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Category Archives: Bloggers and newspeople

Bloggers, newspeople, the blogosphere

The Euro Journal LKL interview

10-Aug-08

The Euro Journal LKL interview

Jeon Sung-min recently interviewed LKL’s blogger-in-chief for an article in the Euro Journal. The interview was conducted in English, and he translated it into Korean for publication in the newspaper. Here’s a slightly polished-up transcript of the interview, published with Jeon Sung-min’s kind permission. Euro Journal: How and when did you get interested in Korea and Korean culture? Philip: In the late 1980s and early 1990s I was lucky enough to work at one of the leading accounting firms. One of my favourite clients was the first European investment fund permitted to invest directly in the Korean market – the Korea Europe Fund. That got me started. They were always expanding because the Korean market was booming, and whenever they issued new ...
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Farewell, Anna Fifield

09-Aug-08

Farewell, Anna Fifield

As the world’s attention was focused on Beijing yesterday evening, in a small hanok in Bukcheon another celebration was taking place. Anna Fifield, the FT’s Seoul bureau chief, was having a farewell party to mark the end of her four years in the Land of Morning Calm. I’m told that the FT is the only UK newspaper to have a permanent bureau in Seoul, and I believe is one of only two western newspapers to have a presence there – the other one being the International Herald Tribune. Apart from the standard news stories you expect the FT to cover, Fifield has produced a steady stream of out-of-the-way features highlighting particular aspects of Korea in depth. Maybe some of the subjects ...
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Who’s who in the Korean blogosphere

02-May-08

Who’s who in the Korean blogosphere

LKL is now providing articles for The East, the monthly English-language East Asian business & culture newspaper published in London. LKL’s remit for The East is, for the moment, pretty much undefined, which means I can write whatever I like. And Editor Lee can reject it if he doesn’t like it. It’s an interesting discipline to write for a completely different audience, and in a different medium. For a start, I’m finding that sentences have to get shorter. This is an edited version of the first article. I’m expecting lots of corrections from all you experts out there. HT to the Daily Kimchi for the Blog Juice idea. If you want to know what's going on in Korea, where should you ...
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YouTube Korea - Fighting

26-Jan-08
Congrats to the Metropolitician and Bum Lee on their YouTube Korea welcome video: [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1QLnzlbR-E[/youtube] Related posts:Sorea - gugak fusion A lazy post with a link to a performance of...North-South Korea b-boy battle Someone’s been having a bit of fun creating a spoof...That Wonder Girls song - and an antidote This one will be quick. Once again, Matt over at... Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.
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Boycott Korea

23-Dec-07
A round-up of recent less favourable coverage. First, the Metropolitician's account of his 20 November arrest for being harrassed by a local racist is essential reading. He follows it up on 16 December with an equally explosive post with the simple warning message addressed to any foreigner thinking of coming to Korea to live and teach. Don't. Go to Japan or China instead. Other articles: Brian Deutsch in a 17 December article summarises some of the recent anti-foreign teacher coverage, in a post with a title too good not to re-use, while over at A Year in Mokpo another teacher provides a useful summary of racism and xenophobia in Korea. In a country which the local papers think is multiracial. Links (including some not terribly ...
Also filed in English Teaching, Nationalism | | Comments (0) »

Unfortunate headline of the week…

18-Apr-07
...goes to the Chosun for Korean Hurt in Virginia College Massacre (timed at 8:39 KST, 17 April) I guess it's the pitfalls of reporting news as it happens. The next Chosun article on the topic reads: Virginia Tech Shooter Was Korean (timed at 7:48 KST, 18 April). In due course I'll update this post with links to various news sources / commentary. Links: The Oldboy connection discussed at Koreanfilm.org Are violent Korean films to blame? How watching My Sassy Girl could turn you into a killer. Matt's sardonic commentary at Popular Gusts Young Koreans in America: a Generation on Edge. Chosun, 19 April The Politics of Pride and Shame at the Metropolitician. Especially this comment Cho, the responsible at the Big Hominid Related posts:That Wonder Girls song - and an antidote ...
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Defensive Walking on the streets of Seoul

17-Apr-07
One day I'll work out, from the ethical and technological perspectives, how to go about embedding other people's videos into this blog. Until that day, I'll just have to link to the sites where the videos are displayed. So here's a fine video containing instructions for a foreigner on how to walk "defensively" down the streets of Seoul. There's lots of truth in the video, but one huge falsehood: I think it must have been filmed first thing on a Sunday morning, because the pavements are absolutely empty. There's good advice about using street furniture to protect yourself from motorcyclists driving on the pavement, and a helpful tip about using ajummas as human shields on the zebra crossings. But there's no advice on ...
Also filed in Seoul, Strange but true, VoDs | | Comments (0) »

Are Koreans really the Irish of the Orient?

