Even fairy tale characters are no longer safe from accusations from feminists:
Gender Equality and Family Minister Chung Hyun-back recently accused the woodcutter, the character in the folktale “The Woodcutter and the Fairy,” which can be found in the children section at the Cheong Wa Dae website, to press for her case of feminism. Captured from Cheong Wa Dae website
A prominent lawyer says Gender Equality and Family Minister Chung Hyun-back’s depiction of a folktale hero as a kidnapper-rapist is not based on law but on herd mentality.
Hwang Ju-myung, a former judge and chairman of HMP Law, said Chung did not provide evidence to support her accusation and by her logic would have to prepare for a legal challenge from the woodcutter in the “Woodcutter and the Fairy.”
“Besides, it is being silly to accuse the character from the old story of such a heinous crime,” Hwang said when asked his legal view of the minister’s argument. “As far as the law is concerned, it is hard to find any indication in it that he resorted to coercion to have sex with the fairy or to force her to live with him.”
Chung claimed during a seminar Saturday: “When in elementary school, I took a great pity on the woodcutter but seen from the standpoint of the fairy, two children she had with him, and the fairy’s parents, he could be a kidnapper and rapist. The point of view should be changed in the context of achieving gender equality.”
The minister is a ferocious supporter of feminism and she attended a weekend pro-woman, anti-man protest and promised thousands of women that she wouldn’t forget their voices. [Korea Times]
You can read the rest at the link, but for those that have read this Korean fairy tale, there is no suggestion in the book that the woodcutter kidnapped and raped the fairy. I have to seriously wonder what is wrong with someone mentally to even think of something like that from this story? By the way it would be funny if someone sued Chung on behalf of the woodcutter for libel which this clear is.
Additionally when did it become okay to attend anti-man protests, especially a cabinet member in the South Korean government? What would people say if anti-women protests were held?
Some how I doubt the radical Islamists will try and exploit this Koran burning by a wacko Korean feminist group compared to when a wacko US preacher throated to burn the Koran and it landed him as number two on Al Qaida’s hit list:
WOMAD, a radical feminist group, has claimed one of its members burned a copy of the Quran, the central religious text of Islam.
The person who posted a picture of the burning Quran Wednesday said, “Muslim cockroaches and Korean men should be eliminated.”
It is unclear whether she actually burned the text and, if so, how she obtained it.
This came just a day after another member posted a photo of a Catholic sacramental wafer scribbled with foul language in red ink.
Following the news, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Korea (CBCK) denounced the posting as a serious insult to the Catholic Church and vowed to take action in response.
“In accordance with Catholic regulations, the CBCK is preparing the process to notify the Vatican through the Vatican ambassador in Seoul,” said priest Ahn Bong-hwan, spokesman of the CBCK.
Under the motto, “We hate all men,” WOMAD has gained notoriety for bashing religions and men since its 2016 inception. [Korea Times]
You can read more at the link, but the wacko US preacher who threatened to burn Korans, worked as a Uber driver. Clearly his 15 minutes of fame is over.
I think everyone should be highly skeptical of the claims made by these two men:
Kim Ilsun and Jeong Choong-Je broadcast on TePyung TV youtube channel on June 1st, with Mr. Jeong holding his book Operation Golden Lily.
On June 1, 2018, Professor Kim Ilsun and Mr. Jeong Choong-je were featured in a live video broadcast about Operation Golden Lily on the TePyung TV YouTube channel. During that broadcast, Mr. Jeong, a nonfiction writer, talked about how there were hundreds of tons of gold ingots buried in the Moonhyun-dong neighborhood of Busan, South Korea. This gold, which was hidden there in 1945 by the Japanese empire, was found on March 2, 2002 by Mr. Jeong. However, Mr. Jeong was then robbed and falsely accused and imprisoned by a group of people who colluded with former South Korean president Roh Moo-hyun and current occupier of the Blue House Moon Jae-in. [Tepyung.com]
You can read more at the link, but Professor Kim and Mr. Jeong is claiming that threats are being made against them in response to his book to try and silence him. The below Youtube video from their lawyer Eugene Kim lays out their claims:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CsP8_wAJ4E4
I am highly skeptical of what these two men and their lawyer is claiming without evidence. For example where in the Moonhyun-dong neighborhood is this tunnel? Why haven’t third party experts been allowed to examine it? Did anyone take pictures of the so called gold when it was found? In 2002 smartphones had not been invented yet, but you would think people would have taken pictures of the gold. Finally what evidence do they have that Moon Jae-in was even involved if the heist did happen?
