Seoul: inhuman, all too human

"If Paris were a recurring hero in series of novels, Seoul would rather be a shape-shifting character, always mutating between two short stories. That could be the very definition of a city: a very real work of fiction always trying to liberate itself from its authors."

Published not long after Park Won-soon took office, my essay on Seoul urbanism is now available in English. You can download it for free on Academia.edu: "Seoul: inhuman, all too human"*.

Fun to see what changed and what didn't since then. I might consider a sequel, which would probably cover the successes, failures, and impostures of urban regeneration.

(photo: urban farming along Danghyeoncheon, before Nowon-gu revamped it).

*

SEOUL: INHUMAN, ALL TOO HUMAN

One megalopolis, a hundred villages, a thousand visages

1) The industry of dreams – the ideal city

. Industrial housing revolution: from the virtuous cycle to the bubble

. From mass market consumer goods to fashion and services, from utopia to
dystopia

2) Humans in transit

. Communities and shared spaces

. Life and survival of villages

3) Ideal city 2.0 and new utopias

. The end of an era, but not yet the end of the real estate dream

. From "hard city" to "soft city"

. From New Town to Human Town, villages are back in favor

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* for the original version (in French), see "Inhuman, all too human Seoul"

Exclusive interview with KIM Jong-un - Season III

For the third time*, we've been granted an exclusive interview with KIM Jong-un. If you remember well, the first one followed the medieval execution of Unc' Jang, and the second the putinesque elimination of Bro Jong-nam. This time, I only witnessed North Korea's leader gruesomely murder ten bottles of XI Jinping's Maotai baiju, while we choo-chooed back to Pyongyang in his private train.

Seoul Village: "Hey, that's expensive booze. Don't you want to make them last a bit longer? Or did you get guarantees from XI for a free refill?"

KIM Jong-un: "Don't worry, that's part of the agreement we reached in Beijing: every fortnight, somewhere in the South China Sea, an Eritrean supertanker sailing under Panama flag will transfer its whole shipment to a North Korean fishing boat."

SV: "Wait. You're talking supertanker on one side, and fishing boat on the other... How will that ever fit?"

KJU: "We'll use Russian pipes for the transfer - robust stuff, Made in Rason; I collect 99%, Jinping's family 49%, Vladimir 34%, and the rest naturally trickles down through the usual DPRK black market channels. Of course, Paul Manafort gets his cut, and everybody's happy."

SV: "Sounds legit. You mentioned an agreement with China..."

KJU: "Xi."

SV: "Well that's pretty much the same now. So what's the deal?"

KJU: "Obviously, I had to pledge some sort of allegiance. The trick was to not overdo boot-licking, and to avoid as much ass-kissing as possible - believe me, considering Xi's considerable tummy, that required expert level in circumnavigation."

SV: "I see. I also see that you're circumnavigating my question as well."

KJU: "Don't test me. Remember that when I test something, even mountains can collapse... Well Xi treated me like a kid, but I got a few candies in return - our restaurants in China can operate again, for example. And if the US ever try to strike North Korea, China will step in. So when (if) I meet The Donald in May, sanctions won't bite as much as they do now, and there will be a third 800-pound gorilla in the room. When you think that just weeks ago I was totally cornered, and about to get bombed** right after Pyeongchang... now I'm safe until at least May, and under the protection of The Godfather himself..." 

Ri Sol-ju (in beige), Kim Jong-un (in Mao neck jacket), XI Jinping (in red tie-carpet-vases), Peng Liyuan (in cowhide)

SV: "I presume Xi was not happy to learn that you could meet Trump before himself."

KJU: "Now that one got me flummoxed in the first place. I never imagined that Don would accept that quickly. But then again, our meeting may never happen."

SV: "But you did confirm Xi you were committed to denuclearization, right?"

KJU: "Yup, with the usual caveat: I've always been willing to denuclearize once all the conditions are there: first the US-ROK drills stop, then the US withdraw completely from the peninsula and from Japan (I'll throw the Philippines and Guam in for good measure), then Korea reunites under my rule, and only then I give up all my nukes."

SV: "For good?"

KJU: "Sure, forever. Just like the States and Russia when they pledged to do so."

