Started out soft:
"Candidate seeks dialogue with North Korea" by Sangwon Yoon | Bloomberg News, November 06, 2012
SEOUL — Park Geun Hye, the presidential nominee of South Korea’s ruling party, said Monday that she wants to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to improve relations if she wins next month’s election.
What do the North Koreans know that we don't?
The 60-year-old Park is seeking to become the first female leader of Asia’s fourth-largest economy in the Dec. 19 vote.
She is outpolling two challengers in her bid to succeed Lee, whose approval ratings have plummeted.
Proving that once again people want peace.
She is seeking to revive a party hurt by scandals by promising to address a widening income gap, create jobs in the technology industries, and expand welfare spending.
On Monday, Park called for installing offices in Seoul and North Korea’s capital of Pyongyang to improve communication and said she would form a crisis management bureau to centralize control over national security, diplomacy, and unification issues.
She said she would help North Korea join global financial and trade organizations, and pledged assistance in promoting foreign investment into the totalitarian state.
North Korea’s Secretariat of the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification blasted the New Frontier Party as ‘‘a source of disasters of the nation and the root cause of all misfortunes,’’ in a Nov. 3 statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency.
Relations will be ‘‘worse than what they were during the Lee regime’’ if Park is elected, according to the statement.
Park served as acting first lady after her mother was killed in the assassination attempt on her father, Park Chung Hee. The elder Park was South Korea’s longest-serving military ruler until he was killed by his deputy and intelligence chief in 1979, ending an 18-year dictatorship....
It was a coup, but why and by who?
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She did!
"South Korea elects its first woman president" by Choe Sang-Hun | New York Times, December 20, 2012
SEOUL — Under the incumbent, Lee Myung-bak, antiestablishment sentiment deepened in the country, especially among younger voters, as job opportunities dwindled, political corruption persisted, and tensions with North Korea intensified. But a majority of voters evidently did not see a solution to those problems in the opposition Democratic United Party, which is mired in infighting....
That seems to be happening everywhere.
That seems to be happening everywhere.
Also see:
"Lee, whose five-year term ends in February and whose popularity has plummeted amid scandals implicating some of his relatives and former aides, has tried to bolster his image in recent months by demonstrating resolve to defend disputed territories. Lee’s visit to Yeonpyeong comes amid concern in South Korea about lapses in the military’s vigilance on the border."
Why stir up tension now?
Park Geun-hye has built a reputation as a principled and steely leader, rallying conservatives to unlikely victories even at times when it was steeped in corruption scandals. She cited the former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and Queen Elizabeth I as her role models....
Park Geun-hye has built a reputation as a principled and steely leader, rallying conservatives to unlikely victories even at times when it was steeped in corruption scandals. She cited the former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and Queen Elizabeth I as her role models....
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She talks a good game:
"S. Korea’s president-elect urges unity, reconciliation" by Choe Sang-hun | New York Times, December 21, 2012
"S. Korea’s president-elect urges unity, reconciliation" by Choe Sang-hun | New York Times, December 21, 2012
SEOUL — South Korea’s president-elect, Park Geun-hye, called for national reconciliation Thursday and met with foreign envoys in Seoul, a day after she was elected the country’s first female leader in a close contest that reflected generational and regional divides and growing unease about North Korea’s military threat.
Park, 60, the daughter of South Korea’s longest-ruling dictator, won 51.6 percent of votes cast Wednesday....
Park also promised ‘‘the sharing of fruits of economic growth,’’ mindful of doubts that her conservative party, the governing Saenuri Party, would address the widening income gap that was one of the biggest issues in the campaign.
No matter where you go the elite are stealing the loot.
No matter where you go the elite are stealing the loot.
On Wednesday, Park became the first presidential candidate to win a majority of the vote since South Korea adopted a democratic constitution in 1987. But the campaign hardly put the country’s divisions to rest. It rekindled a dispute on the legacy of Park’s father, Park Chung-hee, who remains a polarizing figure 33 years after his iron-fisted rule ended in his assassination in 1979.
"Rumor" is the CIA did it to nip his nuclear ambitions.
It also highlighted a generational divide on issues such as North Korea and the powerful, family-controlled business conglomerates known as chaebol. Exit polls show that Park won twice as many votes among people 50 and older than did her main rival, Moon Jae-in, but only half as many among voters in their 20s and 30s.
"Rumor" is the CIA did it to nip his nuclear ambitions.
It also highlighted a generational divide on issues such as North Korea and the powerful, family-controlled business conglomerates known as chaebol. Exit polls show that Park won twice as many votes among people 50 and older than did her main rival, Moon Jae-in, but only half as many among voters in their 20s and 30s.
She defeated Moon in most provinces and big cities. But Seoul and the southwestern provinces of North and South Jeolla, traditionally a progressive stronghold, chose the liberal Moon, who championed bold economic investment in North Korea as a means of inducing denuclearization and more aggressive measures to tame the conglomerates, which have been widely blamed for growing economic inequality. Moon won 48 percent of the vote nationwide.
The wrong candidate won. Are we looking at another rig job?
Park met Thursday with the ambassadors from the United States, China, Japan, and Russia, the four other nations involved with the two Koreas in talks on the North’s nuclear arms programs. The meetings reflected the sensitive timing of her election — she is to be inaugurated in February, not long after President Obama begins his second term in Washington. South Korea fears that Japan will form an increasingly nationalist Cabinet following its parliamentary election last Sunday.
