morning calm?

North Korea might not have wanted to display its new missile(s), but we're not so shy about whipping off our pants and unveiling the new Patriots.

Surprise, surprise. South Koreans are in a tizzy about sending combat troops to Iraq. This is being covered quite well by other Koreabloggers; I refer you to them. Check the links on my margin.

Now we can copy their crappy pop culture openly!

I've said it before: the man shares a lot of traits with Clinton. Caught in the act: TRIANGULATION.

The return of the intrepid Bolton! Will this lead to descended testicles in the South?

Like any good Klingon ruler would, the Korean government will be punishing slow responders to the typhoon disaster.

Laugh of the day:

Korea's chief negotiator at the World Trade Organization's Cancun ministerial meeting said yesterday he was concerned about the collapse of the meeting, warning that if the multilateral free-trade talks broke down, Korea would be forced to negotiate alone with economically stronger nations in its effort to pry open their markets.

What? Is this some weird new form of mass artificial insemination? SK is trying to fertilize NK!

Korea's brain drain continues. Funny... just a couple years ago, the big story was how Koreans were going overseas, getting degrees, then bringing their knowledge back to SK. Guess this happens in waves.

YES! Japan is leaning toward sanctions for NK!

Sanction measures prepared by the Japanese government include; at the first phase, limiting personnel interchanges by disapproving entrance of North Korean ships and crew in Japanese ports; second, suspending all remittance to North Korea through Japanese financial institutions; third, playing a leading role in the UN Security Council in criticizing North Korea and applying economic sanctions.

Woo-hoo!

The Marmot has the distinction of being the Big-ass Koreablogger who offers periodic "Korea Briefings" over at Winds of Change. This time around, he links to many recent blogs by various Koreabloggers, including some silliness from yours truly. Go read the other Korea links, not the Hominid ones he cites; my "debate" with the Infidel wasn't really a debate. We simply have to agree to disagree: I say "don't underestimate your opponent," and he says, "Boy... you've got itty-bitty little kitty balls." That's not a debate, folks. That's two people writing for YOUR entertainment. And yeah, since my balls aren't fully recovered from that traumatic experience in the Hello Kitty store, I do indeed sport itty-bitty little kitty balls right now, so score one for the Infidel and his crotch-level digital camera. My disagreements with the Infidel over how to assess NK notwithstanding, I'm heartened to learn that he weathered Typhoon Maemi just fine and lives to blog another day. Go visit him.

This reminds me... I'm supposed to be checking up on that question of whether NK troops actually are starving. Remember I found two conflicting claims? I think it's time to check the big think tanks on this question and avoid a dogmatic stance.

Those NK cheerleaders looked well-fed...

For the complacent: the danger of NK tunnels? I just read the article... it sounds like speculation of the UFO/anal probe/cows giving birth to wolves variety, so read with a big grain of salt.

Another shock: Christian persecution in North Korea! "One people" indeed: they obviously value freedom of religion up north! And they espouse Confucian values like "no one is of higher status than anyone else," "self-reliance" (very Confucian, that), and the biggest Confucian value of all: when not on your knees nibbling grass, eat thy neighbor.

Seeing Eye Blog also does the gaydar thing. Yes, those ads are a bit... creepy. The Eye also has a great meditation on Fascist Appreciation Day.

Stavros the Wonderchicken describes an experience in Japan that shares many traits with mine. This link takes you to the first part of a great two-part article, and features a photo of the kapsuro (capsule rooms) I talked about in my old post on Fukuoka.

A picture of yours truly, yawning.
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