SV: "So if I get it right, you keep your job, your regime, your nukes. But you return under Beijing's wing, and you have to resist the urge to test new toys for a while."

KJU: "Bah. Anyway, testing nukes in Punggye-ri or what's left of it was getting each time trickier. Xi suggested me to ask some of my customers to test my products for me in their own most deserted wastelands."

SV: "I get the picture. And I bet Bashar has paved the way for many new potential sites. With this new diplomatic frenzy of yours, we may all start from a blank slate."

KJU: "Peace, at last."

SV: "I almost forgot. You'll meet MOON Jae-in pretty soon..."

KJU: "Who?"

SV: "MOON, the South Korean president." 

KJU: "Ah, that guy. Well I have to, haven't I? After all he's done to get me out of this mess. I guess I'll have to find him a job for after the Unification. Not the management of Moranbong, anyway - I already promised that one to the dude who was supposed to succeed him."

SV: "AHN Hee-jung? He's heading for jail, now - Mr Nice Guy turned out to be Weinstein on steroids."

KJU: "Precisely the kind of people I can trust. I also have a job in mind for John Bolton when this is all over."

SV: "Uh... Bolton's American. And not exactly a fan of yours."

KJU: "He's my next Chief of Staff. I need to recruit radical warmongers just like him. Also, people who thrive in corrupt environments, experienced ones like PARK Geun-hye or LEE Myung-bak. Zuck is already helping me source new talents."

SV: "Mark Zuckerberg?!?"

KJU: "Our JV, Kimchi Analytica, has been screening social networks for years. How do you think we selected you for our interviews? And as an expert in Weapons of Mass Disinformation, would you like to head our KCNA?"


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* see "EXCLUSIVE-Second interview with KIM Jong-un", "Exclusive interview with KIM Jong-un" - Agence Fausse Presse.
** see "Alert!"

Yet Another Textbook Textbook Controversy

History belongs to those who write it, and in utterly politically divided South Korea, each side accuse the other one to push its own propaganda.

PARK Geun-hye recently announced her project of a single 'correct', State-issued textbook to replace today's choice between eight private publishers. Needless to say, Korean History Research Association scholars boycotted it.

PGH's project is clearly troubling: the last South Korean leader to do so was her dictator of a father PARK Chung-hee in 1974, and even Textbook Revisionist in Chief Shinzo ABE hasn't succeeded - so far - in restoring State-issued history textbooks in Japan, where they were banned at the end of WWII. Japanese activists actually fear Korea's project could serve ABE's agenda*.

If this reform is supposed to be implemented just months before the next presidential elections in 2017, PGH's presidency is now compared to the worst moments of her predecessor LEE Myung-bak, whose government terminated the much needed Truth and Reconciliation Commission (see links below), stopped history teaching at school, created a controversial museum of contemporary history (see "The Sejongno Insult"), and even issued a creationist textbook**.

Now this is not the only controversy surrounding these book: the project is motivated by the fact that, even if some mechanisms give the government its say in the editorial line, all history textbooks are deeply biased. Not just left-leaning, but at times into pro-North Korea propaganda territories.

No wonder this debate brings back such 1970s name calling darlings as 'dictator!' or 'commies!'

IMHO something definetly had to be done regarding these textbooks, but the government chose the worst possible solution by negating the historical debate. This should have been the opportunity to tackle the issue at its core, to restart the Truth and Reconciliation process. And when there is a debate on the interpretation of events, it should be reflected in the textbooks, with diverging opinions mentioned as such.

*

About the termination of the TRCK:

• "Truth and Reconciliation - Justice at last" (May 2012)
• TRCK: families of victims demand essential follow-up (September 2010)
• "TRCK lost in translation or lost in transition?" (January 2010)
• "Truth and Reconciliation : which model for Korea ?" (October 2009)
• "A common History" (October 2009 - also published in JoongAng Ilbo as "Japan may face its history")
• President Lee, please keep digging (September 2009)

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* "Japanese civic groups protesting S. Korea’s turn to state-issued textbooks" (Hankyoreh)
** see "State-condoned creationism in Korea? A cold-blooded murder against King Sejong"

... Et Spiritu Sanctiones

Pope Francis* gone, Korea is left with its multiple divisions: North v. South, Right v. Left, East v. West, Gangnam v. Gangbuk, Have mores v. Have nots, Tradition v. Blingbling, Kennip/ddeok v. Nip/tuck...

