Clippings From South Korea & South Korean Forteana

[ramonmercado]

South Korea 'plotted to kill Kim'
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/a ... 790671.stm

North Korea has accused the South of sending an agent to try to assassinate its reclusive leader, Kim Jong-il.

It said the man crossed the border earlier this year and had been planning to use poison to kill Mr Kim.

The man, who is now under arrest, was described by Pyongyang as a North Korean citizen who had received training in the South.

South Korea's main intelligence agency has denied any involvement in the alleged plot.

The North's claim comes at a time of worsening relations between the two Koreas, as well as continued speculation about the health of Mr Kim.

'Terrorist mission'

North Korea made the statement via its official news agency, KNCA, late on Thursday.

It said that a man had recently been arrested for trying to conduct a "terrorist mission" that would "do harm to the top leadership".

The man, named as Ri, was under orders from South Korea's intelligence agency, the statement claimed.

"The organisation sent him speech and acoustic sensing and pursuit devices for tracking the movement of the top leader and even violent poison," the statement said.

Although it did not mention Mr Kim as the specific target, the word "leadership" generally refers to him and his top aides.

The North's statement also said unspecified foreign agents had been arrested for trying to gather soil, water and leaves to gain information on Pyongyang's nuclear programme.

South Korea's main spy agency has denied any involvement in any of the allegations.

"This has nothing to do with us," an agency official told reporters.

'Dangerous phase'

Mr Kim, who is 66 and reportedly suffering from heart disease and diabetes, has not been seen at key events in recent months.


However, KCNA has been publishing undated photos of him in the past few weeks.
Mr Kim's reported illness comes as international negotiations continue over North Korea's nuclear programme.

North Korea said last year it would give up its nuclear programme in return for aid and diplomatic concessions, but progress towards dismantling its Yongbyon nuclear reactor has been patchy.

Since the election in South Korea of President Lee Myung-bak nearly a year ago, relations between the two neighbours have nosedived.

The North cited the Mr Lee's government's "anti-North Korean moves" as its reason for speaking out in its Thursday statement, saying relations have reached "an extremely reckless and dangerous phase".

Mr Lee says he is reviewing a raft of cross-border projects agreed in historic summits in 2000 and 2007, and has linked aid to progress on the issue of North Korea's nuclear disarmament.

On 1 December, North Korea began enforcing stricter border controls with the South, because of what it called "relentless confrontation" from Seoul.

It is impossible to verify the North's claims, but the two nations are known to actively spy on each other, and there have been assassination attempts by both sides in the past.

Edit to amend title.

 

[sonofajoiner]

I reckon all this talking up of asassination attempts is a bluff. You know, to provide an excuse, or cover, for the fact that Kim Jong-Il has already shuffled off, what with the stroke that he's rumoured to have had?
We might see some sort of staged car-bombing or hear of a 'successful poisoning' in the coming months, leading to one of Kim's heirs getting his old job (I believe he has at least one odious son who'd be perfect) and what better way to cement his reputation as an awesome new supreme leader than by blaming Dear Leader's untimely demise on the south koreans and getting involved in an entirely unecessary war with them? Job done.

 

[Yithian]

Pretty Stunning. Apparently he did it to protect his family and because he felt ashamed that he had accepted money to pay his wife's debts. One simply can't conceive British politicians doing such things. Honour clearly means something different in different places.

Story here:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8065101.stm

It seems ex-President No (invariably romanised as Roh, but pronounced 'No') slipped his bodyguard and threw himself off a rocky outcrop at 6am. Apparently Kim Jong-il offered his condolences.

Make of that what you will...

 

[ramonmercado]

South Korea professor charged over 'holy water' fraud
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/world/asia_p ... 472269.stm

Basilica Notre-Dame du Rosaire in Lourdes, southern France (file image) Mr Kim told buyers he had captured the healing powers of Lourdes

A South Korean professor who claimed he could make tap water into holy water will face fraud charges, police say.

The man, named as Prof Kim, claimed he could digitally capture the elements of holy water from Lourdes, France, that believers say has healing powers.

He had sold devices to more than 5,000 people, making almost 1.7bn won ($1.3m, £870,000).

Eight people, including Prof Kim's wife and brother-in-law, will also be charged.

The famous shrine to the Virgin Mary at Lourdes offers water which some believe has healing powers.

Mr Kim had claimed his ceramic and paper filters, and plastic cards used in water purifiers, had captured those powers for onward transmission.

He and his associates allegedly told customers that different devices cured different illnesses, including diabetes and tumours.

