121–130 of 130 posts
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My cousin is a historian of Korea, and well, Korean herself. She says this president is like Korea's GWB. Shamelessly very right wing, a lot of gaffes related to speech and behavior. There are going to be a lot of happy people tonight.
sorry, but what's GWB stands for?
This is indeed huge. I left Korea right after Park Jung-hee was assassinated by one of his officers. Predictably, this was followed by a military coup and martial law. Park Jung-hee himself seized the reign by means of his own military coup against the previous president. His daughter, Park guen-hye, is now outed by the Supreme court, peacefully. In the old south Korea I remember, the same court had ruled in favor of…
You should definitely go back. I've been visiting Korea for 16 years, it's an amazing, dynamic country that seems to literally transform itself every few years. Even with only a couple years in between trips, I can hardly recognize it. It's not perfect, but no place is, but I have a strong sense that it's changing for the better.
As a Korean, I feel bittersweet for my mother country. It's embarrassing that this is happening, yet I feel relieved now that people of Korea can move forward - here's hoping for electing a more qualified president next.
The South Korean presidential scandal is one of the odder bits of contemporary political history. Imagine an alternate-history US President Hillary Clinton being impeached over PizzaGate and it starts to get close. Besides the actual corruption mentioned in the article, there are credible reports swirling of a "8 Goddesses" cabal and various occult practices. http://askakorean.blogspot.com/2016/10/the-irrational-down…
The 4chan summary is the best I've read: http://i.imgur.com/86Z3ea6l.jpg
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Impeachment is the bringing of charges.
As a legal processes, the definition and order or procedures vary wildly between different countries. Some countries for example charge you with a crime, but don't actually arrest you until they're bringing it to trial. Some countries don't have a prosecution, or a defence but a system where multiple government officials advocate for the truth. You can set up a legal system anyway you want, and define the terms howev…
It is also possible that Korea may have explicitly defined this particular English word differently than the rest of the world. If that's the case, it seems worth calling out explicitly.
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The 4chan summary is the best I've read: http://i.imgur.com/86Z3ea6l.jpg
How much of that... is accurate?
Yeah, but others are more or less factual. And that doesn't even begin to address the more odd bits, like Choi's friend Ko Young-Tae, who is a former Asian Game medalist who became a gigolo, made friends with Choi, and then reportedly had a fallout with Choi over a puppy owned by Choi's daughter...
This is somehow connected to geopolitics in the area and the THAAD project, since the US government is worried the next administration may not be so in favour of it (left leaning parties tend towards disarmament, as crazy as that sound with an insane neighbour north of the border)
That's what conservatives say, but doesn't match reality. Under the liberal president Roh Moo-Hyun, military budget increased by 8.8% per year on average. Under his conservative successor Lee Myung-Bak, 5.2% [1].
Roh also made an agreement with the US to finally take back wartime military command. It's an inconvenient secret that if war breaks out in Korea, South Korea's military command automatically transfers to the US. We don't have authority to command our own military. What kind of independent country does that? And then all the conservatives, including active and retired generals, blamed Roh for weakening our military. (According to them, having the authority to command our own military makes us less dependent on the US. But we can always trust the US: only a North Korean sympathizer would doubt that the US will be there to protect us. Therefore it's a communist plot. Or something like that.)
Incidentally, these generals' argument prompted Roh to utter the now famous phrase, "부끄러운 줄 알아야지!" (Know your shame!)
His successor Lee asked US to please take back the command. Wartime military command is still in the hands of the US.
[1] http://ppss.kr/archives/9256 (in Korean, sorry)
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You should definitely go back. I've been visiting Korea for 16 years, it's an amazing, dynamic country that seems to literally transform itself every few years. Even with only a couple years in between trips, I can hardly recognize it. It's not perfect, but no place is, but I have a strong sense that it's changing for the better.
Really? All my girl friends who've been to Korea (even the Korean ones) can't stand it at all. I wonder if it's different for white American men vs minority (incl. Korean) American women.
There's some social pressures and responsibilities for people who live there that can make it difficult if you can't get into the groove of the place, lots of Koreans will complain about them in various ways -- but they are what they are.
Admittedly, white foreigners (men and women) get treated fairly well. I've only ever had a couple of incidents where I didn't feel welcome as a foreigner. Non-white foreigners have various observations on their own treatment.
Here's some examples:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRdhJEl5FTc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-KTPpgjdl4s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fGxrW_PB8gI
Same question to white people