When people like this make such sensational claims without hard evidence this actually helps the Korean left make the Korean right look like a bunch crazies and that is what this group looks like right now.
"Today is a great day," former NBA star Dennis Rodman says in an emotional interview in which he describes his relationship with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un https://t.co/eoNeZnYFm7pic.twitter.com/6gouUPBBpX
This photo shows a car damaged after crashing into the main gate of the U.S. Embassy in central Seoul on June 7, 2018. (Yonhap)
A gender equality ministry official slammed his car into the front gate of the U.S. Embassy in Seoul on Thursday and claimed he wanted to seek asylum in the United States, police said.
The official, identified only by his surname Yoon, was immediately taken into custody after crashing his sedan into the steel gate of the embassy in central Seoul around 7:15 p.m.
Police said Yoon, 48, is a director-level official at the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family. The ministry is located in Seoul’s main government complex building across the street from the U.S. Embassy.
Police said Yoon went to work in the morning and left early after taking a half-day off.
Witnesses said Yoon’s car was traveling on the boulevard in front of the embassy before it abruptly changed its direction toward the embassy.
As he was overpowered by police, Yoon shouted, “Help me!” several times.
Yoon later told police that he slammed the car into the embassy because he wanted to seek asylum in the U.S. due to reasons related to North Korea. No further details were immediately known. [Yonhap]
You can read more at the link, but if you are wondering Yoon was not drunk at the time to explain this crazy story. On a positive note at least the US embassy now knows that their gate works at stopping speeding cars from smashing through it.
Something I plan to do more of is post various articles of interest that I see while browsing through the historical archives of the Stars & Stripes. Below is an article I saw about a bizarre hostage incident that occurred in a Seoul teahouse that was published in the April 12, 1972 Stars & Stripes.
Example of a teahouse in a historical hanok structure at the Korea Folk Museum in Seoul.
The incident involves a 19-year old teenager who took six people hostage in the teahouse before blowing it up with TNT. Twenty buildings were burned in the resulting fire with nineteen people injured. Fortunately no one was killed. Amazingly the teenager survived blowing up the teahouse and claimed he did it because “He did not want to live anymore.” You can read more details of the incident in the below article.
Admiral Harry Harris, commander of the US Pacific Command in Hawaii, was slated to start work as ambassador to Australia this month. Suddenly, out of the blue, the Trump White House announced on April 24 that Harris would be assigned to South Korea.
The assignment was unprecedented at multiple levels. Assigning a military officer as ambassador to Korea when Seoul is trying to develop peaceful ties with North Korea, and the rest of East Asia, is extraordinary. Assigning a military officer who has close ties with the far-right in Japan is also extraordinary granted the sensitivity about Japan’s colonial domination of Korea.
The fact that Harris was born in Japan to a Japanese mother is not a reason to oppose his appointment. Yet his being awarded the “Order of the Rising Sun” at exactly the same moment he was assigned at ambassador to Korea was extremely odd.
And then there is that matter of his role at the Guantanamo Prison camp at the time that torture and abuse were carried out within a carefully constructed legal limbo. In normal times, Harris’ role in that blatantly illegal operation would be enough to end a career, at the very least.
You can read the rest at the link, but his article reads like he received his talking points straight from Beijing. He made sure to bring up Admiral Harris ethnicity just like Beijing and he even tried to equate that Admiral Harris was running a Unit 731 like operation at Guantanamo Bay. Talk about hyperbole when three terrorists getting waterboarded is equated to 3,000 mostly Chinese being used as human lab rats for biological weapons testing by the Imperial Japanese.