"Professor Kim says if the medical properties are changed into digital signals, and radiated onto any water, the water will adapt those properties," the JoongAng Ilbo newspaper quoted police as saying.

But police said experts had confirmed that this was "completely impossible, based on no scientific evidence".

The police also said that the people who had bought the devices had complained when they did not work.

 

[ramonmercado]

South Korea ordered to pay $2m over false spy claim
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-19475203

Secretive, militaristic North Korea is viewed with fear by the South

Related Stories

Five South Koreans on spy charges
South Korea profile

A South Korean fisherman who was falsely imprisoned as a spy for 15 years and tortured has been awarded more than 2.45bn won ($2m: £1.25m) in compensation by a court in Seoul.

The man, identified only by his surname, Cheong, is now in his 70s.

He and six members of his family, who were also targeted by South Korea's security services, sued the government after being cleared of all charges.

Mr Cheong was accused in the early 1980s of spying for North Korea.

He was detained by the authoritarian, military-backed government then in power in South Korea and interrogated by anti-espionage agents.

"After arresting him without a warrant, the authorities tortured him to obtain a false confession and coerced witnesses to make false testimonies," Judge Rhee Woo-jae said in his ruling.

"The court also handed down a guilty verdict without verifiable evidence."

He added: "Even after being released on parole, the victim was monitored by law enforcement agencies. This is illegal conduct in which the state infringed upon the victim's basic rights."

Mr Cheong was among a large group of fishermen seized by North Korea in 1965 while fishing close to the two countries' disputed sea border.

They were released shortly afterwards, but the stay in North Korean custody led to the accusations of spying nearly two decades later.

 

[Marco_Polo]

South Korea 'plotted to kill Kim'
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/a ... 790671.stm

North Korea has accused the South of sending an agent to try to assassinate its reclusive leader, Kim Jong-il.

It said the man crossed the border earlier this year and had been planning to use poison to kill Mr Kim.

The man, who is now under arrest, was described by Pyongyang as a North Korean citizen who had received training in the South.

South Korea's main intelligence agency has denied any involvement in the alleged plot.

The North's claim comes at a time of worsening relations between the two Koreas, as well as continued speculation about the health of Mr Kim.

'Terrorist mission'

North Korea made the statement via its official news agency, KNCA, late on Thursday.

It said that a man had recently been arrested for trying to conduct a "terrorist mission" that would "do harm to the top leadership".

The man, named as Ri, was under orders from South Korea's intelligence agency, the statement claimed.

"The organisation sent him speech and acoustic sensing and pursuit devices for tracking the movement of the top leader and even violent poison," the statement said.

Although it did not mention Mr Kim as the specific target, the word "leadership" generally refers to him and his top aides.

The North's statement also said unspecified foreign agents had been arrested for trying to gather soil, water and leaves to gain information on Pyongyang's nuclear programme.

South Korea's main spy agency has denied any involvement in any of the allegations.

"This has nothing to do with us," an agency official told reporters.

'Dangerous phase'

Mr Kim, who is 66 and reportedly suffering from heart disease and diabetes, has not been seen at key events in recent months.


However, KCNA has been publishing undated photos of him in the past few weeks.
Mr Kim's reported illness comes as international negotiations continue over North Korea's nuclear programme.

North Korea said last year it would give up its nuclear programme in return for aid and diplomatic concessions, but progress towards dismantling its Yongbyon nuclear reactor has been patchy.

Since the election in South Korea of President Lee Myung-bak nearly a year ago, relations between the two neighbours have nosedived.

The North cited the Mr Lee's government's "anti-North Korean moves" as its reason for speaking out in its Thursday statement, saying relations have reached "an extremely reckless and dangerous phase".

Mr Lee says he is reviewing a raft of cross-border projects agreed in historic summits in 2000 and 2007, and has linked aid to progress on the issue of North Korea's nuclear disarmament.

On 1 December, North Korea began enforcing stricter border controls with the South, because of what it called "relentless confrontation" from Seoul.

It is impossible to verify the North's claims, but the two nations are known to actively spy on each other, and there have been assassination attempts by both sides in the past.

Edit to amend title.

Isn't is ridiculous that people assume South Korea's government is more stable than ours?!

 

[ramonmercado]

Chinese passport doodle story 'is a fake'
Was reported that a man was stuck in South Korea after son drew on passport.

The photo used as evidence of the passport doodling story
THE viral story of a Chinese man who reportedly got stuck in South Korea after his son (4) doodled all over his passport picture has been confirmed as a fake.

