Free Republic

Military investigators in South Korea identified a group of 12 students in a Seoul university, who made a coordinated effort to gain weight to become ineligible for mandatory military service. Those involved could face jail time. South Korea has some of the strictest rules about mandatory service. Every young man has to complete his service, with exemptions given to very few, such as people with debilitating conditions or Olympic medalists. For example, being a K-pop idol would not spare one from undertaking military service, so fans of bands such as BTS compile lengthy charts to track when this or that...

Could an emergent North Korea provide the world with a new, from-scratch benchmark of sustainable, collaborative economic and social development? With geopolitical change and emerging technologies, the idea of a national “commons” now looks increasingly feasible. Relations between North and South Korea are changing so rapidly, the pressing question is no longer what the next step in this process of reconciliation will be, but rather where the peninsula is heading in the political, economic and cultural senses. A door is opening for the institutional transformation of the “Hermit Kingdom” with new concepts and technologies. The implementation of new approaches to...

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un fulfilled an agreement he made with President Trump at the Singapore summit in June to return 55 boxes of remains of Americans killed in the Korean War. It's only a tiny fraction of the nearly 5,300 still missing but for at least one family, it provided closure. A faded photo is one of the few memories Charles McDaniel has of his father. He was just three years old when Master Sgt. Charles McDaniel went off to the Korean War and vanished without a trace. "He disappeared from history. I mean he was just gone....

SEOUL, Oct. 22 (Korea Bizwire) — The Korea Tourism Organization announced yesterday that it had developed three travel packages that allow tourists to visit the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ). The first package, the “Hwacheon DMZ Mt. Seorak Train Tour” had a total of 80 people leaving Busan and Miryang by train to make stops at the Observation Deck in Hwacheon, the Peace Dam, Bimok Park and other attractions. On the last day of the tour, visitors enjoyed the autumn foliage at the Jujeongol at Mangyeongdae Pavilion in Seoraksan National Park. The second program had 40 retired shipbuilding workers from the...

South Korea’s women have begun to rebel against impossible standards of beauty in a country known as the plastic surgery capital of the world. Women who call themselves “beauty resisters” have been destroying their cosmetics, cutting their hair and denouncing the pressures imposed on them by a patriarchal society which emphasises flawless beauty as the key to career and marital success. The trend, which has spread across social media and has been dubbed the “remove corset” movement, is the latest in a series of feminist initiatives in South Korea since the MeToo campaign began. Lina Bae, a beauty YouTuber, racked...

Whatever comes next with North Korea, President Donald Trump can hardly be accused of having neglected diplomacy. At the Singapore Summit with Kim Jong Un this past June, Trump became the first sitting American president to meet with a North Korean tyrant. He has received an envoy from Kim in the Oval Office, dispatched Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on multiple trips to Pyongyang and is talking about holding a second summit with Kim. And, with a trademark rhetorical flourish that no one should take literally, Tump recently described how Kim wrote him "beautiful letters," with the result that "we...

Ongoing talks with North Korea have raised the possibility of a future with far less tension on the Korean Peninsula – even, possibly, a declaration of the end of the Korean War. But that should not change the long-standing military relationship that cements the U.S.-South Korea relationship, a delegation of South Korean officials who visited Washington earlier this month argued. “Even after reunification of the Korean Peninsula takes place I believe there will be a need for the continued presence of U.S. forces in Korea, because we also have to concern ourselves with Russia and China,” said Hoon Sul, a...

The US and South Korea decided Friday to suspend another major joint military exercise to give the diplomatic process with North Korea "every opportunity to continue." "Secretary of Defense James N. Mattis and Minister of National Defense Jeong Kyeong-doo decided to suspend Exercise Vigilant Ace to give the diplomatic process every opportunity to continue," chief Pentagon spokesperson Dana White said in a statement. The decision was made during Mattis' meeting with his counterpart in Singapore. The exercise was due to take place in December. Last year's iteration of the Vigilant Ace involved 12,000 US troops and some 230 military aircraft...

A group of Indonesian journalists, including The Jakarta Post, was invited by the Korea Tourism Organization to join a familiarization trip to South Korea. A number of Asian journalists and bloggers from Malaysia, Singapore, China and Japan also took part in the three-day trip. It was raining on the day we arrived in Seoul, South Korea — a typhoon was approaching and a festival meant to welcome autumn was canceled. In many other cities, such a situation would turn a perfectly planned holiday into an expensive misfortune. But not in Seoul, a city so vibrant that not even bad weather...

"North Korea is a historical relic, destabilizing force, and human rights abomination. The Korean people and the world will be far better off without it." The good news is that this collapse has the potential to be a win-win for nearly everyone. The North Korean people will end their terrible suffering, North and South Korea will be reunified under South Korean law, potentially following a UN-administered transitional period and referendum, the specter of a rogue nuclear nation at the heart of Asia will be removed, and China will gain a valuable trading partner in a unified Korea and access to...