Starting from the most obvious divide, could inter-Korean relations be revived?

As we've seen before, PARK Geun-hye is definitely more open to engagement than her predecessor LEE Myung-bak, who all but offered North Korea to the advocates of 'Hanschluss'** in Beijing. On Liberation Day***, she renewed her proposal to collaborate on the protection of DMZ ecosystems, but her government is considering taking part to more ambitious projects, particularly in transport infrastructure (see "Seoul mulls helping NK transport system" - Korea Times 20140818).

Seoul decently couldn't let much longer China, Russia, or even Japan**** control all key entry points to the northern half of the peninsula. Particularly along that most vital Kaesong-Pyongyang-Sinuiju backbone, about which China and the DPRK signed a railway MOU a couple of months ago (see "China reaches high speed into North Korea... and post-Juche East Asia").

But Seoul decently can't appear to support the North Korean regime either. Even neutered by China (no more nuclear trials, we tolerate your series of rocket launches as long as they remain C.P.C.-P.C.), DPRK remains an abominable dictatorship with an awful human rights record*****. And now, only brain dead NBA / JWA veterans like Dennis Rodman or Antonio Inoki accept to pose all smiles with local leaders.

Hard to develop activities without some level of cooperation, a word that immediately brings to certain minds the spectre of LEE Seok-ki-style, hardcore collabos. And the legal framework makes it even harder, with an increasing number of sanctions. The U.N. Security Council passed series of them, the latest batch in 2013 (UNSCR 2087), but South Korea is even more blocked by its own 'May 24 Sanctions' implemented in the wake of the Cheonan sinking in 2010, and the US may well pass their "North Korea Sanctions Enforcement Act of 2013" by the end of this year. It passed the Senate and should get a nod from the House (see below House Resolution 1771 below, the full text submitted last April).

As we go to e-print, HR 1771 only passed the first hurdle (Senate)
beta.congress.gov/bill/113th-congress/house-bill/1771 (full text at the end of this post)

Sanctions against North Korea are typically the kind of issues a divided Congress can easily agree upon, and for the House an opportunity to prove it can pass something. Even if the DPRK dropped beneath US radar over the past few months (courtesy ISIS and friends), it remains a prestigious trophy for the bill sponsors, starting with Rep. Edward R. Royce (R-CA), chair of the Committee on Foreign Affairs.

The bill was drafted by Joshua Stanton, founder of OneFreeKorea, and heralded by NK pundit Lee Sung-yoon, who was invited to present HR 1771 last week at the ASAN Institute ("To change Pyongyang: North Korea Sanctions Enforcement Act 2013") where, the day before, John S. Park. Lee exposed his new research on the secondary effects of sanctions ("Targeted Sanctions and the Counterproliferation Puzzle: The Case of North Korea"). 

Stimulating talks. If Sung-yoon Lee implacably defends sanctions, John S. Park wants to make sure we know what we're doing:

• Lee advocates targeted sanctions to limit collateral damage, but accepts them as inevitable. If the regime collapses brutally, 'so be it'. Gaesong Industrial Complex? 'Futile'. Let's put back DPRK on the list of terror-sponsoring states, and let's force the POTUS to enforce sanctions that may not all bear fruits, but can't work at all as long as there's no mechanism to implement them. No compromise, except maybe to preserve useful contacts between the Superhermit Kingdom and the outside - typically, I asked him if tourism, a field connected to luxury goods, could become a target at the service level, and he answered that no, tourism has to remain an exception (as long as the luxury goods line is not crossed, but where to draw it? ask Kempinski for Ryugyong, or the Swiss manufacturers of ski equipments for Masikryong). Even NGOs are expected to put more pressure on Pyongyang, to ask for more transparency if they want to keep operating.
• Park compares sanctions to antibiotics, which can cure but also help an organism develop some resistance. He wants to know more about the unintended consequences of sanctions, particularly by interviewing refugees and defectors who have worked in State corporations. What kind of Plan Bs were designed? What kind of legal loopholes were explored? What kind of illegal routes were taken? For instance, he knows that takes 15 mn to wire money to North Korea via China (the cash is ready, and the middlemen take a 25% cut), but he'd love to know how DPRK manages to 'hide in the open', how it can apparently reduce its energy shortages and at the same time receive officially less oil from China. I asked him about potential new players. From a Darwinian point of view, we are helping a dinosaur evolve into a much more complex, diverse, agile, and somehow future-proof creature. We may be at the same time weakening the regime as a monolith, and strengthening North Korea as an ecosystem (does what doesn't kill Kim Jong-un make DPRK stronger?). And like we've been training terrorists during our wars in the Middle East, aren't we training a new breed of 'guerilla capitalists', thriving in the underground DPRK-China trade, but eager to explore new territories? For the moment, Park answered, we see the same faces on the North Korean side. But he fears some sanctions may maximize risks of proliferation or illegal trade by generating more entry points, more sophisticated, and less detectable.