It was widely reported that the child drew people, animals, and a beard - all in black pen - on the passport, and it resulted in his father being stuck after border officials were left unimpressed.

But the Wall Street Journal contacted the Chinese Embassy in Seoul which confirmed there were no cases of that happening in South Korea.

"An official at the Chinese Embassy in Seoul told Korea Real Time the photo was a hoax and the South Korean immigration service hadn’t prevented anyone traveling because of child’s play on official travel documents," the Journal reported.

Other agencies have pointed to a number of signs that the story was fake - including the suggestion that the picture posted as verification - of the doodled passport - highlighted that the drawings were probably too good for a four-year-old.
- See more at: http://www.independent.ie/world-news/as ... 5Jn4L.dpuf

 

[ramonmercado]

South Korean soldier 'kills five comrades, wounds five'

A South Korean soldier has shot dead five comrades, injured five more and fled from an outpost near the border with North Korea, officials say.

The army private opened fire on fellow soldiers on Saturday evening at a post in the eastern Gangwon province.

It is not yet clear what motivated him to kill his colleagues. A man hunt is now under way.

Tensions between the North and South have been high, but there is no sign this was a cross-border incident.

"He shot dead five fellow soldiers, wounded five others and then fled the scene with his rifle and ammunition," an army spokesman was quoted by news agency AFP as saying. ...

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-27957588

 

[ramonmercado]

Vid at link.

South Korea troops in stand-off with killer soldier

South Korean troops have cornered a soldier who shot dead five colleagues and fled his post near North Korea's border, sparking a massive manhunt.

One soldier was injured as the renegade conscript exchanged fire with troops hunting him in the border town of Goseong, Gangwon province, reports say.

It is not clear why the sergeant, identified only by his surname, Im, had opened fire on Saturday evening.

There have been similar shooting cases in the South Korean army in the past.

The stand-off, near a primary school, may be aimed at allowing the military to negotiate the renegade soldier's surrender, says the BBC's Kevin Kim in Seoul.

One media report said the conscript's parents had been taken to the site to help convince their son to turn himself in. ...

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-27961688

 

[ramonmercado]

Young South Korean soldier who killed 5 comrades has suffered self-inflicted gunshot wound

A South Korean conscript soldier who shot and killed five of his comrades in a grenade and gun attack near the armed border with North Korea has suffered a self-inflicted gunshot wound and is being transferred to a hospital, an official has said.

"At around 14:55 (5.55am GMT), Sergeant Lim harmed himself in his side with a K-2 rifle and was sent to the hospital," the military official said.

The weapon refers to the stand issue assault rifle used by the South Korean military.

South Korean troops had cornered the soldier to a densely wooded area on Monday, and were trying to negotiate a peaceful end to a manhunt that started two days earlier with the grenade attack. ...

- See more at: http://www.independent.ie/world-news/as ... 78ECj.dpuf

 

[ramonmercado]

The former Korean Air executive famous for an inflight tantrum over macadamia nuts has pleaded not guilty to violating aviation safety law and other charges.

Lawyers for Cho Hyun-ah did not dispute the major elements of the prosecutor’s account of events on December 5 when her behaviour resulted in a Korean Air jet returning to the gate. Instead they are focusing on a technical rebuttal of the aviation law charge.

Cho spent most of the first day of her trial with her head lowered and hair covering her face. She declined to comment when invited to by the judge.

Cho achieved worldwide notoriety by kicking a crew member off the flight on December 5 after being offered macadamia nuts in a bag, instead of a dish.

http://www.irishexaminer.com/world/nuts-tantrum-exec-pleads-not-guilty-307946.html

 

[ramonmercado]

U.S. Ambassador Mark Lippert was slashed on the face and wrist by a man wielding a blade and screaming that the rival Koreas should be unified, South Korean police said Thursday.

Media images showed a stunned-looked Lippert staring at his blood-covered left hand and holding his right hand over a cut on the right side of his face, his pink tie splattered with blood.

The U.S. State Department condemned the attack, which happened at a performing arts center in Seoul as the ambassador was preparing for a lecture, and said Lippert was being treated at a local hospital and his injuries weren't life threatening.

YTN TV reported that the man — identified by police as a 55-year-old, surnamed Kim — screamed during the attack, "South and North Korea should be reunified." ...

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world...lashed-on-face-and-wrist-in-attack/ar-BBieVWb

 

[Mythopoeika]

YTN TV reported that the man — identified by police as a 55-year-old, surnamed Kim — screamed during the attack, "South and North Korea should be reunified." ...