The World Economic Forum’s (WEF) 2018 World Competitiveness Report ranks the United States No. 1 in global competitiveness, up from No. 3 in the past few years and its first top ranking in a decade. A high ranking matters. As the WEF reports: “Global competitiveness is determined by the set of institutions, policies and factors that determine the level of productivity of a country … And productivity leads to growth ... and improved well-being. The U.S.’s top ranking therefore suggests a lot of growth and prosperity to come." According to the Davos elite (who are no fans of Donald Trump),...

Ambassador Nikki Haley used the threat of a U.S. invasion of North Korea to secure a new round of sanctions against the regime last year, according to a new report. Harper’s Magazine reported that Haley raised the possibility of a U.S. invasion by telling a Chinese diplomat, “My boss is kind of unpredictable, and I don’t know what he’ll do." Haley recalled making those comments during remarks at a small gathering of people at the Council for National Policy, and as part of her effort to discourage China from vetoing additional oil sanctions on North Korea last September, following the...

Nearly a decade after pioneering international television streaming in the U.S., DramaFever will be shutting down immediately according to parent company Warner Brothers. “Today, Warner Bros. Digital Networks will be closing its DramaFever OTT service due to business reasons and in light of the rapidly changing marketplace for K-drama content, a staple of the service’s programming,” the company said in an emailed statement after days of silence on DramaFever’s social media platforms. “Warner Bros. Digital Labs, which encompasses more than two-thirds of the DramaFever workforce, will continue operating, serving as the tech engine behind many of WBDN’s operations.”

South Koreans have now found the perfect cheese to go with their wine. With craft beer becoming so popular across South Korea, the U.S. Meat Export Federation found “Beer Week Seoul” a prime opportunity to introduce the perfectly paired snack ... U.S. pork sausages. Funded by the USDA Market Access Program and the National Pork Board, the promotional effort included offering tasting samples of Johnsonville and Oscar Mayer sausages to the more than 25,000 visitors. “Our goal was to establish American pork sausages as an easy-to-cook and easy-to-eat choice that goes great with craft beer,” says Jihae Yang, USMEF director...

SEOUL, Oct. 16 (Xinhua) -- South Korea and the United States on Tuesday started talks on how to share the defense costs of U.S. forces stationed in South Korea, according to Seoul's foreign ministry. The two-day negotiations were launched in central Seoul to reach a new deal on South Korea's financial contribution to the U.S. Forces Korea (USFK). The negotiation period can be extended, if necessary, as the current deal was set to expire by the end of this year, the Seoul ministry said. In consideration of the time needed for the parliamentary approval, the talks are required to be...

As an initial step, the two Koreas are seeking to pull out 11 guard posts within a 1km radius of the Military Demarcation Line by the end of 2018. North Korea, South Korea and the United Nations Command (UNC) held their first three-way talks on Tuesday to discuss demilitarising the border as the two Koreas push for peace, Seoul’s defence ministry said. The two Koreas agreed during September’s summit in Pyongyang to form a tripartite consultation with the UNC, which overlaps with US forces in the South and overseas affairs in the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ), to facilitate their plan to...

It’s one thing to lose an election; it happens to everyone in politics. It’s one thing to lose a sports match; it happens in every sport. But something even rarer is happening in American politics right now, the losers don’t know why they’re losing and many of them don’t even realize they’re losing at all. In this case, the losers are the Democrats. They not only lost the 2016 presidential election, but continue to lose major battles with the Republicans over key issues like tax reform and the Brett Kavanaugh Supreme Court confirmation. Many of them are shocked by these...

when it comes to the real barometer of presidential truthfulness — keeping his promises — Trump is a paragon of honesty. For better or worse, since taking office, Trump has done exactly what he promised he would. Trump kept his promise to move the US Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, something his three immediate predecessors also promised yet failed to do. He promised to “crush and destroy ISIS,” and two years later, he is on the verge of eliminating the Islamic State’s physical caliphate. He promised to impose a travel ban on countries he saw as posing...

SEOUL (Reuters) - North and South Korea agreed on Monday to begin reconnecting rail and road links, another step in an improving relationship that has raised U.S. concern about the possible undermining of its bid to press the North to give up its nuclear program. The agreement on transport links came during talks in the border village of Panmunjom aimed at following up on the third summit this year between South Korea’s President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, last month. “The South and North reached the agreement after sincerely discussing action plans to develop inter-Korean relations...

U.S. President Donald Trump criticized Seoul on Tuesday for failing to finance the U.S. deployment of a missile defense system on the Korean Peninsula. Last year, the U.S. deployed two Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD, launchers to South Korea in response to North Korea's increased missile and nuclear tests. "I said, so let me get this, we have a system that's very expensive and we shoot down rockets that are shot from North Korea to South Korea," Trump said to a crowd in Council Bluffs, Iowa. "Okay, so we're protecting South Korea, right? Why aren't they paying?" Trump...