Comic book about Yongsan redevelopment tragedy in 2009
This is a "book concert" for an awesome-looking comic book about the redevelopment policies in Seoul that killed 6 in January, 2009. The comic book artists and surviving families will be giving a talk.
I love the line drawings of the cityscape on the cover and this poster! On my list of books to acquire...
Popularity: 1% [?]
Tags: 2009, development, Korea/Diaspora, YongsanSouth Korean Rev. Han Sang-ryeol visits North Korea
Rev. Han Sang-ryeol, age 60, is a co-founder of the Korea Alliance for Progressive Movement, a pro-unification group in South Korea. He has been on an unauthorized trip to North Korea since June 12 this year, having entered through the North Korean embassy in Beijing. With the variety of cultural exchanges and "exposure" trips to North Korea, it might seem odd that Han's visit is making headline news, but the fact is, this is the first case (publicly known, at least) of an unauthorized visit to North Korea by a South Korean since 1989 -- 21 years ago. 
Back then, Im Su-gyeong, a student activist, got into a heap of trouble for not only visiting North Korea but also receiving a hero's welcome there. In North Korea, she was celebrated as a "flower of reunification," a crime for which she was sentenced to 5 years in prison when she returned to South Korea (she served 3).
In a predictably polarized fashion, Rev. Han's visit is the subject of much admiration from the left, some of whom are calling him the "modern day Jesus," but it's raising eyebrows (and blood pressure) of right-wing anti-NK pundits outraged by Han's "pro-North Korean" actions. This RFA commentary even makes fun of Rev. Han's political and conscious choice in wearing traditional Korean clothes -- "If somebody in North Korea wore traditional Korean clothes like Rev. Han and grew his beard long like him, he would be seen as a lunatic and thrown into a mental institution. But in South Korea, nobody cares about how people dress." In other words, South Korea good, North Korea bad.
Well, take a look at this group of fellow crazy leftist Christian comrades, then, gathered for a press conference in support of Rev. Han. They declared Han's visit as an act of conscience, a desperate effort towards peaceful reunification and anti-imperialist struggles. A full text of their statement can be found here.
Popularity: 6% [?]
Tags: Christianity, Korea/Diaspora, NorthKorea, reunification, SouthKoreaWhy one North Korean man sought asylum in Canada
Don't get me wrong -- it's not like I believe every word on Radio Free Asia. No way. I subscribe to the daily Korean-language email newsletter because I want to stay updated on North Korea-related news, not because I endorse RFA's mission or intent. It's the same reason why I subscribe to all the right-wing and Christian fundamentalist email newsletters out there. 
Anyway, RFA was the reason why the Great Firewall of China inadvertently blocked Google in its entirety in March 2010, and according to Wikipedia, Chinese state-controlled newspapers claimed that RFA is a CIA broadcast operation. I wouldn't doubt it. RFA is a US Congress-funded propaganda machine, and North Korea has cleverly called RFA as "reptile broadcasting services." Hmmm... wait, but that's RBS, not RFA.
In 1999, Catharin Dalpino of the Brookings Institution, who served in the Clinton State Department as a deputy assistant secretary deputy for human rights, called Radio Free Asia "a waste of money." "Wherever we feel there is an ideological enemy, we're going to have a Radio Free Something," she says. Dalpino said she has reviewed scripts of Radio Free Asia's broadcasts and views the station's reporting as unbalanced. "They lean very heavily on reports by and about dissidents in exile. It doesn't sound like reporting about what's going on in a country. Often, it reads like a textbook on democracy, which is fine, but even to an American it's rather propagandistic." (excerpted from here)
So it's no wonder why RFA repeatedly publishes articles about North Korean refugees or dissidents in exile. Having said all this, RFA does actually gather and publish a lot of things that never make it into the news -- local, national, or international. I find more articles in RFA about North Korean refugees settling down in Toronto or captured in Thailand than in any of the mainstream media that simply regurgitate the same old stories without any new research or investigation. So, like anything and everything written about North Korea, take everything in RFA with a grain of salt.
This article talks about a University of Toronto student group that's assisting with asylum applications for North Koreans, as well as offering free translation services and English tutoring.
Then this article caught my eye: 서진우 씨의 탈북 동기와 캐나다 정착 이유. I've heard lots of reasons why someone leaves North Korea, but why did this man decide to settle in Canada?
