Gunnie Weekly (Week of Nov. 14)

Mixed News for the week of November 14, 2011


- Ahn Cheol-Soo, a doctor and an entrepreneur, announced that he is going to donate nearly half of his company's share 150 billion KRW (or $133 million) to a new charity. 

In making the announcement, Mr. Ahn said the money would be used to help educate the children of poor families, though he didn’t say if he would give the money to an existing charity or set up a new one.

Mr. Ahn and others civic activists have criticized leaders of South Korea’s big companies for being stingy about their charitable giving. (source)(source)

 Now this is not a good news for Korean politicians, especially the conservatives. Mr. Ahn is very popular among younger voters in their 20s and 30s and during Seoul's mayoral election last month, he declared a full support for progressive candidate Park Won-Soon. IF Mr. Ahn declares that he is going to run for presidency next year, it is highly likely that he will run with the progressives rather than conservatives. This means conservatives, who are not very popular among young voters, will need to campaign harder. However, everything is still up in the air and nothing is sure. 


Hmm... What will Mr. Ahn do????

- This week, Brad Pitt visited Korea to promote his new movie "Moneyball" 


- Korean government decided to build barracks for U.S. troops (or just station them there) on Baengyeong Island which is next to Yeongpyong Island, the island that was shelled by the Norks last year.

The South's military will start building the new barracks, which can accommodate some 160 soldiers, from next year on Baengnyeong Island and construction will be completed by 2013, the source said on the condition of anonymity. 

"As part of efforts to strengthen defense on the Yellow Sea islands, the new barracks will be used by U.S. troops during joint military drills or in case of emergency," the source said.

 I don't know whose idea this is, but I want to see what China and Norks have to say about this.

- Back in WWII, on the beach of Normandy, there were 4 Korean POWs who fought in German uniform.

These soldiers were conscripted into the Japanese Army in 1938. In battle against the Soviets in Nomonhan they were captured and turned into POW’s…for a while, the Russians then conscripted them into the Soviet army to fight the Nazi’s. In 1943 they were captured, most likely in the battle of Kharkov, where they were in turn, conscripted into the Nazi army as laborers.

They ended up working on the Atlantic wall defenses, and ultimately were captured by the Allies. Kyoungjong Yang, and the other three ‘soldiers’ spent the rest of the war in a British POW camp. He ultimately moved to0 the USA, became a citizen, living near Northwestern University (just north of Chicago). (source)(source)(source)

-  I believe that Kang Je-Gyu's new film, My Way is based on the story above. I can't wait till this movie comes out.

Quietest Football Match I Will Probably Ever Watch.

Tonight (November 14, 2011) 11:00 AM PST, there will be a football (soccer) match between North Korea and Japan. The reason why I'm so excited to watch this game is because (i) the venue is Kim Il-Sung Stadium in Pyongyang; (ii) there is no diplomatic ties between North Korea and Japan; and (iii) this will be the quietest football match I will ever watch.

The [Japanese] fans have been warned to behave: No sightseeing, no straying from the group. No drums, speakers, banners or Japanese flags, according to Nishitetsu Travel, which is organizing the three-day, $3,740 tour for the Japanese Football Association. 

"In principle, (North Korea) is a country where we have travel restrictions, and we are only allowing this trip as an exception," Osamu Fujimura, Japan's chief cabinet spokesman, said Friday in Tokyo. "Therefore, we would like the visitors to refrain from any activity other than watching the game while in (North Korea)."

The last time these two teams played each other in North Korea was back in 1989 and North Korea won 2 - 0. Since then, North Korea-Japan relationship has deteriorated due to belligerent act of North Korean government. North Korean government abducted Japanese citizens during 1970s and 1980s. Through 1990s and 2000, Japanese government pressed North Korea to return its citizens who were abducted by North Korea. North Korea did return some of its citizens in 2002, however, North Korea failed to offer adequate explanations regarding the circumstance of other abductees and insisted that the issue has been resolved, while the Japanese government considered its explanation unacceptable. (source) Then North Korea began testing missiles that had the capability to reach Japan, and they test fired ballistic missiles into the East Sea. In response, Japan joined its allies, U.S. and South Korea, imposing sanctions.

Despite North Korea's past actions, it seems to me that North Korean government is trying to improve ties with its neighboring states. Just last month, North Korean government allowed Japanese medical team to travel to North Korea to treat the nuclear victims of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Player to watch:
Jong Tae-se: He currently plays for Vfl Bochum in Germany, and in the past, he played in J-League for Kawasaki Frontale. He is a 3rd generation Korean born in Japan and attended North Korean school in Japan, though his parents held South Korea citizenship. He later traded his South Korea citizenship for North Korean citizenship. He was the one who was crying during 2010 World Cup when North Korean national anthem came on.

Tadanari Lee: I'm not 100% sure if he is going to play because Zaccheroni does not have a set roster. Tadanari Lee is also a 3rd generation Korean who was born in Japan. In the past, he briefly joined South Korea's U-19 and U-20 team, but due to Korean politics in football and strong discrimination by Korea players, he did not play any official games and returned to Japan. Currently, he plays for Sanfrecce Hiroshima.

You can watch a documentary on these two players here.


