Romney wins in Puerto Rico... Could this be a harbinger of a Romney-Fortuño ticket?

Congratulations to former Massachusetts governor and Obamacare inspiration Mitt Romney for winning the delegates from a territory that doesn't actually have an electoral voice in the November election! (Actually, despite that little bit of snark, I think it's great that the two major parties include Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands, American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, and Guam in the primaries.)

This got me wondering out loud again about the prospect, which I touted last summer (here and here), of Romney (if he wins the nomination) having Puerto Rico's GOP governor Luis Fortuño as a running mate. He's an intelligent leader, he meets all the criteria, and having a Hispanic on the ticket might tip the race in a lot of swing states and maybe even give the Democrats a run for their money in New York, where hundreds of thousands (millions?) of ethnic Puerto Ricans reside.

(I would suggest that Rick Santorum do the same, but he said he's not willing to have any Puerto Ricans on his ticket until they learn English. I kid! I kid! I kid because I love... to kid!)

Tapping Governor Fortuño might be a better move, strategically, than what the Ron Paul camp may have up their sleeves. Having not come in first in any race so far, the libertarian darling is angling to have himself or his son (US senator from Kentucky Rand Paul) in the VP slot of the Romney ticket.

This would bolster the conservative credentials of Mitt Romney in the eyes of Tea Partiers (or rather, counter the liberal credentials they perceive him to have) and prevent a lot of them from sitting out in November 2012 because they are loath to vote for a RINO (Republican in name only).

Ron Paul serves a useful purpose as the conservative conscience of a country that has been spending too much since the Reagan era (minus a few years of Clinton), but he is too naïvely simple and obstinate to handle complex issues, be they domestic or foreign. The idea of him a heartbeat away from the presidency is downright frightening (we probably wouldn't start any wars, but he'd be leaving a geopolitical mess for whomever comes after him). I'm not sure how many of his father's ideas Rand Paul shares, but if he's got more than half of them, no thank you.

I never really got the whole idea of the Ron Paul Revolution signs. I mean, the guy doesn't stand for love; he stands for standing on your own. I guess some might see that as tough love. As in, "You got problems? Tough!" Also, the whole LOVE spelling backward thing to fit in with the revolution wording is kinda creepy and a tad scary. I mean, in addition to advocating revolution (nothing like killing people so we can have the freedom to not buy health insurance! Woo hoo!), I remember learning that love spelled backwards sounds like evil. Really, did these people not run this by anyone other than fellow Paulbaggers? 

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A blast from the past: South Korea a major source of methamphetamine in the law 1980s

... And presumably for part of the 1990s as well. Back in 1990-something, I remember citing this October 1989 article and looking up the source material for a paper or news article I wrote (probably when I was an undergrad in the 1990s but possibly a grad student in the 2000s).

I ran across it again last week while doing a short paper for a public health biology course on concerns over the rise of methamphetamine in East Asia:

South Korea Seen as Major Source of 'Ice' Narcotic:
Rising use of the potent drug is causing alarm in Hawaii, and Japanese gangs are reported active in the trade

SEOUL — Investigators believe South Korea is a major source of the highly pure crystal methamphetamine that is raising alarm in Hawaii as "ice," a potent, smokable form of the drug that authorities say is already catching on in the U.S. mainland and may rival crack cocaine in popularity.

Indeed, crystal methamphetamine is already the drug of choice in East Asia, where marijuana and cocaine are scarce and heroin is all but unheard of on the street. In Japan, the most lucrative market for methamphetamine, police say they annually arrest more than 20,000 people for using and trafficking in the drug, nearly all of which is smuggled in from Taiwan and South Korea.

Methamphetamine abuse is booming in South Korea, too. The Seoul government has vowed to crack down on the epidemic before it gets out of control, but the illicit trade in the drug has evaded Asian authorities for decades.

Crystal methamphetamine has been widely used in the United States for many years in its conventional, powdered form, popularly known as "speed" or "meth" and usually taken by injection, snorted or ingested. Notorious as a favorite drug of motorcycle gangs, experts say its abuse has been rising among the general population in Southern California in recent years, supplied by hundreds of local laboratories.

Ordinary methamphetamine is simple enough to prepare that there is little reason to import it from abroad. Signs are now emerging, however, that a pure grade of methamphetamine cooked in clandestine laboratories in South Korea and other parts of Asia is finding its way at least as far as Hawaii. There, a Filipino youth gang called the "Hawaii Brothers" initially popularized the drug in its "ice," or rock form, and sparked a boom in abuse, according to investigators.

Late last month, South Korean authorities announced the uncovering of a major drug ring that had produced more than a quarter ton of methamphetamine since 1987 and in July allegedly delivered 22 pounds, with a street value estimated as high as $750,000, to a former U.S. serviceman and his wife in Honolulu.

Although Vietnamese couriers were intercepted earlier this year bringing into Hawaii small quantities of methamphetamine believed to have originated in Hong Kong and Taiwan, law enforcement authorities have yet to catch anyone in the act of smuggling the drug from South Korea.

Capt. Henry Lau of the Honolulu Police Department's narcotics division said informants have told investigators that a good deal of the "ice" is coming from South Korea, however. The fact that no major laboratories have been discovered on the islands also points to imports, he said.

"We believe our crystal meth, or the knowledge of how to make it, is coming from Korea," Lau said in a telephone interview.

Yoo Chang Jong, chief of the narcotics division of the Public Prosecutor's Office, which enforces South Korea's drug laws, said a recent surge in overseas tourism by South Koreans is believed to have provided a screen for drug couriers. The Seoul government lifted passport restrictions in January, and foreign travel was up 72% in the first eight months of this year.

