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	<title>WorldCategory: South Korea &#124; World &#124; TIME.com</title>
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		<title>WorldCategory: South Korea &#124; World &#124; TIME.com</title>
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		<title>Spies Caught in Website Scandal Embarrass SKorea</title>
		<link>http://world.time.com/2013/05/13/spies-caught-in-website-scandal-embarrass-skorea/</link>
		<comments>http://world.time.com/2013/05/13/spies-caught-in-website-scandal-embarrass-skorea/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 13 May 2013 09:10:52 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>AP / HYUNG-JIN KIM</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[South Korea]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://world.time.com/?p=86269</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[(SEOUL, South Korea) — The scandal shaking up South Korea&#8217;s main spy agency is not cloak-and-dagger stuff, but the kind of low-grade trickery anyone with an Internet connection could pull off. And the target was not Seoul&#8217;s opaque rival to the north, but the country&#8217;s own people. Internet postings ostensibly from ordinary South Koreans, but actually from National Intelligence Service agents, allegedly boosted President Park Geun-hye while she was running for the job as the ruling party&#8217;s nominee. She was reportedly dubbed &#8220;the best,&#8221; while her opponent, in a play on his name, was called &#8220;criminal.&#8221; A police investigation conducted before the December election found no wrongdoing, but now police say at least two agents violated the law and the original investigation is itself being examined. (More: What a Park Presidency Means for South Korea’s Foreign Policy) Dozens of Internet comments, or more, may not have affected an election that Park won by a million votes, but they have damaged public trust in a spy agency that already had a dubious record. The agency was founded in 1961 by Park&#8217;s father, longtime dictator Park Chung-hee. Agents detained, tortured and even allegedly killed his political opponents. After Park was killed in 1979 — by his spy chief, ironically enough — other abuses occurred under his successors. In recent years, however, criticism of the NIS has centered on what it has failed to do — namely, come up with much intelligence about North Korea. It learned about Kim Jong Il&#8216;s death in December 2011 two days after it occurred, when Pyongyang&#8217;s state TV announced it. The Internet comments scandal captured headlines in South Korean media late last month, when state prosecutors summoned the agency&#8217;s former director, Won Sei-hoon, and raided its Seoul headquarters. Reports recalled the unfortunate fates of predecessors who ended up being arrested, imprisoned or even killed. &#8220;The prosecution will mobilize all its capabilities to swiftly and thoroughly get the truth of the case,&#8221; Prosecutor-general Chae Dong-Wook said in a meeting with top prosecution officials Tuesday, according to his office. &#8220;This<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=world.time.com&#038;blog=19871253&#038;post=86269&#038;subd=timeglobalspin&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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	<primary_category>South Korea</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://world.time.com/category/asia/south-korea-asia/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timeglobalspin.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/ap_skspyscandal_may13.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">timeassociatedpress</media:title>
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		<title>For the First Time, SAT Test Gets Canceled in an Entire Country</title>
		<link>http://world.time.com/2013/05/10/for-the-first-time-sat-test-gets-canceled-in-an-entire-country/</link>
		<comments>http://world.time.com/2013/05/10/for-the-first-time-sat-test-gets-canceled-in-an-entire-country/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 10 May 2013 21:37:29 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Kayla Webley</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[South Korea]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[cheating]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[college board]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[ets]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[SAT]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[south korea]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://world.time.com/?p=86011</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Some 1,500 South Korean students who dream of attending elite American colleges are scrambling after the U.S.-based administrator of the SAT cancelled the scheduled May 4 session of the exam because of allegations of widespread cheating. It&#8217;s the first time the SAT test has been called off in an entire country. Officials decided to cancel the exam after discovering test questions circulating in test-prep centers in the country, according to the Wall Street Journal. The College Board, which administers the SAT in the U.S., and the Educational Testing Service (ETS), the nonprofit organization that develops, publishes and scores the tests, issued a statement, saying they had made the &#8220;difficult, but necessary&#8221; decision to cancel the exam. &#8220;This action is being taken in response to information provided to ETS — the College Board’s vendor for global test administration and security — by the Supreme Prosecutors&#8217; Office regarding tutoring companies in the Republic of Korea that are alleged to have illegally obtained SAT and SAT Subject Test materials for their own commercial benefit.&#8221; The details are scarce, but a CNN report says the prosecutors&#8217; office in Seoul confirmed it had raided several testing centers for evidence, and the Journal story notes that at least 10 staff members of test centers have been barred from leaving the country while the prosecutors&#8217; office investigates. Test center managers told the Journal that the problem is widespread and that official test booklets can be purchased from brokers for about $4,575 — a relatively small price to pay for families fighting to gain admittance to Harvard, Stanford and other prestigious American schools no matter the cost. According to the Institute of International Education&#8217;s most recent annual report, South Korea sent 72,295 students to study in the U.S. in the 2011–12 school year, making the country the third largest provider of foreign students to U.S. colleges after China and India. Worldwide, international student enrollment at U.S. colleges has soared in recent years, with a record 764,495 foreign students attending American universities in 2011–12. This is not the first<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=world.time.com&#038;blog=19871253&#038;post=86011&#038;subd=timeglobalspin&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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	<primary_category>South Korea</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://world.time.com/category/asia/south-korea-asia/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timeglobalspin.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/165463827.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">Students change classrooms during a break between periods at Seoul Global High School in Jongno-gu, Seoul, South Korea, on March 28, 2013.</media:title>
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			<media:title type="html">kaylawebley</media:title>
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		<title>SKorean President to Address Congress</title>
		<link>http://world.time.com/2013/05/08/skorean-president-to-address-congress/</link>
