South Korea puzzles over oddball success of 'Gangnam Style'

SEOUL -- When South Korea finally got its breakthrough, it wasn’t thanks to its usual polished pop exports, but a stocky jokester in a candy-colored suit, an oddball once known as “the Bizarre Singer.”

It was Park Jae-sang, now known worldwide as Psy, whose single hit the highest echelons of the Billboard charts. Who popped up on "Saturday Night Live" and the "Today Show." Who taught Britney Spears his addictively goofy “horsey dance” on "Ellen."

College marching bands took up his tune; American cheerleaders winningly galloped to the unexpected hit “Gangnam Style” as it climbed higher and higher in popularity.

All this for a star whose song had been waning on the Korean charts. Breaking into American pop made a comic rapper an unlikely hero for a country anxious about its place in the world. And its stunning, unpredicted success left a nation that has devoted millions to national branding again puzzling over what it takes to make it in America.

“Before Psy, the Korean singers who wanted to make it in the U.S. thought they had to do everything American style,” pop culture critic Ha Jae-keun said. “They spent substantial time in the U.S. They met up with all kinds of people. They hired U.S. personnel to produce their songs” -- and they sang in English.

“Koreans thought if someone made it in the U.S., it would be the pretty girls or boys,” the critic concluded. “Not a middle-aged man singing in Korean.”

N. Korea soldier kills two superiors, crosses DMZ to S. Korea



SEOUL -- A North Korean soldier shot and killed two superiors Saturday and then crossed the heavily guarded demilitarized zone and was taken into custody, South Korean military officials said.

Lee Boong-woo, spokesman for the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters that the North Korean soldier appeared in a driveway on the South Korean side of the armistice line. He showed his intention to surrender and is  being interrogated.

“The soldier, while on watch at the North Korean guard post, allegedly killed a platoon leader and a squad commander before defecting,” Lee said.

South Korean military officials were quoted as saying that North Korean troops were observed removing two bodies from the guard post.

The South Korean military heightened security in the area, but officials said they had seen no abnormal movements on the north side.

North and South Korean guard posts are within about a third of a mile of each other at the point where the soldier crossed; each is  820 feet from the military line of demarcation.

The line of demarcation bisects the Demilitarized Zone, which cuts across the Korean peninsula. A creation of a 1953 armistice that ended the fighting, the DMZ serves as a buffer between the two Koreas, which are still technically at war.

North Koreans for decades have used various means to cross to the South, and the number of defectors is now estimated to be about 25,000. Iit is rare for a soldier to cross in the DMZ; the last known case was in March 2010.

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Photo: South Korean soldiers stand guard at a traffic control gate  in the heavily armed demilitarized zone that separates the two Koreas. Credit: Bae Jung-hyun / Yonhap

South Korea school textbooks drop evolution examples

SEOUL -- Some major science textbook publishers for South Korea's secondary schools have deleted examples of Darwinism, bowing to petitions by a group that calls evolution "an unconfirmed theory."

Of the seven major science textbook publishers in South Korea, three have agreed to remove or revise references to the evolution of horses, and six publishers  deleted or changed chapters related to avian evolution.

The decision was made after the Society for Textbook Revision, or STR, filed petitions in December and March with South Korea's Ministry of Education, Science and Technology  against the inclusion of the information.

Since its formation in 2009, the STR has continuously  challenged the teaching of the evolution in South Korea.

"We are an academic research society that aims to delete the errors [relating to] evolution, which is an unconfirmed theory," STR President Lee Gwang-won said. "It is important to revise the textbooks and teach the students that evolution is just one of the theories, as it affects how students form their view of the world. "

Lee denied his organization is affiliated with Christian groups or creationist scientists. But  Han Jungyeol, spokesman for the Korea Assn. for Creation Research, told the science journal Nature that the STR is an independent offshoot of his association.

South Korean academics expressed confusion over the publishers' decision, assigning some blame to the government's education ministry because it forwarded the petitions to the publishers without any academic reviews or expert consultation.

"It is hard to believe that such a one-sided petition was easily accepted like this," said Choe Jae-cheon, a scientist at Ewha Woman's University in Seoul. "The education ministry included 'science and technology' in their name, but it is not paying enough attention to the importance of rightful science education."

One of the publishers that revised its texts,  Kyohaksa, was quoted by local media as saying the fact that there was an apparent scientific controversy over the issue prompted its decision.

But Jang Dayk, a scientist at Seoul National University, said the publishers' position was not acceptable. He said the scientific community had ignored the STR up to now "because it was unworthy to confront them. The quality of their argument is sophomoric and based on distorted information."

But the latest move by textbook publishers, Dayk said,  has galvanized the scientific community, pushing it to act.  "We have formed a task force and will put out a statement to halt the textbook revision."