Yoo speaks of a "white triangle" for Asian methamphetamine trade: After police cracked down on production in Japan in the 1960s, Japanese criminal gangs relocated their illegal laboratories to South Korea and later to Taiwan, where it is cooked and smuggled back to Japan to feed the habits of tens of thousands, possibly hundreds of thousands, of addicts.

Lately, however, the pattern has been changing, Yoo said. Tighter border controls have resulted in the diversion of much of the South Korean methamphetamine to the domestic market, resulting in a rapidly growing drug abuse problem. Methamphetamine arrests ballooned from 417 cases in 1984 to 3,208 last year, Yoo said.

"The government feels there is a crisis situation in Korea," said Yoo, whose staff will increase from 59 to 256 investigators by December.

The methamphetamine trade also has spread to Southeast Asia, where Japanese gangsters, known as yakuza , whose ranks include many ethnic Koreans, are increasingly active, as well as to the United States, Yoo said.

"Now it includes Hawaii and perhaps California too," Yoo said. "Only quite recently have investigators recognized the change of flow."

A woman identified as Lee Jin Suk, 54, confessed to delivering 10 kilograms (22 pounds) of methamphetamine to a "Mr. and Mrs. Alexander" in Honolulu in July, Yoo said. Lee, said by prosecutors to be the wife of a former National Assembly member, was among 23 people arrested last month in the largest drug operation ever prosecuted in South Korea.

Think how far the meth epidemic has become in the US since then, and how its primary source seems to be local production instead of imports.

Nowadays, interestingly, it is North Korea that is a rising threat for methamphetamine trafficking. There is a connection, no doubt, with Japan being one of the nexuses.

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"L.A.'s first modern Korean restaurant?"

Or is the Los Angeles Times story, despite its inquisitive headline, merely bastardization fusion of Korean food?

I'll have more on this later, but right now I'm at the Kahala Mall Apple Store admiring the new iPads which I'm not going to get. (More on that later as well.)

Sent from my iPad

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Happy St. Patrick's Day, again! [prolly NSFW]

Another March, another St. Patrick's Day. As usual, I shall recycle earlier St. Paddy's posts. The best one, the pale imitation, and the one where I phoned it in.

(The last link includes a picture of Irish-Korean American Moon Bloodgood... Erin Goryeo Bragh!)

In the first link, I listed ways in which Koreans are the Irish of Asia, but after discussions with my friend and dorm neighbor "U" from Milano, I'm more convinced than ever that Koreans are the Italians of Asia. To wit:

1. Italy and Korea are both peninsulas. 
2. Both have a diet rich in seafood and garlic. 
3. Both are industrial heavy-hitters despite having a large portion of people who seem to take all-day siestas. 
4. They each picked the wrong horse during World War II (I kid! I kid!).
5. Parliaments that can't seem to get their shit together. 
6. Dark-haired, light-skinned beauty's is the national aesthetic ideal. 
7. Most of the touristy stuff is really, really old. 
8. Loads of Catholics and a history of martyrs. 
9. Hot-headedness seems to be, if not a virtue, at least an accepted trait.
10. Abysmally low fertility rates. 
11. Have you seen people drive in Italy?
12. Bookends on the Silk Road.
13. Island volcanoes.
14. Thanks to cinema, both are heavily associated with gangsters. 
15. Pretty danged corrupt, considering how economically advanced they are. 
16. Marco Polo came back from East Asia and told the Europeans that a bunch of Korean stuff was actually Chinese (not a similarity, but I did need to get that off my chest). 
17. Despite years of learning English, Italians can't speak English worth a damn either (I kid! I kid!). 
18. In English, Korea ends with an a but Italy does not; in the native tongue, Italy's name ends with an a but Korea's does not.
19. Booth ran from a theatre to a warehouse; Oswald ran from a warehouse to a theatre.

I'll finish this post with a wildly inappropriate holiday-themed picture that is decidedly NSFW, but since it's Saturday, you shouldn't be at work anyway.

Her yellow necklace means she's open to hugging and kissing.
Her green necklace means she's "willing to do '69.'"

Erin go braless...

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This is what's wrong with America

Well, one of several things.

(Alternatively, I was going to title this post, "This is why you're fat you've got diabetes." I thought it might be too soon, but then I realized that if I waited, for others it might be too late.)

Anyway, this is something I spotted in the K-Mart down in Iwilei while looking for a bread knife.

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From the "No, I've actually never seen Jurassic Park, why do you ask?" files

ORIGINAL iPHONE POST:
I'll write more on this (I'm currently in line to get $4.25/gallon gas at Costco in Iwilei), but for now, here's the headline:

Russian and Korean Researchers Will Inject Mammoth DNA Into Elephant Eggs, Resurrecting 10,000-Year-Old Beast

This succinct email was sent from my iPhone.

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9.0 + 1

Today marks the one-year anniversary of the 9.0-magnitude Tōhoku Earthquake, the ensuing tsunami that killed many thousands, and the still ongoing nuclear disaster at Fukushima.

The tragedy has had major repercussions within Japan and elsewhere. The people of Japan — and I know this intimately from having talked with many Japanese since then — are in a funk over the future of their country as they see how many physical structures and political institutions have failed them.

There is a portion of northern Honshū where, within a twelve-mile radius of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, no humans will be allowed to live for perhaps the next half century, if then. Yet the belongings of the former residents are still there, visited occasionally by owners who try to retrieve what they can. The land has become home on the range to feral cows no longer tended by the ranchers who'd been raising them.

Many Japanese live in fear that another massive quake will soon hit Tōkyō and bring even worse disaster — and suspect that the government that apparently hid so much embarrassing bad news about Fukushima is withholding the truth about that, too.

Meanwhile, the loss of Fukushima and Japan's apparent decision to gradually shut down its nuclear facilities elsewhere, means greater pressure on the world's energy supplies, a pinch being felt from Korea to Kentucky. On the US West Coast, some claim to have spotted the first wave of toxic garbage that the tsunami ripped from Japanese coastal towns and tossed into the sea.

