Thursday's Link Attack: NK Famine Overblown? Baltimore Murder, KA Joins Grantland

Reports of North Korea food shortages overblown, say US, South Korea
Christian Science Monitor via Yahoo News

The US and South Korea disagree with the United Nations World Food Program about the extent to which North Koreans suffer from lack of food.

Delivery driver shot Tuesday afternoon recently started his own business
The Baltimore Sun

Chong Wan Yim, who emigrated from South Korea, held a variety of jobs in Baltimore — from running his own restaurant to starting his own delivery business just months ago.

“I think he was a really hard worker. He was trying to make an honest living,” said his friend, Jay Park. “There are no words to say about what happened. We’re are realizing how vulnerable we are, even in the daytime.”

While making a stop in an unmarked box truck about 3 p.m. Tuesday at the Erdman Shopping Center in Belair-Edison, the 55-year-old was shot in the chest. He died at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center.

S.Korea Soccer League ‘Could Close Over Fixing’
AFP via Yahoo News

South Korea’s only professional football league could be closed down if it becomes embroiled in another match-fixing scandal, a government minister threatened Thursday.

The K-League has been rattled for weeks by a match-rigging controversy, with 10 current players facing criminal charges so far and one more charged by military prosecutors. Another implicated player committed suicide.

Why Korean girls can’t find guys, and vice versa
JoongAng Daily

For well-educated Korean women in their late 20s, there simply aren’t enough suitable boys to go around. This isn’t just powder room or water cooler talk. The fact is backed up by hard statistics.


Theater Review | ‘Hamyul/Hamlet’ – Hamlet as Eager Korean Prince
New York Times

There’s not much indecision from Shakespeare’s prince in “Hamyul/Hamlet,” a Korean-language adaptation of the play at La MaMa. But boy, is there intensity. In a show that runs just 90 minutes, this is a Hamlet quick to rage and eager for revenge, one who jettisons his infamous uncertainty long before the final scenes.

Awl Publisher David Cho Heeds the Call of Grantland
New York Observer

David Cho is stepping down from his position as publisher of The Awl. He is relocating to Los Angeles on Sunday to work for Bill Simmons at Grantland, he told friends in a mass e-mail.

Kim Jong-il’s Train Stops Short of Russian Border
Chosun Ilbo

An armored train believed to be carrying North Korean leader Kim Jong-il was spotted heading to the Russian border on Tuesday evening. Diplomatic sources in Seoul said U.S. and South Korean intelligence officials confirmed that the armored train left Pyongyang and headed toward Hamgyong Province, and Kim was expected to meet Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in Vladivostok. But the train never crossed the border, according to a source.

S. Korea firm to launch super-fast wireless service
AFP via Yahoo News

South Korea’s top mobile carrier SK Telecom said it would launch its super-fast 4G wireless service Friday to meet growing demand from users of smartphones and tablet computers.

The company said it would begin providing the new service, based on Long-Term Evolution (LTE) technology, in Seoul and would secure national coverage by 2013.

South Korean operators now use WiBro or WiMax network technology, but a fast increase in smartphone and tablet users has pushed them to deploy new networks for higher-speed data services.

Visiting female US ROTCs encourage Korean counterparts
Dong-A-Ilbo

Lee Jun, a Korean American majoring in history at Emory University in Atlanta, said, “I wanted to be a soldier and also wanted to cover my college tuition of 52,000 U.S. dollars through the ROTC program.”

New Club Version of Far East Movement’s ‘If I Was You (OMG)’
channelapa.com

Far East Movement released the club remixed version of “If I Was You (OMG)“. Like their Girls on the Dance Floor (Official Tour Music Video), Far East Movement uses tour footage. This time it’s from FM’s recent Free Wired World College Tour. Look for cameos from Snoop Dogg on the turntables and LMFAO on the TV.