Mark James Russell

Books, blog and other blather

Category: Korean government

Name of Thrones

February 17, 2014 / / 0 Comments

Ahn Chul-soo has announced the name of his new political party, “새정치연합” — or, if you don’t know hangul, “Sae Jeongchi Yeonhap.” Literally, that’s “New Political Coalition.”

But for some reason, he has decided to call his party the “New Political Vision Party” in English. Why? Was something wrong with “Coalition”? Why have “vision” only in English?

Maybe it does not matter, but after years of “Ministry of Knowledge Economy” and “Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning” (not to mention “creative economy”), I live in fear of what future administrations will bring to their ministry and policy names.

Friday morning links

January 17, 2014 / / 0 Comments

There’s a very fun story in the Korea JoongAng Daily about the movie The Attorney coming on Monday. I’m really looking forward to linking to it. But in the meantime, here are a few things I’ve found interesting recently:

  • Google may be just the No. 3 most popular search engine in Korea (after Naver and Daum), but it is on the rise, while the local sites are stagnant or declining. Nate is bleeding particularly badly. (Korea JoongAng Daily)
  • For a great example of all that is wrong with government trying to promote pop culture, here’s a collaboration between YG Entertainment and the Ministry of Science, ICT, and Future Planning.  (Korea JoongAng Daily)
  • In related news, here’s an interview with Korea’s minister of science (and ICT and future planning) talking way too much about “creative economy” (Korea JoongAng Daily)
  • Trying to save 8,000 year old rock art that spends half the year underwater because of a dam (Korea JoongAng Daily)
  • Very fun article about the rise of tattoos in Korea. I’ve already regretted never writing that feature on tattoos in Korea for Newsweek, back when I had the chance. (Korea JoongAng Daily)
  • Korean Film Archive has released a list of the top 101 Korean films. Was supposed to be 100, but they gave 101. Whatever. Still, it’s an interesting list. Plus the KFA is going to restore the classic film Aimless Bullet (aka Obaltan) — I have it on DVD and, while interesting, the quality is pretty terrible. Plus the KFA has found a copy of a music documentary/film from 1968; I really want to see this and hope it is full of good performances by the singers of the day. (Korea JoongAng Daily)

Meanwhile, the weather outside is frightful. No, we’re not experiencing brutal cold or a winter snowstorm. But we are in the middle of a huge chemical fart from China. Thanks China for messing up the air!

From the KMA:

 

Strangely, if appropriately, the Korean website for those color maps of the pollution is called “Kaq“, for Korea Air Quality. But it sounds like “cack“, because that’s pretty much the air quality today.

Monday Morning Links

September 2, 2013 / / 0 Comments
  • Tom Coyner’s column today is an insightful look at historical preservation — or lack thereof — in Korea. He’s not just criticizing Koreas for not preserving their culture in the “right” way. Rather, it is more about two very different approaches to preservation. (Korea JoongAng Daily)
  • The positive, upbeat world of Korea’s only privately-run prison. Cheaper than regular prisons with a much lower recidivism rate (Korea JoongAng Daily)
  • The new, 800 km trail that goes around Mount Halla on Jeju Island (Korea JoongAng Daily)
  • Want a job at a Korean company? They’re looking for passion and diligence. Creativity? Not so much. Tough news for President Park Geun-hye’s “creative economy” plans. (Chosun Ilbo)
  • If “credibility” and “capability” become necessary to bringing criminal charges against Korean politicians (e.g.: charging the UPP with insurrection), I fear you might as well give all Korean politicians blanket immunity. (Hankyoreh)

As for this weekend’s box office (Fri-Sun):

Title – Weekend tix – total tix – Weekend revenue – Total Revenue
1. Now You See Me – 626,000 – 2.2 million – 4.5 billion won – 15.2b won
2. Elysium – 573,000 – 708,000 – 4.3 billion won – 5.4b won
3. Hide and Seek – 563,000 – 5.1 million – 4.07 billion won – 36.0b won
4. Snowpiercer – 159,000 – 9.1 million – 1.16 billion won – 65.3b won
5. The Flu – 159,000 – 3.0 million – 1.11 billion won – 21.1b won
(Source: KOBIS)

Amusingly, DESPICABLE ME 2, even though it does not open until Sept. 12, was the No. 6 movie on Sunday, and has already made 531 million won.

  • Which reminds me: August was the biggest month ever for movies in Korea, with nearly 21 million admissions — which blows away the old record of 18.1 million, set in February. Korean films were more than 78 percent of the box office. (Chosun Ilbo)
  • The Korean government is creating a practice space for indie musicians in Hongdae (Yonhap)
  • Here’s G-Dragon teaming up with Missy Elliot for G-Dragon’s new song “Niliria”:

Ruining a Good Thing — Internet Edition

April 6, 2009 / / 0 Comments

And in the latest from the Department of Just Not Getting The Point, the Korean Communications Commission plans to introduce a new, mandatory ID system for the Korean Internet. Brilliant. Because demanding national ID numbers to use just about every nook and cranny of the Internet in Korea has worked so well thus far, why not expand it?

