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East Asia
‘Spicy kimchi kept me warm in winter’
Peace Corps volunteers recount their discovery of Korea in late 1960s The first group of American Peace Corps volunteers to come to Korea in the mid-1960s had their own way of keeping warm during the icy winter weather, despite the poor heating systems. Some wore several layers of clothes, while…
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East Asia
Bid to send anti-NK leaflets blocked
The government blocked activists from sending anti-regime pamphlets into North Korea, Monday, in a bid to avoid a military clash over the activity. Dozens of activists including North Korean defectors had planned to send 200,000 pamphlets across the border in giant balloons from the Imjingak Park near Paju. But soldiers…
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‘Unification costs will depend on NK wages’
South Koreans just can’t decide whether they want their country to unify with the North or not. One moment they get starry eyed imagining a bigger country with more political and economic clout but the next they worry about the enormous price tag attached to the combined country and social…
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NLL as political football
Any further brawl is dirty old electioneering Analysts here have long worried the 18th presidential election would be a proxy war of ghosts: two deceased former leaders. Unfortunately, the premonition seems to be proving right, as ex-Presidents Park Chung-hee and Roh Moo-hyun are coming back in big ways. For nearly…
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East Asia
Diplomatic procession as world heritage
The initiatives to make the Joseon Diplomatic Procession a UNSECO World Cultural Heritage are about to begin in Korea and Japan. Korea has nine world cultural heritage sites and one natural heritage site, and Japan has twelve cultural and four natural heritage sites recognized by the internationally renowned organization as…
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East Asia
Little justice in N. Korea
One of the questions a Korean-speaking visitor to North Korea is likely to encounter in a private conversation with a local is “What happened to the Party and security functionaries of East Germany after reunification?” This question shows one of the most important, and perhaps the defining feature, of the…
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East Asia
Olympian promotes Special Olympics
Olympic figure skating gold medalist Kim Yu-na signs autographs for fans at an event, held in downtown Seoul Sunday, to wish for a successful 2013 PyeongChang Special Olympics with 100 days remaining before the meet opens in eastern Gangwon Province from Jan. 29 through Feb. 5, 2013. <Yonhap>
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East Asia
Remembering 120-year Korea-Austria ties
History is a story of people. The 120-year-long Austria-Korea ties also remember several memorable people. Official diplomatic relations between the Republic of Korea and the Republic of Austria opened in 1963, but, in 1892, the then Austria Hungarian Empire and Joseon Kingdom signed a bilateral treaty on commerce and navigation.…
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East Asia
Britain helps NK defectors learn English
Kim Ji-young, 30, a North Korean defector, recalled that she struggled in class four years ago when she first attended a business management course at Sung Kyun Kwan University in Seoul. The “new settler” said almost half the words that her professor used in class were English and this troubled…
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East Asia
More dynamic ‘Phantom’ comes to Korea in December
The Phantom behind the mask once again returns to Korea in December. In this 25th anniversary international touring production of “The Phantom of the Opera,” Brad Little plays the Phantom, Claire Lyon, Christine, and Anthony Downing, her fiance Raoul. The three actors visited Korea last week to meet their fans…
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