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North Korea releases captured Chinese fishermen, boats

BEIJING — North Korea has released 29 captured Chinese fishermen and three fishing vessels, putting an end to a 13-day ordeal that raised questions about the stability of the Pyongyang regime.

The fishermen returned to the Chinese port of Dalian on Monday morning, the New China News Agency reported.

Chinese media suggested that Beijing did not pay a ransom for the boats. The news agency report credited China's ambassador to Pyongyang, Liu Hongcai, with securing the release through "negotiation and close contact" with the North Korean government.

The boats were stopped May 8 while fishing in what the Chinese boat owners claimed were Chinese waters, and were forced at gunpoint to sail toward North Korea.

South Korea: Confiscated 'health' pills made of human remains

SEOUL and BEIJING — South Korean customs said it had confiscated more than 17,000 “health” capsules smuggled from China that contain human flesh, most likely extracted from aborted fetuses or stillborn babies.

The Chinese Ministry of Health said Tuesday it had been investigating allegations that capsules were being manufactured from human remains but had found no evidence.

The South Korean customs agency said pills had been smuggled into the country through parcels and luggage carried from China. The pills were composed of "ground stillborn fetus or babies that had been cut into small pieces and dried in gas ranges for two days, then made into powders and encapsulated," the report said.

"Flesh pills have been continuously smuggled into [South Korea], camouflaged as health tonics," the statement said. The pills came mostly from cities in northeastern China: Yanji, Jilin, Qingdao and Tianjin.

Medvedev, Obama fire back at critics over missile comments

SEOUL -- U.S. politics combined with diplomacy as Russian President Dmitry Medvedev took a swipe at Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney and President Obama pointed to an uncooperative Congress to explain why he was delaying negotiations with Russian leaders over missile defense.

Romney, in a CNN interview Monday, had referred to Russia as “our No. 1 geopolitical foe,” prompting Medvedev to tell reporters here that the former Massachusetts governor’s language seemed out of date and “smelled of Hollywood” stereotypes.

“Regarding ideological cliches, every time this or that side uses phrases like ‘enemy No. 1,’ this always alarms me,” Medvedev said Tuesday in remarks broadcast on Russian television.

“All U.S. presidential candidates [should] do two things,” he said. “Use their head and consult their reason” and “look at his watch: We are in 2012 and not the mid-1970s.”

'Hallyu' back: Obama catches the 'Korean Wave'

REPORTING FROM SEOUL -- On his third visit to South Korea, President Obama seems to have caught the “Korean Wave.”

The term for the surge and spread of Korean pop culture -- “hallyu” in Korean -- popped up in the president’s speech on Monday, along with a sprinkle of other in-the-know references intended to show he could hang with the kids of Hankuk University, the audience for his otherwise policy-heavy speech.  

Before launching into a review of his nuclear weapons policy, Obama name-checked South Korea’s hugely popular social networking sites -- Me2Day and Kakao Talk, the latter claiming to transmit 1 billion messages daily. He praised the young Koreans’ optimism and promise -- and tech savvy.

“It’s no wonder so many people around the world have caught the Korean Wave -- hallyu,” Obama said, in one of his biggest applause lines.

PHOTOS: Obama in South Korea

The president seems to be among them. With three presidential trips, Seoul gets the designation of Obama's most-visited foreign capitol. President Lee Myung-bak has come to the White House twice, once feted with a state dinner. The two leaders greeted each other warmly Sunday, Obama giving Lee a handshake and a back slap, as he arrived for a bilateral meeting.

In his remarks, Obama called South Korea a “modern miracle,” for its rise from war-ravaged dictatorship to a rich democracy. He declared the Koreans are “one people” and compared the peninsula’s division between the north and south to postwar Germany divided between east and west. Like the Germans, “the Korean people, at long last, will be whole and free,” Obama said.

Obama is in Seoul, along with leaders from more than 50 other nations, for a global summit on fighting nuclear terrorism. Despite the topic, the prime message so far has been solidarity with South Korea, particularly in its continued struggles with North Korea.

No matter what the challenge, "we go together," Obama said closing his remarks with the Korean translation: "Katchi kapshida!"

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Photo: President Obama arrives to speak at Hankuk University in Seoul on Monday. Credit: Susan Walsh / Associated Press

In South Korea, Obama salutes U.S. troops at 'freedom's frontier'

REPORTING FROM PANMUNJOM, South Korea -- Trekking up to one of the last outposts of the Cold War, President Obama on Sunday gazed out over the heavily fortified barrier that cuts through the Korean peninsula and thanked U.S. troops for guarding "freedom's frontier."