By nature, I'm drawn to non-black-v.-white positions, and North Korea happens to be all about grey zones, so I felt more comfortable with John S. Park's approach. On the other hand, passing a bill in DC will certainly make existing sanctions more efficient, particularly as a deterrent for third parties: no one wants to be the next BNP Paribas - the French bank was fined $8.9 bn for dealing with nations blacklisted by the US.

Since it's all about securing entry points to North Korea and building legal frameworks, working on including new entry points to new legal frameworks seems to make sense. Not as in making pacts with the Devil, but as in monitoring the Gateways to Hell.

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* see "K-Pope mania hits Seoul, Jongno-style"
** on the 'Hanschluss Scenario', see among others "Game over for the 'Hanschluss' scenario?" and "Re-engaging North Korea - A Four Party Talk"
*** BTW since last year ("The Elusive Independence Day - When will Japan officially proclaim its Independence from Imperial Japan?"), Japan is still not liberated from Imperial Japan: 80 MPs and cabinet members visited Yasukuni on August 15th. Note that Summus pontifex eventually met with 7 survivors of Imperial Japan sexual slavery system for his final mass in Myeongdong Cathedral yesterday.
**** if Shinzo Abe keeps palling around with Kim Jong-un: "Abductors talking abductions - Revisionists talking revisions"
***** see "North Korea, Beware - Rest Of The World, Be Aware"

--- HR 1771 at this stage ---

beta.congress.gov/bill/113th-congress/house-bill/1771 

H.R.1771 - North Korea Sanctions Enforcement Act of 2013113th Congress (2013-2014)
Sponsor: Rep. Royce, Edward R. [R-CA-39] (Introduced 04/26/2013)
Committees: House - Financial Services; Foreign Affairs; Homeland Security; Judiciary; Oversight and Government Reform; Ways and Means | Senate - Foreign Relations
Committee Reports: H. Rept. 113-560
Latest Action: 07/29/2014 Received in the Senate and Read twice and referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations.
Summary (as introduced in House 04/26/2013):

North Korea Sanctions Enforcement Act of 2013 - Directs the President to investigate credible information of sanctionable activities involving North Korea and to designate and apply sanctions with respect to any person (referred to as a "designated person" and includes business entities, nongovernmental organizations, and governmental entities operating as business enterprises) the President determines is knowingly:
. contributing, through the export to or import from North Korea of any goods or technology, to the use, development, production, stockpiling, or acquisition of nuclear, radiological, chemical, or biological weapons, or any device or system designed to deliver such weapons;
. exporting, or facilitating the export of, defense articles and services to North Korea, or from North Korea to any other country;
. exporting, or facilitating the export of, any luxury goods to North Korea;
. providing, selling, leasing, registering, or reflagging a vessel, aircraft, or other conveyance, or providing insurance or any other shipping or transportation service used to transport goods to or from North Korea, for purposes of facilitating a specified unlawful activity or evading a regulation established under this Act or the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA);
. transferring, paying, exporting, withdrawing, or otherwise dealing with any property or interest in property of the government of North Korea for purposes of facilitating such unlawful activity or evading such regulations;
. engaging in or facilitating censorship by North Korea; or
. committing or facilitating a serious human rights abuse by North Korea. 