Officially, there have been 15,850 deaths but there are still 3287 people missing. Some six thousand more were injured. In a country of 128 million, the 1 in 6000 who likely lost their lives were concentrated in a narrow band of communities that are physically, economically, and psychologically devastated. Whole neighborhoods wiped out, families with maybe a single survivor who is now wracked with guilt and despair, family members and friends still wondering about the fate of those who have not yet been accounted for (and probably never will be). Requiescant in pace.

I can't even begin to imagine what this might feel like. The people of northern Honshū, all the people of Japan, still need our help. My link to helping them through the Korean Red Cross is still at right (the one toward the top with the heart). It is still a time to reach out to a neighbor in need.

Seventy-three-year-old Teruko Sato prays at the site where the body of her son Shoichi was found. He died while helping evacuate elderly residents of his village of Kesencho. [source]

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The US is really trying to get its allies on board with sanctions against Iran aimed at ending its possible nuclear weapons program. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton specifically cited South Korea in her plea to join the US effort:

The Obama administration said Friday it was helping South Korea and other nations look for new energy sources to wean themselves from Iranian oil so they can contribute to a U.S.-led effort to chip away at the $100 billion in oil revenues Tehran earned last year.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said the goals of U.S. sanctions against Iran are simple: to stop the flow of cash to Tehran and demonstrate global unity against the Islamic republic's nuclear program.

American legislation demands countries around the world cut their oil intake from Iran, but Asian countries that purchase the majority of Iranian oil are resisting severe changes that might hurt their economies.

"No country understands the threat of nuclear weapons from a neighbor better than" South Korea, Clinton said after a meeting at the State Department with South Korean Foreign Minister Kim Sung-hwan.

"We recognize the difficult decisions and even the sacrifices that we are asking from other countries in order to increase this pressure on Iran," she told reporters. "Reining in a dangerous government is not easy."

U.S. efforts to get Asian countries, allies and competitors alike, to cut their oil imports from Iran have been difficult. In 2011, Japan, South Korea, India and China accounted for 60 percent of Iran's oil sales.

South Korea and Japan have been seeking waivers for a US law on Iranian sanctions that goes into effect soon. Mrs Clinton also said China needs to stop repatriating North Korean refugees.

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Man from Nowhere going to Hollywood

The Weinstein Brothers have announced that their Dimension Films will do a remake of The Man From Nowhere (Korean title: Ajŏshi, 아저씨), the highest grossing Korean film of 2010. It stars Won Bin, most famous to Western audiences for his role in the Korean War epic Taegŭkki Hwinallimyŏ (Brotherhood):

"We have always been huge action and martial arts fans and are getting back into the genre in a big way with 'The Man From Nowhere,'" Bob Weinstein, The Weinstein Company's co-chairman, said in a statement. "It's a slick, fast-paced action thriller anchored by a strong emotional relationship that audiences are going to love."

Metropolitician is fond of saying "ajoshis ruin everything." All I can say, considering the track record* of Korean films reworked into Hollywood pictures, I hope someone doesn't ruin Ajŏshi.

* See The Lake House, My Sassy Girl, and The Uninvited. Or don't. Only Juno, an unauthorized and unacknowledged remake of Jenny, Juno (or at least an adaptation), was arguably better than the Korean original.

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In Hawaii, yesterday was the day after tomorrow

Remember the opening of The Day After Tomorrow, the documentary feature film highlighting what could happen if the Earth warmed enough to suddenly shut off the Gulf Stream that's part of the Atlantic thermohaline circulation that keeps the northern latitudes from Ice Age temperatures? Los Angeles was plagued by a sudden outburst of tornadoes, something that is unheard of in the Golden State.

Not what you usually imagine
when you think of Hawaii+ice.

Well, we in Hawaii have been having some wicked winter weather. It's been chilly and we've had some nasty thunderstorms, the cool kind that shake the ground for quite a few seconds (setting off car alarms) after lightning has struck very close to where you live. Meanwhile, the lack of sun and the excess of wind have made daytime conditions quite a bit chillier than usual.

Temperature drops into the low sixties are not that uncommon in January or February (or even March), but we've been getting three-inch hailstones and an actual tornado hitting the northeastern side of Oahu (my island). It started as a water spout (a rarity here) and went inland.

It struck Lanikai, a place where I occasionally go kayaking and biking and not far from where Hawaii-born Barack Hussein Obama often vacations. It was nothing like the horrific and deadly rash of unseasonal tornadoes that recently struck the Midwest, but it did do some damage.

If I start to see a nerdy Jake Gyllenhaal chatting up Emma Rossum, I'm gonna be real worried.

Still, as far as Hollywood messing with Hawaii goes, I'd rather go with the Day After Tomorrow scenario than that of 2012.

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[updated] Todd Park is next brick in Korean America's wall of kyopos

The Obama administration has named Todd Park, the guy behind healthcare.gov (a site I use frequently, and so should you) as the new Chief Technology Officer.

From the White House blog (the real one, not the one that was a porn site, until 2004):

I’m very excited that President Obama today is appointing Todd Park as the new U.S. Chief Technology Officer, with the important task of applying the newest technology and latest advances to make the Federal government work better for the American people.

For nearly three years, Todd has served as CTO of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, where he was a hugely energetic force for positive change. He led the successful execution of an array of breakthrough initiatives, including the creation of HealthCare.gov, the first website to provide consumers with a comprehensive inventory of public and private health insurance plans available across the Nation by zip code in a single, easy-to-use tool.

On his first full day in office, President Obama created the position of “Chief Technology Officer” to help modernize a Federal government relying too heavily on 20th century technology, and to better use technological tools to address a wide range of national challenges.

If you're not sure what the nation's science officer does, just think Spock or T'Pol and occasionally Harry Kim, only in the present and for an entire country.