Of course.

He received 80 stitches to close that 11-centimeter (4-inch) long, 3-centimeter deep (about an inch) wound, Chung Nam-sik of Severance Hospital told reporters. Lippert, 42, also had surgery on his arm to repair damage to tendons and nerves, and was in stable condition at the hospital.

 

[ramonmercado]

This story still has wings.

A South Korean flight attendant is suing Korean Air and a jailed former executive in the US over what became known as the "nut rage" incident.

Lawyers for Kim Do-hee allege that Heather Cho verbally and physically attacked Kim Do-hee for the way she served nuts on a plane taking off from New York's JFK airport on 5 December. Cho later ordered the taxiing plane to offload another flight steward.

Last month, Cho was jailed for one year for obstructing aviation safety ...

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-31828224

 

[Mythopoeika]

I'm still trying to understand what's so bad or offensive about being served nuts in a bag rather than on a plate.
Nope, still none the wiser.

 

[Graylien]

Nuts on a plate is just weird. Surely they'd just go all over the place? I know they would if I tried to eat nuts off a plate. Particularly in a plane during takeoff.

 

[Mythopoeika]

Nuts on a plate is just weird. Surely they'd just go all over the place? I know they would if I tried to eat nuts off a plate. Particularly in a plane during takeoff.

Exactly.

 

[Yithian]

Ok, my thoughts: in most East Asian countries it is traditional for guests to be offered food and refreshments - most often fruit, biscuits, nuts etc. as a token of hospitality - and it's customary to accept the offer whether or not the guest is hungry. In such situations, it isn't really appropriate (when formally entertaining people you don't already know well) to show/bring out the packaging as it makes explicit the fact that the food was 'merely' prepackaged stuff over which the host made no personal effort (it's not the reality but the appearance that counts). Fruit, for instance, would be removed from all packaging, washed (whether it really needed it or not) and served on a plate with some kind of cutlery and napkins. Nuts and snacks would, at the very least, be brought out in a bowl or plate with some minor semblance of presentation.

I'm supposing in the strangely old-fashioned way that travel by air still has some connotation of exclusivity - and given that this was a first class section of the cabin - the airline had a policy of dispensing with packaging and serving using something more fitting.

Speculation, but informed speculation.

 

[hunck]

Nuts on a Plate. The sequel to Snakes on a Plane.

 

[Mythopoeika]

Thanks for the explanation, Yithian.
We Brits forget that in other parts of the world, they have old-fashioned values and standards for politeness. I rather liked it when I worked for a Japanese company - it was quaint.

 

[ramonmercado]

Thanks for the explanation, Yithian.
We Brits forget that in other parts of the world, they have old-fashioned values and standards for politeness. I rather liked it when I worked for a Japanese company - it was quaint.

But the now imprisoned executive showed no politeness.

 

[Mythopoeika]

She could have handled it better, yes.

 

[ramonmercado]

She could have handled it better, yes.

Handled it better?!

She assaulted and demeaned the flight attendant and interfered with the airplanes operation.

I honestly think this old fashioned politeness is no more than the idea that people should grovel before their "betters".

 

[Mythopoeika]

 

[ramonmercado]

Before 1988 Olympics, South Korea sent 'vagrants' to camps where rape and murder were routine

In the runup to the 1988 Olympics, the South Korean government ordered Seoul's "vagrants" to be cleared from the street. Thousands of people, many of them small children, were sent to a "welfare facility" called "Brothers Home," where they were subject to vicious, often fatal beatings and routine rape. The order to round up the vagrants came from then-President Park Chung-hee (father of current President Park Geun-hye) whose successor, President Chun Doo-hwan, suppressed any investigation into the atrocities.

In a remarkable and chilling piece of investigative journalism, the AP's Kim Tong-Hyung and Foster Klug collected first-person accounts of the camp's brutality, including those of former inmate Lee Chae-sik, a trustee who had "extraordinary access" as assistant to the camp's chief enforcer.

The people in the camp were put to slave labor, forced to produce goods that ended up in the supply chains of multinationals like Daewoo, who sent their own staff to supervise the slaves' training.

The camp's inmates were homeless people, but also many disabled people and young children. Also represented were college students who were disappeared from public life after participating in anti-government activism.