Directs the President to designate and exercise IEEPA authorities with respect to the government of North Korea as well as any person or foreign government the President determines has been:
. listed or sanctioned under any regulation, specified executive order, or the IEEPA for illicit activities or activities concerning North Korea's proliferation of weapons of mass destruction;
. sanctioned under U.N. Security Council resolutions concerning North Korea's proliferation of weapons of mass destruction; or
. convicted of a criminal offense for engaging in sanctionable activities. 

Authorizes the President to exercise IEEPA authorities with respect to any foreign government or financial institution the President determines to be:
. engaging in sanctionable activities involving North Korea;
. failing to freeze funds, assets, or economic resources of a person designated pursuant to the requirements above or that could be used to facilitate sanctionable activities relating to imports or exports;
. failing to monitor import and export transactions appropriately;
. permitting any North Korean financial institution to open any new branches, offices, or joint ventures within its jurisdiction, or to take an ownership interest in, or establish or maintain a correspondent relationship with any bank in its jurisdiction, if it could be used to facilitate sanctionable import or export activities;
. failing to prohibit transfers of bulk cash to and from North Korea in facilitation of sanctionable import or export activities;
. providing public financial support for trade with North Korea to facilitate such import or export activities; or
. facilitating the use of any proceeds of the bribery of North Korean government officials, or the misappropriation, theft, or embezzlement of public funds by, or for the benefit of, such officials.

Sets forth civil and criminal penalties under the IEEPA.

Establishes the North Korea Enforcement and Humanitarian Fund in which assets subject to criminal, civil, or administrative forfeiture or penalties are to be deposited for the enforcement of this Act and to carry out humanitarian activities under the North Korea Human Rights Act of 2004.

Expresses the sense of Congress that the government of North Korea should be treated as a primary money laundering concern that may be required to undertake special measures with respect to the recordkeeping and reporting of certain financial transactions as well as the identification of customers or retention of information relating to certain beneficial ownership, payable-through, or correspondent accounts. Directs the Secretary of the Treasury to require domestic financial institutions to apply special measures to certain designated entities. 

Directs domestic financial institutions to terminate various accounts maintained for persons, foreign governments, or financial institutions required to be designated as engaging in sanctionable activity under this Act and for foreign financial institutions providing services to such designated entities.
Prohibits a designated person that is a domestic financial institution from serving as a primary dealer in U.S. debt instruments or as a repository for U.S. funds. 

Sets forth authority for the President to prohibit certain foreign exchange and banking transactions, revoke transaction licenses, and direct the Secretary of State to deny visas to designated aliens.
Permits the President to impose sanctions against persons providing specialized financial messaging services to designated North Korean financial institutions. 

Requires a validated license for exports to North Korea under the Export Administration Act of 1979. Prohibits munitions and defense articles from being provided to North Korea under the Arms Export Control Act regardless of whether it is designated as a state sponsor of terrorism. 

Bars U.S. government contracts from being provided to designated persons. 

Authorizes the seizure or forfeiture of vessels or aircraft used to facilitate sanctionable activities. 

Directs the President to withhold assistance to the governments of countries providing defense articles or services to North Korea or receiving such articles or services from North Korea. 

Sets forth exceptions to designations under this Act and authorizes the President to waive designations and sanctions, for a period of up to one year, upon the President's submission to Congress of a determination that the waiver:
. protects vital U.S. economic and national security interests,
. benefits entities cooperating with investigations, and
. addresses humanitarian aid considerations while meeting other specified standards. Permits the President to temporarily suspend sanctions with a certification to Congress under specified circumstances and to prescribe rules for removing sanctions. 

Directs issuers of financial securities regulated by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to disclose activities relating to North Korea in annual and quarterly reports. 

Authorizes state and local governments to divest assets and prohibit investments in companies that invest in North Korea. 

Exempts North Korea from the jurisdictional immunity of foreign states, thereby enabling plaintiffs to seek certain damages against North Korea regardless of whether it is designated as a state sponsor of terrorism.

Sneak peek inside Dongdaemun Design Plaza & Park

After 8 years, the final (201)4/3/21 countdown.