		<comments>http://world.time.com/2013/05/08/skorean-president-to-address-congress/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 08 May 2013 08:07:43 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>AP / MATTHEW PENNINGTON</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[South Korea]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://world.time.com/?p=85535</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[(WASHINGTON) — South Korean President Park Geun-hye is getting a grand welcome from Congress as Seoul and Washington resolve to stand firm against North Korean provocations. Park was to address a joint meeting of Congress on Wednesday, a day after she and President Barack Obama urged the North&#8217;s young leader, Kim Jong Un, to abandon nuclear weapons and rejoin the international community. The strong message of solidarity was delivered amid signs North Korea was moving to dial down tensions that have escalated since it conducted an underground atomic test in February that drew tightened U.N. sanctions. Obama declared that the days when the North could win concessions by creating a crisis were over. He said the allies would respond to aggression, but he also endorsed Park&#8217;s goal of building trust with Pyongyang, as long as it honors international commitments, particularly on denuclearization. &#8220;If what North Korea has been doing has not resulted in a strong, prosperous nation, then now&#8217;s a good time for Kim Jong Un to evaluate that history and take a different path,&#8221; Obama told reporters Tuesday as he stood alongside Park. &#8220;Should he choose to take a different path, not only President Park and myself would welcome it, but the international community as a whole would welcome it.&#8221; Park&#8217;s attempts to build trust with Pyongyang have gained no traction. Relations have only gotten worse since she took office, two weeks after the latest nuclear test — the third conducted by the North since 2006. Pyongyang recently forced the closure of a joint industrial park that was a rare symbol of inter-Korean cooperation. But in a sign that tensions on the Korean Peninsula could be subsiding, U.S. officials reported Tuesday that North Korea has removed from a launch site two mobile, medium-range ballistic missiles that had been readied for possible test-firing. Park, daughter of the late South Korean dictator Park Chung-hee, is on her first overseas trip since taking office in late February after winning elections in the now democratic nation, one of Asia&#8217;s strongest economies. Her visit<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=world.time.com&#038;blog=19871253&#038;post=85535&#038;subd=timeglobalspin&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>South Korea</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://world.time.com/category/asia/south-korea-asia/</primary_category_link>
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			<media:title type="html">timeassociatedpress</media:title>
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		<title>S. Korea to Aid Companies Shut Out of N. Korea Complex</title>
		<link>http://world.time.com/2013/05/02/s-korea-to-aid-companies-shut-out-of-n-korea-complex/</link>
		<comments>http://world.time.com/2013/05/02/s-korea-to-aid-companies-shut-out-of-n-korea-complex/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 02 May 2013 08:34:08 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>AP / YOUKYUNG LEE</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[South Korea]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://world.time.com/?p=84830</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[(SEOUL, South Korea) — South Korea&#8217;s government will provide more than $270 million in emergency loans to help companies affected by the shutdown of a jointly-run factory park in North Korea. The finance ministry said Thursday the 300 billion won ($273 million) in relief funds will help cover debts and operating costs of around 120 South Korean companies that were forced early last month to halt production at factories in the Kaesong industrial complex amid high tensions on the Korean peninsula. Additional financial support will be provided once the parliament approves a bill for an extra budget this year that is part of a broader stimulus plan for South Korea&#8217;s economy, a joint statement from government ministries said. Pyongyang has blocked the entry of South Korean vehicles and personnel to the jointly-run factory park since April 3. The move came as North Korea issued a daily torrent of threats aimed at U.S.-South Korean military drills and U.N. sanctions over Pyongyang&#8217;s February nuclear test. Six days later, it pulled out its 53,000 North Korean workers, halting the factories that had run on cheap labor from North Korea and capital and technology from the South. (MORE: Most South Koreans Leave North Korean Factory) One of the companies that operated at Kaesong said the funds will help ease the burden for businesses that are facing a financial crunch as they have to make payments to contractors and employees. But the loans do not cover the financial losses that would be suffered if South Korean business owners cannot return to Kaesong where they constructed factories, installed production lines and made other investments. &#8220;It will give relief,&#8221; said Park Yun-kyu, chief executive of a South Korean apparel company that used to employ 700 North Koreans in Kaesong. South Korea&#8217;s government offered insurance to companies at Kaesong through a state-owned bank, which compensates up to 7 billion won in the event of shutdown lasting more than one month. However, 27 companies out of 123 did not take the insurance for various reasons, including questions about its<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=world.time.com&#038;blog=19871253&#038;post=84830&#038;subd=timeglobalspin&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>South Korea</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://world.time.com/category/asia/south-korea-asia/</primary_category_link>
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			<media:title type="html">timeassociatedpress</media:title>
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		<title>Looming Clash Between Seoul and Washington Over Nuclear Technology</title>
		<link>http://world.time.com/2013/04/30/looming-clash-between-seoul-and-washington-over-nuclear-technology/</link>
		<comments>http://world.time.com/2013/04/30/looming-clash-between-seoul-and-washington-over-nuclear-technology/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 30 Apr 2013 10:00:54 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Audrey Yoo</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[South Korea]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[energy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[nuclear]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[south korea]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[USA]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://world.time.com/?p=84437</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[When South Korean President Park Geun-hye visits Washington on May 5 she will be reaffirming the 60-year alliance between the U.S. and her country with cordiality. Relations between Washington and Seoul are better than ever thanks to a free-trade agreement, greater policy coordination and solidarity against North Korea’s provocations. But there is an unresolved question in their relationship: How much nuclear technology should South Korea possess? Representatives from both countries have tried to answer that question since October 2010, when they started negotiating over the 1974 nuclear-cooperation agreement, which permits commercial nuclear trade between the two nations. Under the pact, South Korea is banned from reprocessing spent U.S. fuel and enriching uranium — technologies that could be used to make weapons. Now, nearly 40 years after the agreement was signed, South Korea wants Washington to lift that ban. The U.S. refuses to do so. Washington and Seoul were supposed to come up with a new deal this spring before the original agreement expires in March 2014. They haven&#8217;t done so, but to prevent a hiatus in nuclear trade the two decided to extend the current agreement for two years and hold additional negotiations every three months until the new expiry date. “Because our cooperation is increasingly broad and deep, there are several complex technical issues that will take some additional time and effort to resolve,” said the U.S. State Department in a statement. The stopgap extension helps avoid potential awkwardness between Park and Obama at their first summit, but it ultimately underscores the clash between Seoul’s goals to expand its nuclear-energy industry and Washington’s efforts to contain the spread of nuclear technologies that could be used to produce weapons. (PHOTOS: North Korea Ratchets Up Tension on the Peninsula) Washington’s argument is that if South Korea has enrichment and reprocessing rights, then other countries that are trying to sign nuclear-cooperation agreements with the U.S. will also ask for the same rights and undermine nonproliferation efforts. That line of thinking does not go down well in South Korea, which considers itself a<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=world.time.com&#038;blog=19871253&#038;post=84437&#038;subd=timeglobalspin&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>South Korea</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://world.time.com/category/asia/south-korea-asia/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timeglobalspin.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/int-park-geun-hye-1304301.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">South Korea - U.S. Relations</media:title>
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			<media:title type="html">liamfitzpatrick</media:title>
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		<title>South Korea to Withdraw Workers at Factory in North Korea</title>
		<link>http://world.time.com/2013/04/26/south-korea-to-withdraw-workers-at-factory-in-north-korea/</link>
