person, and I would have preferred not outing his mistake, but letting those in the know appreciate it all the more, knowing that it's their little secret.
gbnhj also wrote:

I think that Nora has sometimes expressed some good ideas - I’ve supported some of them previously - but I also think that she has issues with men. Unfortunately for soldiers and English teachers, males predominate in these professions, and so you feel her heat. Nora Park appears to dislike some people - more pointedly, some men - regardless of their legal status in this country, and expresses that dislike regardless of the topic being discussed.

I really think this is way off base. I don't have any particular dislike of men in general. I don't like men who lie to, abuse, take advantage of, or otherwise manipulate women, I don't like men who think they are superior to women, I don't like men who treat women as if they are sex objects, etc. The usual complaints of lots of other women -- lesbian or straight -- but no particular dislike of men in general. And certainly this had no bearing on what I said about the two Canadians.
Later, Gluestick wrote:

Nora \”moonlights\” … when foreigners. (non nora type foreigner.. aka non kyopo) do moonlighting she wants to throw the book at them.

Here the F-4 issue rears its ugly head. For the record, I am doing no more than I would have been able to do before F-4 visas existed. A person can have, say, an E-2 visa and still do two other jobs legally. And this "moonlighting" I mentioned is actually an extra task (not one of my main tasks) within this company as consulting work, which I'm doing as a favor. If any non-F-4 foreigner worked here, he/she would be able to do this "moonlighting" legally.

Nora has lots and lots of \”foreign friends\”.. i would like to meet a few.. I guess she counts the crackers she sees on TV as her friends,

You mean... Tom Brokaw and Pikachu aren't really my friends?

i doubt normal non-kyopos would deal with her subtle racism for long.

Don't be so sure. I'm actually very subtle with my anti-foreign racism. I'm so subtle, they don't know that I've been poisoning their minds with my pro-kyopo, anti-White sentiment, turning them into the minions in my own personal army of self-loathing Caucasians who bash everything important to their dead, White culture (the only drawback is that they then usually vote Democrat).

perhaps she includes all the people she met growing up. Koreans in America will meet, and have normal friendships with lots of non kyopos.. but when they get back to the motherland.. the kyopos want nothing to do with those damn Americans.

I don't know where you're pulling this from. Bad experience with a kyopo girl?

Nora says she doesnt like \”bad\” kyops… well, the kyopos like Kimbob, as you can read, are circleing the waggon around Nora.

I like circles.

If you read anything from Nora, she just attacks the \”unqualified foreigners\” in another thread assumes that a foreign guy in japan is some \”uqualified english teacher\”. then she goes on an on about how bad foreigner are.

No, just certain types. A very limited type. But of course, if you happen to fit in with that type, maybe there really is something wrong with you and you're tired of people pointing it out. Hey, don't shoot the messenger.
Okay, so I'm not taking my own advice about being contrite. Some of what was said was just too silly to be taken seriously. I guess some people are projecting. Some people are making assumptions about what kind of person I am. Maybe they thought I'm one of these hagwon hags who talk to everyone in a nasally voice as they run the institute with an iron fist.
None of that is me. I don't think Korea is superior, but I don't think the US is superior. I think a lot of foreigners get themselves in trouble in Korea by being arrogant, ignorant, or both, but I also think a lot of the problems stem from the Korean side. I think if people could just step out of themselves for a bit, they would realize where they're going wrong. This includes myself.
Oh, it's too late in the day to be philosophical.

The People vs. Nora Park

It all started on Marmot's website, when he posted the news about two apparently illegally working Canadians being arrested for their role in a fight in which one of them broke the jaw of one of the Koreans who either attacked them or was attacked by them. It ended with yours truly being called a xenophic bigot who was jilted by a foreign guy and whose family is riding the American gravy train (okay, I'm paraphrasing a little).

What follows is the case against me (embedded within pertinent details). I will supply my defense in the next post.

It began when I wrote:

teachers… illegal?! and… canadian?! and… drinking?! and… fighting?!
i am so shocked i cannot typ

I also asked one of the hometown character witnesses of these two men, caper34, the following:

you know these two men personally? care to enlighten us as to why they decided to live in korea illegally for almost two years? you talk so glowingly about their character, but here they are a couple of people breaking the laws of another country on a daily basis.
oh, and have you ever been with them when they’re drunk?
also, there are no juries in korea. not yet. i would not want to be them in a jury trial.

For this, I was called (by Pusan) "a bigot."

Craig from Port Hawkesbury apparently thought I was playing a game of "Twister" gone awry. He told me,

Nora Sumi Park, I think you should get your head out of your ass. Do you think these are the only illegally working english teachers in Korea? Don’t hate the player, hate the game.

Okay. So it wasn't "Twister." I responded:

pusan in canada,what makes me a bigot?
i did make a value judgment that their character may be in question when they willingly worked illegally for nearly two years. how does that make me a bigot?
i also asked, legimitately not rhetorically, if the person who said he/she knew them had ever seen them when they’re drunk. i asked this because i know quite a few people whose innocent, upstanding character flies out the window when they’ve had a few. the only thing that might have looked out of line was saying that “i would not want to be them in a jury trial,” but what i meant was that i don’t think a korean jury would be too lenient with two ‘foreigners’ who broke some guy’s jaw, regardless who started it. if i’m being ‘bigoted’ against anyone, it’s the koreans for thinking that a jury of koreans might not be fair and objective when judging two foreigners.

I never got a response, so I later wrote:

i still am not sure why i am being called a bigot, unless it is because as a kyopo i have been expressing disapproval about some _foreigners_ here. if that is the case, then i would like to mention that i would be just as critical about illegally working kyopos (not all kyopos get f-4 visas) and i am making no assumptions about the racial background of the two canadians involved. for the record, i know more than a few kyopos here who are a-holes with chips on their shoulder and that gets them in trouble a lot.
i suppose i can be accused of being insensitive to these two poor guys in jail, but that might be because i don’t see them as two poor guys. it seems their own actions got them into the mess they’re in.

some people like the freedom of not being tied down to one place and they go that route. so while other people are trying to play by the rules, these people work the system illegally. i just don’t see how they can be ‘innocent’ in such a case. if i’m wrong, then enlighten me, please.
craig also says that “The system in Korea is badly in need of examination by higher officials, blaming the workers is the wrong end to start.” i don’t agree. i think all three factors are to blame: the hagwons looking for illegal teachers (so they can manipulate them and/or the system or screw the competition), the teachers who are willing participants in that kind of shady side of the business, and the government that is unwilling or incapable of doing something to curb it. all three are to blame, and i’ll start blaming all of them at the same time.
craig said i should hate the game instead of the players, and he said that “the game is being refereed by corrupt politicians, govt. officials, and police.” yeah, well it’s also being continued illegals who willingly participate.
hey, how about the honest people (hagwon owners and teachers)who are getting screwed by people who don’t follow the rules? sorry, but i just tend to take their side a little more.

from the outset, it looks like these two guys think the rules shouldn’t apply to them. maybe i’m a little too law-and-order, but the problem in korea is that too many people, koreans and foreigners, think that rules are for other people.

