Free Republic

A Palestinian girl has won the top prize at an essay contest held by Korea University. In an essay describing her reflections on how she became a fan of Korean pop music and dramas, Samir Maisa (19), a student at Al Quds University in Palestine, wrote, "I heard a saying that there are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle. I decided to choose the latter." She said that Korean dramas appeared in her life one day like a "miracle" to give her...

The South Korean military cuts off power to surveillance radars targeting North Korea and other electronic equipment more than 1,000 times a year for fear of damage from inclement weather. Electronic military equipment has been switched off due to bad weather some 5,645 times over the past five years, according to data the Defense Ministry submitted to lawmaker Han Ki-ho of the National Assembly Defense Committee on Thursday. Equipment was switched off in 852 cases in 2009, 1,231 in 2010, 1,382 in 2011, 1,332 in 2012, and 848 between January and August this year. In 5,250 cases the reason given...

Unification Minister Ryoo Kihl-jae has hinted at the possibility of adapting a cold-war West Germany's policy by buying the freedom of political prisoners and abduction victims in North Korea. West Germany paid hard currency to East Germany to win the release of political prisoners there under a scheme known as "Freikauf." Ryoo told the National Assembly’s Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee on Tuesday previous administrations here "discussed a Freikauf policy of the kind implemented in pre-unification Germany, and we'll also review the possibility of introducing it." Ryoo was replying to Democratic Party lawmaker Shim Jae-kwon, who asked, "Do you have...

Speculation is mounting whether the government has agreed a deal with Washington to take part in the U.S.-led missile defense program in exchange for another delay in the handover of full control of South Korean troops. Defense Minister Kim Kwan-jin fanned speculation Monday by telling a National Assembly audit that the military is hoping to buy SM-3 interceptor missiles that could destroy North Korean ballistic missiles. The SM-3 missiles constitute the core of the U.S.-led missile defense shield. All the signs are that the government is growing less reluctant to join the missile defense program, which China is extremely wary...

AFP - South Korea's unemployment rate fell in September to a seasonally adjusted 2.7 percent, led by new jobs in service industries, state data showed Wednesday. The latest jobless rate compared with 3.0 percent reported in August and 2.9 percent in September of last year, Statistics Korea said. The health and social welfare service sector added 172,000 jobs, up 12 percent from a year earlier, while the restaurant industry employed an extra 83,000 people, up 4.3 percent, over the same period. The total number of employed people also rose by 463,000 to reach 25.46 million in September -- the biggest...

A Panamanian-registered cargo ship carrying 19 people sank in South Korea's southeast Pohang harbor amid a storm at around 21:30 local time on Tuesday, leaving 10 people dead and one missing, according to the Chinese Consulate General in Busan. An official from the Chinese Consulate General confirmed that among 19 people aboard the ship, 18 were Chinese citizens and the remaining one was Vietnamese. Eight people have been rescued and 10 bodies recovered by far, while one person is still missing, according to the South Korea's coast guard who conducts the rescue operation. They said the ship CHENGLU15 set off...

Officials, clad in tidy uniform and beret, have name tags reading “English, “Chinese V” and “Japanese” in the chest section of their jacket. This is the image of tourism police who will appear at major tourist attractions in Seoul starting from Wednesday. Tourism police is a police organization that will be exclusively in charge of handling illegal activities targeting foreign tourists, including overcharging of service fees. The Culture, Sports and Tourism Ministry and the National Police Agency said on Monday that 101 tourism police officers will start activities at major tourism hotspots across Seoul from Wednesday. The tourism police will...

Net outflow in direct investment reached 120 U.S. billion dollars in the past eight years as Korean companies` overseas investment expanded while foreign investors` domestic investment plunged. Various investment indicators compiled by the government also show the Korean economy facing the worst investment position since its bailout from the International Monetary Fund. Sluggish corporate investment incurs massive economic losses as it adversely impacts production, employment and consumption and eats into growth potential in the longer term. The past eight years of net direct investment outflow led to loss of 1.67 million jobs. According to the Bank of Korea and Statistics...

SEOUL, Oct. 14 (Xinhua) -- Hatred against Japan's military ambitions and no repentance over its past atrocities deepened among South Koreans after Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, the conservative nationalist, received a green light from the United States for the right to collective self-defense and denied its colonial wrongdoings. According to a survey on 1,000 South Koreans aged over 19, more than 85 percent of respondents said that they oppose Japan's right of engaging in collective self-defense. Over 70 percent even said that Japan is not South Korea's ally. The poll was unveiled Monday by Rep. Kim Jae-yun of the...

Niccolo Machiavelli had been a revolutionist. He challenged traditional thought and order. He emancipated politics and ruling power from religion and moral philosophy. He delved into the mechanism behind power and human nature. What he discovered and bared was hypocrisy and deceitfulness in power and darkness and two-facedness in human nature. His empirical findings were turned into a literary masterpiece, “The Prince,” written in 1513. The Roman Catholic Church banned the book and labeled him a teacher of evil. Machiavelli willingly chose to play the bad guy with the book, making “Machiavellian” synonymous with deceit, tyranny and manipulation for personal...