The Dongdaemun Design Plaza and Park will be inaugurated on March 21, 2014, but I had the pleasure to visit it last month with new friends*. A perfect occasion to challenge my initial impressions of Seoul's newest landmark.

As you know (see links at the end of this post), said "initial impressions" were not so positive. Yet I was ready to change my mind, and happily looking forward to discovering Zaha Hadid's work from the inside.

***

To put it bluntly, at the beginning, I was not convinced by the project selected by then Mayor OH Se-hoon, consistent with his grand World Design City Seoul 2010 vision that would also give us such architectural wonders as a Tsunami City Hall** or the unthinkable yet not unsinkable Seoul Floating Island. Obviously, OH tended to confuse "Design City" with "spectacular displays of design for design's sake across the city", adding a very personal definition to the word "design" itself (who cares about the function anyway).

Frankly, Zaha Hadid's cartoonesque rendering of her DDP didn't help:

And that was already an upgraded version, which (symbolically) integrated bits of Seoul fortress: significant sites and artifacts had been uncovered during the demolition of the old Dongdaemun Stadium***, and the city decently couldn't annihilate them altogether. To me, the project still smelled a bit like design-for-design's-sake spirit, which often proves to be the best recipe for planned obsolescence:

"(NB: about the old stadium) The green giant remained as an embarrassing dinosaur miraculously forsaken by evolution. Dongdaemun Design Plaza (DDP) may well become the next generation embarrassing green dinosaur. I like the idea of bringing disruption, and there is an interesting organic touch to the main building... but instead of environmental friendliness, it evokes (judging by the models at least) a plastic toy or one of the countless attractions recently built in minor league cities pretending to play in major leagues. To me, the gizmo already looks obsolete."

When I wrote these waspish lines, I had Frank Gehry's Guggenheim Bilbao in mind: cities struggling to catch attention? hiring superstar architects more known for spectacular protuberances than for discretion? letting them freely play around with their software, without many editorial constraints? ending up with the empty shell of cultural alibis, waiting to be filled with limited resources already stretched beyond their limits?... At least the actual client, Guggenheim, knew a thing or two about design and architecture. And their Bilbao franchise was not centrally located, but in an urban dead-end. Frank(gehri)ly, the result is by no means a sore sight for eyes, but a spectacular venue deliberately put on a pedestal more than a part of the urban continuum.

Speaking of urban continuity... I was also thinking about Paris' Forum des Halles: a 63,000 m² project is more about urbanism than about architecture, and you want to make sure that city respiration is improved by it, not cut. Here, to me, the risk was limited to the big question mark, and more precisely the question-mark-shaped main structure: won't this long, intimidating wall with few openings block the view at street level, preventing a dialog with half the neighborhood?

The big question mark: will the DDP successfully dialog with its surroundings?

This is certainly not Les Halles and East 1er Arrondissement, and the situation can only improve from the car-centric mess I've always known, even when street vendors occupied much of the streets. The new complex is overwhelmingly low-rise and car-free and that's a very good thing, even if the promenade to the East - elegantly sloped - could be lined up with more trees or natural protections from the killer waves of Seoul's summer heats and winter winds.

The western front (Art Hall, Museum) looks a bit overwhelming from across the street: you can't see beyond the giant wave except at the central opening, and you can't see the underground spaces that make the structure much lighter and open.

Pedestrian flows do look more fluid from this angle.

At night, the LED enabled facets amp up the feeling that a giant alien squid has just landed in the middle of the city (to make for the one missing in the awful movie version of Watchmen?):

The giant ojingeo by night,flashing its colorful lights.

One part of the DDP has dramatically changed since the early stages: its logo, now a much more digestible evocation of the project (exhibit B) than the initial Keith-Haringesque erection (exhibitionist A):

DDP logo 2007

DDP logo 2013

***

So, how was it inside?

If we only went through a few empty halls and staircases (the stairs being the only square angles, even the cases are round), we already enjoyed an impressive display of architecture, and that's pretty much what I felt when I first visited the Guggenheim Bilbao Museum, back in 1998: from the inside as well as from the outside, the impression of browsing a 3D Pritzker laureate brochure. Perfect, aseptic aesthetics. A finite, computer-generated world where every single atom is edited:



Somehow, I felt at the same time drawn further inside, and kept outside. A foreign contaminant tolerated behind the pod bay doors, fearing the moment when the suave voice of HAL9000 would resonate: "I'm sorry Steve, I'm afraid I can't do that".

