Pictures of the opening ceremony for Pyongchang Winter Olympics

This was quite the opening ceremony!

South Korean hockey player Park Jong-ah and North Korean hockey player Jong Su-hyon

South Korean hockey player Park Jong-ah and North Korean hockey player Jong Su-hyon

Not North Korea nor South Korea. Just Korea in Pyongchang Winter Olympics! 대한민국!

Not North Korea nor South Korea. 

Just Korea

Unfortunately not all Koreans feel good about a united team.

I guess so many years have passed since Korea was One that a good percentage of the young generation dosn't really care about a united Korea.

It is understandable since they've never known a united Korea.

북한 김정은의 여동생 김여정이 드디어 평창올림픽 기간 동안 한국을 방문했다.

북한 김정은의 여동생 김여정이 드디어 평창올림픽 기간 동안 한국을 방문했다.
김여정이 청화대를 방문해서 문재인 대통령과 서로 얼굴을 마주보고 면담을 가졌다.

무슨 좋은 이야기를 했을까?

북한으로 초청해서 문재인 대통령과 북한의 김정은이 만나서 한반도 통일에 대해서 서로 좋은 대화를 하고 한반도 긴장을 해소할 수 있다면 좋겠다.

http://news.naver.com/main/read.nhn?mode=LSD&mid=shm&sid1=100&oid=001&aid=0009877807

PyeongChang Olympics 2018, the largest Winter Olympics ever

  Today February 9th starts PyeongChang Winter Olympics.
This Olympic game is the biggest Winter Olympics in history, participated by 2920 athletes from 92 countries.

White tiger "Soohorang" and black bear "Bandabi" are the auspicious symbols in this game. Soohorang appears in Korean mythology, believed to be a protective creature.

  Technology is also something worth focusing in this event. 7 auto-cars are used, to run from Seoul to PyeongChang. Also, 5G mobile network technology is introduced. South Korea is indeed a country of high tech and futuristic AI (Artificial Intelligence), and I consider this type of technology will be a global trend in near future.

Discussing East Asian Community

  A "community" can be defined as 'a group of people living in a common place, with common values and identity'. So what can we say toward the community of "East Asia"?

  First, let's find some commonalities. We can agree that East Asia is a society with "Rice culture".
Just like you'll find hundreds of nouns for describing meat in Western languages, and for describing camels in Arabic, you can find hundreds of descriptions for rice in Asian languages. That's how much rice is related to the people's lives.
  The other significant aspect shared among East Asians is "Confucianism". This set of value is believed to be still deeply rooted even in Socialist states like  China and North Korea. (Chinese government even uses Confucius Institute to spread their influence overseas!) Elderlies and people with high position or dense experience are respected, and family values remain strong. Societies operate with Family as units. In the West, people's names are often in the order of Given name, then Family name, but in East Asia, Family name always comes first. The people also have high loyalty to the organizations they belong, such as schools, companies, etc.
  Compared with the West where individuality and originality are prioritized, the sense of self is not so strong in East Asia. Also, they prefer a latent understanding in communication, which you don't need many words to understand others' feelings and the nuance. Modesty is considered as a virtue, as they are accustomed to address oneself as inferior positions in formal occasions.
  Economically, East Asians aren't necessarily earning more than people of other parts, but there is a wide middle class since they often have higher saving rates.

  How about differences? Apart from traditions, rituals, and languages, ideology may be the most apparent yet invisible difference in East Asia. Due to historical facts, disputes continue till nowadays among Democratic nations (South Korea, Japan, Taiwan etc.) and Socialist states (DPRK, China). However, I consider there are far more similarities than differences, and social systems in any country have always been changing throughout history.

  The democratic countries we know in the world have all gone through times of very un-democratic regimes, no matter it's monarchy, dictatorship, or totalitarian regimes. In order to gain peace, people should remember that the Future is the only way toward changes, and that people share much commonalities with one another that the differences are too subtle to be focused on.

A Different Route to take

Hello friends. Hope you're all enjoying your happy days.
My sincere wish for peaceful reunification of Korea, as well as
peace around the world has never changed.
This time I thank your attention for a different way I propose.

