The Korea Times

What a man must do to change

By Kim Ji-soo It’s easy for women to affect change. Untie their hair, take off the glasses and put on fresh makeup and clothes, and voila ... a whole new person. I am not sure how the opposite sex goes about to bring about change. President Lee Myung-bak hasn’t changed his glasses or attire, but there is a certain shift in his words these days. Into the second half of his single five-year tenure, the President who has largely been identified as pro-conglomerate and pro-market is stressing a “win-win” situation between large businesses and better policies for the less privileged. The hottest phrase these days is his slogan of a “fair society.” The words first appeared when Lee made his Aug. 15 Liberation Day speech. Sounding a bit like Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech, he allotted a big part of his speech to the theme of a fair society. The following is a portion on the fair society. “Now is high time for us to pay attention to the values of a fair society. In a fair society, equal opportunities are given to everyone, without exception, both from the

Sep 8, 2010By Kim Ji-soo

South Korea

Government expected to face some transitional void

By Kim Ji-soo With the voluntary withdrawal of three political nominees including Prime Minister-designate Kim Tae-ho, there is expected to be a governmental void. The void will be notable particularly in the Prime Minister’s Office. Former Prime Minister Chung Un-chan had already left office to make way for Kim. Yoon Jeung-hyun, minister of strategy and finance, has been serving as actingprime minister. Following the withdrawals of Culture Minister-nominee Shin Jae-min and Knowledge Economy Minister nominee Lee Jae-hoon, the outgoing culture and knowledge ministers are expected to stay on for a while. Political watchers believe the President will name successor in mid-September. The National Assembly opens for its regular session in September, and a parliamentary audit of government ministries are slated for soon after the opposition Democratic Party’s convention on Oct. 3. With his decision, Kim became the third Prime-Minister-nominee to fold his candidacy because of the parliamentary confirmation hearings since 2000. Prime Minister-nominees who withdrew their nomin

Aug 29, 2010By Kim Ji-soo

South Korea

Seoul demands swift return of Daeseungho for second time

By Kim Ji-soo The government sent a second message to North Korea through the Red Cross on Friday, demanding the early repatriation of the abducted South Korean fishing boat and the sailors who were onboard. The message comes as Pyongyang on Thursday affirmed for the first time in nearly two weeks that it had seized Daeseungho in waters off the East Sea. Lee Jong-joo, spokeswoman for the South’s Unification Ministry said the message was sent to its Red Cross counterpart in the North, urging once again “that (the North) promptly send back our boat and its crew in accordance with international law and in a humanitarian spirit.” The 41-ton squid fishing boat, Daeseungho was seized on Aug. 8 while apparently operating in a joint fishing area in the waters off the east coast. The boat had seven crew members; four South Korean and three Chinese nationals. The North said that the fishing boat violated their exclusive economic zone. The seizure was made against the backdrop of heightened tensions between the two Koreas since the March 26 sinking of the South Korean frigate

Aug 20, 2010By Kim Ji-soo

Opinion

It’s all about timing

By Kim Ji-soo Those who know life say that, a lot of the times, it is all about timing. President Lee Myung-bak must have had this in mind when he spoke officially about a need to look into adopting a unification tax. Against the background of one of the tersest tensions between the two Koreas in the past decade or so due to the March 26 sinking of the South Korean frigate Cheonan, the President put forth the possible adoption of a unification tax to the public. Dressed in traditional Korean attire with the completely renovated Gwanghwamun in the background, the President presented a three-stage unification process―peace and denuclearization, economic integration and an eventual “community of the Korean nation.” It was a bold, sudden and new proposal coming as the country marked the 65th anniversary of its liberation from Japanese colonial rule (1910-1945). The unification tax seemed bold because the President had been considered more hard line toward North Korea than his predecessors ― the late former Presidents Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun, the architect and suc

Aug 18, 2010By Kim Ji-soo

People & Events

Former chief of the Capital Defense Command dies

By Kim Ji-soo Staff reporter Yoon Pil-yong, former chief of the Capital Defense Command, passed away Saturday. He was 83. Yoon served as head of the ROK Army’s intelligence unit in the 1960s and then went on to become the head of the Capital Defense Command in 1970, a pivotal post in the Korean military at that time. But in 1973, he was forced to retire from the military after he told the then-director Lee Hoo-rak of the Korean Central Intelligence Agency (KCIA) that Lee was going to succeed the then-President Park Chung-hee. Afterwards, Yoon continued to work in the public arena, heading the Korea Expressway Corp., Korea Tomorrow and Global, a large Korean cigar maker. He is survived by his wife and three children. His funeral is scheduled for Tuesday.