so if they’re getting charged or deported for working here illegally, i’m not going to
cry in my latte over it.
then there’s the assault. somebody has claimed that one of them sucker punched one of the koreans who jumped them later outside. if that is really what happens, they deserve whatever reasonable jail time they get for assault.
but i’m not going to assume that is the case. i’m going to assume that they were ambushed by three koreans with a chip on their shoulder. yeah, it does happen. sometimes the koreans are the ones with the chip on their shoulder, sometimes it’s the foreigners, sometimes it’s both. but for the sake of discussion, i’m going to assume the least amount of blame for these two canadians.
korea has laws and rules, and people are expected to follow them.
when koreans come to blows, generally (from what i’ve heard) the person who ends up severely injuring the other is the one who gets blamed for the fight. even if he (or she) is not the one who started it.
that’s the way it goes, and it applies to foreigners, too. i guess a lot of foreigners are bigger than a lot of koreans they encounter, and so when they take a swing, they end up doing a lot of damage.
supposedly, these three drunk korean guys were swinging and missing, and one canadian finally got fed up and swung and broke one guy’s jaw. in north america, the jawbreaker would be justified in using force to fight back, but this ain’t north america. he used excessive force and put someone in the hospital. since the koreans weren’t even hitting their target (supposedly), then the excess force was unnecessary, according to korean law (i think). this same standard would be applied to a korean. there are fighting rules in korean law, and that seems to be one of them. another one is (so i’ve heard) the difference in criminal degree between hitting with an open hand versus a closed fist. the latter will get you in a lot more trouble.
when there’s a korean and a foreigner, it’s not always that simple, though. one very big problem is that the police here are too easly swayed by the person they can understand, which often isn’t the foreigner. i know of cases where someone who was in the right got in trouble or nearly got in trouble because the police were influenced
by having heard the korean instigator’s made-up side of the story first without ever hearing the foreigner’s side. too often they make up their minds too quickly. it’s a big problem, yes. but the fact remains, they wouldn’t be in the mess they’re in if they had let it go (which from what i’ve read, they could have) and if they hadn’t been here illegally. if one of them really sucker punched one of the koreans in the bar in an unprovoked attack, then the first thing is all the more true.
you’re in korea, you go by korea’s laws.

it’s like the idiots that come here and smoke pot, get arrested when their friends rat them out to save their own skin, and then complain about how bad they’re being treated, often complaining that doing whatever they did wouldn’t be a big deal back in canada or in the u.s. you’re not in the u.s. or canada, you’re in korea. if you can’t live in korea without smoking pot, breaking people’s jaws, or working illegally, then maybe you should be somewhere else. not everything bad that happens is because of being a foreigner. we know for a fact that one of the laws had been broken for close to two years, and the physical assault seems to be another one.
—-
that said, i don’t think they deserve to be railroaded. craig also said, “these guys need our help. They are real people and deserve a fair chance.”
yeah, i do agree. like i said, i don’t think it’s fair if the police automatically take the side of the korean guys just because they were able to communicate their point of view better.
but breaking someone’s jaw is serious, and jail time might be inevitable. like someone else said, they should hope for deportation. if you want to hear something useful, that’s what you should plea bargain for.
if there is a lawyer here, please verify or refute what i’m saying, but my understanding also is that courts are much more lenient on people who express remorse. if you’re not guilty, that’s a hard thing to do, but sometimes it’s wise. if they express remorse at what they did (breaking some guy’s jaw, even if he was a prick, plus working illegally, they might just get deported. but if they cop an attitude, they are going to be in for a world of hurt.
yeah, this is someone’s life and that is serious. but i guess i’m just tired of people coming along, acting like the rules don’t apply to them, and then expecting us to feel
sympathy when it blows up in their face. i guess lately i’ve been involved in too many other people’s dramas as i’m asked to find“Get over your own little dramas and say something useful, or shut the hell up.”

Nothing big so far. I was able to handle my own, but despite having offered some truly helpful (I think) points about the Korean judicial system and what they should expect to face, I got this lump of coal from "Santa":

Boy Nora you sure do hate foreigners. Don’t you. I have read lots of your posts where you take any position as long as it’s trashing on foreigners. What is your beef with them? If I was noolji I guess I would ask if you got dumped by a foreigner and that is why you don’t like them. Anyway, I have read, tried to read, your endless rants and justifications. But in the end, you just don’t like foreigner’s right? I mean don’t tell me that you are upset that two foreigners are working in Korea illegally right? Is that really an issue with you? I bet you know quite a few KA that you like that are doing the same. Does that really get you all upset? I doubt it.
Anyway, someday you may choose to go to USA or Canada and travel, or live as so many other Koreans have done. I doubt they will hate you as much. I doubt they will be bothered by your presence in “their” country.

Then "Nora's Mother" wrote:

It’s already happened. Nora is a useless peice of shit kyopo (Korean born American) that can’t even fit into her own society.

That really hurt. My mother can be so cruel. Eventually, however, I began to suspect my mother didn't really write that, because she's usually never sober enough to turn on the computer, and she would never go through the trouble to explain what "kyopo" means.

Holding back tears, I manged to write:

santa,
“Boy Nora you sure do hate foreigners. Don’t you. I have read lots of your posts where you take any position as long as it’s trashing on foreigners.”
no, just dumb-assed foreigners. dumb-assed foreigners who come here and teach illegally. dumb-assed foreigners who come and break the law. dumb-assed foreigners who think that every single bad thing that happens to them is because of racism (when only about 47% of it is because of racism).
if you are a dumb-assed foreigner, then you might be feeling my wrath, which is why you are confused. i also hate dumb-assed kyopos. dumb-assed kyopos who come here and work illegally. dumb-assed kyopos who think they are superior to any and every non-korean foreigner in korea.
“What is your beef with them? If I was noolji I guess I would ask if you got dumped by a foreigner and that is why you don’t like them.”
nope, that’s not it at all. i have had a job where i had to clean up the crap caused by stupid people who can’t follow the rules, but that includes kyopos and koreans, too.
half of my friends are non-kyopo foreigners, so no, i don’t really have a problem with them. none of them break people’s jobs, work illegally for two years, or smoke pot, though, so that might be why.
“Anyway, I have read, tried to read, your endless rants and justifications. But in the end, you just don’t like foreigner’s right?”
um, no. wrong.
“I mean don’t tell me that you are upset that two foreigners are working in Korea illegally right? Is that really an issue with you?”
yes, it is. i occasionally moonlight for a certain government agency that deals with this, so yeah, it is.
“I bet you know quite a few KA that you like that are doing the same. Does that really get you all upset? I doubt it.”
i do know a few people like that, and yeah, it does bother me. i think i already said so in another post.
“Anyway, someday you may choose to go to USA or Canada and travel, or live as so many other Koreans have done. I doubt they will hate you as much. I doubt they will be bothered by your presence in “their” country.”
i’m an american, thank you very much. and it is funny that some white americans do refer to it as ‘their’ country (not most, though).

oranckay liked part of what I wrote, saying

about Nora Park comment: “dumb-assed foreigners who think that every single bad thing that happens to them is because of racism (when only about 47% of it is
because of racism).”
Defo on that. What gets me is that the 47 percent is in your face so often there’s just no need to pretend there’s any more, and yet some “dubm-assed foreigners” are desperate to do so. On the other hand, one of the things that happens to a victim of racism is that s/he starts to interpret events that are not because of racism as having something to do with racism. IE, if the first thing that bad thing that happens to you on your way to work is because of racism, then something bad happens to you at work because of racism, and then on your way home someting bad happens to you because bad things happen, the last event is going to be interpreted as having had something to do with racism. It probably wouldn’t however if not for the earlier two events. Nothing dumb-assed about that, that’s just natural human psychology. Then there’s a lot about life in Korea for someone not ethnically Korean that really does look like racism when upon closer inspection and with an understanding of Koraen culture really isn’t, and figuring out which is which is complicated by the fact that
plenty of genuine racism exists. But as for the “47 percent and the rest is exaggeration” theory, I tend to agree, its just that the “exaggeration” is natural and furthermore a result of the 47 percent.