He even made sure to call him names just like Beijing by calling him Dirty Harry in the article. Probably the most ridiculous thing was to claim that Admiral Harris was put in charge of Pacific Command to stop global warming initiatives with China. He even claims Admiral Locklear was replaced “unceremoniously” by Admiral Harris two months after giving a speech about global warming at Harvard. Admiral Locklear had long been scheduled to be replaced by Admiral Harris, but was held up because of the accusations made against Locklear in the Fat Leonard Scandal. Admiral Harris was the Pacific Fleet commander prior to taking command of PACOM making him highly qualified for the job. He was already selected for the PACOM job before Pastreich’s claim of Locklear being “unceremoniously” removed. Plus the Secretary of Defense Ash Carter came out to Hawaii to give remarks during the Change of Command ceremony held for Admiral Locklear. A big ceremony with the Secretary of Defense presiding over it does not seem like something that is “unceremonious” to me.
PEARL HARBOR (May 27, 2015) – U.S. Pacific Command (USPACOM) and U.S. Pacific Fleet (USPACFLT) held a joint change of command ceremony at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam. During the dual ceremony, Adm. Scott H. Swift relieved Adm. Harry B. Harris Jr. as the PACFLT commander and Harris assumed command of USPACOM from Adm. Samuel J. Locklear III.
Another incredible claim in Pastreich’s article is that he equates the 12 nautical mile exclusive economic zone around Hawaii with the artificial islands being built in the South China Sea:
“Freedom of navigation” is a catchy way of saying that the U.S. is obligated to send military vessels into the waters surrounding the islands claimed by China in the South China Sea regularly, often intentionally crossing over the 12 nautical mile EEZ (exclusive economic zone).
This is a needless provocation (imagine how the U.S. would respond if Chinese ships regularly sailed close to Hawaii) became central to the planning in the Pacific Command.
First of all it is nothing new for Chinese Navy ships to sail by and stop at Hawaii. So his analogy is not even true. Secondly a better analogy would be if the United States started dredging up a bunch of sand and built an island off the coast of China and militarized it because that is what the Chinese are doing to their neighbors in an attempt to consolidate control over the South China Sea.
Admiral Harris is well known for being tough on China because of this and thus why the Chinese have used everything in their propaganda apparatus to discredit him and it appears Pastreich believes this propaganda. The Chinese government have even asked the US government to fire Admiral Harris. However, history has shown that Admiral Harris has been right about China as they continue to bully their neighbors and intensify building artificial islands in the South China Sea in their attempt to claim the entire body of water.
Here is where out of no where Pastreich goes into an anti-military screed:
American politics is incomprehensible because, at the moment that the military is playing an increasingly central role in the administration of the global system set up by the U.S. after World War II, military officers, whether fighting for justice or indulging in corruption, are completely inaccessible to the population and almost never the subject of investigative journalism.
The guidelines issued to military officers direct them to avoid social exchanges with ordinary citizens, and even with other branches of the government, or with other branches of the military.
This is quite the accusations being made here that the military just likes to indulge in corruption and directs its personnel to avoid social exchanges with civilians or even other branches of the military. This is beyond stupid considering that for officers to get promoted to senior ranks they have to have joint time serving with the other branches of the military. The command Pastreich highlights in his article, PACOM is a joint command with its headquarters at Camp Smith, Hawaii filled with officers, NCOs, and servicemembers from all the branches of the military. As far as interacting with civilians this is actually promoted in the military. For example USFK has its own Good Neighbor program that encourages US servicemembers to help out the surrounding Korean community. The ridiculousness goes on and on in Paestrich’s article such as calling Chelsea Manning a “legend” and Admiral Harris a Chinese “warlord”. Overall Paestrich is extremely uninformed about the US military and how it works.
To me it seems that Admiral Harris is heading to South Korea for the simple reason that he is someone that the President fully trusts to promote his policies on North Korea. Admiral Harris’s command, PACOM was responsible for the executing the “maximum pressure campaign” that many have credited with helping bring North Korea to the negotiating table. Putting Admiral Harris in charge of the US embassy in Seoul, along with putting John Bolton in place as National Security Advisor, and Mike Pompeo as Secretary of State signals to the Kim regime that President Trump has strong advocates of his policies across the US national security apparatus at a time of upcoming tough negotiations with North Korea. Using Occam’s Razor the simplest reason is usually the right one instead of wild global warming, military cabal, military industrial complex, etc. conspiracy theories.
In Seoul, the epicenter of K-dramas and K-pop, you can now 'Rent An Oppa', who are supposed experts of architecture, food and/or cultural, to take you around the city https://t.co/jhbevdTwBG