This is not the only official tale of modern slavery from South Korea: a 2015 report detailed slave labor facilities that victimized people with developmental delays, which had run for decades and continued to operate, despite frequent exposes. ...

http://boingboing.net/2016/04/20/pre-1988-olympics-south-korea.html

 

[Yithian]

Before 1988 Olympics, South Korea sent 'vagrants' to camps where rape and murder were routine

In the runup to the 1988 Olympics, the South Korean government ordered Seoul's "vagrants" to be cleared from the street. Thousands of people, many of them small children, were sent to a "welfare facility" called "Brothers Home," where they were subject to vicious, often fatal beatings and routine rape. The order to round up the vagrants came from then-President Park Chung-hee (father of current President Park Geun-hye) whose successor, President Chun Doo-hwan, suppressed any investigation into the atrocities.

Park Chung-hee would have had a job ordering the round up of vagrants in the run up to the 1988 Olympics as he was assassinated in 1979. And his successor wasn't in power during the Olympics themselves; Roh Tae-Woo had taken over by then.

For all I know, the vagrant purge might be reported accurately (I have no difficulty believing it), but the rest looks like a misread trip to Wikipedia.

 

[ramonmercado]

Protest in South Korea
Death by water cannon
The violent demise of a demonstrator touches a chord

“ANOTHER has been killed like this, again,” lamented the mother of Lee Han-yeol, who was fatally injured by a tear-gas canister in 1987 during a demonstration against the military regime of Chun Doo-hwan. She was among many attending the funeral of Baek Nam-gi, a 69-year-old South Korean activist and farmer. Mr Baek was knocked over by a blast from a police water cannon during a demonstration last year; after ten months in a coma, he died on September 25th.

Clashes between demonstrators and police have a special resonance in South Korean politics. The death of Mr Lee became one of the defining moments of the country’s transition to democracy. As he lay in a coma, fellow students circulated a photograph of him, bloodied and slumped in the arms of a friend. Almost 30 years on, protests, frequent and raucous, are still a big part of public life. But just how far it is legitimate for protests to go, and how police should respond, are still matters of fierce debate.

Mr Baek’s death struck a chord in part because he epitomised the dogged activism that helped to put an end to the authoritarian order that endured from the second world war until the late 1980s. He first protested against Park Chung-hee, president from 1962 to 1979 and father of South Korea’s current, democratically elected president, Park Geun-hye. He was twice expelled from university in Seoul in the 1970s for his dissent.

At one point, when a warrant was put out for his arrest, he found refuge in a cathedral, and subsequently spent five years as a monk. The law did eventually catch up with him: he spent time in prison for violating the strict restrictions on political activity imposed by martial law. He was so committed to the cause that he named one of his children Minjuhwa, which means “democratisation”. ...

http://www.economist.com/news/asia/...annon?fsrc=scn/tw/te/pe/ed/deathbywatercannon

 

[rynner2]

Protest in South Korea
Death by water cannon
The violent demise of a demonstrator touches a chord

“ANOTHER has been killed like this, again,” lamented the mother of Lee Han-yeol, who was fatally injured by a tear-gas canister in 1987 during a demonstration against the military regime of Chun Doo-hwan. She was among many attending the funeral of Baek Nam-gi, a 69-year-old South Korean activist and farmer. Mr Baek was knocked over by a blast from a police water cannon during a demonstration last year; after ten months in a coma, he died on September 25th.

Clashes between demonstrators and police have a special resonance in South Korean politics. The death of Mr Lee became one of the defining moments of the country’s transition to democracy. As he lay in a coma, fellow students circulated a photograph of him, bloodied and slumped in the arms of a friend. Almost 30 years on, protests, frequent and raucous, are still a big part of public life. But just how far it is legitimate for protests to go, and how police should respond, are still matters of fierce debate.

Mr Baek’s death struck a chord in part because he epitomised the dogged activism that helped to put an end to the authoritarian order that endured from the second world war until the late 1980s. He first protested against Park Chung-hee, president from 1962 to 1979 and father of South Korea’s current, democratically elected president, Park Geun-hye. He was twice expelled from university in Seoul in the 1970s for his dissent.

At one point, when a warrant was put out for his arrest, he found refuge in a cathedral, and subsequently spent five years as a monk. The law did eventually catch up with him: he spent time in prison for violating the strict restrictions on political activity imposed by martial law. He was so committed to the cause that he named one of his children Minjuhwa, which means “democratisation”. ...

http://www.economist.com/news/asia/...annon?fsrc=scn/tw/te/pe/ed/deathbywatercannon

 

[Yithian]

I've never once noticed these patriot missile launchers in Seoul, but that's probably the point.

(The domed building beyond the Han River is the National Assembly incidentally)

 

[Naughty_Felid]

was the concrete fortification designed for the missile launcher?

Not very practical if it was.