Kimbob also liked what I wrote:

“umb-assed kyopos who think they are superior to any and every non-korean foreigner in korea.”
I’m agreeing with norapark on this. I’ve seen so many Kyopos in Korea that act just like that. Of course I’m a Kyopo myself but I want to distance myself far far away from those who act like dumbasses. One thing that really bugs me about Kyopos is in the public when they purposely talk trashy and loud in English feeling superior. As if people will be impressed. One time I was in the train and couple of 20 something kyopos sat across me, talking trash in English. I’m pretty sure they were directing their loud trash talk about Koreans at me, almost daring me to understand what they were saying. Little did they realize I was a Kyopo myself just like them. I pretended I didn’t understand and ignored them but I know what Nora is talking about. These dumbass kyopos go over there and act like nothing will stop them from whatever the hell they like to do. I guess it’s the same situations as Korean nationals
going over to Vietnam or Philippines, feeling superior and feeling like invincible.

Sadly, I was unable to sway the enigmatically named "K," who wrote:

Nora, kiss my ass. The only reason you can “moonlight” is because you have the right blood. In a non-racist country, you would be as illegal as these two Canadians. Your argument rests on a belief in racial purity. That’s what this is about. You hate dumb-ass foreigners that come here and break laws? Korea has laws? Maybe you should tell that to Hyundai or Samsung or LG, all of whom regularly hire illegal teachers. Maybe you should tell that to Kim “I love Pyongyang” Dae Jung and his corrupt sons. Maybe you should tell that to the thousands of hagwon owners that hire illegals every day and don’t care about the quality of education provided as long as they have a white face in the classroom. Maybe you should tell that to the thousands of Koreans illegally crossing the border into the US right now. Maybe you should tell that to the adjoshis that kick the shit out of women just like you on the streets of Seoul every day. Koreans lecturing Canadians about law. Ha.

Shakuhachi, never my biggest fan, also chimed in with:

While I wouldnt put it the way he does, K has a point. Nora, you talk about all these teachers and yet ignore the fact that if they were Kyopo like you they wouldnt have visa problems at all. The only difference between you and them is that you are allowed a free ride because of your ethnicity, whereas other Americans (and in this case Canadians) cannot. Maybe in some way you think you ‘deserve’ the special priviledge you have that your ‘fellow Americans’ do not. Cant you spare some compassion for whitey?

And Kromozone was there to egg Shakuhachi on:

Tell her shakuhachi. If you rework all of her statements replacing “unqualified teachers” with “visaless Koreans in the US” and “teaching” with “operating dry cleaners” you can get a taste for how bad it really is!

It was a real clusterf-ck of sorts, as william jumped in with:

Noda, ahem Nora is probably Atypical Korean-American who enjoys all the benefit that American/Western culture has provided for her and her family in the U.S., yet is most viscious in ad hominem attack against the Westerners, and never once give them the benefit of doubt.
I will not be politically correct. I will say that with all things being equal, I would still consider Western culture superior than Korean culture. However, with all the contentious posts I’ve read from Nora, I bet she would beg to differ. The funny thing is that Nora herself can’t wait ’til she get out this little hell hole called “Korea” and go back to the good old U.S. of A. Isn’t she pathetic?

A person named DS took a different tack, philosophizing instead of directly criticizing me:

Nora-I found this statement of yours interesting “i’m an american, thank you very much. and it is funny that some white americans do refer to it as ‘their’ country (not most, though).”
Do you think it is possible for non-Koreans to become Korean in the same way newcomers to the US or Canada become residents of those countries? Do you consider Robert or Peter (Marmot, Oranckay) Korean residents entitled to the same benefits, franchisement and legal protection as say any US resident who’s spent 8 years or longer in the United States?

But I do not want to give the impression that I was alone in the wilderness. Nathan Bauman jumped in to state that:

I fail to see why everyone is picking on Nora so much. I have pretty much the same feelings about many foreigners that she does. And she’s never claimed that all foreigners are the objects of her anger–only illegal ones with chips on their shoulders.

KrZ, in a clever twist of my own words, wrote:

dry cleaners… illegal?! and… Korean?! and… drinking?! and… wife beating?!
i am so shocked i cannot typ

The pièce de résistance came from gbnhj, who wrote:

Regarding Nora Park, Nathan writes that ’she’s never claimed that all foreigners are the objects of her anger–only illegal ones with chips on their shoulders’. Well, I don’t know about ‘all’ foreigners, but her wrath does extend beyond the sphere of illegal residents.
First, go to the March archives to “I’d give her the gold for that”, and view her post dated March 6th 4:45pm. For reasons known best to Nora, she chose to write
‘an asian chick who goes down on you in a bar… okay, so she’s a celebrity, but did this really have to be in the news? i mean, aren’t there enough unqualified gaijin/oegugin teachers coming to this part of the world already?’
No mention was previously made of teachers - in the article, in Marmot’s synopsis, or by other posters. When asked about this, by myself and another poster, she did not explain, but rather discussed other issues.
Next, on the same thread, view her post dated March 6th 8:57pm. If you scroll over her ID, you’ll find that she has a hyperlink:
http://allyourbasearebelongtous/
My browser will not open this site, and I wonder if it exists. Regardless, by this, one can reasonably conclude that US soldiers are another issue with her. Yet, just as that thread had nothing to do with teachers, nor did it have anything to do with US
soldiers.
Lastly, I would ask you to look at my first post in this thread (second from the top) and also Nora Park’s first post in this thread (fourth from the top).
I have dyslexia. It’s not such a problem, however, and I can usually deal with this through proofing, but I simply didn’t have time that morning because I had to catch the train to work. She had nothing to say about what I wrote, but simply took a shot at me personally. Odd, isn’t it, from someone so (case) insensitive?
I think that Nora has sometimes expressed some good ideas - I’ve supported some of them previously - but I also think that she has issues with men. Unfortunately for soldiers and English teachers, males predominate in these professions, and so you feel her heat. Nora Park appears to dislike some people - more pointedly, some men - regardless of their legal status in this country, and expresses that dislike regardless of the topic being discussed.

Nathan Bauman again came to my aid, saying:

I saw your first post in this thread’s, and Nora’s. Here is Nora’s first post:
“teachers… illegal?! and… canadian?! and… drinking?! and… fighting?!
i am so shocked i cannot typ”
How is that a potshot at you? As a Canadian English teacher, I thought it was an excellent piece of humor about the subject of the Marmot’s post, and as such, had nothing to do with you whatsoever. Nothing you wrote about Nora, or quoted from her gives me cause for alarm. She apparently didn’t care about the “newsworthiness” of one story, but then again, neither did you. I’m too lazy to go to the archives, so if there’s something there I didn’t see it….

Kimbob also concurred:

I concur. Nora didn’t say “all foreigners” are acting like dumbasses. She said “foreigners and kyopos who act like dumbasses”. I think there’s a lot of projection here. That’s why you see all these thin skinned replies attributing quotes to Nora when she hasn’t said any of these sorts as she’s been accused of. Of course I get that as well but that’s another story. You wouldn’t want to be a Korean, just read all the unpleasant things that are being said about Koreans on a hourly and daily basis around the internet.