Aha. Because with a Canadian passport, one can more easily visit North Korea than someone with a South Korean or US passport. Talk about politics of passports and mobility. So interesting.
Popularity: 4% [?]
Tags: Canada, Korea/Diaspora, NorthKorea, refugeeDaewoo wins major contract in Libya (again)
Following up the previous post on South Korea-Libya spy scandal, here's a little update in The China Post, August 7, 2010.
South Korea's Daewoo wins major Libyan project despite diplomatic row
SEOUL -- South Korea's Daewoo Engineering and Construction Co. said Friday it had won a major power plant project in Libya despite a row over alleged spying by Seoul. Daewoo on Thursday signed a contract in Libya with the state-run General Electricity Company of Libya to build a 750-megawatt power plant in Zwitina, some 140 km (87.5 miles) southwest of Benghazi, for US$438 million.
The project will start in November this year and is to be completed by May 2013, the company said. It is the fourth major power plant contract Daewoo has won in Libya since 2003.
Popularity: 4% [?]
Tags: development, Korea/Diaspora, LibyaLibya – South Korea spy scandal, alleged ties to US and Israel
South Korean media outlets have been reporting recently that a South Korean agent ("Jun") was deported from Libya on espionage charges. Libya has also arrested and detained a South Korean Christian missionary (Pastor "Koo") for violating Libya's religious law, and it has effectively shut down its economic mission bureau in Seoul, which serves as the de facto embassy in South Korea. I started following this because of the missionary angle, but it's even more interesting than I thought.
First of all, it's been reported that Libya was upset at South Korea's information-gathering (i.e. espionage) activities concerning defense industry cooperation between North Korea and Libya.
But in one of the most informative article I've come across so far, News N Joy, a progressive-liberal Christian paper, points out that the focus on the missionary is distracting and misdirected (somewhat intentionally by the South Korean government whose vague statements and silences let the rumors spread) and that this isn't a case of zealous missionaries causing diplomatic tensions. Yes, people are sensitive about this after the Afghanistan missionary hostage crisis in 2007. And a growing number of "anti-Christians" are mad as hell and quick to jump to conclusions.
JoongAng Ilbo and News N Joy both look beyond the Korean government's official statements (Libya AFP, London-based Asharq Al-Awsat, etc.) and report that the scandal actually began with a South Korean diplomat getting in trouble for espionage.
Libya is apparently livid -- LMB's own older brother Lee Sang-deuk (himself a member of the parliament) led a special envoy to Libya from July 6 to July 13, but was denied a meeting.
Apparently, this kind of "information-gathering" (i.e. intelligence gathering, spying, paying informants) is often used by Korean companies eager to secure contracts in the region. What's at stake? According to Joonang Ilbo:
The relationship has been heavily focused on economic ties. With Daewoo Engineering and Construction’s project to build a medical school for Garyounis University in Benghazi in 1978 as a starting point, 29 Korean companies have been working on 288 projects worth $34.6 billion in total. They are also eyeing more power plant and subway construction projects in the country.
But as News N Joy suggests, what's perhaps most intriguing (and worrisome) is that these alleged espionage activities were conducted not only on behalf of the South Korean government or companies, but other governments as well.
The target of espionage was The Gaddafi International Charity and Development Foundation, a charity led Muammar el-Qaddafi's son. In mid July, the Foundation had sent an aid ship to the Gaza, shortly after, and partly in protest against the now-infamous Israel's brutal attack and killings on the Gaza aid flotilla in May. Libya's flotilla was diverted by Israeli naval vessels to Egypt, without fatalities this time, but things have been quite tense between Israel and Libya.
So what other governments did the South Korean spy allegedly work for? US and Israel, apparently. But nothing confirmed. Of course.
Popularity: 8% [?]
Tags: Korea/Diaspora, Libya, missionary, spyEnglish lessons over the phone
This is an image of a random spam mail that arrived in my inbox today. I've heard of these phone-based programs -- cheaper than in-person lessons, and offering more one-on-one attention.
I love how a phone conversation in English with a real live 원어민 (wonŏmin, "native speaker") is considered 체험 (ch'e-hŏm, firsthand experience) worth paying for.
Popularity: 4% [?]