		<comments>http://world.time.com/2013/04/26/south-korea-to-withdraw-workers-at-factory-in-north-korea/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 26 Apr 2013 09:34:47 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>AP / SAM KIM</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[South Korea]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://world.time.com/?p=84015</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[(SEOUL, South Korea) — Seoul said Friday that it has decided to withdraw the roughly 175 South Koreans still at a jointly run factory complex in North Korea, raising a major question about the survival of the last symbol of inter-Korean cooperation. The statement by the country&#8217;s minister in charge of inter-Korean relations came after North Korea rejected Seoul&#8217;s demand for talks on the factory park that has been closed nearly a month. (PHOTOS: Scenes from North Korea&#8217;s Kaesong Industrial Zone) Seoul said it issued a Friday deadline for North Korea to respond to its call for talks because it was worried about its workers not having access to food and medicine. North Korea hasn&#8217;t allowed supplies or workers to cross the border since early this month. &#8220;We&#8217;ve made the inevitable decision to bring back all the remaining personnel in Kaesong for the protection of our people as their difficulties continue to grow,&#8221; Unification Minister Ryoo Kihl-jae said in a televised statement. He didn&#8217;t take questions from reporters. Ryoo urged North Korea to protect the property of South Korean companies at Kaesong and ensure the safety of South Korean managers when they return home. He didn&#8217;t say when the withdrawal would take place. Pyongyang&#8217;s powerful National Defense Commission earlier said Seoul&#8217;s demand for working-level talks was deceptive and that ongoing U.S.-South Korean military drills and the spreading of anti-North Korea leaflets at the border were proof of Seoul&#8217;s insincerity. The park in the North Korean border town of Kaesong is the most significant casualty so far in the recent deterioration of relations between the Koreas. Pyongyang barred South Korean managers and cargo from entering North Korea early this month, then recalled the 53,000 North Koreans who worked on the assembly lines. &#8220;If they are truly worried about the lives of South Korean personnel in the (complex), they may withdraw all of them to the south side where there are stockpiles of food and raw materials and sound medical conditions,&#8221; the statement from an unidentified spokesman for the North&#8217;s National Defense<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=world.time.com&#038;blog=19871253&#038;post=84015&#038;subd=timeglobalspin&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>South Korea</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://world.time.com/category/asia/south-korea-asia/</primary_category_link>
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			<media:title type="html">timeassociatedpress</media:title>
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		<title>S. Korea Demands Talks With N. Korea on Closed Factory</title>
		<link>http://world.time.com/2013/04/24/s-korea-demands-talks-with-n-korea-on-closed-factory/</link>
		<comments>http://world.time.com/2013/04/24/s-korea-demands-talks-with-n-korea-on-closed-factory/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 25 Apr 2013 02:18:30 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>AP / HYUNG-JIN KIM</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[South Korea]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://world.time.com/?p=83761</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[(SEOUL, South Korea) — After weeks of threatening rhetoric from the North, South Korea on Thursday promised its own unspecified &#8220;grave measures&#8221; if Pyongyang rejects talks on a jointly run factory park shuttered for nearly a month. The park in the North Korean border town of Kaesong is the most significant casualty so far in the recent deterioration of relations between the Koreas. Pyongyang barred South Korean managers and cargo from entering North Korea earlier this month, then recalled the 53,000 North Koreans who worked on the assembly lines. South Korea&#8217;s Unification Ministry on Thursday proposed working-level talks on Kaesong and urged the North to respond by noon Friday, warning that Seoul will take &#8220;grave measures&#8221; if Pyongyang rebuffs the call for dialogue. In a televised news conference, spokesman Kim Hyung-suk refused to say what those measures might be. Some analysts said Seoul would likely pull out the roughly 175 South Korean managers who remain at the complex. Kim said South Korea set a Friday deadline because the remaining workers at Kaesong are running short of food and medicine. He said the companies there are suffering economically because of the shutdown. To resolve deadlocked operations at Kaesong, Kim said North Korea should first allow some South Koreans to cross the border to hand over food and medicine to the managers. North Korea didn&#8217;t make an immediate response Thursday, according to the Unification Ministry. (MORE: South Koreans Hope to Return to Kaesong Factories) The demand for talks follows a lull in what had been a period of rising hostility between the Koreas. Pyongyang has recently eased its threats of nuclear war and expressed some tentative signs of interest in dialogue. Its demands, including dismantling all U.S. nuclear weapons, go far beyond what its adversaries will accept, but Washington, Seoul and Beijing have also pushed for an easing of animosity. The Kaesong complex is the last major symbol of cooperation remaining from an earlier era that saw the Koreas set up various projects to facilitate better ties. The factory park has operated<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=world.time.com&#038;blog=19871253&#038;post=83761&#038;subd=timeglobalspin&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>South Korea</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://world.time.com/category/asia/south-korea-asia/</primary_category_link>
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			<media:title type="html">timeassociatedpress</media:title>
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		<title>Japan Ministers War Shrine Visits Anger S. Korea</title>
		<link>http://world.time.com/2013/04/22/japan-ministers-war-shrine-visits-anger-s-korea/</link>
		<comments>http://world.time.com/2013/04/22/japan-ministers-war-shrine-visits-anger-s-korea/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 22 Apr 2013 07:15:52 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>AP / Mari Yamaguchi</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Japan]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[South Korea]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://world.time.com/?p=83213</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[(TOKYO) — Prime Minister Shinzo Abe made donations and three Cabinet ministers prayed at a militarist Japanese shrine over the weekend, sparking South Korean anger. Japan on Monday defended their actions as private. Top government spokesman Yoshihide Suga said that Abe didn&#8217;t visit the Yasukuni Shrine but donated religious ornaments marking the shrine&#8217;s spring festival. The finance minister and two other Cabinet ministers prayed at the shrine. &#8220;My understanding is that the three ministers paid visits to the shrine in their private capacity,&#8221; Suga told a news conference. &#8220;There is no government comment to their shrine visits as private citizens.&#8221; Suga acknowledged reports that South Korea cancelled foreign ministerial talks but he said the talks for later this month were at planning stage and weren&#8217;t official. The shrine honors Japanese wartime leaders convicted of war crimes among 2.5 million war-dead. The shrine compound has a war museum that glorifies Japan&#8217;s wartime past, and the site is a focus of nationalist pride among Japanese conservatives and right-wingers. (MORE: Powerful Quake Hits North of Japan, East of Russia) The visits come as Japan is at odds with South Korea over an island group in the Sea of Japan that Seoul has controlled since the 1950s and increasingly at odds as well with China over a group of small islands in the East China Sea that both countries claim. Suga said Monday the shrine visits and donations were private and shouldn&#8217;t affect diplomacy. &#8220;Each country has its own stance on different issues. We should not let these things affect diplomatic relations,&#8221; Suga added, apparently urging Seoul to calm. Previous visits to the shrine by political leaders have been harshly criticized by South Korea, as well as China and North Korea, which bore the brunt of Japan&#8217;s pre-1945 militarist march through Asia. The visits are regarded as evidence that Japan&#8217;s leaders do not acknowledge their country&#8217;s responsibility for its colonialist past. Abe last visited the shrine in October, when he was opposition leader. National Public Safety Commission chief Keiji Furuya, who paid pilgrimage to<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=world.time.com&#038;blog=19871253&#038;post=83213&#038;subd=timeglobalspin&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Japan</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://world.time.com/category/asia/japan/</primary_category_link>
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			<media:title type="html">timeassociatedpress</media:title>
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		<title>South Koreans Hope to Return to Kaesong Factories</title>