Then Kimbob and Nathan began to make eyes at each other:

Kimbob, let me take this opportunity to tell you that although I don’t always agree with you, I think you are a level headed guy. And as a P.S. to my previous post, I’m surprised that the poster would even think Nora was talking about him in her first post on this thread. Had he not brought this up, I doubt anyone would have made such a connection.

Despite Kimbob and Nathan's best efforts, I still had my critics. Gluestick wrote:

Nora \”moonlights\” … when foreigners. (non nora type foreigner.. aka non kyopo) do moonlighting she wants to throw the book at them.
Nora has lots and lots of \”foreign friends\”.. i would like to meet a few.. I guess she counts the crackers she sees on TV as her friends, i doubt normal non-kyopos would deal with her subtle racism for long.
perhaps she includes all the people she met growing up. Koreans in America will meet, and have normal friendships with lots of non kyopos.. but when they get back to the motherland.. the kyopos want nothing to do with those damn Americans.
Nora says she doesnt like \”bad\” kyops… well, the kyopos like Kimbob, as you can read, are circleing the waggon around Nora. If you read anything from Nora, she just attacks the \”unqualified foreigners\”
in another thread assumes that a foreign guy in japan is some \”uqualified english teacher\”. then she goes on an on about how bad foreigner are.

Robert Neff, also never my biggest fan, wrote something very pertinent to the discussion at hand:

You know the saddest thing about all of these blogs, and Marmot’s Hole is no exception, is that very little is actually said about the original posts - and quickly erode into race wars.

Then Kushibo tried to defend my honor, while also taking a dig at me:

In response to gbnhj:“All your base are belong to us” is a running gag and inside joke on the Internet that goes way back (if you google that word string in quotes you will see what I mean).
The fact that you conclude Nora has issues with US soldiers based on this just cracks me up. You are reaching, and yet you fail to grasp.
If it proves anything, it’s that she has a quirky sense of humor or she’s very nerdy. Probably both.

gbnhj was mature and contrite (and grateful to Kushibo):

Based on what I’ve read and seen (thank you Kushibo), I offer apologies for my part. Harsh or uncaring words were said on all sides, issues were presented and rebuffed all around, but I lost the perspective to notice that I was merely fanning the flames instead of cooling the fire. I’m sorry for reaching conclusions about Nora based on an observation that I didn’t grasp completely.

These are all important issues, and I plan to address them very shortly. It will be an exciting post fraught with excitement, danger, and discussions of immigration issues. I hope you'll join us.

Attack of the five-foot lesbian!

Apparently I'm a man-hating bigot, and anti-Canadian to bout, judging by some comments over at Marmot's Hole.

So all you Nora-bashers, stop clogging up Marmot's Hole and just lay all your criticisms down right here. When I have a little time, I'll go and address some of the comments people already made.

Come on, I can take it!

Doctor Vollersten's hyperbolic oath

Dr. Norbert Vollersten is in the news again. He's the German physician who was once the darling of North Korea, only to turn 180 degrees and start speaking out against the horrific treatment and neglect he saw average, everyday North Koreans receive at the hands of their rulers. In the South, he had hoped for a sympathetic ear, but ROKers have been either inured to the plight of the North Koreans or they're at a loss as to what to do about it.

Since then he has taken to grandstanding, including some confrontations with North Koreans in Pusan and now crashing Dr. Condaleeza Rice's press conference here in Seoul yesterday. He reportedly was roughed up by U.S. security personnel who may have just been doing their job to protect people like Dr. Rice from people like Dr. Vollersten.

I wrote some comments on it over at Marmot's Hole, and they turned out to be long enough that I thought I'd preserve them on my own blog.

i think that what dr. vollersten is trying to draw attention to needs and deserves a lot more attention. but, and i know this is sort of hearsay, i know some people who know him and they do tend to think he’s sort of nuts.

i don’t know if the grandstanding is the only way for him to get his message into the media, but i don’t think he needs to exaggerate his treatment by the u.s. authorities just to get press (if that’s what he’s really doing).

And later I wrote:

sometimes i feel about norbert vollersten the way i do about the people who hacked off their digits: they are putting an extremist face on an issue that needs to be taken seriously. okay, so dr. vollersten is not hacking off pinkies (it would be inflammatory for me to say “not yet, anyway”), but the grandstanding makes him look like he can’t be reasonable.

if i were to crash a closed event with the secretary of state, i can expect the bodyguards to jump on my 1-1/2-meter frame and knock me to the ground (attack of the five-foot lesbian!), and i’m sure he’s close to twice my size. what else are they going to do? he knew this was going to happen, so complaining he was roughed up is a bit disingenuous, dontcha think?

there must be other, more productive ways to draw attention to the plight. i was disappointed that the media seemed to ignore the north korean snuff film, much the same as japan gets heavily criticized for its whitewashed history, but china gets a free ride for telling everyone south korea started the war.

hey, didn’t the chinese kill tens of thousands of koreans during the korean war?

Rice comes to Korea

Rice coming to Korea... isn't that like sending coals to Newcastle?

UPDATE:
The New York Times has a write-up on her visit to Seoul. She says she's here to persuade China to "squeeze the North."

I'll be honest and say I don't really know what's going on here. On the one hand, I still think China believes that they can whip North Korea into line and ensure the pando remains nuke-free, but they themselves are holding out to see if they can get a concession from the United States on Taiwan. That certainly is not going to happen with Bush in office, and I don't see any but the most liberal Democrats doing that either.

If this is what China is doing, they should give up now, because it ain't going to happen. The only thing they will do is risk waiting too long to stop P'yŏngyang.

And then there is the other possibility that I think should be considered: maybe Beijing simply doesn't have the sway over P'yŏngyang that everyone thinks/hopes they have.

The article also says Dr. Rice has pushed China itself to change its ways, and she was to visit a Beijing church on Palm Sunday to underscore that point. While I do appreciate the importance of freedom of religion, I wonder if this is the best timing. When you're trying to enlist someone's help, is it wise to criticize their housekeeping at the same time?

Did you feel it?

At about 11 a.m. local time, there was an earthquake centered (I think) around Kyushu, perhaps between Pusan and Fukuoka. It may have reached 7.0 on the Richter scale. Not much news on it yet, other than no immediate casualties, but I felt it here in Seoul on the fifth floor. People in Pusan and nearby areas were told to evacuate their buildings. A friend in Kwangju who called me up and asked if I felt it said her building was shaking hard.

Could it be another set of islets rising up from the sea floor to become the new focus of a territorial dispute, Tokto 2? Or is this a plot by Japanese right wingers to Japanize Korea by forcing earthquakes upon us?

Only time will tell.

Anyway, you heard it first on "nora knows nada?".

Seoul to Masan: Kill Bill, Volume Down!

You say "Tsushima," I say "Taemado"...

South Korea's foreign ministry asked the Masan Municipal Council to scrap their tit-for-tat "Taemado Day" bill. (Yesterday, Masan cleverly brought up old South Korean claims that Tsushima Island, known as Taemado in Korean, is ancient Korean territory -- and is still disputed -- and passed a Taemado-is-Korean-territory bit of legislation mirroring Shimane's "Takeshima Day" legislation).