Related: Japan reaches out to S. Korea to mend ties
Going to be on the same side when it comes to the war with China.
Seoul has also grown increasingly concerned about how to position itself between its traditional ally the United States and a rising China.
How do you say caught in the middle in Korean?
The wrong candidate won. Are we looking at another rig job?
Park met Thursday with the ambassadors from the United States, China, Japan, and Russia, the four other nations involved with the two Koreas in talks on the North’s nuclear arms programs. The meetings reflected the sensitive timing of her election — she is to be inaugurated in February, not long after President Obama begins his second term in Washington. South Korea fears that Japan will form an increasingly nationalist Cabinet following its parliamentary election last Sunday.
Related: Japan reaches out to S. Korea to mend ties
Going to be on the same side when it comes to the war with China.
Seoul has also grown increasingly concerned about how to position itself between its traditional ally the United States and a rising China.
How do you say caught in the middle in Korean?
Obama said he would work closely with Park....
You will see how below.
SEOUL — South Korean and US troops began naval drills Monday in a show of force partly directed at North Korea amid signs that Pyongyang will follow through on a threat to conduct its third atomic test.
The more things change, the more they remain.... sigh.
The region has also seen a boost in diplomatic activity since last month, when North Korea announced it would conduct a nuclear test to protest UN Security Council sanctions toughened after a satellite launch in December that the United States and others say was a disguised test of banned missile technology.
That's an act of war!
Pyongyang’s two previous nuclear tests, in 2006 and 2009, occurred after it was slapped with increased sanctions for similar rocket launches. As it issued its most recent punishment, the Security Council ordered North Korea to refrain from a nuclear test or face ‘‘significant action.’’
State media said Sunday that at a high-level Workers’ Party meeting, leader Kim Jong Un issued ‘‘important’’ guidelines meant to bolster the army and protect national sovereignty. North Korea did not elaborate, but Kim’s guidelines probably refer to a nuclear test and suggest Pyongyang appears to have completed procedural steps and is preparing to conduct a nuclear test soon, said South Korean analyst Hong Hyun-ik.
It's there way of saying don't invade as they look around the planet and read the globe-kickers plan for empire.
‘‘We assess that North Korea has almost finished preparations for conducting a nuclear test anytime and all that’s left is North Korea making a political decision’’ to do so, South Korean Defense Ministry spokesman Kim Min-seok told reporters Monday.
They made that decision.
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And it is not only the naval drills that are perceived as a provocation:
"South Korean activists send leaflets to N. Korea" Associated Press, October 23, 2012
SEOUL — South Korean activists floated balloons carrying tens of thousands of anti-Pyongyang leaflets into North Korea on Monday, eluding police who had disrupted an earlier launch attempt.
North Korea’s military warned last week that it would strike if the activists carried through with their plan to fly balloons carrying the propaganda leaflets across the border. South Korea pledged to retaliate if it was attacked.
South Korean police, citing security concerns, had sent hundreds of officers Monday to seal off roads and prevent the activists and others from gathering at an announced launch site near the border. Residents in the area were also asked to evacuate to underground facilities, according to Kim Jin A, a local official.
Later in the day, some of the activists moved to another site near the border that was not guarded by police and carried out the launch of the balloons. South Korea’s Defense Ministry said it was closely monitoring North Korea’s military movements but there were no suspicious activities.
Earlier, the South Korean government had implored activists to stop their campaign, but had cited freedom of speech in not making further attempts to intervene.
Meaning the government approved of this standard intelligence agency tactic.
Activists have in the past sent leaflets across the border, and North Korea has issued similar threats to attack without following through....
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A bit in-their face, doncha think?
Got to someone, though:
"N. Korean soldier kills 2 and defects
Got to someone, though:
"N. Korean soldier kills 2 and defects
SEOUL — A North Korean soldier killed two of his superiors Saturday and defected to South Korea across the countries’ heavily armed border in a rare crossing that prompted South Korean troops to immediately beef up their border patrol, officials said. The soldier shot his platoon and squad leaders before crossing the western side of the Demilitarized Zone, a Defense Ministry official said, citing the soldier’s statement (AP)."
And from the iron lady of the north:
"Newly launched North Korean satellite out of control" by William J. Broad | New York Times, December 18, 2012
"Newly launched North Korean satellite out of control" by William J. Broad | New York Times, December 18, 2012
NEW YORK — As part of the coverage on the somber one-year anniversary of the death of Kim Jong Il, the longtime leader, state television broadcast video footage of his daughter-in-law that appeared to confirm that a new member of Pyongyang’s notoriously reclusive Kim dynasty is on its way.
The images showed Ri Sol Ju, the wife of the late Kim’s son and successor Kim Jong Un, dressed in a dark flowing dress and walking slowly beside her husband inside the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun, the Pyongyang mausoleum where Kim Jong Il and his father, Kim Il Sung, lie in state.
She's a cutie, too!
Although she was wearing a high-waisted, loose-fit traditional ‘‘hanbok’’ dress, and there was no official mention of pregnancy, members of the South Korean media detected what they considered a visibly swollen belly....
That always makes me smile because I love life.
She's a cutie, too!
Although she was wearing a high-waisted, loose-fit traditional ‘‘hanbok’’ dress, and there was no official mention of pregnancy, members of the South Korean media detected what they considered a visibly swollen belly....
That always makes me smile because I love life.
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I was told the birth was imminent but haven't gotten a cigar yet.