		<link>http://world.time.com/2013/04/18/south-koreans-hope-to-return-to-kaesong-factories/</link>
		<comments>http://world.time.com/2013/04/18/south-koreans-hope-to-return-to-kaesong-factories/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 19 Apr 2013 01:54:39 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>AP / Youkyung Lee</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[South Korea]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://world.time.com/?p=82874</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[(SEOUL, South Korea) — The South Korean entrepreneurs who invested up to 10 years and millions of dollars in the Kaesong industrial complex, a symbol of economic collaboration between the Koreas that is now shuttered by the North, have little more than hope to cling to as assembly lines sit idle day after day. They say they want to go back to work. The sooner the better. They say they cannot abandon their investments in factories, or the cheap North Korean labor that helped them put aside misgivings about doing business with the South&#8217;s unpredictable neighbor. Some were just getting over their beginners&#8217; mistakes and were starting to see the fruits of their work. But North Korea has been unrelenting in its decision to bar South Koreans from entering the factory city just inside its border, and withdraw the 53,000 North Korean workers who manned assembly lines. As the lockout enters a third week, customers of the South Korean companies are growing impatient and losses are mounting. Some businesses are quietly mulling giving up on Kaesong altogether. &#8220;We have built the Kaesong industrial complex by the sweat of our brows, believing in guarantees that we would be able to work freely,&#8221; said Han Jae-kwon, chief of the association of South Korean factories in Kaesong. &#8220;We find the reality tragic and sad that we are unable to travel to our own factories.&#8221; The Kaesong complex has been nearly deserted since early April, when Pyongyang pulled the plug on its last significant economic link with the South. Most of the nearly 900 South Korean managers and entrepreneurs left soon after. Some 200 remain and are getting by on whatever food they had stored. The shutdown was punishment for Seoul&#8217;s decision to forge ahead with ongoing joint military drills with the United States that have incensed Pyongyang because it sees the exercises as a rehearsal for an invasion. Restricting travel through the heavily armed border is also a way to remind South Koreans that a state of war hangs over the Korean Peninsula,<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=world.time.com&#038;blog=19871253&#038;post=82874&#038;subd=timeglobalspin&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>South Korea</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://world.time.com/category/asia/south-korea-asia/</primary_category_link>
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			<media:title type="html">timeassociatedpress</media:title>
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		<title>Psy Unveils His New &#8216;Gentleman&#8217; Video and Dance at Extravagant Seoul Concert</title>
		<link>http://world.time.com/2013/04/13/psy-unveils-his-new-gentleman-video-and-dance-at-extravagant-seoul-concert/</link>
		<comments>http://world.time.com/2013/04/13/psy-unveils-his-new-gentleman-video-and-dance-at-extravagant-seoul-concert/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 13 Apr 2013 17:48:37 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Emily Rauhala</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[South Korea]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[K-pop]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[music]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[PSY]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Seoul]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[south korea]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://world.time.com/?p=81457</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Fans of pelvic thrusts are going to love Psy&#8217;s new single. At a concert in Seoul on Saturday night, the South Korean star debuted the music video — and cheeky dance moves — for his new song, &#8220;Gentleman.&#8221; The show, which kept a crowd of 50,000 on their feet for several hours, was live-streamed on YouTube, the video-sharing site that helped make &#8220;Gangnam Style&#8221; one of music&#8217;s biggest ever hits — and where the song&#8217;s video is the most watched ever. The whole affair was an epic display of showmanship that included, among other things, Psy singing a heartfelt ballad (and welling up) while dangling on cables above World Cup Stadium, and a campy cover of Beyoncé&#8217;s &#8220;Single Ladies,&#8221; performed in a one-piece, thigh-bearing leotard. (Let&#8217;s just say we saw a lot of Psy.) (PHOTOS: Celebrity Sightings: On the Radar) Beyond the new song (it&#8217;s catchy) and dance (get practicing), the concert had the feeling of a homecoming. Since &#8220;Gangnam Style&#8221; went viral last year, garnering more than 1.5 billion views on YouTube, Psy has become an unofficial ambassador for South Korea, performing the hit around the world. Indeed, when Psy, whose real name is Park Jae-sang, met U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon last fall, Ban joked that he&#8217;d been replaced as the most recognizable South Korean in the world. Psy, with characteristic modesty, said he was &#8220;touched&#8221; by the comment. Somehow, amid girls in gold lamé and back-flipping b-boys, the 35-year-old entertainer managed to strike a poignant tone, talking at length about what it meant to be home. He sang &#8220;We Are the One,&#8221; a crowd favorite, against a background of flashing South Korean flags. In some ways it felt odd to be shaking it to Psy tonight. As anyone who has turned on a television recently knows, tensions between North Korea and South Korea are running high. The international press has been warning of an &#8220;imminent&#8221; missile launch for days. Just yesterday, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry flew into Seoul to talk nuclear strategy with President Park Geun-hye<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=world.time.com&#038;blog=19871253&#038;post=81457&#038;subd=timeglobalspin&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>South Korea</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://world.time.com/category/asia/south-korea-asia/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timeglobalspin.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/3227199d11864154b5e7106eb2d51e0e-0.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">PSY</media:title>
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			<media:title type="html">emilyrauhala</media:title>
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		<title>In the Shadow of North Korean Threats, South Korea Shrugs</title>
		<link>http://world.time.com/2013/04/10/in-the-shadow-of-north-korean-threats-south-korea-shrugs/</link>
		<comments>http://world.time.com/2013/04/10/in-the-shadow-of-north-korean-threats-south-korea-shrugs/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 10 Apr 2013 17:57:47 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Emily Rauhala / Seoul</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[North Korea]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[South Korea]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[DPRK]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[John Kerry]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[kim jong un]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[missile]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Norht Korea]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[nuclear test]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Republic of Korea]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[south korea]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[united states]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://world.time.com/?p=80871</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Nobody does bluster better than Pyongyang. In the past few weeks the country&#8217;s hardworking propagandists declared a &#8220;state of war&#8221; with South Korea, announced plans to restart a plutonium-producing reactor and threatened the U.S. with nuclear Armageddon. A North Korean spokesman found the time to decry the &#8220;venomous swish&#8221; of the South Korean President’s skirt. And dictator Kim Jong Un reportedly urged frontline troops to “break the waists of the crazy enemies, totally cut their windpipes and thus clearly show them what a real war is like.” Fighting words, sure, but nothing entirely new here. For decades Pyongyang has promised to reduce the Republic of Korea to a &#8220;sea of fire,&#8221; using regular rounds of escalation to secure concessions from the outside world. Last week, as part of an almost daily barrage of threats, North Korea warned that it could not secure the safety of diplomats in the capital beyond April 10 and advised foreigners to evacuate Seoul. But Wednesday came and went, the diplomatic corps stayed put, and Seoul shrugged off the warning, more aggravated, it seemed, than genuinely anxious. &#8220;North Korea is using provocation because it has worked in the past,&#8221; Cho Han-bum, a senior researcher at the Korea Institute for National Unification tells TIME. &#8220;North Korea is not preparing for war.