The foreign ministry was reportedly not too happy. "Any jingoistic measures should come from us," they admonished. Just kidding.

In related news, Korea's chief of police visited Tokto to show solidarity and demonstrate that indeed South Korea and not Japan controls these breathtaking rocky islets surrounded by rich fishing grounds and potentially valuable gas deposits™.

No national police chief has ever visited Tokto, partly in deference to Tokyo and old-fashioned diplomacy (like the ruler of Taiwan not visiting Japan). But the Shimane Prefecture move has caused South Korea to throw such niceties out the window. I like this move in part because it allows Korea to act from a position of strength instead of making shrill threats, while raising a few hackles in Japan (where their hackles have so far remained relatively calm compared to the hackles of Koreans).

Meanwhile, a Japanese-Korean matchmaking event has been cancelled due to the political row. That means some half-Korean, half-Japanese Marty McFly-type character from thirty years in the future is going to come back to 2005 and somehow try to stop the Shimane vote with his Delorean (sorry, "Back to the Future 2" was on last night).

Abstinence goes anal

Warning: This post is at least PG-13, possibly R.

President George W. Bush's ear is dominated by conservative Christian groups that insist abstinence-only education is the way to get kids to stop getting pregnant and getting STDs.

While some of his critics acknowledge that abstinence education has an important role to play, they say that abstinence-only education sends woefully unprepared teens out into the world where they will get pregnant or sick in their late teens or twenties.

I think abstinence is great. I was abstinent for much of my life. Even now, I'm sometimes abstinent many times each week. But I do agree that if you don't teach someone about condoms, pregnancy prevention, and other such goodies, you will get a bunch of knocked-up girls with chlamydia.

Now comes a report that young people who pledge abstinence are not quite abstaining from sexual behavior altogether, just the vaginal-penile variety.

NEW HAVEN, Conn. - Teens who pledge to remain virgins until marriage are more likely to take chances with other kinds of sex that increase the risk of sexually transmitted diseases, a study of 12,000 adolescents suggests.

The report by Yale and Columbia University researchers could help explain their earlier findings that teens who pledged abstinence are just as likely to have STDs as their peers.

The latest study, published in the April issue of the Journal of Adolescent Health, found that teens pledging virginity until marriage are more likely to have oral and anal sex than other teens who have not had intercourse. That behavior, however, “puts you at risk,” said Hannah Brueckner, assistant professor of sociology at Yale and one of the study’s authors.

Among virgins, boys who have pledged abstinence were four times more likely to have had anal sex, according to the study. Overall, pledgers were six times more likely to have oral sex than teens who have remained abstinent but not as part of a pledge.

The pledging group was also less likely to use condoms during their first sexual experience or get tested for STDs, the researchers found.

Data for the study was taken from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. An in-school questionnaire was given to a nationally representative sample of students in grades 7-12 and followed up with a series of in-home interviews roughly one, two, and six years later. It was funded in part by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

As serious as this is, there was something I found funny, though:

Leslee Unruh, president of the National Abstinence Clearinghouse in Sioux Falls, S.D., called the study “bogus,” disputing that those involved had pledged true “abstinence.”

“Kids who pledge abstinence are taught that any word that has 'sex' in it is considered a sexual activity,” Unruh said. “Therefore oral sex is sex, and they are staying away.”

I completely disagree. A sextet of sexagenarians with sextillion sextants celebrating the sexcentenary of Sussex County (or Middlesex or Essex) would NOT inspire any kind of sexual activity.

Millions of teens have signed written pledges or verbally promised to abstain from sex, part of a church-led effort to discourage premarital sex and the spread of disease. President Bush has boosted funding for abstinence-only education in schools.

Critics say that education needs to be coupled with safe-sex education to be effective. “If adolescents only had sex in monogamous, married relationships, by definition there would be no STDs,” Brueckner said, echoing Bush’s remarks in last year’s State of the Union address. “But the majority of adolescents don’t live like that. They do have sex.”

Last year, the same research team found that 88 percent of teens who pledge abstinence end up having sex before marriage, compared with 99 percent of teens who do not make a pledge.

This is all just a bit bewildering to me. I have heard that a lot of teenage girls engage in anal sex or provide oral sex so that they can satisfy their boyfriend du jour, even though the guy is not usually returning the favor (with the oral stuff I mean, though it would be funny if girls across America started insisting that the guy bends over so they can do him with a strap-on).

But I think it's also funny because so many homophobes describe what gay men and women do as so "unnatural," when in fact heterosexual men and women are engaging in the same things.

Guns, not kochujang

Apparently, the Korean military is mulling the idea of increasing the number of military personnel on Ullŭng-do Island from ten (how can there be only ten?!) to 400.

A forty-fold military build-up. Is this saber-rattling for Japan's consumption or Korea's consumption?

Los Angeles Times on Tokto

Barbara Demick of the Los Angeles Times wrote up an article on the Tokto issue. The opening sounds a bit sophomorically sensationalistic, though it's not like Ms. Demick herself created the incident. The Michael Breen quote that this is "very, very silly" is going to get him in trouble if VANK sees it.

A Cluster of Rocks Erupts Into a Mountain of Emotion in S. Korea
The barren islets are claimed by two nations. Japan's latest move has some Koreans seething.
By Barbara Demick, Times Staff Writer

SEOUL — If there were doubts about the passion some South Koreans feel over a group of barren islets off their east coast, a 61-year-old grandmother probably erased them when she sliced off her little finger in protest of a Japanese claim of sovereignty over the land.

Carried out with a sushi knife for maximum symbolic effect, the amputation Monday outside the Japanese Embassy here was only the most dramatic in a series of escalating protests over the volcanic islets known collectively as Dokdo. Park Kyoung Ja was joined in self-mutilation by her 40-year-old son as both shouted anti-Japan slogans and threatened to send their digits to Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi.

Throughout South Korea, people have been burning, defacing and stomping on Japanese flags. A man tried to immolate himself at the embassy by jumping into a heap of burning posters of Koizumi, and another protester launched a hunger strike. In the city of Taegu, local authorities arranged traffic so that vehicles would have to drive over a Japanese flag.

The protests rose to a crescendo Wednesday after a local assembly in Shimane, the Japanese prefecture closest to the islets, passed a resolution designating Feb. 22 as a day of celebration of Japanese claim to sovereignty over them. It was on that date in 1905, during the period when Japan was asserting colonial rule over the Korean peninsula, that the prefecture first laid claim to the islets, which it governed for a time.

The Japanese occupation of Korean territory, which ended with World War II, is one of the most bitter chapters in Korean history. Millions of Koreans were pressed into slavery by Japan as laborers or sex slaves.

As the local assembly approved the resolution Wednesday, South Korean television interrupted its regular programming with bulletins. The central government immediately sent a sharply worded letter to Tokyo denouncing what it called an "infringement of our territorial sovereignty." "It's like being mugged. They're thieves!" yelled Lee Myong Jin, 64, one of hundreds of protesters who flocked to the Japanese Embassy after the vote. "South Koreans can never forgive over this issue.

"Sovereignty over the islands, which have been administered by South Korea since 1953, is an unending issue for the nations, but the latest strife is the most heated in recent memory.

South Korea's indignation over Dokdo is in marked contrast to its muted reaction to North Korea's announcement last month that it had nuclear weapons. In fact, the Dokdo issue has been, if anything, a point of agreement between the estranged Korean neighbors.

