@QMS

I try to learn an expression or two, or watch a short Chinese lesson each day. i ran 漏 "leak" through the translator and found a Korean translation (n) nu chul 누출 that is a word used in the Korean news every day. Mostly in relation to the unsuccessful attempts thus far to conduct a real investigation into unlawful actions by the president and his wife or others related to them.

The symbol looks to me to be an ideograph showing the water radical, an abode, and then the rain symbol inside therefore a leak from rain thru a structure. So i will remember now when I see it again, and not have to look it up repeatedly like I do with so many characters to remember them.

Hope you are feeling and doing well, QMS! 건강하세요 保持健康

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Learned a Japanese term this morning:

'Komorebi'. 木漏れ日 (pronounced kō-mō-leh-bē).
It is formed from the Japanese word for “tree,” 木, the word that means “to leak,”
漏れ, and the word for “sun,”
Literally, “sunlight leaking through trees.”

Cheers!

@Pluto's Republic

...last weekend. I think it was the NY livestream at the time. I watched all the speakers on Saturday and I thought the old guy was best. I check on nodutol sometimes because Tim S. and Simone Chun repost their X posts when they pick up on a news issue, that maybe others hadn't noticed yet.

I differ with some of the young people there, particularly their main guy in the media. I prefer to take a step by step approach to these issues in South Korea. Like stop with the pressure to bow to Japan, stop the propaganda balloons, stop the loudspeakers, stop the provocative military exercises, especially those right on the DMZ and in the former buffer zones, no nukes or strategic assets, No B-52s, aircraft carriers, nuclear subs, etc., in South Korea.

Reinstate the buffer zones, reopen up Geumgansan tourist area, and Kaesong joint industrial zone, (both in North Korea) if possible, negotiate with North Korea, and reestablish the 9.19 agreement limiting the military activities of both sides in the buffer zones, which the US encouraged the Yoon administration to get rid of. Drop the sanctions, on a reciprocal basis, step by step. Remove THAAD from South Korea. Return Opcon during wartime to South Korea. Go back to Singapore. Normalize relations, get the IAEA back in North Korea, limit NK nuclear weapons with a view toward a peace treaty and denuclearization.

The very last step would be asking US armed forces to entirely vacate S. Korea. I don't think "US pack your shit and get out" is a pragmatic approach. For example the reconnaissance assets of the US are an asset to S.Korea that can't be replaced imo. The "tripwire" is necessary for deterrence until the war with N.Korea is resolved and relations are normalized. That isn't going to happen all at once. The DMZ needs to managed by UNC until a peace treaty with the North. I view US presence in South Korea as a deterrent, even without large numbers of troops, and until recently, also as a restraint or check on Japan.

Finally, the environmental mess the US had made around virtually all of its military bases whether in Korea, Okinawa or Japan needs to be cleaned up. I personally think, the trilateral alliance with Japan is a bad idea. The next administration in South Korea, if democratic, will downgrade relations with Japan or try to minimize them, in military terms and try to accomplish some of the steps I have outlined above in an effort to recover some semblance of sovereignty, resolve the division on the peninsula and lower military tension.

The Yoon administration and the US have gone way too far with this trilateral relationship thing. Yoon and his reactionary clique in the Defense Ministry and national security community have gone way too far with military and other provocations to the north, with the US encouraging them along the way, big mistake. The trend right now is to dictatorship in the South. South Korea is probably being damaged more than other countries economically by the US "decoupling" from China. Return to negotiations with the North, drop the blame game.

Many of the goals they advocate for I support in a general way but I would not for instance conflate the Korean nationalist movement or "independence movement" as it is called with the Palestine issue, it just unnecessarily complicates matters. The independence movement in South Korea has enough of its own wood to saw. Likewise, South Korea shouldn't be in NATO or getting involved in Taiwan issues. I'm sympathetic but the independence movement in South Korea needs to focus. I think hermit hwarang is the handle of the main man over there. Sometimes Rhonda Khalek has him on. I know someone has to be the cheerleader but I actually prefer Christine Ahn, and KJ Noh. I'm just more technically oriented. I'm an analyst not a street activist. I don't object to street activism, but I need to focus on my efforts. I think a few people do monitor my blog, because when tension rises with North Korea, the hits on my blog go way up, particularly in Singapore. Go figure.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LuIx434G9Hs

I care about what happens to the people of Korea. But I'm not going to quote Kim Il Sung or support the DPRK. That is Hwarang's Achille's heel. Hwarang "aligns with the North's vision." I believe understanding the perspective of the DPRK and the history of negotiations with them is important to successful negotiations and ensuring peace in the future. However understanding their perspective and endorsing their policies are different matters. One of South Korea's top experts on the North, South Korean elder statesman. Jeong Se-hyon did an interview with Kim Eo-jun recently stating that the "maximum pressure" campaign promoted by the US and the South Korean far right isn't going to work and North Korea isn't going to collapse. Some other experts at 38 North (the Stimson Center) agree. There is no practical alternative to negotiations with the North. I promote my opinion on what is happening there and how negotiations need to be conducted no matter how wrong the established poobahs think I may be.

The Fallacy of North Korean Collapse

Thanks for bringing up Nodutol Pluto's Republic.

I ran across an article that may or may not interest you. Thought I would pass it on:

Korean diaspora organization launches “US out of Korea” campaign

Responding to recent military escalation by the United States in the East Asia region, Korean diaspora organization Nodutdol launches anti-imperialist campaign

July 29, 2024 by Natalia Marques

As the United States continues to carry out military exercises in the Korean peninsula, and Western-allied forces in the region are denounced for attempting to build an “Asian NATO,” Korean anti-imperialist organizers in the United States are building up a grassroots response.

On July 27, Korean diaspora organization Nodutdol for Korean Community Development officially launched their new campaign, “US out of Korea.” Campaign launch events were held at the People’s Forum in New York City, as well as in Oakland and Los Angeles.

Nodutdol has come out with a robust list of anti-imperialist demands, which include “the full and permanent withdrawal of US troops and weapons systems from Korea; and the return of all Korean land, water, and airspace appropriated for the US military to the Korean people,” as stated by the organization.

Demands also include an end to US-South Korean alliances, ending aggression against North Korea including sanctions and nearby military exercises. Nodutdol also includes a bold demand to unite various anti-war struggles, phrased as “ending the war economy,” which encompasses diverting “US government spending from war, prisons, and policing; and into housing, education, healthcare, and climate justice for working people.”

Read more here....
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An Important bookmark:

https://peoplesdispatch.org

Global Activism at-a-Glance
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