Visiting #ZahaHadid's Dongdaemun Design Plaza (#Seoul DDP), but where is #HAL9000?
twitter.com/theseoulvillage/status/415024439491719168

If the purpose is to showcase the power of sheer design, I guess this does the trick.

Humans shall eventually find ways of fitting in.

***

See all posts related to Seoul DDP, including:

• "Here comes the sun" (September 2012) - on Seoul's green rooftops, including the DDP's.
• "Dongdaemun History Culture Park" (November 2009) - station rebranding
• "Buldozing Seoul, again - Dongdaemun Design Plaza, New City Hall" (September 2008) - on the DDP's planned obsolescence.

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* Global Seoul Mates, and comedian KIM Young-chul / KIM Yeong-cheol - a great, eventful day along Seoul Fortress, ending with a dinner at Seokparang with the Mayor who will eventually deliver the DDP, PARK Won-soon:

** see for instance "Seoul Old Towns or New Human Towns? New City Hall or Tsunamheat Wave?", following "Seoul Tsunami City Hall, The Other Korean Wave"
*** which, again, I was not too sad to see removed. The sad part was how Cheonggyecheon and Dongdaemun merchants were treated by Mayor LEE Myung-bak (from Cheonggyecheon to Pungmul Market), and his successor (from the old soccer stadium to the Seoul Folk Flea Market in Sinseol-dong).

Armistice, Amnesia, Apostasy

60 years ago, the Korean Armistice Agreement enabled a ceasefire in a Korean War that has yet to be formally ended. The document was signed in Kaesong, a city that still today remains in the headlines (for different reasons? go figure).

If both Koreas are closer than ever, that's only because the DMZ has dramatically shrunk since the Armisitice: from 992 to 570 sqkm, the supposedly 4 km-wide stretch on each side of the line measuring less than 2 km in various spots*.



Both Koreas closer than ever! The incredible shrinking #DMZ lost 43% since #KoreanWar #armistice bit.ly/147AoPS
twitter.com/theseoulvillage/status/360300435300548609
 

Hell, a truce has yet to be found between the two South Koreas, still very much politically divided, and not only because of another "mobile" frontier (see the NLL saga, and the elusive transcripts of the 2007 ROH Moo-hyun - KIM Jong-il meeting).

On a brighter note, South Korea and China are more successfully burying the hatchet. Beyond the touching meeting of Chinese and Korean veterans, or PARK Geun-hye's offer to return the remains of Chinese troops fallen in Korea, the simple fact that for the first time, the Beijing Regime refered to the conflict as the "Korean War" and not the "war against the US and to help the DPRK" signals that the reconciliation can also reach all the way to America, where Barack Obama just proclaimed July 27 Korean War Veterans Armistice Day.

The conflict is not over, but the world starts moving on. With notable exceptions, and not only in the Strange Kimdom up North.

Of course, Japan is moving in the wrong direction. Shinzo Abe didn't wait long after his electoral success to confirm its warmongering stance: he already added drones and amphibious units to his suicidal wishlist**.

But let's not forget that South Korea too can move in the wrong direction. Under Lee Myung-bak, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission was torpedoed, and the teaching of History at school undermined, contributing to an already acute education crisis***. Park Geun-hye does intend to fix this, and she recently declared "The history of a country is like the soul of the people. If a person grows to be a citizen without proper knowledge of history, that person could be left without a soul".


Shame on #Korea: can't celebrate #Armistice, criticize #Japan #revisionism & stop teaching #History http://bit.ly/14821zL @koreatimes1
twitter.com/theseoulvillage/status/360904693637054467

But this is not just about the soul of the people as individuals: it's about the people as a nation, at the very fundamentals of democracy. Remember that you'll always find a minority who'd love to see Korea follow Japan's path and submit its whole political system to a tiny yet almighty anti-democratic force, to the risk of renouncing democracy altogether.