North Korean radio Wednesday promptly denounced what it called "actions by Japanese reactionaries … causing hostility among our people toward Japan to explode."

For the Bush administration, which needs the cooperation of Japan and South Korea in dealing with North Korea, the Dokdo flare-up comes at an inconvenient time. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is due in the region this weekend and hopes to forge a consensus on reining in the North's nuclear program.

"On the face of it, this is a silly, silly issue, but it is really a needle that reaches into a very deep place in the Korean psyche," said Michael Breen, author of the book "The Koreans." "There is a feeling that the Japanese still haven't done what is necessary to distance themselves from their colonial past."

Almost everything about the islets is contentious, starting with the name. South Korea calls them Dokdo; Japan refers to them as Takeshima. The World Fact Book 2004, a U.S. government publication, uses the name Liancourt Rocks, a reference to a French ship that spotted them in the 19th century. Even the surrounding body of water is a point of debate: Known to most of the world as the Sea of Japan, it is called the East Sea by Koreans.

What is generally agreed on is that there isn't much to the islets. Their total land mass is about 46 acres, most of it jagged peaks, uninhabited except for a small contingent of South Korean police. Although there has been speculation that there could be natural gas reserves in the surrounding waters, the chief attractions now are fishing and bird watching. In Tokyo, the Japanese government has tried to distance itself from the action of Shimane.

"Both sides need to deal with this in a level-headed manner, with the basic tone of friendship between Japan and South Korea not swayed too much by the recent emotional conflict," Koizumi said Wednesday.

On Feb. 23, Japan's ambassador to South Korea, Toshiyuki Takano, told foreign media that "there exists a clear difference of views between South Korea and Japan over the issue of Takeshima. It is historically and legally Japan's territory."

The ambassador has been recalled to Tokyo for consultations. South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki Moon, meanwhile, postponed a visit to Japan last week, saying the Dokdo issue could take precedence.

A sign of how high tensions have been: South Korean fighter jets were scrambled last week to intercept a Japanese civilian aircraft that was on the verge of entering Korean airspace. The plane, which belonged to Japanese newspaper Asahi Shimbun and was trying to take photos, turned back after a warning. The flap comes in what was supposed to be a year of celebrating the 40th anniversary of Japan and South Korea's establishment of diplomatic
relations.

Gong Ro Myung, a former South Korean foreign minister who served as ambassador to Japan, noted that anniversaries tend to trigger such anger.

As for relations, he said: "I think they will survive and should survive…. Dokdo is ours. Whatever the Japanese prefecture does, it will not affect the ownership of Dokdo island at all — unless they come and invade the island, which is unlikely in the 21st century."

韓国へ行きません

Wouldn't you know it? The Japanese have gone and warned their citizens not to come here. I'm too tired to deconstruct this and insert pithy little comments, so here it is in its entirety:

Japan issued a travel warning for South Korea, Foreign Ministry officials said Friday, as an escalating territorial dispute over islets in the Sea of Japan fueled fiery protests in Seoul.

The warning, issued late Thursday, comes as increasing numbers of Japanese tourists are flocking to South Korea. The travel notice urged citizens to stay away from protests, which it said were not expected to end soon.

Tensions have spiraled recently over ownership of the South Korean-controlled outcroppings, called Dokdo in Korean and Takeshima in Japanese. Demonstrators in Seoul have burned Japanese flags and cut their own fingers off in protest.

"In South Korea, various groups are holding protest rallies around the Japanese Embassy, and they are expected to continue for a while," said the warning, posted on the ministry's Web site. "Please do
not go near the venue of demonstrations so as not to get involved in unnecessary troubles."

Trouble mounted this week as a local assembly in Japan's Shimane Prefecture passed a bill making Feb. 22 "Takeshima Day" and asserting Japanese sovereignty over the islets.

South Korea's government fired back on Thursday in an angry statement equating Japan's claim to the islets to its lack of remorse over its conquest of Asia in the early 20th century. Japan ruled Korea as a colony from 1910 until 1945.

The travel warning comes as Japanese tourism to South Korea is rising. Some 2 million Japanese went to South Korea in the first 10 months of 2004, compared to 1.8 million who went in all of 2003.

Japan's ties with its neighbor had been warming in recent years amid growing trade. All things Korean are enjoying a boom in Japan, encouraged in part by the massive popularity of a South Korean soap opera.

Kill Japanese while you develop hand-eye coordination

Nothing like Tokto to bring the two Koreas together. I think I'll print up this post and mail it to my aunt with a North Korea-made Tokto stamp.

Fresh from videotaped executions in Hoeryong, North Korea is now going to offer its on-line Tokto game for free. I don't know if it's a shooter game or what, but it supposedly involved "guarding the islets from invaders." It will be available at NKmall, which imports a wide range of North Korean products (but not methamphetamine or opium).

I guess we should have foreseen a melding of South Korean gaming culture, given how much gamers have in common with their North Korean brethren: being lobotomized by a nearly 24/7 barrage of mindless media control, plus subsisting on a very nutrition-poor diet (coffee and ramyon is not the key to longevity; in real life, you can't grab a magic sword and automatically increase your life force).

Still life with Rice

One may be forgiven to think that the world has stopped and becoming fixated on Tokto, but alas, it has not.

North Korea... remember them? CNN has a story showing how IAEA chief El Baradei says that North Korea, not Iran, is the bigger nuclear threat. Being as how they've already got the plutonium they need.

Sadly, North Korea really doesn't feel like resolving this issue. Or at least they don't feel like sitting down with Condaleeza Rice until she apologizes for calling their country an "outpost of tyranny."

Secretary of Rice (all that education, and still just a secretary! [rimshot!]) says she refused to get into an argument with North Koreans over semantics, which may mean she was an English teacher at one time (never, ever get into an argument over semantics with any Korean).

To be fair, she is simply calling a spade a spade, but given her position, she probably needs to be a little more careful what she says. Perhaps she and Ban Kimoon need to both enroll in Diplomacy 101.

And since when did Koreans ever refuse to sit down at a table with Rice? [rimshot!]

Maybe what they're really afraid of is mangling her name. [rimshot!] I'm here all week, folks.

The Tokto limbo continues: how low will we go?

No Korea-related blog today would be complete without a mention of Tokto-Takeshima. It's not like there is anything else going on in the news. I mean, it's not like North Korea says the US is committing acts of war or anything.

Daum.net has been told by the government to block access to websites that contain a pro-Japanese method, for fear that they will be mentally damaged by reading another point of view.

I think a backlash is brewing. I think some of the government's actions are right (like allowing tourists to go to Tokto and stuff), but taking away people's freedoms is simply wrong, and it makes me wonder how low Korea's leadership will go just to feel like they're getting back at Japan. I think at least a few people are starting to scratch their heads and wonder who is running the asylum.

Anyway, Kushibo, a relative and good friend of mine who may or may not be the head of the Democratic Party, wrote something about this on the blog I helped set up for him. It's a bit long and it looks like he put some thought into it, so I'm going to give it a plug, just like Marmot did for me. That's not an endorsement, just a plug, since I don't agree with everything he says.

One thing I found interesting that he pointed out was that the Japan Times (in a Kyodo article, it looks like), mentions that Korea exerted sovereignty over Tokto in 1900 and Japan then did so in 1905. Quite a thing to admit.

