Military Beat

A couple of Korean reporters who used to cover the Pentagon for the Joongang Ilbo seem to have got their panties in a twist over the South Korean Ministry of Defense’s plan to move the press room out of the building. They might want to take a course in persuasive journalism, however, as it starts off talking about the Pentagon system being international evaluated only to suddenly drop that angle, the only sources they quote are actually arguing in favor of the plan, and they sort of finish up without any real conclusion. If I were a J-school professor I would give this piece a C.

In Washington’s Department of Defense building the ‘Pentagon’ the briefing room is on the first floor. Next to that is the press room with facilities for reporters to prepare their articles and send them.

Other than that the Department of Defense offers separate press rooms for major news organizations such as CNN, ABC, and so on. The reporters making their way in and out of the Pentagon roam the halls as they please they can have a conversation with the Department’s workers and soldiers from the joint chiefs of staff. This Pentagon briefing system is hailed as an international public national defense information “Global Standard”.

What does Korea have? Korea’s Ministry of Defense is currently in the middle of pushing a plan to move its press and briefing rooms outside. On the 27th a spokesman from the Ministry explained “We’re examining whether to move the current press room inside the Ministry of Defense to a citizen’s service center building outside the grounds.” The spokesman added “If reporters intend to come into the Ministry of Defense, then they will have to announce their intent before receiving a temporary visitor’s pass. Moving the briefing room out instead of maintaining one in the Ministry of Defense is a principle for the government information agency.”

However, moving the press room outside the Ministry of Defense would in effect make it impossible to gather information. A different spokesman retorted that “Once the press room is moved outside the Ministry of Defense, if a reporter receives a visitor’s pass and enters the Ministry and requests an interview it’s all going to be on the record, and so who is going to meet up with reporters to answer sensitive questions?”

Even now at the Ministry of Defense there are strong limits on the gathering of data. The press and briefing rooms are on the first floor of the new government building but there are strict controls on entering the office and contacting employees. Since regular offices in the Ministry of Defense building are locked with security systems, reporters can’t just use their passes to throw open the doors and walk in. Also, by the regulations only a department chief or those of higher rank are allowed to meet reporters. Moreover, reporters have to call in advance and make an appointment and there must be a third party in the meeting including the director of public relations.

Naturally, active-duty soldiers mindful of promotions and so on avoid contact with the press. This is because they carry their awareness of the danger that they could receive some penalty if they make contact with the press without permission or reveal information disadvantageous to the government.

Gay Pride in Korea

Though you’d never know it from their near-total absence in public and the insistence of some Koreans that they don’t even exist, there is actually a growing movement for the acceptance of Korean gays and lesbians. One of the nation’s most well-known, if not exactly most popular, singers is one Ha Ri-su, who was born as a man but, ahem, isn’t one anymore. Anyone who’s been to Itaewon is certainly aware of the delicately-named Homo Hill, and that’s far from the only place to find a gay or lesbian bar or nightclub — the number of such in Seoul climbs to somewhere south of 300. There are several gay rights organizations, and perhaps the largest of them is chingusai.

As a still quite conservative society, though, most Korean gays remain firmly closeted and discrimination against those out of it is said to be fierce. And for the next week, as Yonhap News notes, Seoul is host to the 8th annual incarnation of the Queer Culture Festival. It’s our pleasure to bring you our first reader-requested translation.

On the second in the Berlin Grounds at the Cheonggyecheon-2 district of Seoul’s Jung-gu, the “8th Annual Queer Culture Festival” opened to celebrate sexual minorities.

‘Queer’, meaning strange or odd, is a term for calling homosexuals, transgenders, and other sexual minorities.

While flags with rainbows, the symbol of sexual minorities, were being hung at the periphery of the festival grounds, appeals were made for citizens to join together for the human rights of homosexuals and AIDS patients.

Before sings songs and so on at the festival in the Berlin Grounds, a parade led by a festival vehicle traveled 1.8 kilometers along the Cheonggyecheon.

Transgender Han Mu-ji (pseudonym, 28 years old) said “We hope this festival raises awareness of the suffering of sexual minorities and finds a solution to the misunderstandings and prejudices that people have about them.”

Movies, parties, and other diverse events will follow until the 10th.

Because it’s there

If you spend any time in Korea, whether hiking or just on the subway, you will inevitably see a group of older people together decked out in brand-new mountain climbing gear with stuffed backpacks and walking poles. It all seems pretty silly when you consider the low degree of difficulty of hiking mountains here, but some people are quite serious and join groups of like-minded people to travel the globe and climb its famous mountains.