So this is not just about teaching History, but about doing it fairly. Korea doesn't need more twisted and biases takes at history, and we regularly come across these, be it in MB's Museum of Contemporary History, or in recent commemorations of the June Uprising.

Again, this President of the Republic of Korea has a historic opportunity to lead the region by example, and to expose impostors from all horizons starting by the ones who are undermining the nation from within. For that to happen, she must make sure her own familial history is properly and fairly taught at school.

Then she can ask the same to Mr. Abe with a resounding legitimacy, and ask the Korean people to resume its indispensable truth and reconciliation effort.


Seoul Village 2013
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* see "Report: since armistice signing, DMZ has shrunk by 43%" (he Hankyoreh - 130725)
** see previous episodes: "Shinzo Abe: an offensive Defense White Paper ahead of the elections... and Constitutional Revolution", followed by "To better bridge the gap between Japan, Korea, and China, let's measure the gap within Japan". And now "Japan Defense Paper Calls for Strengthened Military" (Chosun Ilbo 20130727)
*** a recurent theme on this excuse for a blog, see latest mention in the final paragraphs of "Teaching Geography - Dokdo Inside" (March 20, 2013), which allows me not to mention here that even more embarrassing pro-creationism episode... Not to mention today's news ("History ignored in classrooms" - Korean Times 20130726).

Park 2 Day 1 in pictures

After 2 ROHs, 2 KIMs, and 1 LEE, I woke up with my first President PARK this morning*. The second one for many Koreans, who still now define PARK Geun-hye as "the daughter of".

The daughter of whom? Of PARK Chung-hee, of course. But the daughter of what, exactly? Of a "dictator", confirmed the BBC today, along with most international media. Of a "strongman", according to the guidelines suggested by conservative PR outlets in Korea... guidelines followed by the TIME editors, who controversially changed their December 17 cover, initially planned with the "D" word:

One thing is sure: the officials in charge of her inauguration in Yeouido could have picked a better TV background for the swear-in moment than this unsmiling Westerner with sunglasses, like a Man In Black keeping an eye on some valuable CIA asset. Even if Secretary of State John Kerry skipped the event, NK propagandists will probably photoshop a puppeteer hand out of this dark background:

Worse: if you enlarge the picture, you get Yingluck Shinawatra, a person mostly known as Taksin Shinawatra's sister, even now that she is Thailand's Prime Minister, a job she owes only to this familial tie:

So you'll probably see many official pictures framed, like this AP shot, in a tight close-up...

... unless PR wizzards opt for this picture, taken later in the day, during PARK's surrealistic stop at Gwanghwamun Square, on her way to Cheong Wa Dae:

photo Yonhap News

 
Here, the new president opened a giant purse, revealing a teletubbiesque tree of hope from which she randomly picked of low hanging fruits: wishes for a better welfare written by Korean citizens. She read a couple of them aloud, like a mom would do with poems from her kids, before rushing back to her stretch limo, as if last year's campaign never ended, with its "daughter/mother of the nation" positioning**, and its incessant succession of symbolic photo ops (eg below the tightest close up I shot from the future president - "Park Geun-hye bballi bballi campaigning" - October 2012 on SeoulVillage's YouTube channel):



 
PARK made one last stop (in front of Cheongwadae Sarangchae, welcomed by traditional music and friendly neighbors from Cheongun-dong and Hyoja-dong), before going back to where it all began: a Blue House where cameras followed her all the way up the grand staircase.
 

 
On this Oscar night and in spite of the hanbok, Park Geun-hye did much better than Jennifer Lawrence. Apparently, no Clark Gable was waiting for her. Anyway, time to lower the curtain and to get to work.

A reframed picture, a colorful tree, a big red staircase... of course these reductive images are not all there is to remember from such a historic day. There were also political messages, as expected focused on the 3 elephants in nowaday's Korean corridor: North Korea (the "biggest victim" from its own nuclear test), economy, and welfare.

But still** as this stage, we can't tell for sure who the person known as "the daughter of" truly is, and what she will eventually be remembered as.


Seoul Village 2013
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* technically, one should add GOH Kun, who was acting president during ROH Moo-hyun's impeachment in 2004.
** see "The Anipang Election: Park wins big, but who won?"