Turning on the spigots of love

The Unification Ministry has said that South Korea will "ease rules" on humanitarian aid to North Korea. More like eliminate rules:

The South Korean government will ease regulations on organizations that provide humanitarian assistance in North Korea.

The Unification Ministry said Sunday it will remove a guideline mandating at least one year of consistent dealings or contact with North Korea before an aid body can apply for a government-issued license.

While I think the government has good intentions, I think this means that just about anyone can set up an assistance organization. And guess what? The government will give them money:

The license that designates an organization as a "North Korea support group" entitles the holder to receive assistance from a government fund set aside to facilitate South-North cooperation.

And there's more potential for abuse, particularly with anti-South groups:

Another rule demanding verification of the source of the funding to conduct humanitarian programs in North Korea will also be abolished.

At least the South Korean government realizes there is serious potential for aid going not to the people most in need, but to the military and Kim's cronies:

Seoul will work to ensure the aid reaches those most in need, and that humanitarian efforts provide a steady and consistent flow of relief, according to government authorities.

What is it with Communist countries and poultry-related disease?

Vietnam, China, and now North Korea. Seems no one is safe from avian flu. Thousands of chickens have been killed in Pyongyang and the government is said to be preparing emergency measures.

Often in such cases, large-scale "factory farms" are said to be to blame, plus humans living in close proximity to the animals they are raising, which causes the bug to easily jump to our species. The Fox News story says that, not surprisingly, the facility is "believed to be one of the biggest chicken factories in North Korea."

I just hope this isn't the beginnings of a major epidemic that North Korea isn't equipped to handle but is too proud to ask help to resolve.

The blowhards of war

Will someone please bind and gag the foreign minister? I'd do it myself, but I don't want to spill my chai latte.

Mr. Ban seems to not realize he's Korea's top diplomat and is instead acting like a soju-fueled braggadocio.

Rather than trying to let things cool down, Mr. Ban says that South Korea is going to take action against any Japanese provocation. So please tell us, sir, what is the threshold for provocation? A plane flying overhead? A boat trying to come nearby? A stamp being issued?

Mr. Ban, are we going to go to war over a stamp or a small town assembly's vote? Let me know so I can be sure to pack.

If war doesn't break out over here, then it just might a little bit to the south. China isn't too keen on giving up its nominal claim to islands it hasn't controlled for half a century either.

Hers and hers wedding gifts...

This has little to do with Korea, but it's a subject near and dear to me.

The Los Angeles Times reports that a Superior Court judge has voided California's same-sex marriage ban. Here is the judge's tentative ruling, stating that the law as it now stands violates the state constitution. Look for South Carolina to declare that California has seceded from the Union.

SAN FRANCISCO — Gays and lesbians are entitled to marry under the California Constitution, a judge here ruled today in a decision that opponents to same-sex marriage vowed to appeal.

"No rational basis exists for limiting marriage in this state to opposite-sex partners," wrote San Francisco Superior Court Judge Richard Kramer.

The decision strikes down a provision of the state's family law that limits marriage to "a man and a woman." But it does not mean that same-sex marriages will resume immediately in the state.

Kramer's 27-page ruling will remain tentative at least until March 25, the deadline for both sides to file further arguments. After that, the decision could be put on hold pending further appeals, which opponents of gay marriage already have said they will file.

The issue is expected to eventually reach the California Supreme Court, but a ruling by that body might not come until next year.

Okay, so no wedding bells for me just yet. Besides (and this is the problem for overseas US citizens), even if California were to legalize same-gender marriages, that doesn't mean that the US government will grant green cards to the foreign-national spouses of US citizens.

Our moderate Reupblican governor is (wisely, I guess) trying not get in
front of a moving train he can't stop:

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's office today declined to comment on Kramer's ruling. "It's up to the courts to decide. We have this decision today, and we'll see where this decision ultimately leads us," said Schwarzenegger spokeswoman Margita Thompson.

This seems to be a trend in "red states":

So far, Massachusetts is the only state in which a judicial ruling in favor of same-sex marriage has been made permanent. Trial court judges in New York City and Washington state have made rulings similar to Kramer's. Those are on appeal.

The argument against same-sex marriage is mentioned in the article: gay people don't procreate (which is not exactly true). But that would also bar marriage among people who are impotent or elderly (including any post-menopausal woman). Are they suggesting we start blocking them from marrying, too?

Attorneys for the opponents argued that gays and lesbians should not be allowed to marry because they could not naturally procreate,

Oh, yeah, and there's the slippery slope argument that if two men or two women are allowed to marry each other, this would lead to your toddler marrying a goat:

and that granting them entry would fling open the doors to other illegal unions.

The Los Angeles Times gives a good run-down of the decision (though there is no mention of North Korean businessmen):

Gay marriage advocates drew heavily on the 1948 state Supreme Court decision that overturned the ban on interracial marriage and established a "fundamental right to marry the person of one's choice."

In his ruling today agreeing with the city of San Francisco, Kramer rejected the argument that gays and lesbians can be denied the right to marry on the basis of tradition."Same-sex marriage cannot be prohibited solely because California has always done so before," Kramer wrote.

He also insisted that the state law on civil unions, which gives same-sex couples many of the benefits of marriage, was not enough to justify denying them marriage."

The idea that marriage-like rights without marriage is adequate smacks of a concept long rejected by the courts: separate but equal," the judge wrote.

Kramer also rejected the argument made by some opponents of gay marriage that matrimony was intended for procreation and therefore naturally limited to opposite-sex couples.

Many opposite-sex couples marry without ever having children, and gay couples can have children through adoption and medical technology, he noted."

One does not have to be married to procreate, nor does one have to procreate in order to be married," Kramer wrote.

Wanted: Korean linguists (so we can figure out what we're doing)

The US Defense Department has a great job opportunity for any American who speaks Korean well and (presumably) is willing and able to follow the company line.

Great opportunities if you speak Arabic, Chinese, or Russian, too, as long as you can remain ideological.

The U.S. Defense Department is searching for American Korean linguists as part of its enlistment program for people fluent in Korean, Arabic, Chinese and Russian.

The Pentagon has the required level of expertise on German, French and Spanish, but the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks underscored a need for people fluent in other languages.

To foster more Korean linguists, the department launched its National Flagship Language Initiative program in 2003, in which colleges offer advanced language training to U.S. students who agree to work for the national security establishment.

"These programs consist of a one-year intensive program at a U.S. university followed by a second year of customized, intensive immersion overseas," said Lt. Col. Ellen G. Krenke, at the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense in an e-mail response to a question.

In the approximately $1 million Korean flagship program, there are two U.S. programs at the University of Hawaii and UCLA, Krenke said. UH enrolled its first students in the latter half of 2003 and UCLA a year later.

UH has enrolled 12 students for the 2004-2005 academic year and eight students, including some Korean Americans, are studying at Korea University in Seoul, Krenke said. She did not provide details for UCLA.

blogger from another planet

A message I have repeatedly tried to post over at Marmot's Hole keeps getting blocked with the following message:

Sorry, you've been prevented from commenting on this blog.
Either your comment content was found to contain spam, oryour IP address (or a subnet of your IP address) has spammed this blog before.
If you think you got this page in error, your entered name might be too short.
You can also complain to http://blog.marmot.cc/wp.spaminator@gmail.com.
View source to see why you got blocked.
Strike count: 10

It's a little bewildering, especially considering I successfully posted several times earlier late last night. Maybe Marmot is just sick of me and he's having his computer code do the dirty work.