Here's more on Mr Park from Bloomberg:

You don’t normally find serial entrepreneurs working for the U.S. government. But Todd Park, who co-founded three companies by the time he was 36, believes he can help make Americans healthier.

Park, now 39, is the first chief technology officer hired by the Department of Health and Human Services, the U.S. agency that administers Medicare and Medicaid and oversees the Food and Drug Administration and the National Institutes of Health, among other agencies. He is the “entrepreneur-in-residence,” nudging the agency to open its vast stores of data to spur innovative ideas.

Park is teaching the normally plodding government agency how to think and act like a Silicon Valley startup: Get new products to market quickly, study customer reaction, and then make adjustments to find the best solution for that need. It’s right out of the entrepreneur’s handbook, except that Park has 313 million customers—the population of the U.S.

“He is not a Washington guy,” says O’Reilly Media founder Tim O’Rilley, who calls Park one of the most powerful data scientists around. “He’s a technology guy who is trying to figure out how to make the health-care system work.”

And work fast. Ninety days after the passage of the Affordable Care Act, Park and a team launched healthcare.gov, a website that helps consumers find health coverage plans from a database of all public and private plans by Zip Code (other sites are not comprehensive).

“It is possible to be entrepreneurial in the U.S. government,” says Park, who has been at HHS for two and a half years. “It’s possible for government to execute major projects at Silicon Valley speed.”

Nerdocracy will save America.

This succinct email (originally) was sent from my iPhone.

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Roundup of iPad 3 rumors

We don't know if it will be called the iPad3 or the iPad2S or (thanks to a lawsuit from a Chinese manufacturer claiming they'd trademarked the name "iPad") the iSlice1, so for the purpose of succinct discussion, we're going to call it the iPadX.

It is not enough for the iPadX to have a retina screen, since its competitors are already on their tail. No, the iPadX will with shrinking-man-retina displays, where the screen's resolution will be so sharp that you cannot detect individual pixels at a distance about the length of your extended hand even if you were inadvertently shrunken in an industrial shrinking accident where you found yourself sitting on top of an iPadX. (This is important because Apple has bought out some company's shrink ray process and is considering incorporating in future post-Siri hardware, just as soon as they can get enough Chinese workers to volunteer for a certain assignment and teach them all English.) Scientists may not agree on what exactly a "retina display" is at that level, but it's something like 1,028,000x960,000.

Apple was roundly criticized for ripping off its customers by calling the iPhone5 the iPhone4S, even though the iPhone4 was called the iPhone 3Gs and no one bitched about that. Apple wants to avoid this problem altogether, so the new iPadX will be called the iPad7. Or iPadπ.

iPads will come in colors. It helps you reveal who you are.

Apple was also also criticized for coming out with an iPhone 4S that looked exactly like the iPhone 4. If it looks exactly the same, the hipsters groused, how will people know we're cool and hip if we buy one? (Samsung wisely picked up on this and made it a theme of their commercials, even though I had the idea first. Samsung is nothing if not derivative.) Sure, it's a flat tablet and the design of the iPad2 is already a work of art, but if the iPadX looks the same, proverbially heads will explode. Consequently, the iPadX will have fins. Though they initially appear to be just ornamental, Apple insists they have a functional purpose; they don't yet know what it is, but after millions buy them and do God knows what with them, one of them will figure it out.

All this extra stuff will be heavy, so efforts must be made to lighten the load. In the past, Apple has gone with titanium, which they replaced with aluminum. My sources in Shanghai say the iPad3 will be made from helium.

Apple is also working on the next-next generation of iPad. My sources say they are currently working on a two-piece iPad that consists of glasses that contain a tiny screen in the lower half of the lens, plus a Bluetooth trackpad you keep in your pocket. It will be released to consumers as soon as they can figure out how to make users look like they're not masturbating in public.

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Useful ideologues

Christine Ahn, Pyongyang's man at the Huffington Post, has penned another piece on the Korean Peninsula. This one talks about the prospect of a "Korean spring," which is also its title.

Now, one might think that's it's all about the prospect of North Koreans throwing off their yokes and taking down the government (something I surmised is much more possible ever since the botched currency reform of two years ago). But she dismisses that right away, owing to the regime's survivability through transfers of power and difficult global and local conditions.

No, this "Korean spring" is primarily about the south. And she talks up opposition to the base on Cheju-do (which someone else at the HuffPo called "imperialism") as a sign of that impending Korean spring.

Owing to a work assignment, I didn't have time for an eloquent fisking, so I left a note that hinted at a general "Christine Ahn is a Pyongyang plant on the take" kind of comment:

Christine Ahn seems to have missed the southern half's "Korean spring." It was 1987.

Ms Ahn's either incredibly naïve about the Pyongyang regime or she's carrying water for them. I'm not sure which is worse from someone trying influence HuffPost readers' opinionsabout a geopolitically important region they may not be so familiar with.

It'd take hours to school Ms Ahn on why she's wrong, but at least I'll say that what happens in South Korea doesn't so much affect North Korea as much as it provides a pretext: North Korea needs a constant adversary as its raison d'être, and if it didn't have it with the South, the US, or Japan, it would invent it. In fact, it often does.

I'm all for waiting to see where North Korea will go with Kim Jong-un at the helm, but let's not pretend it's already arrived at a happy place, or even that it's well on the way. The same regime that kills its own people in untold numbers so that the elite can maintain power is not likely to change overnight.

In the meantime, South Korea must stay strong. It needs a strong military deterrent, which is the purpose of the Cheju-do base. Yeah, it sucks that we have to keep standing militaries, but the alternative when one can't defend their own borders is far worse. We've seen that in 1950-53, when Ms Ahn's poor, misunderstood North Koreans started a war whose casualties were in the millions.

