Literally and figuratively:
"US military apologizes for handcuffing Korean citizens" July 09, 2012
SEOUL — The top US military commander in South Korea apologized Sunday for an incident last week during which US military police handcuffed three South Korean citizens in a dispute over a parking violation, inciting protests from civic groups.
Although local news reports said that vocal, physical protests by the three South Koreans might have contributed to their handcuffing, the sight of US service members manhandling South Koreans was almost guaranteed to be seen as outrageous in South Korea, where the population harbors mixed feelings about the US military presence....
What do you mean they couldn't possibly like the liberators?
According to South Korean police, US military police officers were patrolling streets outside the US Air Force’s Osan Air Base in Pyeongtaek Thursday evening when they ordered a local shop owner to move his vehicle, which they said was illegally parked. In an ensuing dispute, three South Koreans were handcuffed.
The Pyeongtaek police said they were investigating the circumstances, including whether the Americans had the right to enforce parking regulations outside their base. The national news agency, Yonhap, reported the shop owner disputed the Americans’ account that he was trying to run away.
The three South Koreans were being taken to the US base when the South Korean police intervened and secured their release, Yonhap reported....
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Meanwhile, up North:
"Appearing to glorify a popular US icon is a rather unexpected move for Pyongyang, which regularly unleashes invective at its former wartime enemy."
Someone should handcuff the pot-hollering-kettle press.
"Ouster of general shows North Korean leader consolidating power" by Choe Sang-Hun | New York Times, July 17, 2012
SEOUL — The inner workings of political power in North Korea are shrouded in mystery, with top officials often demoted, made to disappear, reinstated, or killed in suspicious ‘‘traffic accidents’’ in North Korea....
Yeah, good thing that never happens here, Amerikans.
The Kim dynasty has a long history of seemingly wanton political persecution.
In late 2009, when its attempt to crack down on black market activities and arrest inflation by radically devaluing its currency backfired, aggravating a food crisis and triggering highly unusual outbursts of protest in the totalitarian state, the regime executed its top party financial official. The official, Pak Nam Gi, faced trumped-up charges of antirevolutionary activities, according to intelligence officials in Seoul....
What's that?
They tried what we wanted, induced a Holocaust of a famine, and had protests?
And maybe the Koreans and Chinese are on to something with the corruption sentences. Time to line up the bankers and their servants in politics if they don't change their ways.
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"Significant shifts in N. Korea military under new leader" by Choe Sang-Hun | International Herald Tribune, July 20, 2012
SEOUL — Kim’s appointment as marshal came amid reports that he is attempting a bold readjustment of the military’s role. When North Korea faced widespread famine in the 1990s, his father, Kim Jong Il, relied on the People’s Army to control the population and allowed it to profit by exporting weapons, minerals, mushrooms, clams, and other seafood. Persistent reports of corruption among senior military officers and their families engaged in lucrative trade deals floated out of North Korea. In a speech distributed April 27, Kim issued a warning: ‘‘Some people are now attempting to recklessly exploit the country’s valuable underground resources on the excuse of earning foreign currency by exporting them.’’
Which is what the West and its private central banking controllers want.
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