Roh Moo-Hyun, 1946-2009  (May 24, 2009)

Yesterday morning, the entire country was shocked by the news of the former President's suicide. Roh Moo-Hyun, 62, had been South Korea's leader until just about a year ago. According to the police, Roh went hiking at dawn, arriving at a 100-foot cliff known as Owl Rock with nobody but one security guard beside him. There he chatted with the guard for a few minutes before unexpectedly throwing hims...

Deja Vu, Another Summer  (May 12, 2009)

On May 2 of last year, several hundred high-school students and other young folks gathered in Cheonggyecheon Plaza for a candlelight vigil. What started as a protest against a seemingly parochial issue (food safety, particu...

Google Defies Korean Censorship Law  (April 9, 2009)

Last July, I reported how YouTube, a subsidiary of Google, submitted to pressures from the the South Korean government in defiance of Google's own policies. It prevented Korean users from viewing a video clip which irritate...

Fighting for Free Speech in the 21st Century  (March 1, 2009)

Exactly 90 years ago, on March 1, 1919, the Korean People witnessed the beginning of one of the largest public demonstrations in their history. The March 1st Movement, as it has come to be called, was a series of predominan...

Operation: Minerva  (January 25, 2009)

Daum Agora is one hell of a curious website. Basically, it's a collection of two dozen bulletin boards, where registered members can start threads and/or reply to them. Each member also gets a personal page that looks like ...

News Updates from October  (November 4, 2008)

All eyes are now on the economy, in Korea as well as everywhere else. Even without the recent Wall Street mayhem, the South Korean Won has already suffered a massive depreciation this year; since February, the Won has lost ...

Issues in Depth: PD Notebook, Part Two  (November 1, 2008)

Sorry, I'm still working on this article. Please check back in a few days. In the meantime, I hope you'll enjoy this video. The title is "Most Beautiful Country", and it's a collection of photographs from last summer's d...

Issues in Depth: PD Notebook, Part One  (October 28, 2008)

No, this blog has NOT been abandoned. I've been a little busy lately... that's all. The "Issues in Depth" series that I promised in August is also still going on! I actually like the fact that now I'm writing on a largely o...

Mad Cow and Melamine  (October 4, 2008)

The Chinese baby milk scandal has reached Korea too. Hundreds of products containing Chinese dairy, ranging from baby milk to chocolate bars to crackers to potato chips, have been recalled. Import of dairy products from Chi...

A Hideous Act of Terrorism  (September 29, 2008)

I'm late in reporting this incident which took place about three weeks ago. Around 2:00 a.m. on Tuesday, September 9, three members of an anti-government group were brutally stabbed by a man with whom they had just had a...