&#8221; (MORE: China’s Long, Fruitless History of Irritation With North Korea) Tell that to the Americans. One of the strangest things about the current crisis is that it seems like the farther you get from the Korean Peninsula, the greater the level of fear. For weeks now the international press has been warning of &#8220;imminent&#8221; war, a claim unhelpfully bolstered by the likes of Vladimir Putin, who predicted that conflict with North Korea could make Chernobyl look &#8220;like a child&#8217;s fairy tale.&#8221; Chuck Hagel, the U.S. Secretary of Defense, was less colorful, but equally urgent, saying North Korea constitutes &#8220;clear and real&#8221; danger to the U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is due to fly into Seoul for talks this week. Perhaps unsurprisingly, findings released on Tuesday by the Pew Research<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=world.time.com&#038;blog=19871253&#038;post=80871&#038;subd=timeglobalspin&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Asia</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://world.time.com/category/asia/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timeglobalspin.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/int-north-korea-130410.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">A group of anti-North Korean protesters release balloons with peace messages during a protest to denounce the North as they hold a placard showing a portrait of North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un in Paju.</media:title>
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		<media:content url="http://0.gravatar.com/avatar/685aa29b1011d4b1532472221fc5468f?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2Fs0.wp.com%2Fi%2Fmu.gif&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">emilyrauhala</media:title>
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		<title>Poker on the Korean Peninsula: Why Kim Jong Un Keeps Raising the Stakes</title>
		<link>http://world.time.com/2013/04/03/poker-on-the-korean-peninsula-why-kim-jong-un-keeps-raising-the-stakes/</link>
		<comments>http://world.time.com/2013/04/03/poker-on-the-korean-peninsula-why-kim-jong-un-keeps-raising-the-stakes/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 03 Apr 2013 05:14:07 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Austin Ramzy</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Asia]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[North Korea]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[South Korea]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://world.time.com/?p=79374</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[It seems paradoxical to say it, given Pyongyang’s almost daily exercises in escalation, but the North Korean leadership almost certainly does not want to go to war. Not that it would flinch at a massive loss of life if it meant propping up the regime. That, after all, has been the logic by which the Kim dynasty has run the country for more than half a century. The problem is that a full-scale conflict would almost certainly mean the destruction of the North Korean state and the likelihood of a violent end for its young leader, Kim Jong Un. “No, he doesn’t want to start a war because a war is suicidal from his perspective,” says John Delury, a professor of Chinese studies and North Korea watcher at Yonsei University in Seoul. “For him the endgame is not a war.” Like his father before him, Kim is focused on surviving. While the isolated North Korean leadership is sometimes seen as erratic and crazy — a case not helped by Kim&#8217;s partying with Dennis Rodman or publishing photos of a map showing strike plans for the continental U.S. — it remains committed to staying in power. It has survived for half a century by avoiding any fights that it can’t win or at least, as with the Korean War, draw to a bloody stalemate. For all its goading, North Korea is unlikely to want to start a doomed conflict now. (PHOTOS: North Korea Ratchets Up Tension on the Peninsula) So why then has North Korea gone into incitement overdrive, threatening preemptive nuclear strikes, withdrawing from the 1953 Korean War armistice, cutting off hotlines with South Korea, pledging to restart the plutonium reactor at Yongbyon that was shuttered as part of a 2007 deal and, on Wednesday, blocking South Korean workers from a jointly run factory park? One explanation is that North Korea may feel more isolated and vulnerable than usual, despite its recent displays of nuclear and ballistic-missile capability. The annual military exercises by U.S. and South Korean forces have angered North Korea<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=world.time.com&#038;blog=19871253&#038;post=79374&#038;subd=timeglobalspin&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Asia</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://world.time.com/category/asia/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timeglobalspin.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/970_int_korea_0402.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">North Korean soldiers</media:title>
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			<media:title type="html">austinramzy</media:title>
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		<title>Filial Pity: Is South Korea Doing Enough to Stop Elderly Suicides?</title>
		<link>http://world.time.com/2013/03/25/filial-pity-is-south-korea-doing-enough-to-stop-elderly-suicides/</link>
		<comments>http://world.time.com/2013/03/25/filial-pity-is-south-korea-doing-enough-to-stop-elderly-suicides/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 26 Mar 2013 03:00:59 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Audrey Yoo</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[South Korea]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[World]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[disintegration]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[health]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[industrialization]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[OECD]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[public health]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[social safety net]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[social welfare]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[south korea]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[suicide]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[suicide-prevention]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://world.time.com/?p=76160</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The Korea Suicide Prevention Center has a message for the people of South Korea: &#8220;Life is precious! We can protect it.&#8221; The slogan, displayed in pamphlets, placards and on its website, is meant to encourage people to seek help if they are feeling suicidal. All too often, it seems, that message is not getting through. An average of 43 people commit suicide on any given day, making South Korea the most suicide-prone country in the developed world. Unlike most rich countries, South Korea’s suicide rate — nearly triple that of the U.S. — has been rising dramatically, jumping by 101.8% from 2000 to 2010. The rate is twice as high among the elderly. (MORE: South Korea Rattled by Suicide of Bullied Teen) Why are South Korean seniors so prone to suicide? Though researchers are still trying to understand the trend, they point to several overlapping factors. For one, there&#8217;s history. Social workers say suicide among the elderly population is in some ways a by-product of the country&#8217;s breakneck industrialization, an economic transformation that turned South Korea into one of the richest nations in the world. During this time especially, the whole country was so fixated on prosperity that people who were more economically productive were considered more valuable members of society. That perception still exists. Elderly citizens, who are generally perceived as less productive, are therefore seen as less valuable. &#8220;Our society has become extremely competitive in the past 30 to 40 years of economic development, and we have turned into a society that does not care for our weakest members,&#8221; explains Kim Dong-hyun, who teaches social medicine at Hallym University. The country&#8217;s economic transformation has changed social relations too. Confucianism, which emphasizes filial piety, has been the bedrock of Korean society for hundreds of years and, historically, older citizens would rely on their children to take care of them. That is changing and has been compounded by high rates of migration. Today many older Koreans do not live under same roof as their children and grandchildren. &#8220;The collapse of communities and the collective ostracization of elderly citizens are driving<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=world.time.com&#038;blog=19871253&#038;post=76160&#038;subd=timeglobalspin&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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	<primary_category>South Korea</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://world.time.com/category/asia/south-korea-asia/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timeglobalspin.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/h_14318866.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">Lee Geum-sook, a volunteer for elderly people, right, tries to comfort Yoon Jeom-do, an 89-year-old elderly woman who lives alone in an apartment in Nowon district in Seoul, as she sheds tears, South Korea, Oct, 18, 2012.</media:title>
