On My Way To Korea

Source: 새터민 쉼터

This isn’t your normal K-pop, this is DPRK-pop baby.  Here’s a few songs which bring some personality to a nation who’s people never get a voice or representation outside of the nation.

비둘기야 높이 날아라 (Dove, Fly High!)

다시 만납시다 (Lets Meet Again)

우리 엄마 기쁘게 한번 웃으며 (Mother Laughs Once)

나의 어머니 (My Mother)

그대정녕아시는지 (Whether you know or not)

찔레꽃 (Wild Rose)

There’s one more coming up which is my favorite, I’ll put that up when I get it.

I wasn’t expecting very much from “My Girlfriend is an Agent” but I was pleasantly surprised.  It’s a good combination of comedy and action without any sort of love triangle sub-story.  The main guy and women are NIS agents who have to put on a different face when meeting each other both working on the same case but whose teams are oblivious to each other (one being domestic and the other international).  Here’s one scene that really shows what kind of movie this is:

Definitely go check it out, it’s very much worth the time.

Because of the North Korean propaganda series I posted a while back, I was contacted by Kim Chul-Woo (김철우) who works for 한국국방연구원 (Korea Institute for Defense Analysis) and was doing some research on North Korean propaganda at the time.  I called him up after being here for a while to meet him since his line of work seemed pretty interesting.  We went to a restaurant called 양마니 and ate 양 (apparently very expensive).  He invited some of his associates, including Retired Army Lt. General Kim Choong-Bae (김충배 전 육사교장), Korea Military Academy Professor Lee Taik-Ho (이택호) and two other men not pictured.  Chul-Woo said that they are starting a NGO dedicated to the unification of the two Koreas without a political link.  I wish them the best of luck!

I love TED, it’s on my list of favorite things for my iPod.  TED conferences have all sorts of interesting talks which definitely includes fellow blogger Changwon Kim’s talk about technology in Korea.  Here’s the link, go watch it: http://www.web20asia.com/413

Kimchi.  It’s the pride of Korea, the staple of their diet, and the blood running through their veins.  There’s even a museum in COEX dedicated solely to the pickled cabbage.

I didn’t take a whole lot of pics because, well, as interesting as everything was I wasn’t inspired very much to take many.  I did run accross these.

I saw this doll with hands soaked with Kimchi juice and immediately thought it might be fun to get a close shot showing just her hands and a further shot showing was she was doing.  In the close shot I leave it up to the viewer to create a story of what she’s doing and thinking =)

The full-sized dolls were kind enough to feed me …

And here’s me and Eunhee/은희 at the end of the walking tour:

Well, that’s it.  Now I can say I’ve been to the Kimchi museum.