Yes, you've heard me say this before. But that's because you've heard Christine say that before.

Really, the HuffPo needs some new Korea experts.

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Random mention of Korea in American entertainment media of the day

That could be anything.

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[UPDATED with video] Orange County crime Story of the Day: Saehan Bank incident

In an upscale part of Buena Park (the buena part of Buena Park), near Fullerton which has become a tony Korean-American enclave, a branch of Saehan Bank was held up at gunpoint by a kyopo man, although everyone except one bank employee was allowed to leave.

From the Los Angeles Times:

Police identified the gunman who was critically wounded during a hostage standoff at an Orange County bank as 55-year-old Myung Jae Kim, according to KNBC-TV Channel 4.

Kim appears to have targeted the bank’s manager, Michelle Kwon, taking her as a hostage instead of trying to commit robbery, police said.

Kim reportedly entered Buena Park’s Saehan Bank late Thursday morning, brandishing a weapon pointed to the ground. He ordered all of the employees and six customers out of the bank, but had Kwon stay behind, police said.

A tense standoff began, with police using a robot to deliver a phone so negotiators could talk to Kim.

At about 3 p.m., police shot Kim when he appeared in front of a glass door with a gun pointed at Kwon. He apparently went to the door trying to retrieve an item that he demanded from police, who refused to say what the item was. Kim was critically wounded and taken to the UC Irvine trauma center. Kwon escaped unharmed.

Good to see the robots are good for something other than putting English teachers out of work. Anyway, somewhere else they were saying that this particular gunman knew that particular bank employee and wanted her to compensate for the $240K that was supposedly taken from his safe deposit box at Hanmi Bank in Garden Grove (what we in OC call Koreatown). That is what triggered this violent act.

[UPDATE: The safe deposit box stuff is being reported in Korean-language media, but I haven't seen it in the actual articles in English-language media, only here and there in the comments sections.]

Anyway, things like this (or that nastiness in Atlanta) may be an indictator of what we should expect initially if guns were ever made widely available in Korea.

Note: I was nodding off when I originally wrote all this; I'm pleased that it generally makes sense.

What's that? SWAT's that!

UPDATE 2:
I've added video from Los Angeles ABC affiliation KABC:



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What's in a nameplate?

Over at ROK Drop, GI Korea has presented a photo of the new Chevrolet Tattoo. As I wrote there, that seems an odd name for a car in Korea, given the negative associations with body art (particularly associations with gangsters, as well as the illegality of using them to evade military service).

I had thought about driving home the point with an analogy, that it would be like calling some vehicle the Jeep Tramp Stamp or the Buick Bong. And then I remembered Korea already had a line of vehicles starting with bong.

If the "Tattoo" name idea came from Detroit, all I can say is someone seems to have dropped the ball on that one. Then again, it could be from Korea-based GM Daewoo itself, the folks who brought you the Daewoo Impact in the 1990s. Yeah, the name sounds cool at first, until you realize you're driving a safety-impaired metal box named for what happens when you forcibly smash into another object.

Then again, poor name choices seem the order of the day. Kia is trotting out its new luxury vehicle. Continuing with the K3 (Forte), K5 (Optima), and K7 (Cadenza), we now have... wait for it... the K9.

Yeah, in addition to sounding like it's a police car with an angry Rottweiler inside, how wise is it for a Korean car maker to make the name of its flagship model sound like the same thing mindless bigots and unclever comedians associate with Koreans eating for breakfast, lunch, and dinner? Anyway, the grille is supposed to be more feline (it's a tiger's mouth) than canine.

Anyway, in other car news, Hyundai and Kia have both been riding a wave of good fortune in the American car market, up 18 percent and a whopping 37 percent from the previous February, respectively.

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In Korea, March 1 is Groundhog Day

As in the Bill Murray movie. Or so it would seem.

Every Independence Day (삼일절) in South Korea, the country and its political leaders look back on the colonial past with a sense of victory, owing to the nation's progress since liberation, along with a feeling of unresolved resentment and even bitterness (han, if you will) over the less than full-throated contrition by the brutal colonizing power itself (i.e., Japan).

You can go to Wikipedia and see a "list of Japanese war apology statementss," but that politically motivated entry doesn't include the, "but, but, but..." remarks that so often come with the actual apologies, or the statements of the right-wing parliamentarians falling over themselves to insist that PM Murayama's or PM Hosokawa's truly heartfelt and sincere apologies are just their own, or the later declarations by people in the ruling elite that the Comfort Women sex slaves were mostly prostitutes or that colonization was actually good for Korea. (The aforementioned list also lumps mealymouthed "statements of regret" in with actual apologies.)

No, from that self-serving litany, one wouldn't get the sense that any official Japanese apology, thus far, comes with an asterisk.

Anyway, on his last Independence Day as president of the Republic of Korea, Japan-born President Lee Myungbak decided to take on the issue. In a Marmot's Hole post well worth the read, President Lee is quoted as having said this:

For the two countries [Korea and Japan] to intimately cooperate as true companions, the true courage and wisdom not to avoid the historical truth is necessary above all. In particular, among many current issues, the Comfort Women issue is a humanitarian issue that needs to be concluded quickly. The grandmothers, who carried their pain in their hearts, are well past their late 80s. If they pass away without resolving the burden of their hearts while they were alive, it is not the case that all problems will disappear; rather, Japan will forever lose the opportunity to resolve this issue. This is why I urge the Japanese government to take a more active posture.

There is nothing I can find there with which I disagree. To many in the commentariat, however, their knee-jerk position is to do whatever is the antithesis of what most Koreans believe in, which prompted The Korean to write this:

The commentariat response on this issue, time and time again, never ceases to amaze me. It is as if they have no moral compass. This is one of the most heinous war crimes in World War II, and they think Korea is the bad guy.