The visit was Obama's first to the demilitarized zone that has divided North and South Korea for nearly 60 years, and comes at yet another tense point in relations with the secretive nuclear power in the north.

Obama met with South Korean and U.S. troops, and like presidents before him, stood in a camouflaged  bunker peering through binoculars to inspect the rough, wooded mountains of a nation that has frustrated the West for decades.

PHOTOS: Obama in South Korea

The president is in South Korea to attend a global summit on securing loose nuclear weapons. But as his Sunday schedule shows, the status of the rogue nuclear program in North Korea is likely to outshine the formal agenda. The DMZ visit was his first stop.

Under the new and untested leadership of Kim Jong Un, son of the late dictator Kim Jong Il, Pyongyang has arisen as a fresh puzzle for the U.S. and its allies. Kim surprised many last month by agreeing to halt its long-range missile program  in return for much-needed food aid. But the leader seemed to reverse himself soon after by announcing plans to launch a satellite in mid-April. Such a launch would break the deal, U.S. officials say. Japan has threatened to shoot it down.

Obama will try to enlist help from the Chinese in persuading North Korea to back off the plan. He's due to meet with Chinese President Hu Jintao on Monday.

But first the president headed north about 25 miles from Seoul, beyond the roadblock, mine field and barbed wire fencing to a windswept watch station 25 meters from the demarcation line. Obama looked out from behind bulletproof glass at the two small villages on each side of the line -- Tae Sung Dong, the tiny South Korean town dubbed Freedom Village and Gi Jong Dong, known as Propaganda Village for its fake buildings and speakers that once blared messages trying to lure soldiers to the north.

The messages no longer play. And Sunday, Obama looked out in cold quiet as a North Korean flag flew over the village, lowered to mark the end of the 100-day mourning period for the late leader.

 "There's something about this spot in particular," Obama said in his remarks to U.S. troops. "where there's such a clear line and there's such an obvious impact that you have for the good each and every day that should make all of you proud."

The DMZ has long made a dramatic backdrop for a presidential visit, as a rare reminder of Cold War anxiety and America's continued reach. The trip has been one that all of Obama's recent predecessors have made. (President George H.W. Bush visited as vice president.)

President George W. Bush visited the DMZ in February 2002, at another tense time in relations. Bush had just included North Korea in the "axis of evil," a remark that unnerved South Koreans worried about the increasingly bellicose rhetoric. Bush then delivered a toned-down speech and expressed sympathy for the plight of North Koreans.

Obama arrived on much better terms with South Korean leaders. During his three-day visit, he's expected to emphasize solidarity with Seoul and make his first comments on the status of the food aid pact.

Obama will meet with South Korean President Lee Myung-bak later Sunday.

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Photos: Obama in South Korea

Photo: President Barack Obama looks at North Korea from Observation Post Ouellette in the Demilitarized Zone in Panmunjom, South Korea. Credit: Pablo Martinez Monsivais / AP Photo

South Koreans rally around imprisoned political agitator

REPORTING FROM HONGSUNG, SOUTH KOREA -- Nearly 2,000 supporters of a former South Korean legislator and political podcast host jailed for spreading false allegations against President Lee Myung-bak recently staged a rally at a prison here to let the inmate know they haven’t forgotten his cause.

Ex-lawmaker Jung Bong-ju, a former panel member on the nation’s most popular political podcast, is serving one year behind bars after making allegations about Lee’s business connections during the presidential election campaign in 2007.

Many here view Jung’s imprisonment as a threat to freedom of speech.

“We believe that there were political motivations behind the judgment, as it is an issue linked to the current president,” said Lee Gye-hwa, Jung’s attorney.

Jung’s supporters have launched a series of one-person demonstrations around South Korea and in other nations, Lee said. They have also planned mass trips to the prison, this time chartering trains dubbed “Bong-ju trains” in honor of the politician.

Podcast listeners of all ages and backgrounds participated in the most recent trip earlier this month to voice support for Jung and the show.

Japan feared 'devil's chain reaction' after March 2011 tsunami

REPORTING FROM SEOUL -- A newly released report vividly portrays the fears confronted by the Japanese government in the first hours and days after the March 11, 2011, tsunami overran a coastal nuclear power plant, including concerns that officials might have to evacuate Tokyo.

The six-month investigation was conducted by a private policy group called the Rebuild Japan Initiative Foundation. It involved 30 independent researchers, academics, lawyers and journalists.

Japan tsunami: Before and after the cleanup photos

Their report, due to be published later this week but released beforehand to several media organizations, disclosed that the government feared "a devil's chain reaction" following the meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, while at the same time assuring the public that all was under control.

The team is one of several that are conducting independent reviews of how the Japanese government responded to the crisis. At best, the results so far are mixed.