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			<media:title type="html">audreyyoo</media:title>
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		<title>South Korea Rattled by Suicide of Bullied Teen</title>
		<link>http://world.time.com/2013/03/17/south-korea-rattled-by-suicide-of-bullied-teen/</link>
		<comments>http://world.time.com/2013/03/17/south-korea-rattled-by-suicide-of-bullied-teen/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 18 Mar 2013 02:35:59 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Audrey Yoo</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[South Korea]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[World]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[bullying]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Park Geun-hye]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[school violence]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Seoul]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[social ills]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[south korea]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[suicide]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://world.time.com/?p=75277</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[South Korea is stepping up its campaign against school bullying in the wake of a young victim’s suicide last week. A 15-year-old high schooler, only identified by his surname Choi, jumped out of his apartment home in the southeastern city of Gyeongsan last Monday after being bullied for roughly two years. His death — the second youth suicide in South Korea this month — has shocked the nation and called into question the government’s efforts to stop school violence. (MORE: Seoul Launches Suicide Watchdog) In his suicide note, Choi named five students who he says had bullied him physically and verbally since 2011. He also criticized the government-mandated, closed-circuit television cameras in schools. According to the Wall Street Journal, he wrote, “You’ll never be able to spot school violence the way it is now. There are blind spots in classrooms and restrooms where no closed-circuit cameras are installed. That is where most school violence happens.” In a meeting held after the news of Choi’s suicide, President Park Geun-hye declared school violence as a “social ill” — along with sexual violence, domestic violence and low-quality food — and called for solutions to “eradicate” these problems. On Thursday, the administration announced that it would install high-resolution, closed-circuit cameras at schools across the country and crack down on school gangs. Courses on preventing school bullying and building more security offices in schools are also in the works. (MORE: Fallout of Ex-South Korea President’s Suicide) Government statistics show that suicide is the leading cause of death among 10- to 19-year-olds in South Korea, where young students often face intense pressure to conform and excel in hypercompetitive academic environments. Most young South Koreans who commit suicide are believed to do so because of bullying and family problems. South Korea’s Education Ministry will start its first nationwide fact-finding survey on school violence for the 2013 academic year on March 25. The results of the survey, which critics have called unhelpful because of students’ tendencies to underreport cases, will help determine future antibullying-policy direction. MORE: South Koreans<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=world.time.com&#038;blog=19871253&#038;post=75277&#038;subd=timeglobalspin&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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	<primary_category>World</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://world.time.com/category/world/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timeglobalspin.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/159331326wp.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">South Korea Suicide Prevention</media:title>
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			<media:title type="html">audreyyoo</media:title>
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		<title>South Korean Flight Attendants Fight Skirt-Only Dress Code</title>
		<link>http://world.time.com/2013/02/07/south-korean-flight-attendants-fight-skirt-only-dress-code/</link>
		<comments>http://world.time.com/2013/02/07/south-korean-flight-attendants-fight-skirt-only-dress-code/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 07 Feb 2013 08:44:35 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Kristene Quan</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[South Korea]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Asiana Airlines]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[flight attendants]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[gender equality]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[skirt-only dress codes]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[south korea]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Women's Rights]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://world.time.com/?p=67688</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[After a long-fought battle over the company dress code, female flight attendants at Asiana Airlines might be getting new uniforms — and, for the first time, permission to wear pants, according to Jezebel. Since last year, the flight attendants&#8217; labor union has been working with the country&#8217;s human rights commission to make changes to the airline&#8217;s appearance guidelines. The 10-page form, with which all of Asiana&#8217;s 3,400 female flight attendants at are expected to comply, governs everything from how many hairpins flight attendants can wear to the length of their earrings, reported the New York Times.  In contrast, a similar set of guidelines for Asiana&#8217;s 200 male flight attendants runs only to two pages. Among these guidelines — which also tell women how much eyeliner and makeup they&#8217;re required to wear — is a rule stipulating that flight attendants may not wear trousers. The airline agreed to consider changing that rule in the next uniform redesign, although it didn’t specify when that would happen. (MORE: Behind the Story: TIME’s Emily Rauhala Discusses South Korea’s First Female President) Asiana, South Korea&#8217;s second-largest carrier, is the only airline in the country with a no-trouser rule, the Washington Post reported.  The company instated the policy as a means to emphasize the brand’s “high-class Korean beauty” and give it a competitive edge in the Asian market, according to Jezebel. Although it’s only a partial victory for the union, they are pleased that the airline is considering changing their uniforms.  “I hope the decision would help change similar discriminatory rules that govern how women in service industries, such as hotels, dress and do their hair and makeup,” union head Kweon Soo-joung said. (MORE: Airline Says Attendants Don’t Have to Help Passengers, Be Nice, or Listen to Complaints)<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=world.time.com&#038;blog=19871253&#038;post=67688&#038;subd=timeglobalspin&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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	<primary_category>South Korea</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://world.time.com/category/asia/south-korea-asia/</primary_category_link><letterbox>1</letterbox><featured_image>http://timeglobalspin.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/nf_south_korean_flight_attendants_0207.jpg?w=228</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">timecontributor2</media:title>
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		<title>What a Park Presidency Means for South Korea&#8217;s Foreign Policy</title>
		<link>http://world.time.com/2012/12/27/what-a-park-presidency-means-for-south-koreas-foreign-policy/</link>