17-Mar-07
A St Patrick's Day special from Tom Coyner. This was written for the Korea Times, but never got published. So go buy his book, because he needs the money. The stereotype that the Koreans are the Irish of the Orient has been around for at least half a century and some may argue much longer than that. When I was researching my recently released book, Mastering Business in Korea: A Practical Guide, I had a chance to investigate this old saw. The first time I heard this statement was in the mid-1970s as a Peace Corps Volunteer. Frankly speaking, I thought it was a bit ridiculous. But, then, when I was a university student in Colorado, I heard from an ex-GI that ...
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More commentary on DPRK nukes

23-Oct-06
The commentary from Kim Myong Chol published in the Asia Times Online on Oct 6 is puzzling. As the Asia Times explains, Kim Myong-chol is author of a number of books and papers in Korean, Japanese and English on North Korea. He is executive director of the Centre for Korean-American Peace. He has a PhD from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea's Academy of Social Sciences and is often called an "unofficial" spokesman of Kim Jong-il and North Korea. The Asia Times did a profile of the author in January last year, here. He sort of sounds like a responsible citizen: "When I go to Pyongyang, I am spokesman for America," the engaging Kim told Asia Times Online with a laugh. "But in ...
Also filed in DPRK | | Comments (1) »

The DPRK’s export economy

16-Oct-06
The (London) Times reminds us that in a country which is alleged to rely on illegitimate foreign exchange earnings, the effectiveness of sanctions against legitimate trade is not going to hurt much. The North Korean military and ruling elite have held off political collapse in the years since the end of the Cold War thanks to a web of criminal businesses backed by the power and military might of a well-armed dictatorship. Illegal export businesses that North Korea is accused of operating include the manufacture and sale of drugs, counterfeit currency, fake brand goods such as cigarettes, the forging of tax revenue stamps and money laundering. On top of this there is the lucrative trade in weapons, principally missile parts, which is ...
Also filed in DPRK, Pictures | | Comments (0) »

Careful not to try earning a little cash on the side

10-Oct-06
The Marmot has picked up a little news item from the Korean press: a couple of foreigners were caught out earning a little but of cash by getting bit-parts in Bong Joon-ho's The Host, and they now face deportation. One of them was only in Korea on a 90 day tourist visa. Good news for the both, however. If they pay a 1 million won fine and leave Korea, they can return anytime they like. If they fail to pay the fine, however, they would be forcefully deported and barred from reentering the Land of the Morning Calm for 3-5 years. Which would suck. Other foreigners doing a bit of moonlighting include the wife of the American ambassador who ...
Also filed in Bong Joon-ho, Film, Foreigners in Korea | | Comments (0) »

DPRK Nuclear test

09-Oct-06
Readers may wonder why on a day when the news breaks that DPRK has tested a nuclear device, I choose to do a post on animation outsourcing. Well, the main thing is that this site is not meant to be a news blog, or a political blog ((That, plus the fact that my posts are often lined up days or even weeks in advance, so if I don't have time to spike a post it just pops up at lunchtime on the appointed day just like I told it to)). When there are hundreds of professional and amateur reporters and commentators out there covering this space, there's no point in a humble bank functionary in London chipping in. I have ...
Also filed in DPRK | | Comments (0) »

Explanation of Operational Control

06-Sep-06
Courtesy of Tom Coyner, here's an explanation of what operational control is all about. The recent Washington Post article is a reasonably good survey of some of the current tensions between Korea and the U.S., specifically over their respective policies toward North Korea and over a number of alliance issues involving the U.S. military presence here. Chief among those at present is the eventual reversion back to Korean authorities of wartime "operational control" (OpCon) over the Korean military. (Peacetime OpCon reverted to Korea in 1994.) Unfortunately, the Post's reporter mistakenly refers to wartime "command," thus confusing the issue. OpCon is not command; the latter connotes authority over assignments, promotions, pay, other personnel matters, budgeting, recruitment, training, organization, acquisitions, and a host ...
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Aidan FC’s whirlwind week of media exposure