When solving problems, there is often more than 1 solution, and
I suggest that we solve the problem with the scope of Universe.
The link below contains a letter to all Extraterrestrial Civilizations in universe,
and I hope you express your wishes to them, together with thousands on earth currently.

https://cognizantnationhq.weebly.com/universal-peace.html

People all over the world have been fooled, by powers, regimes, biased values and media.
It's time that we raise our voices, stand up to be the master of our own fates,
unchain the slave status in this planet controlled by evil forces.
More and more people start to be aware the existence extraterrestrial (alien) civilizations,
and realize the urgency that we reach out and unite ourselves, to establish a common society
in Universe that is based on Universal Love.
Miracles happen when Love of power is converted into Power of love.
All for one and one for all. Here is another link from Universe the intelligent beings
hope humans to understand and make your own decisions.

https://humansarefree.com/2014/10/alien-message-to-mankind-do-you-wish.html

주미 중국대사, 한반도에서 한국인에 의한 평화적 통일을 지지한다.

주미 중국대사, 한반도에서 한국인에 의한 평화적 통일을 지지한다.

중국 대사의 말씀이므로 중국 정부의 의견이라고 해석해도 좋을까? 전쟁이 아닌 방식으로 한국인끼리 평화적으로 이룩한 통일을 지지한다.

김정은이 스스로 물러나고 한반도가 통일될 수 있을까?

http://news1.kr/articles/?3215601

Footage from Voices of North Korean Refugees posted on ENoK facebook page

ENoK sent this email yesterday to notify people that they have posted the event on their facebook page.
So if you have a facebook account, you can view it.
They say the footage isn't that good but it will be better than what I posted the other day.

Thank you so much for attending last Saturday!! 

On behalf of the V.N.K.R. team, I would like to thank everyone especially for your grace in bearing with the non-ideal circumstances last Saturday. We are so grateful to everyone for standing and sitting to make room for as many people as possible.

We apologize for the less-than-ideal quality of the sound in the overflow room, and we thank you so much for your generosity in being so accommodating.  We are working on a better quality video of the evening at the moment, so please stay tuned!

As I mentioned last Saturday, this was the beginning of ENoK's effort to provide its services to more North Korean refugees in the U.S. by opening another shelter/educational center.  We plan on holding future events for fundraising purposes to help ENoK provide shelter, food, and educational programs for more North Korean refugee friends.  Look out for more updates later on!

The past few months as well as last Saturday itself was a great learning experience for our team working together.  We will make sure to identify and make improvements based on the lessons we learned from this experience for our future events. 

As I mentioned already, in addition to the FB live recording (https://www.facebook.com/events/1227472197354167/permalink/1253838271384226/?notif_t=feedback_reaction_generic&notif_id=1517275839633258), we are working on producing a better quality video of the evening.  We will let you know as soon as it's ready!

Voices of North Korean Refugees www.facebook.com North Korea Study Group (a student organization at Harvard Kennedy School) is hosting an event featuring a North Korean refugee and professional Korean...

Thank you very much for your support. We look forward to seeing you again soon!

Sincerely,

V.N.K.R. Team

China and its role in East Asia

  It's almost impossible not to mention China when talking about East Asia.
China is more than Pandas, Great Wall, and Confucius.

First of all, China is a huge country with around 1.5 billion people.

Secondly, the East Asian region has been heavily influenced by China, it's culture and power for centuries. And finally, China's role is crucial in the region and globally in the coming era.

  Let's first define the Range and Culture of East Asia.

China (PRC), Korea and Japan, are the major players, but Taiwan (ROC), Hong Kong and Mongolia are also small yet important players. The region shares similar cultures and social atmosphere of Confucianism and Buddhism. Age is important when defining social ranks, as elderlies are respected. In Korea, sometimes even a difference in 1 or 2 years of age can make big differences.

Christianity may also play an unnegligible role in modern days. There is about half of population in South Korea that are Christians (Protestant, Catholics etc.), including the current president Moon.

Some people say that the number of Christians is sky-rocketing in China, reaching approximately 30% of its population. China can be the country with largest number of Christians in the world.

  East Asia has a complicated political situation, and remains a conundrum in the world stage.

Most of it derives from History, especially Japan's military aggression. Japan  spread its military influence to mainland China, Korana peninsula and Taiwan before WW1 started, and continued to the entire Asian region including South East Asia until the end of WW2, 1945. Notorious war crimes such as Nanjing Massacre and Comfort Women issues remain much resentments among the people even today. Currently Japan plays an important role in technological advancements and development aid to poor countries, but we still often see many Chinese and Korean civilians protest, demand for Japan's official apology whenever some "Remembrance Day"s arrive. You can find how school Textbooks are arranged differently in the Asian countries, which is an interesting phenomenon.