		<comments>http://world.time.com/2012/12/27/what-a-park-presidency-means-for-south-koreas-foreign-policy/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 27 Dec 2012 07:01:00 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Audrey Yoo</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[South Korea]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Foreign Policy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Park Chung-hee]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[south korea]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://world.time.com/?p=61245</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Updated: Thursday, 09:25 p.m. After a tight race, South Korean voters last week picked Park Geun-hye of the establishment Saenuri Party as their next President. Park, the daughter of South Korea’s Cold War–era strongman Park Chung-hee, defeated challenger Moon Jae-in of the center-left Democratic United Party in a contest focused on domestic issues like regulating big business and improving the lot of the middle class. While both candidates said the economy needed opening up and diversifying, Park proposed a more moderate style of reform than her rival. On the foreign policy front, however, she could well usher in bigger changes. South Koreans used to joke that their country was a “shrimp among whales” because it is flanked by the giants China and Russia, as well as Japan and, of course, the other and more bellicose Korea to the north. Today, however, South Korea is an emerging power. It is the world’s 11th biggest economy, sixth biggest exporter and on track to become the eighth biggest trading nation. And because it lies in a geopolitical hotspot, with an economy dependent on exports, the new President’s direction of foreign policy will matter. “[South] Korea is one of the most connected countries in the world,” says Troy Stangarone of the U.S.-based Korea Economic Institute of America. “Both its role in Northeast Asia and globally will probably be shaped by the next administration.” (MORE: South Korea Elects First Female President: Park Geun-hye) Park&#8217;s foremost challenge when she takes office in February will be North Korea. The outgoing government of President Lee Myung-bak, a no-nonsense former corporate CEO, reversed 10 years of so-called sunshine policy — a conciliatory approach to Pyongyang that saw two summits, the South&#8217;s investments in the North and reunions of family members separated by the Korean War. Lee adopted a stern approach, cutting off dialogue and humanitarian aid over Pyongyang’s unwillingness to drop its nuclear-weapons program. When North Korea torpedoed the South Korean naval ship Cheonan in March 2010, the Lee Administration blocked nearly all trade with the North. Later that<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=world.time.com&#038;blog=19871253&#038;post=61245&#038;subd=timeglobalspin&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>South Korea</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://world.time.com/category/asia/south-korea-asia/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timeglobalspin.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/skorea_pgh_1227.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">audreyyoo</media:title>
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		<title>Behind the Story: TIME’s Emily Rauhala Discusses South Korea’s First Female President</title>
		<link>http://world.time.com/2012/12/20/behind-the-story-times-emily-rauhala-discusses-south-koreas-first-female-president-2/</link>
		<comments>http://world.time.com/2012/12/20/behind-the-story-times-emily-rauhala-discusses-south-koreas-first-female-president-2/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 20 Dec 2012 21:46:59 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Patrick Boehler</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Asia]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[South Korea]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://world.time.com/?p=60686</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[On Dec. 19, conservative candidate Park Geun-hye won the race for the South Korean presidency. The 60-year-old career politician will be South Korea’s first female President when she is inaugurated in February. She is also the daughter of former President Park Chung-hee, the dictator who ruled the country from 1961 to 1979. TIME Asia associate editor Emily Rauhala wrote about Park and her campaign for a recent magazine cover story. The day after Park&#8217;s election victory in a tight contest, TIME spoke to Rauhala to get the story behind the story of Park’s historic return to the Blue House. What surprised you when you followed Park on the campaign trail? I saw Park Geun-hye campaigning in enemy territory. I followed her to the city of Kwangju in the country&#8217;s southwest, which is part of a region that has historically supported liberal candidates. I had heard that she was very cold, and I knew she had the nickname Ice Queen. So what surprised me was her demeanor with people: she had a strange mix of being very reserved and yet very personable at the same time. She is great about shaking people&#8217;s hands, about making eye contact, about politely bowing to the people before her, but — at least in Kwangju — she rarely lingered to ask questions. I got the impression that her image was tightly controlled. Park&#8217;s father General Park Chung-hee, who ran the country for 18 years, developed South Korea&#8217;s economy in a way that split the country from east to west. The southeast, where he was from, became the industrial heart of the country, while the people in the west now feel that they have been left behind. Yet she operated well in this hostile environment. Looking back at her successful campaign, was her father’s legacy an asset to Park Geun-hye’s presidential aspirations? Her father Park Chung-hee is probably the single most influential and single most divisive figure in contemporary South Korean history. The legacy is both her blessing and her curse. On the plus side, her father is idolized, particularly by some older South Koreans. He is credited with revolutionizing the economy, transforming<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=world.time.com&#038;blog=19871253&#038;post=60686&#038;subd=timeglobalspin&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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	<primary_category>South Korea</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://world.time.com/category/asia/south-korea-asia/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timeglobalspin.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/int_park_1221.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">Park Geun-hye</media:title>
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		<title>The Burden of History: A Divided South Korea Heads to the Polls</title>
		<link>http://world.time.com/2012/12/18/the-burden-of-history-a-divided-south-korea-heads-to-the-polls/</link>
		<comments>http://world.time.com/2012/12/18/the-burden-of-history-a-divided-south-korea-heads-to-the-polls/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 19 Dec 2012 04:21:12 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Emily Rauhala</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Asia]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Elections]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[South Korea]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://world.time.com/?p=60108</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Last week North Korea launched a missile; South Korea barely flinched. While the world watched Pyongyang, the southern half of the Korean peninsula kept its gaze fixed on coverage of its presidential race. The hard-fought contest between Park Geun-hye of the ruling Saenuri Party and challenger Moon Jae-in of the opposition Democratic United Party has consumed the country for months. Park, 60, is the daughter of the late dictator Park Chung-hee. Moon, 59, was once imprisoned for opposing his authoritarian rule. If Park wins, she will make history as the country&#8217;s first woman President. A Moon victory would return the country&#8217;s left-leaning opposition. As South Koreans vote today, the race is too close to call. Final polls, conducted a week before the ballot, put the candidates at a statistical dead heat. Whoever wins, the stakes are high. Some 50 years ago, South Korea was an economic backwater. Today, it is the world&#8217;s 11th largest economy, according the HSBC figures, and an emerging cultural force (ask Psy). But people are restless. While outsiders may imagine a country consumed by what&#8217;s happening in the north, the election contest has been dominated by domestic concerns, especially quality-of-life issues. The economy is predicted to grow at 3.8% in 2013, yet South Koreans are worried about the future. Household debt has reached 154% of disposable household income, the suicide rate is the highest in among the OECD countries, and the gap between rich and poor is widening. Courting the political center, both candidates are promising some variation on a fresh start. (MORE: History&#8217;s Child: Park Geun-Hye Aims to Make History as South Korea&#8217;s First Female President) For all the talk of change, however, both Park and Moon are running in the shadows of past Presidents. Park&#8217;s father is the single most influential figure in contemporary Korean history. Gen. Park Chung-hee, who seized power in a military coup in 1961 and ruled until his assassination in &#8217;79, is both loved and hated in South Korea. He is credited with orchestrating the country&#8217;s postwar economic transformation, but is faulted for suppressing dissent.<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=world.time.com&#038;blog=19871253&#038;post=60108&#038;subd=timeglobalspin&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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	<primary_category>Elections</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://world.time.com/category/elections/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timeglobalspin.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/park-geun-hye.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">image: South Korea&#039;s presidential candidate Park Geun-hye of conservative and right wing ruling Saenuri Party waves to supporters during an election campaign rally in front of a railway station in Busan, South Korea, Dec. 18, 2012.</media:title>