Indeed, taking the Korean view and going the opposite way is, at best, an amoral compass. Sure, there are their oft-repeated justifications for taking the contrarian view — "They signed a treaty!", "Korea's post-war prosperity was built with Japanese money!", "This issue is nothing more than a cynical ploy to marshall support by corrupt politicians!", "South Koreans have sex slaves today!" — but the fact is that there are women living today who experienced the hell of brutal, unending, and often deadly sex slavery at the hands of the Japanese Imperial military and government.

I'm sure for those women and those close to them, it's a bit difficult to "get over it and move on." But thinking about this stuff in human terms is just so bothersome. Wouldn't it be easier if they just died and stopped protesting? Then we'd have the convenience of this truly being "all in the past," to which many have already relegated it because, essentially, the plaintiffs are Korean.

I'm not 100.0% in agreement with The Korean, though. As I've noted in past posts (like here and especially here), I do think the South Korean government owes money to those women as well, even if I don't think that lets Japan off the hook. In 1965, Tokyo was trying to do an end-run on its victims by working with a pro-Japan former officer of the Imperial Japanese Army, Park Chunghee, an iron-fisted ruler of South Korea who used the grants and loans (see, it wasn't all a gift, as some have made it out to be) and used them for regional and national development instead of compensation for Japan's direct victims.

The Korean describes Park Chunghee and the 1965 Basic Treaty thus:

You mean, the contract that flatly contravenes jus cogens, negotiated and entered into by an illegitimate dictator who was formerly an officer of the Imperial Japanese Army, who did not even know the existence of the Comfort Women issue, without the consent of the people whose rights he signed away for less than a penny on a dollar?

The Korean, by the way, writes his own post on his own blog regarding the Comfort Women issue, also worth a read.

We'll have to see if President Lee gets anywhere with this. Expect it to be played out again in August, around Liberation Day.

In the meantime, another commenter, Yuna, pointed to what the Comfort Women survivors themselves are looking for, lest one think, as the nattering nabobs of uri nara naysaying say, that no apology will ever be good enough:

1. Acknowlege the war crime
2. Reveal the truth in its entirety about the crimes of military sexual slavery
3. Make an official apology
4. Make legal reparations
5. Punish those responsible for the war crime
6. Accuraely record the crime in history textbooks
7. Erect a memorial for the victims of the military sexual salvery and establish a historical museum

All told, doesn't sound terribly unreasonable (though guidance should be given for what constitutes an "official apology" and by whom under what authority). But if your counterpart's goal is to whitewash history and deal with a painful past by rationalizing it or just ignoring it, it might be a tall order. There are a lot of good people in Japan who recognize this as wrong (or would if they knew better about the issue), but there are those in power who are beholden to a sanitized view of the past where Japan was the victim of World War II, not the instigator.

Some day in the near future, it would be wonderful if we could stop replaying this issue as if March 1 really were Groundhog Day. That would take an effort on both sides, but the ball is clearly in Japan's (imperial) court.

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iOS is trying to sabotage my friendships

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Hines Ward released from Pittsburg Steelers

I brought this up before when it was a mere rumor, but now it looks like it's really happening:

In a move that will play well with the finances but probably not the fans, the Pittsburgh Steelers announced Wednesday that they will release All-Pro receiver Hines Ward.

"We had a conversation today with Hines Ward and informed him that we plan to release him of his contract prior to the start of the 2012 NFL calendar year," Steelers President Art Rooney II told Steelers.com. "Hines has been an integral part of our success since we drafted him in 1998, and we will forever be grateful for what he has helped us achieve.

"He has meant so much to this organization both on and off the field, and we appreciate his efforts over the past 14 years. Hines' accomplishments are numerous, and he will always be thought of as one of the all-time great Steelers. We wish him nothing but the best."

The guy is thirty-six now, which is ancient by NFL standards, so there's a question of whether he'll try to get on another team.

As I suggested before, I wouldn't mind seeing him head back to Korea and try to get "American football" to take off. If anyone is in a position to do so, it's him. Hines Ward is the most famous Korean in the NFL ever, and SoKos were steeped in Hinesanity long before there was any Linsanity. See how I did that?

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Would most Chinese oppose their government on North Korean policies?

If they knew about them, that is (a big if). Judging by this pice in this post in Tea Leaf Nation, perhaps the answer is yes (HT to commenter Jeremy at OFK):

A strong majority of netizens on Sina Weibo, China’s Twitter, alternately begged and demanded that China’s government let the North Korean defectors stay, or at least not repatriate them to a “hell” that means “certain death.” @而而特退热 commented, “I saw a video of North Korea; how scary.” Voicing a common sentiment, @复活的愤怒小马 wrote, “These people will be shot as soon as they are repatriated; how can you take your disdain for human life to this level?”

Such brave viewpoints — the post starts with one netizen calling it "international murder" — are in sharp contrast with China's official view. As Beijing walks the fine line between maintaining a tight grip and not squeezing so hard that they turn the people against them, one wonders how this issue will turn out, or if it will soften Beijing's actions against North Korea defectors in the future.

I'm not holding my breath.

Today, by the way, is March 1, a national holiday called March First Movement Day (depending on how you translate it), though some like me prefer to call it Independence Day. See here for a rundown on what it means. Given the overbearing role China has been taking toward South Korea, and its control of North Korea as a virtual vassal state, today might not be a bad day to go and demonstrate downtown. The weather's nice.

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Stop me if you've heard this one

The Puk-mi talks between Washington and Pyongyang appear to have come to some fruition, with North Korea agreeing to put the brakes on its nuclear development program, for now at least.

I'm highlighting the "curbed nukes story" from the New York Times, since the Los Angeles Times looks like it's about to go into "paid premium" mode:

North Korea agreed to suspend nuclear weapons tests and uranium enrichment and allow international inspectors to monitor activities at its main nuclear complex, the North’s official news agency and the State Department announced on Wednesday. The promises could end years of a standoff that has allowed the North’s nuclear program to continue with no international oversight and are part of a deal that included an American pledge to ship food aid to the isolated, impoverished nation.