  Apart from history, current instability in the region can attribute to the battle between Ideologies.

Originally, Republic of China was established in 1912, but Nationalists lost the war to Communists (a complicated history involving Japan's invasion), thus "People's Republic of China" established in 1949. Within East Asia, Japan and South Korea, along with Taiwan (where Chiang Kai-Shek left for after defeat) and Hong Kong, belong to the Democratic block, while China and North Korea still belong to Communist-Socialist side even after USSR's collapse, each claiming it being the orthodox of Marxism-Leninism.

China and DPRK's military have been heavily supported by Russia, and till this day, they pose threat to entire World Peace.

  Territory issues is also a key factor of current controversies in East Asia.

Japan claims sovereignty over Senkaku island over PRC (Diao Yu Dao) and ROC (Diao Yu Tai).

On the other hand, Takeshima (Dokto) is a dispute between Japan and Korea.

Meanwhile, the region has gained concern over China's recent behaviors in territory issues, claimed it's intention of "Chinese hegemony" by some emotional comments.

Chinese officials continuously provoke its neighbors by drilling the seabed near demarcation lines, deploying warships to borders and constructing artificial islands. The main purpose of gaining territories lies not on the land itself , but Resources and Power. In many cases, there lies rich oil and gas beneath the seabed. When building an island, there will be increase of economic zones as well, where one can gain fishery and expand military. International regulation of maritime boundary is 12 nautical miles apart from land for territory and 200 for exclusive economic zone (EEZ).

 

Despite the issues, China remains the largest Trade partner for many countries. China has gained international attention since later half of 2000s. China has 2nd largest GDP in the world, and 1st in Asia (although it having high discrepancy between rich and poor within country). China has signed Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with many countries, but some fear that being too dependent on China's products is harmful for domestic economy. It is not a member of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), but is included in the framework of "ASEAN +3", together with South Korea and Japan. It is mainly about cooperation on economical issues, but also on some shared issues such as security and environment.  

Currently, Asia is the only region in the world without a formal framework of Regional Cooperation. Some borderless common issues cannot be solved with over-emphasizing of borders.

Voices of North Korean refugees event last night

I am not sure how it came together but ENoK out of Chicago was hosted by the North Korea Study Group of Harvard and was completely free of charge and open to the public.

I was surprised how many turned out to this event. well over 100 with standing room only for many.

Take a look.

Grace gave an interview with Andrew Hong of ENoK (emancipate North Koreans) and she spoke briefly about her life in North Korea, how she defected and her aspirations for the future. 

I was not able to get any footage of the interview because I somehow managed to get a seat but at that angle, was not able to record the interview.

The event will be posted up soon on the ENoK facebook site I guess

Next was the dance called Home Sweet Home performed by Flora Hyoin Kim, Bona Lee and Justin Han.

It was a really professional performance which was designed to portray the love-hate relationship between North and South but underneath it all, the deep desire to become a united Korea again because in the end, they really are one family.

a nicely done statement in the art form.

Anyway, here is some not too good footage from my vantage point but you can get some idea.

This is the first part of the act conveying the division between North and South

Here is the second part conveying the unity of North and South

These two clips are where the performers introduce themselves and Flora explain the meaning of the dance performance.

It is broken up into two clips and not complete but you can get the idea

There was a 10-minute break and I managed to get a better spot.

The last part of the event was several music performances.

here is a part of the song Mountain Flower sung by Yeongeun Kim

really nicely done. 

I should have gotten the whole song but for some reasons I didn't. maybe my arm was getting tired.

On the way out I was lucky to bump into Grace and thanked her for the work she is doing.

it was a good night and I am very glad I went.

You can see the entire event program here which goes into more detail.

http://www.enok.org/vnkr/program.pdf

Korea's seperations and unifications throughout history

  Throughout history, Korea has not always been 1 country.
During the period around 427 ~ 660 AD, there were 3 kingdoms, Baekje (백제), Silla (신라) and Goguryeo (고구려) in Korean peninsula. (There were also some small countries within the peninsula prior to this era.)
The history of Korea, or Asia as a whole, have never existed independently, and have always been influencing one another.
Prior to the era of 3 Kingdoms, Koreans believed and practiced in Shamanism, like some Japanese and Altaic people still do in modern days. It was in the 3 Kingdoms' era that Han Chinese culture including Confucianism started to influence Korea. Buddhism (originally from India, Nepal) also spread into the area in 4 AD, once becoming a national religion for the 3 Kingdoms.