Tags: English, Korea/Diaspora, spamMcDonald’s as a mission field
Really. I'm not making this up. This is from an article on KGBC, an LA-based Korean evangelical Christian radio station website.
Did you know? Tens of thousands of McDonald's restaurants occupying countless street corners in America are in fact awaiting Korean American evangelists. McDonald's is really a chŏndo-ŭi hwanggŭm ŏjang, a.k.a. the golden fishing pond! Share this shocking secret blessing with other Korean American Christians you know!
It's a "fish or be fished" kind of world out there.
Popularity: unranked [?]
Tags: Korea/Diaspora, mission200,000 undocumented Korean Americans
I've been catching up with bills and blog posts in no apparent order. This is a screen capture of a front page article in The Korea Daily, a.k.a. 중앙일보, Los Angeles Edition, dated Wednesday, February 10, 2010. I was taking a look at their new digital format for a while, but haven't done it in a while. Wonder if it's still open access.
Try to ignore the goofballs pictured on the left side, identified in the caption simply as t'ainjongs -- basically, the Others.
But the article on the right reports new figures estimate the number of undocumented Korean American immigrants at 200,000 throughout the United States. Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and the Philippines top the list, followed by India and Korea. Ecuador, Brazil, and China are the last three on this top 10 list. These figure are from a February 2010 report from the Department of Homeland Security. Nearly 34% of undocumented immigrants are between the ages of 25 to 34.
Popularity: unranked [?]
Tags: illegal, immigration, Korea/Diaspora, undocumentedKorea joins the Development Assistance Committee (DAC)
The Hankyoreh (here in Korean) reports that the Development Assistance Committee (DAC), a club of donor nations, has accepted South Korea as its 24th member. This makes South Korea a member of all 25 OECD committees, and the first time since the founding of the OECD in 1961 that a formerly aid-receiving nation has become a donor nation. The last time DAC accepted a new member was apparently in 1999, when Greece joined. Korea's membership is effective as of January 1, 2010.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MOFAT) said that the DAC member nations placed great significance at Wednesday’s meeting on the admission of South Korea as a nation that has gone from being an aid beneficiary to a donor.
원조 수혜국에서 원조 공여국으로 탈바꿈한 한국의 회원 가입에 큰 의미를 부여했다고 외교통상부는 밝혔다.
Sounds familiar, don't you think? From mission-receiving country to mission-sending country... And read this part:
Additionally, some 75 percent of all South Korean aid is tied aid, in which assistance is provided on the condition that it is accompanied by South Korean businesses and products, with the goals of expanded exports and resource development. Critics have said this form goes against the spirit of aid, in that it involves selecting areas for support according to South Korean interests rather than what is needed in the recipient nation.
MOFAT has announced plans to reduce the percentage of tied aid to 25 percent by 2015. It also said that it would increase efforts to promote the efficiency of aid, strengthen the link between concessional loans and grant aid, and pursue the enactment of a basic law on ODA.
한국은 원조를 하며 수출확대와 자원개발 등의 목적으로 한국 기업과 상품이 함께 따라가는 것을 조건으로 내거는 ‘구속성 원조’의 비율도 전체 원조의 75%에 이른다. 이는 받는 국가의 요구보다는 한국의 이해에 따라 지원분야를 선정하는 것으로, 원조의 취지에 맞지 않는다는 지적을 받아왔다.
외교부는 “2015년까지 구속성 원조의 비율을 25%로 낮출 계획”이라며 “원조 효율성 제고와 유·무상 원조간 연계 강화, 공적개발원조 기본법 제정 등의 노력을 기울여 나갈 것”이라고 밝혔다.
Here's a lovely graph that shows the last 10 years of ODA (official development assistance).
The line graph plots South Korea’s Official Development Aid (ODA)-GNI ratio over the past 9 years, while the lower bars shows ODA as US dollar amounts (millions).
Fascinating stuff. Now that my dissertation is finally wrapping up (very soon!) I'll have more time (hopefully) to read up on the connections between Korea's world evangelization enterprises and international development aid. I've so far focused on the cultural and discursive aspects of developmentalism, but especially given the extent of KOICA and development NGOs' collusion with evangelical Christian missions (see here), I don't think I can ignore development economics any longer.
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Tags: development, Korea/Diaspora, OECDCategories
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