Jul 25, 2010By Kim Ji-soo

Foreign Affairs

NK torpedo used on Cheonan

The torpedo used in the South Korea’s warship attacks was produced at a North Korean factory two years ago, a Japanese daily reported July 22. According to Sankei Shimbun, U.S. intelligence officials informed South Korea and Japan that the propulsion motors of the torpedo had been manufactured at ``January 18th Factory” in Gaecheon, South Pyeongan Province, the outcome in an analysis of confidential documents from the country. The U.S. also notified the two nations of the information in mid-June after the Korean investigation team had presented their results on the incident, the paper reported. The U.S. also informed that North Korea had planned to export propulsion motors, excluding the warhead, of the torpedo to South American countries in 2008. The U.S. intelligence authorities have keen interest in the ``January 18th Factory,” as it is known to produce engine parts and components of ballistic missiles. Though North Korea has denied its connection to the torpedo attack, U.S. officials judge that “there could not be another place where the parts in same shape are manufa

Jul 22, 2010By Kim Ji-soo

Opinion

Symbolism vs. substance

By Kim Ji-soo Staff reporter There is a lot happening in the country this week. Both U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates were in town for the first-ever ``2+2” meeting. The talks place Clinton and Gates at the table with their respective South Korean counterparts, Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan and Defense Minister Kim Tae-young. While Clinton arrived Wednesday morning just hours ahead of the meeting, Gates arrived Monday for a four-day visit. Such a lengthy stay in South Korea by a high-ranking U.S. official is nearly unprecedented. Gates was quoted as saying that it was the longest he has stayed in one country. He extended the initial three days to four. After getting in on Monday, Gates gave moral support to the U.S. troops at Camp Casey, where he announced an even bigger “surprise” gift for the South Korean government - he and Secretary Clinton would visit, along with their counterparts, the Demilitarized Zone and the Joint Security Area. So the four high-ranking officials went to the buffer zone, that long strip of land d

Jul 21, 2010By Kim Ji-soo

Shows & Dramas

Next wave of hallyu to show Korean spirit

By Kim Ji-soo Staff reporter It's hard to see such top Korean stars as Song Hye-gyo or Jeon Ji-hyun or Rain on Korean screens these days. Song is in China, busily learning Cantonese and martial arts for her role in Wong Kar-wai's forthcoming film. Jeon is reportedly working in Shanghai, also with her eyes on a role in a Chinese film. Their overseas activities is spurred largely by the popularity of ``hallyu" or the Korean wave, which began in 2002 in Japan and China. It started as demand for Korean dramas, films and pop music and peaked around 2005 and has spread gradually since then. ``People say that hallyu is gone. What they don't realize is that hallyu has now spread to become part of people's lives and economy," said David S. Shin, director of Korean Institute for Hallyu Research. Hallyu has come to embody everything from pop cultural content, to food, to ``makgeolli." In the case of Central Asia and the Middle East, where Korean pop culture spread after the initial craze in Japan and China, the demand for Korean electronic goods is high, Shin said. ``With makge

Jul 13, 2010By Kim Ji-soo

Books

Dr. Jaerock Lee publishes new book on fruits of spirit

A new book by Dr. Jaerock Lee is out on the shelves. “There Is No Law Against Such Things” delves into the fruit of the spirit and was published on June 20. The book, which is also the 60th authored by Dr.Lee, is a compilation of his messages on the nine fruits of the Holy Spirit. It depicts the spiritual meanings of each fruit of the Holy Spirit ? love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and selfcontrol with detailed illustrations for the better and easier understanding of the readers. The word of the fruit of the spirit is one of the signposts to a proper Christian life along with the word of spiritual love recorded in 1 Corinthians13 and that of the Beatitudes in Matthew 5.

Jul 6, 2010By Kim Ji-soo

Opinion

June party

By Kim Ji-soo Staff reporter The monsoon season arrived just-in-time. The rain falls as if to quell the early summer heat and to tone down our turbo-charged football fever. The wildly popular Taeguk Warriors, the South Korean national football team, returned home Tuesday from the 2010 World Cup Games to a crowd of ecstatic fans-from screaming teenagers to an 81-year-old grandfather dressed in red and with a long white beard and newly-recruited foreign fans. Meeting this wild crowd, the Taeguk Warriors looked a bit dazed, according to the images on television. But they seem to soon relax and open up. The month of June was a great time. I wonder if there is anyone that didn't revel in football joy this month. It was a younger South Korean team under the helm of Korean manager Huh Jung-moo. They got off to a great start with their first game against Greece on June 12. The movement of the players ― from captain Park Ji-sung to striker Park Chu-young and midfielder Lee Chung-young ― evidenced from that first match seemed to signal that more excitement was on its way. South Korea s

Jun 30, 2010By Kim Ji-soo

Kim Ji-soo

Read more

What a man must do to change

Government expected to face some transitional void

Seoul demands swift return of Daeseungho for second time

It’s all about timing

Former chief of the Capital Defense Command dies

NK torpedo used on Cheonan

Symbolism vs. substance

Next wave of hallyu to show Korean spirit

Dr. Jaerock Lee publishes new book on fruits of spirit

June party

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