 

(7th C. Tang dynasty (China) painting of envoys from the 3 Kingdoms: Baekje, Goguryeo, Silla)

 

  After the separation, a unified Korea was ruled under Goryeo (고려국) Dynasty in 10th C., Joseon Dynasty in 1392, a short Korean Empire in late 19th C., until Japan's occupation in 1910. Many scholars believe that Goryeo Dynasty was the 1st unified country in Korean history.

 

(Fortress of Joseon Dynasty)

 



  Korean peninsula was annexed by Imperial Japan no long after Qing's defeat in Sino-Japanese war 1894 -95. Japan and Qing Dynasty (China) were competing for influence in East Asia, and Japan's victory was mainly attributed to its quick modernization and Westernization, in science, education, daily lives and especially military. In early 20th C., Japan advanced its military across the entire Asia, and many nations suffered its invasion. The modern day Asian politics was largely shaped from Japan's influence. Days under Japanese occupation in Korea were uneasy, having lack of autonomy and freedom, but some stable, new infrastructures were established in those days. A part of today's Seoul National University was founded under Japanese rule.

(Keijo Imperial University, later merged with other branches into Seoul University)

  In 1945, the most tragic war in human history, WW2, ended. Japan surrendered and Korea was cheered with Liberation (haebang 해방). August 15 is celebrated in both South and North Korea till this day, commemorating victory over Japan. Imperial Japan's defeat provided much joy and hope for Koreans, but few people knew that it was the beginning of another tragedy. Immediately after the war, Korea was divided at 38th parallel, occupied by forces of Soviet in North and USA in South. In 1948, ROK was established, with Syngman Rhee as President, while DPRK was also established, with Kim Il Sung as premier.

  As we can see from Korea history, a country can influence, while being influenced at the same time. The religion Asia - Pacific shares a large part of history that continues till this day, and a common destiny toward the future. History belongs to the past, and can only be reviewed, but we can learn much from history, not to repeat the mistakes and create good history for the future.

평창 동계 올림픽은 남한과 북한의 평화 분위기 조성에 도움

평창 동계 올림픽은 남한과 북한의 평화 분위기 조성에 도움이 된다.
한국의 뉴스를 보면 평창 올림픽에 한국의 국기가 아니고 한반도기를 들고 남한과 북한 선수들이 동시에 입장한다.
태극기를 들지 않고 입장한다고 해서 평창 동계 올림픽의 의미가 없어지는 것은 아니다.
하키는 남한과 북한 선수들이 단일팀으로 출전한다.
북한선수들 때문에 남한 선수들 일부가 출전 기회가 적어졌다고 하지만 우수한 선수라면 사람들의 눈에 들어오지 않을까? 훌륭한 가수는 노래의 앞 부분만 잠깐 들어봐도 정말로 노래를 잘 하는지 금방 알 수 있다.
평창 동계 올림픽 기간 동안에는 남한에서의 한미 합동 군사 훈련을 하지 않기로 했다.

평창 동계 올림픽 이후에도 이런 평화적인 분위기가 계속되었으면 좋겠다.

http://www.unityinfo.co.kr/sub_read.html?uid=24626&section=sc4

A suggestion for future Leadership in unified Korea

  Some days ago, football star George Weah was elected as president of Liberia.
He doesn't have that much education nor political experiences, but was elected because the people believed that he can fulfill their wishes, provide them what they need. Future leadership in this new era may not require such high educational degree or experience in political arena, but the commitment and zeal for peace and harmony.

  It's heard that some young North Korean defectors are provided with knowledge of democratic system, how it works, and trained with such political skills. It is important that once they successfully succeed the leadership, they don't repeat the same mistake which have persisted in the country for decades. Children and young people is the future of a country. They should be provided with good quality of education, indoctrinated not with coercive ideology or religious dogma that cause fear, but universal value that call for integration and love among humanity.

   From what occurred in Liberia, we can say that in this new era, everyone has great chance to lead the country or region as long as they have big motivation and good strategies, to gain agreement among the people. For sure knowledge and high educational background is important too, but it is better to deepen one's interest, become professional in it and make it as a "brand" to contribute to the community.

Event in Massachusetts

Finally, a North Korean event in my area and I will attend

Just putting it out there if anyone is around the area this Saturday.

https://www.nkinusa.org/updates/2018/01/voices-of-north-korean-refugees-with-vice-president-grace-jo-and-board-member-andrew-hong-this-saturday-january-27/