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			<media:title type="html">emilyrauhala</media:title>
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		<title>South Korea: One of the World&#8217;s Great Success Stories Heads to the Polls</title>
		<link>http://world.time.com/2012/12/06/is-south-korea-the-greatest-success-story-of-the-last-century/</link>
		<comments>http://world.time.com/2012/12/06/is-south-korea-the-greatest-success-story-of-the-last-century/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 07 Dec 2012 02:00:33 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Emily Rauhala</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Asia]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[South Korea]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[book]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Daniel Tudor]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Korea]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Korea: The Impossible Country]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Korean election]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Moon Jae-in]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[North Korea]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Park Geun-hye]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Q & A]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[south korea]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://world.time.com/?p=58224</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Sixty years ago, South Korea was an economic wasteland. Today, it is not only the world&#8217;s 11th largest economy, but also a vibrant democracy and an emerging cultural force. This transformation is the subject of a new book, Korea: The Impossible Country, by Daniel Tudor, Korea correspondent for the Economist. He argues that, thanks in part to its neighbors, South Korea is all too often overlooked. A pity, he says, since &#8220;South Koreans have written the most unlikely and impressive story of nation-building of the last century.&#8221; In less than two weeks, on Dec. 19, South Korea&#8217;s story will take another turn with the election of a new President. To get a feel for what&#8217;s at stake, TIME talked to Tudor about the book, the election and, of course, Seoul&#8217;s unpredictable neighbor, North Korea. Here are some highlights: (TIME&#8217;s Asia Cover Story: History&#8217;s Child: Park Geun-hye) So, what is &#8216;impossible&#8217; about South Korea? If you go back to the 1950s and the early 1960s, Korea was really one of the poorest places in the world. People didn&#8217;t expect it to survive, and many people expected North Korea to take it over eventually. I was talking to this guy who was an adviser to former dictator Park Chung-hee, who said, &#8216;We were the poorest, most impossible country on the planet.&#8217; For Korea to have gone from this sort of messed-up, disorderly, broke country into a wealthy democracy — it would have been impossible to imagine. But the Korean people have done it. For young people in Korea now, however, life is full of impossible targets. You have to go to the right university, get the right job and marry the right person. And when your kids are born, you have to put them through the same trials and tribulations. Life is in some ways impossible. You suggest that South Korea doesn&#8217;t get the level of interest it deserves. How so?  Korea probably gets overshadowed by China, Japan and North Korea. The first is a massive growth story. The second is famous as a<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=world.time.com&#038;blog=19871253&#038;post=58224&#038;subd=timeglobalspin&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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	<primary_category>Asia</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://world.time.com/category/asia/</primary_category_link><letterbox>1</letterbox><featured_image>http://timeglobalspin.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/korea_bk_cover_1205.jpg?w=240</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">Korea: The Impossible Country</media:title>
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			<media:title type="html">emilyrauhala</media:title>
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		<title>Must-Reads from Around the World</title>
		<link>http://world.time.com/2012/09/20/must-reads-from-around-the-world-30/</link>
		<comments>http://world.time.com/2012/09/20/must-reads-from-around-the-world-30/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 20 Sep 2012 10:55:32 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>TIME.com</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Asia]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Daily Briefing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Europe]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Latin America]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[South Korea]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Ahn Cheol-soo]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[cannabis]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Drug War]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[extraction industry]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Global Witness]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[marijuana]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Moon Jae-in]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[natural resources]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Park Geun-hye]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[presidential election]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[state monopoly]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[the resource curse]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[uruguay]]></category>

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		<description><![CDATA[South Korea Election &#8211; South Korean millionaire Ahn Cheol-soo, who founded the country&#8217;s largest antivirus software, is campaigning as an independent candidate in the presidential election in December, reports Bloomberg. Ahn is running against the ruling party candidate Park Geun-hye and the main opposition&#8217;s Moon Jae-in to govern the Northeast Asian country for a single five-year term. Ahn, a physician turned software creator, &#8220;must confront questions about his lack of governing experience to win voters dissatisfied with growing income disparity and rising youth unemployment,&#8221; wrote Bloomberg.  Uruguay&#8217;s Drug War &#8212; Uruguay&#8217;s ruling coalition, reports the Christian Science Monitor, has introduced a radical idea to stem drug-related violence: a state monopoly over the production and distribution of marijuana. The bill, proposed by the center-left Broad Front, would make the South American country the first national government to sell marijuana directly to the public. &#8220;The government says the measure is necessary to combat rising drug-related crime, decrease health risks for users, and counter ineffective U.S. policies on drugs,&#8221; but interest groups say the bill is totalitarian, wrote CSM. Extraction Industries &#8212; VOA News notes that Europe is trying to shed light on corruption in extraction industries in developing countries. A European Parliamentary committee has okayed proposed legislation that would require European companies to publish payments they make to governments in exchange for natural resources. Watchdog group Global Witness said many developing countries are victims of &#8220;the resource course&#8221; &#8212; even though they have abundant supplies of &#8220;oil, gas, timber or minerals, citizens in those countries often fail to see any benefits when those resources are extracted and sold,&#8221; wrote VOA. U.S.-China Relations – Dozens of angry protesters surrounded the car of U.S. Ambassador Gary Locke in Beijing on Tuesday, CNN reports.  Some protesters threw objects at the vehicle before a security detail intervened. The United States “expressed concern to China about the unusual disturbance,” a move that follows ramped up security initiatives at U.S. embassies after the death of Ambassador Chris Stevens in Libya. This incident took place as anti-Japanese protests erupted throughout several Chinese cities over a territorial<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=world.time.com&#038;blog=19871253&#038;post=45974&#038;subd=timeglobalspin&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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