Still, I don't want my sentiments, as humble as they are, to go to waste, so here it is for anyone who sees fit to come over to my blog:

changehappens:

listen to or read right-wing (american) media from time to time. even though the military is spending billions upgrading forces here in korea, there is a bit of childish sentiment that comes out from the neocons.

forgetting that korea is a democratic country where people gather to express their opnions, some politicians on both sides get their tighty whiteys in a bunch whenever a large group of koreans badmouths usfk or president bush. you're either for us or against us, so if you complain, then you're anti-american, and if you're anti-american, we're going to leave. nah nanny nah nah!

demonstrations are effective for a vocal minority when they can make them look like an overwhelming majority. let's thank cnn for their ability to do that (i'm being sarcastic... i think cnn makes complex issues look so black-and-white).

the average korean does not want usfk to leave. the average korean willingly or grudgingly accepts that a usfk presence is necessary to protect south korea and possibly to keep china (and japan) at bay for the long term. what they want, however, is for the usfk to keep a small footprint as possible and to behave themselves, while taking responsibility for things when they go wrong. no running over civilians with armored vehicles and no brutal rapes and murders of korean civilians. they also don't want to get dragged into frivolous conflicts in far away places.

unfortunately, this is too long to stick on a picket sign and it makes for a wordy slogan.

a glimpse into the North

North Korea has never been big on airing dirty laundry, so it's interesting to read about the release of some government statistics related to childhod nutrition.

Although things have improved somewhat, they're still bleak:

Since the last survey in 2002, the proportion of young children chronically malnourished (stunted) is down from 42% to 37%. Acute malnutrition (wasting) eased from 9% to 7%. But those underweight rose from 21% to 23% - though for children under the age of two, those most at risk, this fell from 25% to 21%. One in five children had diarrhea, and one in eight showed symptoms of acute respiratory infection. But mothers have made no progress: a third were anemic and malnourished, the same figure as two years ago. Vitamin A deficiency is common.

Much depends on where people are living. Things are less bad in Pyongyang and in the southwestern Hwanghae farming region than in bleak northeasterly Hamgyong and Ryanggang provinces. Ryanggangites get to eat meat, fish or eggs just once every three weeks on average. Chagang in the far mid-north is bleaker still, but North Korea doesn't allow access to this area - probably because of military bases located there.

One thing I found disturbing was that the lack of a survey in Chagang meant no food aid there:

... no survey was conducted in Chagang, which means no food aid either; the WFP is strict about that - surveys first.

Assuming reunification eventually happens with Seoul in charge, this is a problem that South Koreans will be paying for:

The more than one-third (37%) of North Korean's under six who are stunted - and especially the one in eight (12%) who are severely stunted - will grow up stunted and stay that way. Even once Korea is reunified politically, they will stand out physically: dwarfed by their Southern peers.

Meanwhile, South Korean children have been suffering from overconsumption of Happy Meals:

With uncanny timing, the very same day as the WFP released its survey on the North, education officials in the Southern capital reported that one in 10 schoolchildren in Seoul is overweight. Obesity rates are growing fast, too. As
the old adage has it, the rich slim while the poor starve.

Giving Japan the finger, literally

As if there was a lack of such things, here is an example of someone taking the Tokto issue waaaaaay too seriously.

Maybe she thought she was trying out to be in the musical 시칼로, where she had planned to sing "Bloody is My Hand" to the tune of "Tokto is Our Land."

Meanwhile, only true Korean jingoists worthy of the title would find a way to combine anti-Japanese sentiment and anti-Americanism, and VANK has done it. Good job, guys! That must have been a tough one. (On a related note: Any volunteers out there willing to teach the Vankers a little English reading comprehension?)

While we're at it, here is a good background story on the Tokto issue. Fairly balanced, and including a link that rationally explains why Koreans probably shouldn't take the Tokto/Takeshima issue to the International Court of Jutice, even if they are right.

Demick's interview with the vampire

Apparently, Korea blogdom is not the only place where Barbara Demmick's interview with the a self-described North Korean "businessman" is attracting notice:

A storm of criticism broke out on the web in response to the Times's decision to cede its front page to this one-sided view of North Korea. The name "Walter Duranty" was thrown about, as Demick's whitewash reminded many of the infamous New York Times reporter's glowing reports from the Soviet Union in the 1930s.

Apparently Ms. Demmick has been getting some flack for this, plus a bit of scrutiny, and it appears she's covering her tracks:

After publishing Demick's piece, the Times went to ground. Two days later they published exactly one letter--a complimentary letter!--out of the avalanche of correspondence they received. Via email, Demick explained that she had found the "businessman's" account repellent (even though her article did not betray her feelings). She and others said she ought to be judged not on the basis of her paean to Kim Jong Il, but by the totality of her work.

The Weekly Standard echoed some of the same comments mentioned here in Korea blogdom, that this was the printing of pure propaganda by the North Korean businessman-slash-Dracula which should at least have been tempered by a more substantial listing of why so many people there are dying, why so many are trying to escape, and why the leadership is so universally loathed:

The March 1 article mentioned the State Department's report on human rights in North Korea, but only in passing, and with none of the detail that might have provided readers with a grasp of how the life of ordinary North Koreans has become under the crazed Kim Jong Il.

I sort of wonder what her opinions were when she first came to Korea, whether her time here has shaped her views or whether she is sticking to foregone conclusions she had when she arrived. The Weekly Standard gives a hint of which side of the issues she comes from:

I sent Demick some questions, which she responded to in guarded but revealing ways. She refused, for example, to answer in straightforward fashion the question of whether Kim Jong Il is evil. Asked about North Koreas nuclear proliferation, she replied that while they may have violated the "spirit" of the 1994 deal with the United States, there were "loopholes" in the agreement that made it possible that they were in "technical compliance" with the deal.

The Weekly Standard instead focuses on the LAT's problematic behavior in this matter (meaning, their inability to call a spade a spade when it comes to the Pyongyang regime):

What the totality of Demick's work demonstrates is that neither she nor her editors are in a hurry to detail the horrific nature of the North Korean regime. In fact, they work to smooth over that shocking picture, even to the extent of providing a front-page apologia.

What can be said of Demick and the Los Angeles Times? First, favorable propaganda of this sort would never be written if the regime in question were suspected of rightwing extremism.

Second, the hypocrisy of Times editor John Carroll knows no bounds. It was Carroll who just last year blasted much of New Media as "pseudojournalism." Carroll has yet to speak about the use of his paper's front page to present the rosiest of views of the North Korean gulag-state. There are no circumstances that justify puffing an evil regime, and no excuse for mistaking an obvious
intelligence operative for a "businessman."

Although I disagree that the LAT is the "West Coast tip sheet for the Democratic Party" (the next-door Orange County Register is much more of a conservative GOP mouthpiece than the LAT ever was for the Dems), I do like the end quote:

The Times's status as West coast tip sheet for the Democratic party is annoying, but its shilling for Kim Jong Il is disgusting.

I guess I'll end this by stating that I think the interview with the "businessman" was interesting to get a picture of what it is, at least, that the North Koreans want the Western public to believe, but the story should have more effectively pointed out the likely propaganda angle (putting businessman in quotation marks is not enough), while providing a balanced view of why the Dear Leader's regime is so negatively viewed. One would expect better of the Los Angeles Times.