Updates

One Free Korea has interesting updates on firstly The Spy, and secondly the Communist Prof. Go. Now. Read.

A Bit of A Worry

I'm always keen for a bit of international espionage (along with heists). So it was with some interest that I saw the Twitter go mental with reports of a North Korean spy posing as a defector and then sleeping with Army captains to obtain classified information.
Goodtimes!
This is the stuff movies are made of. And ya know...whattaya gonna do. The two Koreas are after all still technically at war, and it's not the first time North Korean spies have been found in the South.
Ho-hum.
It's just that this comes amongst a couple of other things that I have been hearing and reading around the place. The first is something of a backlash over what people have been constantly referring to as "The last decade of left wing (mis)rule" here in South Korea.
Being sufficiently long in the tooth to have experienced at least half of that decade I thought things went reasonably well. Indeed the current financial mess fiscal down-turn has only occurred since the current right wing administration took office. By way of example, five years ago I got close to NZD$1700 for the million Won I sent home. Now I get closer to NZD$1200. (Well at least I would if I sent money home anymore.)
But I'll call a down turn a down turn. Korea, like any country that is an exporter of shit people want will weather the current "crisis" with annual growth around 2% and a weak currency. (Not so good for going on holiday, but super awesome for exporters. See above.)
Yes. Amongst other things I am an armchair economist.
What scared me shitless What I found a bit of a worry earlier this evening was this story from The Korea Times detailing the arrest and questioning of Yonsei University Economics Professor Oh Se Cheol.
And why the arrest? Well you'd be forgiven for thinking he had plagiarised a paper or faked his credentials, but no. Oh was arrested for denouncing capitalism, an offense under the National Security law.
Let me say that another way.
An academic was arrested for saying that they disagreed with a certain academic theory.
Let me say that another way.
The dude was arrested for pretty much doing his job.

The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency said Wednesday it had arrested Oh Se-cheol, honorary professor at Yonsei University, and seven other Socialist Workers League of Korea members on Tuesday. The eight are now being questioned in Ogin-dong, central Seoul, over whether they have criticized capitalism and praised socialism as well as other acts considered benefiting the enemy - the North Korea.

No that's not me being a smart ass, The Korea Times called it The North Korea
Hahahahahaha! Too funny!
What's not funny is arresting academics. Even if they are members of some ridiculous Socialist Workers group. (You know who they are if you went to ANY university in the Western World.)
Arresting University professors is not cool.

NOT COOL!

Even more scary, the invocation of South Korea's problematic adolescence

Some are worrying whether these new moves will bring back the 'public security' era when police used excessive force against people under the name of 'keeping the peace' in the authoritarian era of the 1970s and 1980s.

Scary. And adding to my worry it seems that Prof. Oh is something of an ANTI-North Korean academic.

[sic]academia and others are criticizing the police's moves since Oh is well known for denouncing North Korea. Roh Hoe-chan of the minor New Progressive Party said, 'Oh and his groups constantly said the North has been polluted with other ideas in socialism, which all socialists should "refrain from following". Shouldn't the group be defined as anti - North Korean?'

You'd think so. In addition

'Oh criticized capitalism even under the military junta in the 1970s but was never prosecuted for violating the law. I do not understand the government's ethics on the issue,' Prof. Han Sang-hee of Konkuk University said calling for the government's respect on a variety of social ideas.

And I'm thinking if Prof. Oh got away with this kinda shit under Messrs. Park and Chun, then the current administration shouldn't have that much of an issue with it. (cf. reference to security era in the first quote above.)
(Rare) Kudos to The Korea Times for chucking the spy thing into the last paragraph, where it belongs, in the face of this academic being shut down for doing what academic types do.
In actual fact, I put to you this: The nutters had a go at bringing down Lee Myung Bak and didn't win. Perhaps the thinkers - like Profs. Oh and Han, and this lot - might have more success?

Robocop Goes To China

You have 5 seconds to comply....

A law enforcement officer displays body armor with reinforced protection for the arm and a gun that shoots out a net for use in catching dogs during a ceremony to highlight laws for keeping pets in Zhengzhou, central China's Henan province, Saturday, Oct. 27, 2007. In the past years, many local authorities in China have ordered mass dog killings to control the spread of rabies, blamed for more than 3,000 deaths last year in China. (AP Photo/EyePress)
(Via The Slug)

Explains a Few Things

My humble abode is situated on the 7th floor of a very pleasant officetel in Gangnam. Such as it is, one often hears people coming and going at all hours of the day and night. Korea Beat explains why that might be:

Officetel Prostitution Flourishing in Seoul

Unintended effects from the Special Law on Prostitution continue to multiply. One Weekly Chosun writer decided to check out a new one for himself.