None, of course, are more famous than Everest, where two Korean climbers recently died while attempting a new route to the peak.

A memorial ceremony was held on the 27th at 11 am at Seoul National University Hospital’s chapel for Oh Hui-jun (37) and Lee Hyeon-ju (35), both of Gold Win Korea and who died while on an expedition to the peak of Mt. Everest for a 30th anniversary.

One mountaineer who participated in the ceremony lamented their deaths, saying “They were the representative mountain experts of Korea and after Park Yeong-seok, Eom Hong-gil, and Han Wang-yong were runners into the new century.”

On the 16th at 1:50 am (local time), the two men were staying at the northwest side of base camp 4 (7800 meters above sea level) on Mt. Everest when suddenly they were overtaken by a rockfall and an avalanche.

Wikipedia changes page name from Dokdo to Liancourt Rocks

My view on the subject is that hopefully more Koreans will come to know about Wikipedia as a result of this. The Korean language version has yet to reach even 40,000 articles. 40,000 articles is weeeak for a country with some 34 million people online. Yes, I know Wikipedia doesn’t have flashy pop-ups and doesn’t try to install spyware on your computer, but you don’t need spyware to have a quality site. You really don’t.

Original article

The largest Internet encyclopedia in the world, Wikipedia, has officially changed the name of Dokdo to Liancourt Rocks.

According to Wikipedia, in the poll carried out from the 21st to the 29th of May on the name change, 28 people supported retaining the name Dokdo while 43 people supported the name Liancourt Rocks, causing the change.
In accordance with this, from now on those that use the Korean name Dokdo or the Japanese name Takeshima to search for the page will be automatically redirected to the Liancourt Rocks page.

After news of the vote was reported on Chosun.com on the 25th of may, a great deal of Korean netizens joined Wikipedia and cast their vote supporting the name Dokdo. However, those who haven’t made at least 50 edits on the English-language Wikipedia or been a user for at least a month had their votes nullified in accordance with policy. Because of this the opinions of 55 people that supported the name as-is were rendered powerless.

In accordance with this, on the 29th of May (GMT), the English Wikipedia officially changed the name of the page from Dokdo to Liancourt Rocks.

The name Liancourt Rocks dates back to January 1849, from the name of the French ship Liancourt that discovered the islands, and has been used as a western name for the islands. The CIA, which lists Dokdo as a disputed area, the Department of State and a majority of sites use the name Liancourt Rocks for Dokdo.

Wikipedia states that the decision was made not as Korean netizens saw the poll - as a vote on popularity - but rather as one in reference to Wikipedia’s guidelines, based on how appropriate a name is.

Wikipedia first gave the official name of the islands as Dokdo. However, in May 2005 the name was changed to Liancourt Rocks in accordance with a vote by Internet users, and in June of last year another vote was carried out and the name was changed to Dokdo. At the time, 14 people expressed their support for the name Dokdo in the official poll.

Cameron Diaz says… what!?

We all expect that when a big star goes to another country they’ll have only nice things to say about their hosts. So when Cameron Diaz came a few days ago to promote Shrek 3, she was practically obligated to praise the good looks of Korean men. But she’s quoted in this article as calling them 바람기 which could be translated as something like amorous or studly, or in a more negative sense of being slutty or temperamentally unfaithful — literally blowing around everywhere like the wind. Well, I’m just glad she said it and not me…

“Korean men are so handsome, and so amorous.”

Top Hollywood star Cameron Diaz says Korean men are handsome. She came on the morning of the 30th to a press conference for ‘Shrek 3′ at the Shilla Hotel. The press conference was attended by Dreamworks representative Jeffrey Katzenberg, star Cameron Diaz, producer Aaron Warner, and director Chris Miller.

The press conference was attended by 100 cameramen looking to record top Hollywood star Cameron Diaz’s appearance and 100 reporters looking for a story.

The heroine of the day, Cameron Diaz, greeted everyone through broken Korean with “hello” before saying “I can’t even speak English well, let alone Korean”, showing off her sense of humor.

Asked if she has a boyfriend in ‘Shrek 3′, Diaz circuitously answered “I don’t have a boyfriend now” by saying “you seem to be indirectly asking me if I have a boyfriend, but as I don’t have one now I can’t answer”.

As it was Diaz’s first time to see Korean men close-up she said “they’re handsome” and lauded them.

“It’s my first time to see Korean men up close and they seem handsome. Plus, Korean men seem to be really amorous.”

Diaz, who filled the press conference with laughter through her lively sense of humor, debuted in 1994’s ‘The Mask’ and after that was in ‘My Boyfriend’s Wedding’, ‘There’s Something About Mary’, ‘Charlie’s Angels’, and ‘The Holiday’, securing plenty of fans here.