Hrm… Article was dated April 1. Any chance it was a really bad April Fool’s Joke?

We’ll Be Right Back, After This Word — And Why That’s a Good Thing

November 28, 2008 / / 3 Comments

Some very happy news from the Korean courts Thursday — Korea’s Constitutional Court ruled that the state-run television ad agency KOBACO is unconstitutional.

Now, that might seem like an obscure thing to be happy about, but I assure you this is great news. You see, the Korea Broadcast Advertising Corporation currently is responsible for all aspects of TV advertising in Korea. It sets the rates and times for ads, collects the money and doles it out, all in one shop. And only KOBACO is allowed to do this. The result is the highly regulated, uncompetitive, and bizarre thing we call Korean television.

Of course, KOBACO justifies what it does in the name of “fairness” (as bureaucrats always do). But the result of KOBACO is anything but fair.

  • Advertisers get very little control over when their ads air.
  • TV stations do not get as much ad revenue as they could on the open market.
  • Neither advertiser nor broadcaster has much flexibility over the ad market.
  • Therefore TV stations have much less money to create programs, so their programs are that much cheaper and cheesier than they could be.
  • Also, there is little incentive to experiment with program styles, since the channels’ revenues do not vary much, regardless of what they air.

    Years ago, a former ad guy told me that KOBACO is a “zombie corporation” — that is, it is already dead, but it keeps on moving. In fact, the government passed legislation what would have ended KOBACO’s monopoly back in 2001, but that was not enough to kill it either.

    Everybody knows that it is a relic from Korea’s authoritarian past, but the government loved KOBACO, and was loath to give it up. It was set up under Chun Doo-hwan to keep control over Korea’s television stations (way back before SBS began and long before anyone had even thought of cable TV).

    The government tried to dress up KOBACO and make it pretty — for example, it must use a certain percentage (around 6%) of revenues for public projects. The Press Center, the Korean Broadcasters Center, and the Seoul Arts Center were all built using KOBACO money (and the Arirang TV building).

    With KOBACO’s monopoly coming to an end in 2009, this could potentially really open up the Korean TV markets. Which should mean more money for the TV channels, more money for TV programs, and then hopefully better TV programs. And, if we are really lucky, we might get some more diversity, too.

    • Flock Out of Luck Ministries Shutting Down

    January 18, 2008 / / 0 Comments

    As a reporter who does a lot of stuff in media issues, one of the major government ministries I need to deal with is the Ministry of Information and Communications (MIC). I also write about Korean science, which has me dealing with the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST).

    So what does President-elect Lee Myung-bak do? He axes both the MIC and MOST. Yikes. Should I take that personally?

    I am cautiously optimistic about these changes. A professor of mine used to say, you can change the length of the alimentary canal all you want, the end product is still the same. But the truth is, organization does matter. It may not be as sexy or easy to understand as a great pop song or a cool movie, but boring stuff like infrastructure and organization is a vital part of any industry. Do not kid yourself, the “entertainment business” is as much business as it is entertainment.

    What do these changes mean? First of all, getting the MIC out of the way potentially a huge boon for much of the Information Technology industry. IPTV (Internet Protocol Television) has been held up for years because of the MIC’s squabbling with the Korean Broadcasting Commission. Also, how about Blackberries? Lots of cool toys like that have been kept out of Korea because of roadblocks put up by the MIC. There are plenty of tech issues keeping the iPhone out of Korea, but today we are one step closer to getting them.

    We can only hope that the end of the MIC will also mean an end to (or at least a reduction in) Internet censorship. Way too much of the Internet in Korea gets shut off at the whim of random bureaucrats.

    Despite the downsizing, Lee Myung-bak had a lot of science and IT stuff in his election platform. And he brought in people like Park Chan-mo (former head of POSTECH and all-round cool guy) to be one of his main advisors. Expect science and IT to remain central to Korean policymaking. After all, science, education and tech have been combined to create the Ministry of Knowledge-Based Economy (MOKBE?), which is quite a mouthful, but a clear sign of where Lee’s priorities lie.

    And who knows? What will happen once Lee Myung-bak comes up against the full force of bureaucratic intransigence? Once everything settles down, I imagine much less will change than people think right now.

    But some deregulating in the media industry could be a great shot in the arm, helping Korea’s media companies get a little more profitable, which in turn gives us consumers a better chance at getting better movies, TV, music and whatnot (“content” in boring industry-speak).

    And at least Lee kept the Ministry of Culture. It is not like the accountant barbarians are taking over everything.

    (Note: I might update this post over the weekend as additional stuff occurs to me).

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