It is August 19th at 8 pm in officetel A near Seollung Station, on line 2 of the Seoul Subway. It is a mixed-use officetel just over 70 meters from Teheran Street. I've come here after calling a broker for 'officetel prostitution' whose contact information I found on an adult website.

I arrived at the officetel and called the broker again. The broker said, 'right now I only have two girls. One is 168 centimeters tall and size 55, the other is 160 centimeters and size 44, so choose one of them.'

After negotiations the broker said, 'take the elevator to the 11th floor.' I arrived at the 11th floor and after giving my money to a woman who looked to be in about her mid-thirties she said, 'go to room xx'. All of the regular rooms on the 11th floor are residences. The room the broker sent me to was 59.5m sq (18 pyeong), just a totally normal one-room apartment. There was a bed for two, desk, sofa, TV, refrigerator, and washing machine - and waiting for me, a woman in her twenties.

A new species of prostitution, 'officetel prostitution', is rapidly increasing at officetels in the downtown shopping and business districts of Seoul. Prostitution deals are flourishing in the offices and apartments of officetels near Gangnam Station and the Yeoksam, Seollung, Apgujeong, and Nonhyeon-dong neighborhoods north of the Han River. Johns learn about it through adult websites on the internet or through printed flyers. After the passage of the 'Special Law on Prostitution' in 2004 the number of brothels in red-light districts declined, but prostitution has changed into more sophisticated, hidden forms.

Ms. Kang, the 25-year old I met at officetel A, said, 'this room was rented by the 'section chief' (meaning the broker). since I communicate with the section chief directly, I don’t know how many other girls there are.'

According to the police and prostitution workers, brokers specializing in officetel prostitution often have 40 to 50 girls working for them. But they always communicate 'one on one', so it is difficult to know for certain.

Officetel prostution is flourishing because customers can come and go as naturally as if it were their own apartment or office. Ms. Kang, the prostitute, said, 'since they aren’t seen by strangers a lot of people come even during the day.'

In fact officetel prostition appears to be in boom times. At one famous adult internet site there are tens of ads from brokers for officetel prostitution. In one forum on the site, members can even make a reservation for the next day after looking at the women’s profiles.

On the 19th I called 12 brokers whose information I got from the site and all but one said, 'please wait a moment while I check if there are reservations tomorrow night.' Then they would say, 'call tomorrow' and hang up.

Police appear helpless to stop this form of prostitution. An investigator with the Gangnam Police Department said, 'the brokers and the prostitutes have things arranged in a way that makes it difficult to uncover them. Officetels are set up with individual apartments and offices so we are not allowed to just to go opening doors even if it’s to investigate.'

This appears to be the physical result of the 2004 'Special Law on Prostitution”' At the time there were an estimated 1696 red-light districts nationwide employing 5717 women as prostitutes. After the passage of the Law, police cracked down so that in September of 2007 there were 995 red-light districts employing 2508 prostitutes. So compared to before the Law was passed, there are 700 fewer red-light districts and half as many women working in them. The famous red-light districts Seoul 588, Busan Wanweol-dong, and Daegu Jagalmadang have nearly vanished.

But the number of people arrested for prostition continues to increase, from 12737 in 2003 to 29236 in 2007. Because of the Special Law and police crackdowns the number of red-light districts has decreased but hidden, unorthodox forms of prostitution are going on as before. This is the 'balloon effect' of crackdowns on prostitution - push it here, it moves over there, and nothing really changes.

The citizens organization Support Center for Victims of Sex Trafficking which helps victims of prostition to support themselves, said, 'with the Special Law and strengthened enforcement by police, prostitution has changed from being located in buildings, as if it were a business, to moving around and relying on the internet. To deal with this new species of prostitution the communications law should be updated and increased investigations carried out on the internet.'

See. Them Kowis Are All Good

Danny Lee, Korean by birth, but definately a New Zealander when it comes to golf. Lee became the youngest player to win The US Amateur Championship yesterday, replacing Tiger Woods in the record books.
And he really wants to be a New Zealander.

Lee had been listed as a Korean in a professional tournament in his native land two years ago but [sic] that was down to the tournament organisers and Lee was upset by it.

The New Zealand Herald has coverage here, including a photo of a very happy Lee with a New Zealand flag, and the Radio New Zealand interview is here. (Mp3 3'10")