Aug 22, 2013 | Writing
SEOUL, South Korea — If you’re a film buff, you may have heard of a Korean-made summer blockbuster that, strangely, hasn’t reached American shores quite yet. Starring a line-up of famous Western actors, some critics say Snowpiercer — Korea’s most expensive film ever —...
Aug 21, 2013 | Writing
SEOUL, South Korea — Ask an informed American about North Korea, and you may hear that it’s a land of suffering where hard laborers toil in prison camps and children survive on tree bark. Its crackpot dictator, Kim Jong Un, runs an army of goose-stepping minions,...
Aug 16, 2013 | Writing
SEOUL, South Korea — As if tensions in Asia weren’t bad enough, right wingers in Japan and South Korea are now trading insults over which country is worse. But if there’s an upside, the ruckus has kindled discussion of the more dreadful offenses committed by the...
Aug 8, 2013 | Writing
SEOUL, South Korea — Nearly 25,000 North Koreans have fled their homeland to South Korea, escaping the repression and poverty of the world’s most militarized nation. Many make a perilous trek through China, and sometimes to Mongolia and Southeast Asia, where they seek...
Aug 7, 2013 | Writing
SEOUL, South Korea — Although the Korea-US Free Trade Agreement (KORUS FTA) has been in effect for little more than a year, it is already drawing vehement condemnation from both sides of the Pacific. It wasn’t supposed to be this way. The Obama administration...
Aug 1, 2013 | Writing
Update: In early December, 2013 South Korean intelligence reported that General Jang Sung-taek was removed from power. If true, this would be the Kim Jong Un’s boldest leadership shakeup yet. SEOUL, South Korea — There’s more to North Korea than its pudgy and...