In a harbor fish market in Jung District, Incheon, lights along the fish stalls were shining to attract customers Friday evening. In contrast to the mood created by the bright lights, there were hardly more than a dozen customers. “Just a few months ago, we had to keep the stall open well past midnight to accommodate,” says Jung Gyung-suk, a 57-year-old fishmonger who has run a stall for almost three decades. “All day long, I have had only three groups of customers, about 10 people,” said the somber-looking restaurant owner as she shuttered her stall at about 10 p.m. Jung...

Justin Bieber lost his cool this weekend in South Korea, allegedly starting a fight while out at a local nightclub. After a performance on his Believe Tour, the Biebs went out to celebrate his show. The singer spent a few hours partying to house music and then headed to the DJ booth where DJ Michael Woods was playing. According to reports, Bieber asked Woods to throw on some Hip-Hop in which he told Bieber to “f*ck off and put some clothes on.” Sources say the two got in an altercation, where Bieber allegedly threw a punch at Wood’s manager. While...

(Reuters) - South Korea should reduce its reliance on nuclear power in view of public discontent with corruption in the industry and Japan's difficulty tackling the aftermath of the Fukushima disaster, a group weighing up the problem said on Sunday. The Energy Ministry published the findings of a study group of 60 representatives from industry, academic institutions and civic bodies that recommended reducing to between 22 percent and 29 percent the portion of electricity that can be generated by nuclear power. That compares to 41 percent proposed in a government plan for 2030. Asia's fourth-largest economy currently generates one third...

Seoul. The world’s leading energy officials will meet this week in South Korea to discuss the sector’s major challenges, ranging from climate change to the rise of fracking and nuclear power’s uncertain future. The 22nd World Energy Congress begins Monday in the southeastern city of Daegu, which has set its sights on becoming a model for the use of renewable energy, particularly solar. With over 5,000 participants from 93 countries, the conference, which takes place every three years, is considered the most important meeting of the sector and has been dubbed the “Energy Olympics”. Some 50 ministers and other senior...

Full operational control of South Korean troops should not be handed over to Seoul in haste and out of political considerations, a U.S. academic says. Michael O'Hanlon, a fellow at the conservative Brookings Institution, made the recommendation in an article titled "Don't Rush the U.S.-Korea Command Change" on Tuesday. "In Korea, our preeminent concerns need to be unity of command and effectiveness of our combined deterrent against a still very potent North Korean threat," he said. "Ensuring fair burden-sharing is not the principal prism through which this issue should be viewed." The original decision was a political one, because then-President...

South Korean President Park Geun-hye arrived in Indonesia's capital on Thursday for a three-day state visit aimed mainly at boosting economic cooperation with the world's fourth-populous nation rich in energy and resources. Jakarta is the last stop of Park's weeklong trip to Southeast Asia that earlier took her to Indonesia's resort island of Bali for a meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum and then to Brunei for a series of regional summits led by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). The latest overseas trip is part of Park's "sales diplomacy" campaign aimed at bolstering South Korea's economic and...

(Reuters) - South Korea has indicted 100 people, including a top former state utility official, of corruption in a scandal over fake safety certifications for parts in its nuclear reactors, authorities said on Thursday. Asia's fourth largest economy has faced a series of shutdowns of nuclear reactors due to fake documents going back to late 2012. Of its 23 reactors, six remain offline, including three halted in May to replace cables supplied with bogus certificates. "We hope the so-called nuclear mafia style behavior would be rooted out if strict investigations and law enforcement and system reforms continue," Kim Dong-yeon, a...

Hundreds of documents meant to ensure the safety of South Korea's nuclear reactors have been forged, a top official said Thursday. Kim Dong-yeon, a minister at the Prime Minister's Office, said government officials combed through about 22,000 test results for parts used in 20 reactors that are currently online. Among the test results, 277 documents or 1.2 percent were fabricated, said Kim. A separate probe of 218,000 out of 275,000 test results for eight other reactors also showed that 2,010 documents or 0.9 percent were forged, said Kim. The eight reactors include five reactors that are being built and three...

A new free trade zone opened in Shanghai on Tuesday offering even more perks and less red tape than existing special economic zones in China. Foreign investors can set up wholly-owned financial institutions, hospitals and theme parks, and drastic measures will be taken to open the financial, shipping, communication, service and education industries in the zone. China intends to turn the Shanghai FTZ into a global hub of finance, service and industry. Starting with the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone in 1979, which was designated to develop Yellow Sea coastal regions, China has taken bold steps to open its markets and...

SEOUL - Samsung’s first smartphone with a curved display screen enter the South Korean market on Thursday, as the electronics giant seeks to maintain its lead in the increasingly saturated market. Galaxy Round — a 5.7-inch handset with a display that is slightly rounded on both sides — will hit stores in South Korea by Thursday afternoon, said SK Telecom, the country’s top wireless operator that carries the device. Curved screens — said to be lighter and thinner than current display panels — are at a nascent stage in display technology, which is shifting towards flexible panels that are bendable...