The third film in the hugely entertaining ‘Shrek’ series, ‘Shrek 3′, last weekend beat out the American-produced ‘Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End’ for the top spot at the box office.

Time to go down to Hangang Park!

The broad Han River runs through Seoul, splitting it into north and south, and the Hangang River Citizen’s Park runs alongside it for quite a bit of that length. It gives you a great place to walk along the banks of the Han, take a cruise on the river, or, for a few days now as the Munhwa Ilbo reports, take in a different kind of scenery.

On the 30th in the Jamsil area of Seoul’s Hangang River Citizen’s Park, Georgia (yellow uniforms) and Canada participate in a qualifying match the first day of the Seoul International Women’s World Tour Beach Volleyball tournament. The tournament will continue until June 3.

No more smoking at bus stops in Seoul

But what about people that *want* to breathe the second-hand smoke from the ajosshi next to them? Who has thought about their needs?

Great news. It’s World No-Tobacco Day and the WHO is also calling for further restrictions on exposing people to second-hand smoke.

Original article

No More Smoking at Bus Stops in Seoul

Coinciding with World No Tobacco Day, the city of Seoul has gone into action on smoking restrictions at outdoor smoking areas such as bus stops.

According to the city of Seoul on the 30th of May, major bus stops in the city have been designated as non-smoking areas, and that it is also considering making parks, apartments and other public places non-smoking areas.

On the 30th the city first made the following areas non-smoking: bus stops in the centre of the road in Jongno 2-ga and Baek Hospital, Gangnam Station and Yeonsei University, and transfer areas of Cheongnyangni and Guro Digital Complex; this test run will be carried out for the next three months.

A spokesperson from the city said that “at present 90% of the people from the city have expressed support for making bus stops non-smoking areas,” and that “once the trial period has ended in September we plan to make all city bus stops non-smoking areas.”

Along with this the city of Seoul will be moving towards making Children’s Grand Park and Seoul National University Park non-smoking areas as well, and at the same time through a reform of the applicable laws, will also make parks in the city run by city government institutions non-smoking as well.

The city of Seoul has also sent official correspondences to the 2,650 apartment complexes in the city to inquire about making apartments non-smoking as well, and in the case that an apartment complex is designated as one the city will provide support in the form of non-smoking clinics, health services for residences, and technical support for setting up designated smoking areas.

Hamburgers: Ads vs. Reality

Hamburgers and fast food are quite popular in Korea, as this page at Galbijim well demonstrates, so if you live in a city of any decent size you won’t find yourself unable to fix a craving. Of course you will find yourself unable to get a big burger just like the ones in the ads, but in what country isn’t that true?

Well, one muckraking crusader from the Sports Seoul decided to see just how badly the burger chains are hoodwinking us.

In the ads for hamburgers, synonymous with fast food, a series of feasts with piles of fresh ingredients are rolling out. When you go into a fast-food chain the first thing that meets your eye is the series of tantalizing menu ads pasted up everywhere.

The menus appearing in these ads float by one shiny ingredient after another and make your mouth water with their bright colors. But this is as far as your imagination on a joyful meal takes you. The hamburger you ultimately receive after ordering is, to use an oft-used expression, the equivalent of a face without makeup.

In reality, recently an overseas photoblog opened a series of photos called “Fast Food: Advertisements vs. Reality” to the sustained, enthusiastic interest of netizens. The advertising pictures of Burger King, McDonald’s, and Subway’s popular burgers are compared instantly to pictures of the burgers as placed into your hands.

Consumers and everyone have understanding and acceptance that the burgers in ads are not exactly the same as the burgers actually being sold. Ultimately, however, when you directly compare the two pictures the inward thought of “Now that’s just too much!” is hard to put away. It’s fine to show some differences due to factors here and there but some hamburgers look completely different from the way they look in the ads.

I wondered how fast food’s country of origin, the United States, was doing in the Korean environment. This reporter, using a similar method to the foreign blog’s, compared the pictures and actual ingredients of the hamburgers sold in fast food places. The result was the same as that of the examples tested on the overseas blog.

The hamburgers pictured in ads appear extremely delicious while the actual burgers fall rather short of expectations. The burgers sold at Burger King, McDonald’s, KFC, and domestic chain Lotteria were no exception. Song Mo-yang, an office worker in his twenties who enjoys eating fast food, said “When you make your choice from the menu the first thing you see is the ads” and “because of the convenience and flavor I look for the burgers but now there are also times I wonder if this is really the burger I ordered.”