Although the Obama administration called the steps “important, if limited,” they signaled a potential breakthrough in the impasse over North Korea’s nuclear weapons program following the death late last year of the country’s leader, Kim Jong-il.

The US's apparent decision to start connecting food aid to progress on the nuke talks (mentioned in the top story here) may have had something to do with forcing North Korea's hand.

On the other hand, maybe this is what it looks like when a new regime is walking a fine line between trying to reach out to past adversaries without looking like a wuss (to external players or internal factions).  

Like anything with North Korean promises, I'll believe it when I see it (Puk-mi indeed!). In the meantime, while I'm happy we may have slowed or stopped production of uranium, I'm less thrilled about the moratorium on nuclear tests, since I'd like to see North Korea deliberately and purposefully test their entire arsenal away.

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China's Leap Day leap of logic

This China Daily op-ed piece, mentioned in the Daily Kor for February 29, has got me furious. I hate being reminded over and over again why Beijing simply can't be trusted when it comes to human rights, giving South Korea a fair shake, or doing the right thing vis-à-vis. I had been hoping they were finally coming around on the dangers of having a rogue state on their doorstep, enough that they were trying to push reform in earnest, but I'm not so sure.

Anyway, here is the op-ed, with my multiple fisking...

Stop undermining Korean peninsula's peace process

As the Korean peninsula is at a crucial stage of regaining peace and stability, it is important for DPRK and the United States to resolve differences through dialogue and to promote the early resumption of the six-party talks.

Okay, I'm with you so far, although I'm afraid the six-party talks have the potential for Pyongyang to milk more money out of Washington, but that's another issue for another time...

Inexplicably, South Korea recently stated that China violated international rules in dealing with DPRK nationals who have illegally entered China. The statement shows disrespect for China's active and constructive role in restoring peace and stability on the Korean peninsula, and is a hurdle to the restart of the six-party talks.

Inexplicably? This is unexplainable only true if you utterly ignore that North Korea will certainly imprison and torture, and probably kill, the defectors you are sending back. Clearly they are refugees, not "illegal aliens," as you say below.

This is not a disrespect of China's role, but a respect for human rights. Frankly, I wouldn't expect Beijing to understand that, since it seems stuck in the pre-democratic phase that its neighbors managed to get out of back in the late 1980s.

As for China's "constructive" role, about the only thing being constructed is Chinese port facilities in North Korea's Najin port. When Beijing backs Pyongyang after it shells South Korean territory and sinks South Korean ships unprovoked, its "role in resting peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula" is anything but "constructive."

The DPRK nationals who illegally entered Chinese territory for economic reasons are illegal aliens, not refugees. China is handling the issue prudently and properly in line with domestic and international laws and humanitarian principles. Its treatment of illegal aliens serves the interests of various parties, and conforms to international practice. Any attempt to internationalize or politicize the illegal immigration issue would be in vain.

Indeed, they entered Chinese territory illegally, but that does not mean they are not refugees. Food is used as a reward and a means of control, and those whose families are lacking it so badly that they need to cross into China are refugees. By failing to recognize that, you are also failing to "handle" this issue "in line with international laws and humanitarian principles." Indeed, when you are sending them back to face torture and probably death, it is anything but humanitarian.

As for the "various parties" it serves to treat "illegal aliens" from the DPRK the way it does, we all know the parties are the regimes of China and North Korea and no one else. It conforms to "international practice" only of states like North Korea, China, Iran, and a few other outposts of tyranny that still exist. China's desire for a secure buffer state along its northeastern border has required a deal with a devil.

Pointing out the imminent danger faced by these dozens of refugees and the thousands like them hiding in North Korea if they are repatriated is simply pointing out the obvious. It is not "politicizing" the issue, and it is being "internationalized" only because China is willing to send these people to their deaths. This issue could easily be resolved if China would simply allow these North Korean refugees to leave China through any other country besides North Korea.

The Korean peninsula is facing many severe challenges, and could not have enjoyed even temporary stability without China's active and constructive role. As a major stakeholder on the peninsula, South Korea knows best how the peninsula rode out the hard times in the past.

Bull-fucking-shit. China's "active role" began with invading Korea in 1950 to prop up Kim Ilsung and it has continued for the past six decades with aiding and abetting a regime that has killed millions of its own people. That is destructive, not constructive.

It's laughable that you would say South Korea knows best how the peninsula rode out the hard times in the past, because China is responsible for those hard times.

During the sixth-party talks a few years ago, a consensus was reached to ensure the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula, normalization of relations among relevant countries, and establishment of a Northeast Asian peace and security mechanism, which is crucial to bringing lasting peace and stability to the region. The 9/19 joint statement issued at that time is not outdated, instead it is still of practical guiding significance. Any violation of the principles established in the joint statement would undermine the peace process, and damage the interests of South Korea and other stakeholders.

How would releasing these refugees "undermine the peace process"? For that matter, how would it "damage the interests" of South Korea or anyone else?

The bumpy course of the sixty-party talks shows that playing petty tricks out of domestic political considerations or seizing the initiative by causing unnecessary troubles will complicate matters, increase uncertainty, and hurt both oneself and others.

Dozens of lives are at stake. To diminish the effort to save them as "causing unnecessary troubles" is to show how utterly crass Beijing is as a government.

As a main participant of the six-party talks, China gives top priority to the overall situation, and is firmly committed to restoring peace and stability on the Korean peninsula despite all hurdles. China does not like to cause troubles, and is not afraid of getting involved in troubles. As a responsible country, China will continue to play an active and constructive role in promoting peace in the region. All parties concerned should give due respect to China's efforts, and stop undermining the peace process on the Korean peninsula.