01-Sep-06
Here's a link which I've been meaning to post for a while, but other things have always got in the way. It's Aidan Foster-Carter's entertaining account in the Asia Times of his whirlwind week of media exposure as DPRK rent-a-pundit following Kim Jong-Il's fourth of July firework display. Enjoy. And read all of Aidan's Asia Times Pyongyang Watch columns here. They've been on the go since June 2001. Related posts:Andrew Holloway: A Year in Pyongyang (Aidan FC’s website, 1988) Amid the pile of available reading...Traditional Korean dance at Asia House next week Details below: DANCE PERFORMANCE An Enchanting Evening of Korean Traditional...DPRK propaganda films As promised yesterday. Thanks to Tom Coyner for circulating this... Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts ...
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Alternative takes on Independence Day

17-Aug-06
The Chosun provides some interesting alternative takes on Independence Day. It's not just the day that Koizumi visited the Yasukuni shrine again, or when Koreans held anti-American demonstrations. First, the event was marked in Japan, as it has for the past 16 years, by a "Concert for Peace" given by the Tokyo Phil, this year conducted by a Korean conductor. The encore was Arirang; one of the performers was a new age Japanese pianist who has worked with Yonsama and who counts Lee Young-ae among his fans. "You have worked a lot with Korean Wave stars like Bae Yong-joon and Lee Young-ae, what was that like?". Kuramoto said because his music was used in Korean TV dramas, it was only natural for ...
Also filed in Historical, Lee Young-ae | | Comments (0) »

Deja vu

01-May-06
Where do the Korean tax authorities get all their investigators from? They've just been throwing resources at trying to get money out of Lone Star, and now they've descended en masse on Carrefour. Is this a bit of anti-foreign politicking? Or are there genuine concerns that Carrefour have been trying to avoid tax? Heavy-handed investigations aren't going to do much for foreign investor sentiment unless the authorities can show that there's been some genuine wrong-doing. Related posts:Investing in Korea: Carrefour We await a comprehensive analysis of why Carrefour failed to...Walmart follows Carrefour in exit from Korea I know I’m behind the times on this one. I’ve...The Japanese anti-Korean wave Although this is a bit last minute, readers might be... Related posts brought ...
Also filed in Business | | Comments (0) »

Buying Vietnamese brides

01-May-06
The Chosun article I spotted a week ago in this blog entry has created waves in diplomatic circles. As ever, the Marmot has his finger on the pulse. He has some great posts here and here. Follow his links at your leisure. Related posts:Enjoy the festival Don’t be put off by the jaded travel professionals appearing...And welcome to visitors from the Marmot’s Hole Thanks to the Marmot for a quick plug on his...LKL service may be sporadic over next 7 days I’m off on a quick business trip (combined with hopefully... Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.
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Conspiracy theories

30-Apr-06
Tom Coyner has a mischievous speculation in one of his recent email news updates. I sometimes wonder if Pres Roh and PM Koizumi have these gentleman agreements, off the record of course, that allow each of them to act ridiculous so as to pander to local politics while knowing that the other politician is giving them the wink of the eye since its only a matter of time when he gets his turn to do the same for his domestic ratings. It's something like 'You get Yasukuni and I get Dokdo' sort of pre-agreed antics arrangement. I could be hallucinating but over time I'm starting to doubt it. I've got a niggling question of my own. That secret Japanese government report which ...
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Mixed marriages

24-Apr-06
As mentioned a few days ago, the appearance of Dan Hines in Korea recently provoked a certain amount of debate. As it happens, statistics published in the Korea Times say that 14% of Korean marriages in 2005 were international, while attitudes are getting more positive. However, there is a darker side to this -- with marriages of convenience with Chinese immigrants on the increase (cf the weepy film Failan), and rather sordid marriage agencies operating in Vietnam. Related posts:A new Korean export opportunity? With Japan’s supplies of cheap disposable chopsticks coming under threat,...Buying Vietnamese brides The Chosun article I spotted a week ago in this...S. Korea’s birth rate inches up Whether it’s the auspicious influence of the year of the... Related posts ...
Also filed in Statistics | | Comments (1) »

Korean nationalism

16-Apr-06
The web is a great space for debate, and sometimes it grows out of nowhere. There's a lively discussion on Korean Christianity and nationalism going on at Koreanfilm.org right now, prompted by a seemingly innocuous interview with Park Chan-wook in the NY Times. What I like about Darcy's site is although tempers can get heated sometimes the debate usually is very civilised. Meanwhile there's an interesting discussion thread, prompted by the visit to Korea of a mixed race Korean-American sportsman, entitled "Gates of the Minjok" on Korean views on racial purity at the Metropolitician's blog. I haven't had a chance to absorb either of these discussions yet, so I'm posting these links so I don't lose them. I'll be going ...
Also filed in Nationalism | | Comments (0) »