Archive for the ‘ North-South relations ’ Category
We’d love to be able to talk in greater detail about North Korea, but some information is barred from us in the South. We get the following message when we click on links to do with, for example, how North Korean systems operate in Japan. This wikipedia entry is a classic example – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korea_University_%28Japan%29. Some [ READ MORE ]
The Korean War began 60 years ago to the day yesterday and has never formally ended. The legacy of these two divided family members has painful foundations, but living in the South, one couldn’t feel less connected to this tension. This is true from both a foreign and Korean perspective. The North, despite the DMZ being [ READ MORE ]
The De-Milatarized Zone buffering North and South Korea lies just 25km away from one of the most heavily populated cities of the developed world. I’m on a bus headed there. Barb-wire fences run along the highway between Seoul and the DMZ. Rifle-armed soldiers man lookout points every few hundred metres. This stretch of road runs parallel to the massive [ READ MORE ]
It’s the nature of world events that North Korea, and the plight of its people, is a fashionable topic right now. Following the sinking of the Cheonan in late March, and the blame pointed to North Korea, attention was firmly focused on the isolated Democratic People’s Republic. Reporters from across the globe landed on the [ READ MORE ]
The spectacular Korean provincial and city election campaign capped off last Wednesday amid the highest voter turnout in 15 years. The results of the elections represented a blow to the ruling party of Korean President Lee Myung-bak. Fifty-four percent of Koreans voted this time. It represents a minimal increase from the last elections in 2006, where [ READ MORE ]
If you missed it, the Japanese Prime Minister was forced to resign the other day. His resignation came a week after he apologized to his voters for being incapable of fulfilling his campaign promise to move the American military base from the island of Okinawa to a less populated part of Japanese territory. Though Hatoyama Yukio’s [ READ MORE ]
May has been a strange month for www.speakingkorea.com. On the positive front, we are going to break more records, with a huge increase in hits and unique visitors. In January, we posted 15 articles between the two of us. By the time May ends on Monday night, we’ll be closer to 40 for this month [ READ MORE ]
On June 15th, North Korea will play Brazil in their opening 2010 world cup game in South Africa. Given that the game will start in just 20 days, is it too late for the North to be kicked out of the tournament? The obvious answer would be yes, primarily because, at this stage, there would [ READ MORE ]
It has been a troubling 24 hours for South Korea with the country placed firmly at the front of world news. Stock markets in Asia took a heavy beating amid reports that North Korea has put its civilians and troops “on combat alert” following the release of details late last week which blamed the South’s [ READ MORE ]
I want you to know that, though we haven’t updated you, we haven’t forgotten about the sinking of Korean naval vessel, the Cheonan. In case you missed it, the South Korean government has officially accused the North of guilt, saying they discovered irrefutable evidence — remains of a torpedo commonly used by the North — and [ READ MORE ]