China gives top priority to the overall situation, meaning "we will throw anyone under the bus if we see it necessary in pursuit of our interests." If ever there were a time to start a boycott of goods from China, particularly those run by the Communist Party or its cadres, this is it.

By sending those dozens of North Korean refugees back to North Korea, my friends in China, you are an accessory to murder.

I'm not entirely sure this picture actually is what it is purported to be,
but we know from first-hand accounts that the reality is as bad or worse.

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Daily Kor for Wednesday, February 29, 2012: You can spell dupe without D, U, P...

I'd like to bring back the Daily Kor, but it's a labor-intensive process, so I'm toying with the idea of doing a daily "lite" version that isn't intended as a comprehensive list of top news but which includes a slight bit more analysis.

1. The Commander of the US Pacific Fleet says food aid to North Korea will be tied to progress on nuclear talks (BBC, Fox News). If so, we should expect North Korea to ratchet up its scary rhetoric against the South. 
• At the same time, Admiral Willard is saying we should expect more of the same from Kim Jong-un as we got from his father (Reuters).
• US Special Representative on North Korea Glyn Davies says we should wait and see on nuclear talks that so far have been substantive and have narrowed differences (UPI).
2. According to a China Daily op-ed (link), Seoul is "undermining" the Korean Peninsula "peace process" by harping on the PRC's repatriation of North Korean refugees back to the DPRK. I have fisked it here. 
3. North Korea is knocking presumptive Saenuri Party (formerly Hannara Party) presidential nominee as having "the mindset of a dictator" (Chosun Ilbo). 
• Genetically, she's only half dictator.
4. South Korean industrial output has shrunk 2 percent from a year ago, the first time in thirty-one months (Yonhap).
5. An American ship is in North Korea's Nampo Harbor, waiting to resume the hunt for the remains of Korean War veterans, a money-making activity for the Pyongyang regime that has been on hold since 2005 (Fox News).
6. US President Barack Hussein Obama says that, thanks to the soon-to-go-in-effect KORUS Free Trade Agreement, there will be a jump in American-made cars on Seoul streets (Yonhap).
7. Japanese police have raided the Tokyo offices of an organization associated with Chongryon, the pro-Pyongyang group representing a significant portion of Japan's zainichi Koreans, claiming they were violating sanctions against North Korea by shipping computers to the DPRK (BBC).
8. Lee Kunhee's seventy-year-old sister is suing over inheritance of shares in the Samsung empire (Reuters).
9. The Democratic United Party says that if it is victorious it will ditch President Lee Myungbak's hardline policy in favor of more handholding with North Korea (Reuters).
• Like the title says up above, you can't spell dupe without D, U, P... 
10. Chronologists claim this month has been the longest February on record since 2008 (UPI).

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Will this get their attention?

A member of the National Assembly who has been staging a hunger strike in front of the Chinese embassy says she will do so until death unless China ends its policy of repatriating North Korean refugees back to the DPRK:

Park Sun-Young, from the conservative opposition Liberty Forward party, said she wants "fundamental change" in China's policy of sending back the North Koreans rather than treating them as refugees.

"Either they change the policy or I die, as I have no intention of stopping (the fast)," Park told AFP in a weak voice.

Activists and Seoul lawmakers say about 30 North Koreans who recently fled to China will soon be sent back. They face harsh punishment or even death in their homeland, according to protesters.

Park appeared fatigued but still took part in a rally -- the latest in a series -- outside the embassy Monday.

The 55-year-old legislator, clad in thick sweaters against the sub-zero night temperatures, is living in a tent outside a church in front of the embassy. ...

A Seoul parliamentary committee last Friday criticised China's policy of repatriating the refugees as economic migrants and urged it to follow international rules.

The resolution followed media reports that nine North Koreans have already been sent back despite pleas from Seoul.

"This isn't a problem just between China and Korea. It is a worldwide issue, a matter of human rights that citizens all over the world must see and mend together," Park said.

Normally, I would think such an act is futile: Hunger strikes might work within a country to get the government to change its action or risk negative local and global press (and whatever consequences that brings), but it's harder to make it work against another country.

However, this being in the global news day after day might eventually cause it to seep through the Great Firewall of China, and more and more Chinese will start wondering what this is all about. One thing I've noticed from my discussions with students from Mainland China here in Hawaii is how utterly ignorant they are of China's policies vis-à-vis North Korean refugees. So in this case, the hunger strike might prove a very useful educational tool.

And now I should call one of my Beijing journalist friends and point her toward this story.

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Meet the new boss, same as the old boss...

We're talking about Kim Jong-un, of course, and how the bluster has continued unabated right through the Dear Leader's wake and the Prodigious Progeny's takeover and makeover. This is, of course, because the real people controlling things are people behind the scenes, not necessarily those sitting on the throne.

Anyway, North Korea has been turning up the heat by promising holy jihad against South Korea and the United States as the two allies prepare for annual military drills. And to that, the Christian Science Monitor asks whether we should be taking this seriously at all.

It's worth a read, but my own take sounds fairly close to the gist: This could all be empty rhetoric designed to whip up fear and pride in the masses and make sure they remember there's a bogeyman out there, just in case they get any big ideas about overthrowing the government to avoid starving to death, and all that, but the actual strikes on South Korean islands (namely Yŏnpyŏng-do) and the sinking of the ROK Navy vessel Ch'ŏnan give us pause that they might actually try a repeat of something like that in order to get us to take them seriously and to get people like me (and Don Kirk, etc.) to stop referring to their bluster as empty rhetoric.

If there really are competing factions within the Pyongyang regime, the chance of this happening is greater, because the last thing that the militarists want (note, I did not say military) is reform, appeasement, and a world where Truth Commissions remain a future possibility.

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