One fast food business’ representative said “When the pictures in the ads are shot, the original ingredients are never exaggerated nor are other ingredients included. It’s an ad, so the point is for attractively-formed food to come out and for it be seen with a dramatic visual presentation.”

In the restaurant there are ads making fantastic claims about their hamburgers. There can’t be a hamburger like the ones in the ads but at minimum the hamburgers for sale have to be like the image in the ads. About that, one regulatory board member said “They say the picture itself is different from the real product but with hamburgers it’s difficult to look at it from a truth in advertising law perspective”, adding “to fall into the category of a misleading ad it must include some content which affects the buying decisions of consumers.”

He went on to say that “For advertisement hamburgers, they’re made in the optimum, best condition for taking photos. There’s no way for it not to be different from the actual burgers wrapped up in stores,” adding “For the first to the last bite, the sequence of ingredients isn’t changed and in that way they are hamburgers fit to be photographed. “Food ads are supposed to make the food look good, that makes perfect sense, doesn’t it?”

Wait ’till next year

Well, Lee Ha-nui may not have won the Miss Universe, but there are dark rumors of jury-rigging as, at least in the Korean press, she had been rocketing to the top and won the titles of best face and traditional clothing. Anyway, as she did come in the top five perhaps her strong showing gives the author in this earlier post a stronger case now?

The holder of the 2007 Miss Universe tiara is Miss Japan, Mori Riyo (20).

Lee Ha-nui, participating as the Korean representative in the 2007 Miss Universe beauty pageant, took fourth place. On the morning of the 29th (Korean time) in the 56th Miss Universe pageant in Mexico City, Lee Ha-nui strode into the hot interest at a feast for the representatives of all nations.

Out of 77 contestants Lee Ha-nui made it to the end of the pageant along with the representatives from Brazil, Venezuela, Japan, and the United States.

The honor of first place went to Miss Japan, Mori Riyo. Lee Ha-nui stayed unhappily at fourth place. Second went to Brazil, third to Venezuela, and fifth to the United States.

As soon as the truth of this was announced, netizens across the world sent their encouragement to Lee Ha-nui and were breathless in their discontent. Their interest in whether or not she would win is gathered up more than at any other time. Until the end of the final round interest about who would win was amplified.

For this reason, netizens are pretty much in a rabid frenzy over the news of the fourth-place finish. One netizen wrote in reaction that “this is the power of a national power” and that he couldn’t understand how Miss Japan took first place. Also, allegations are surfacing about the pageant sponsor and profits made by Miss Japan.

The sponsors of the 2007 Miss Universe include Japanese jewelry company Mikimoto and fashion brand Tadashi. The Miss Universe tiara was manufactured at Mikimoto at a cost of $25,000 US. There are no domestic sponsors.

So in the reaction, some are expressing concerns such as “It’s just too much that she could have won just because of her home country so there’s no need for an oversensitive reaction” . Another netizen retorted “If you say she was chosen just by national strength, shouldn’t Miss America have taken first place?”

For our other Lee Ha-nui coverage, please see this post about the pageant’s start or this one about netizens comparing her to Miss Japan.

Seoul’s not always perfect

The third article we’ve chosen to publish on Prof. Kwon Yeong-Geol’s city design series shows one of the few places (few in my opinion, that is) where some smaller cities have bested Seoul. Actually, even places like Gunpo near the capital have this. Why don’t we have this right in the city again? Not that I would recommend anyone take a bus in the first place, can’t stand the bloody things. Let’s go to the article to see to what I’m referring:

Original article

Bus stop signs that make you wait all day long

Waiting for the bus is so boring. Since you never know when it’s going to come you get the privilege of waiting there like a crane with your neck stretched out as you stare off into the distance towards where it’s supposed to come.

Fearing that you might miss it, you can’t go to nearby bookstores or even convenience stores. Waiting as the dazzling summer sunshine pours down on you, or as the cold winter wind blows in is the definition of torture. “If only I knew when the bus was coming…” is the waiting passenger’s earnest wish.

The city of Gimhae and a few local autonomous districts have removed this anguish. Gimhae has changed their signs to electronic ones in places with high population density - that is, they’ve installed LED systems on their signs to let you know when the bus is going to come. People there get to wait light-heartedly for only a minute or two, and are able to make best use of their time. Shops around the station then have increased business. Three birds with one stone.

Way back when, we used to wait in long lines at the bank too. This problem as well was solved with the introduction of a numbered ticket machine for waiting customers, an act that gave people an improved ability to predict events in their daily lives. That’s an important factor for living a good life in the city.