**Update** 11/15/2011 7:45 PM
North Korea won the game 1 - 0, however, it seemed to me Zaccheroni did not put in his usual starters and Japan looked very relaxed while North Korean players were playing their best. Jong Tae-se subbed out during 1st half due to an injury and Tadanari Lee played about last 10 minutes during 2nd half. Few things I noticed during the game:
1) I noticed that there were no advertisement banners around the field. I have never watched any FIFA football game without advertisement banners around the field.
2) North Koreans cheered, till the very end of the game, every time North Korean players got the ball.
3) I guess they did not bring enough soccer balls for the game. I saw the players chase after the ball onto the track when it went out of bounds. Usually, ball boy just throws the ball to the player, but that rarely happened.
4) Japanese fans looked very bored since they were not allowed to cheer during the game.

Happy Veterans Day and 빼빼로 Day

Today is 11/11/11. In Korea, people celebrate Pepero (빼빼로) Day. It is a day where couples give 빼빼로 to each other and where Lotte's sales of 빼빼로 increases. According to Wikipedia, Pepero Day began:

in 1994 by students at a girls' middle school in Busan, where they exchanged Pepero sticks as gifts to wish one another to grow "as tall and slender as a Pepero".

However, in America, today (11/11/11), we celebrate Veterans Day. We remember and thank all the veterans who fought to keep the freedom here in the U.S. Because I consider myself both Korean and American, I will allow myself to celebrate both.

Thank you veterans for your service and for fighting for the freedom. And Happy Pepero 빼빼로 Day everyone! May everyone grow as tall and slender as a Pepero!

Gunnie Weekly (Week of Nov. 7)

Mixed News for the week of November 7, 2011

- Korea is going to toughen punishment on match-fixing in sport. I hope Korea also gets tough on crimes in politics. (source AFP)

- According to British American Security Information Council (BASIC), North Korea might have 6 nukes. This is what happens when countries give *foreign aid to countries like North Korea.

Analyst estimates of an arsenal of around six weapons, as noted in Table 2 in Chapter 2, are based on the amount of separated plutonium that North Korea may have been able to produce. These estimates suggest overall production of around 50kg of separated plutonium, enough for at least six nuclear weapons but possibly more. However, these estimates also need to be treated with great caution. The amount of fissile material used in each nuclear weapon depends on the sophistication of the design and there is no reliable open source information on North Korean nuclear weapons design. There are also uncertainties over how much plutonium North Korea has been able to produce and concerns over a previously undisclosed uranium enrichment programme shown to US academic visitors to North Korea in November 2010.

         *Foreign Aid [fawr-in, eyd]: To take money from poor people in wealthy countries and give it to rich people in poor countries.
              Ex. United States government taxed its people and gave it to North Korea as foreign aid.




- Speaking of North Korea, guess who is going to North Korea. The Samurai Blues (Japanese National Football [Soccer for Americans] Team) and its fans. (Samurai Blues)

- Interesting news. It almost made me happy until I found out it was a rumor. (that guy just won't die... ugh..) Kim Jong-il Death Rumors Rattle Markets. I thought it was interesting how the rumor actually rattled the Korean markets and the shares plunged a bit, and defense-related companies' shares rose.

Rumors of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's death spread through the South Korean stock market on Tuesday, driving share prices down and causing the won to plunge against the U.S. dollar. The KOSPI hovered around the 1,915 point level, similar to Monday's close, but fell steeply at around 2:20 p.m. when the rumors hit the market. It closed down 0.8 percent (15.96 points) at 1,903.14. 

The won, which had been slowly strengthening, reversed direction and closed at W1,121 per dollar, down W4.1 from the previous day's close. 

As the rumor spread, shares of defense-related companies surged. S&T Dynamics, which makes weapons and aviation systems, closed up 6 percent at W15,900, while Speco, which makes fin stabilizers for naval destroyers, ended up 4.2 percent. Embedded systems developer MDS Tech gained 3.7 percent, and Huneed Technologies, which makes communication and security systems, 3.5 percent.

- If you want to see how North Korea looks during fall, here you go. (North Korea in Autumn) Don't be fooled by the pictures thought because in reality, North Korea looks like this and this. (NSFW)

- Back to South Korea. As always, Korean politicians are fighting again (physically). Not a surprise. This time, they are fighting over the passage of Korean FTA that passed the U.S. Congress couple of weeks ago. Here and here. I find it ironic because former president Roh Moo-hyun (Democratic Party) initially negotiated Korea-U.S. FTA with U.S. Now, Democratic party, who is the minority, are opposing the passage for the sake of their political standing. No worries though (not that anybody really worried about it). KORUS FTA will pass in Korea. Too much is at stake for Korea to not pass the bill.

**addendum: GNP brings FTA to committee vote

Just in case people are curious about how they fight, you can watch this clip.

- I will finish with this. Good luck to all the Korean high school seniors on their college entrance exam, specifically called "College Scholastic Ability Test" or 수능. This the day when every parent of high school seniors turn super religious and start praying to everything so that their children will do well.

Jokes aside, College Scholastic Ability Test is Korean or 수능 is the Korean version of SAT, except it's only held once a year and it determines their place in college. Scoring high on the test will put you at one of top three university in Korea, S.K.Y. (Seoul, Koryo, Yonsei). Also, the whole country goes silent during time of the test.

Aviation authorities said 88 flights would be rescheduled to avoid noisy landings and take-offs during language listening tests in the morning and afternoon.

Drivers of vehicles and trains were asked to avoid honking horns near test centres.

The stock market's opening and closing was delayed by an hour. Many government offices and private companies also opened late to ease rush-hour traffic so that students could arrive at test centres on time.

A police patrol car, siren blaring, was seen escorting one latecomer outside Seoul's Whimoon high school. (source)

Good luck to all of them!!!