Page 2 n THE ASIAN REPORTER
ASIA / PACIFIC
November 2, 2015
S. Korean scholars boycott state-issued textbook project
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Hundreds of South Korean scholars have
boycotted the writing of state-issued history textbooks out of concern they will
teach distorted views on the country’s recent past. Conservative President Park
Geun-hye’s government plans to require middle and high schools to use
textbooks edited by the government after 2017, instead of allowing schools to
choose from eight private publishers, as is currently the case. South Korea’s
move toward state-issued textbooks is the latest in a series of efforts by
conservative leaders in Seoul and Tokyo to shape school history books to reflect
their political views, and has sparked fierce criticism from academics and
opposition parties. Professors from more than 20 South Korean universities said
they would not contribute to the textbooks because they believe the government
is moving to soften descriptions of South Korea’s brutal dictatorships that
preceded a bloody transition toward democracy in the 1980s. The Korean
History Research Association, the country’s largest group of historians with
nearly 800 members, has declared it won’t participate in the writing process.
Robert Mugabe wins China’s version of Nobel Peace Prize
BEIJING (AP) — Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has been awarded
China’s alternative to the Nobel Peace Prize for what the prize committee called
his national leadership and service to pan-Africanism. Mugabe is the latest in a
series of critics of the west who have received the Confucius Peace Prize, first
awarded in 2010 amid Beijing’s anger over the granting of the Nobel Peace Prize
to imprisoned Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo. Mugabe, 91, is a resilient leader
who fought in a guerrilla war, denounces the west, crushed or co-opted dissent at
home, and has been in power for 35 years with no clear successor. Prior
recipients of the prize, which is awarded by a non-governmental committee
composed mainly of scholars, include former Cuban leader Fidel Castro and
Russian President Vladimir Putin.
AFC bans five in Nepal amid match-fixing probe
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — The Asian Football Confederation (AFC)
has banned the four players and an official recently arrested in Nepal amid an
investigation into match-fixing. Nepal captain Sagar Thapa and four others
were arrested and accused of taking money from bookmakers in Malaysia and
Singapore to lose matches. A police official said the alleged match-fixing dated
from 2009 and included matches against Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Malaysia,
and the Philippines. The AFC issued a statement saying a year-long investiga-
tion in conjunction with Sportradar and Nepali police resulted in the provisional
suspensions, and it had asked the sport’s international governing body to have
them imposed worldwide. The other players identified were Bikash Singh
Chhetri, Sandip Rai, and Ritesh Thapa, and the official is listed as Anjan K.C.
Filmmaker John Woo surprised by trailblazer award
TOKYO (AP) — John Woo was surprised to receive an award honoring
trailblazers who have made outstanding contributions to the art of filmmaking.
“I have made a lot of films, but it hardly qualifies as making a special
contribution. I’m just a hardworking filmmaker,” the Hong Kong director said in
Tokyo before the award presentation. “I’m very thankful to receive this award
and also very surprised.” Past recipients of the Tokyo International Film
Festival’s Samurai Award include fellow directors Takashi Kitano and Tim
Burton. Woo said when he began his career in the 1960s, he watched films from
other countries, especially Japan, and is still inspired today by Japanese
cinema. “Japan has had so many great filmmakers, actors, and writers,” he said
at the ceremony. The 1986 action drama A Better Tomorrow cemented Woo’s
place in Hong Kong cinema, breaking box-office records at the time. The Killers
and Hard Boiled followed. The director’s signature style of bullet-flying action
scenes or slow-motion gunfight sequences defined Hong Kong cinema in the ’90s
and led to Hollywood projects like Face/Off and Mission: Impossible II. His next
film, a remake of the Japanese action classic Manhunt, is in pre-production with
the cast still to be set.
RESTRICTED REUNIONS. South Korean Kim Chun-yeol, 54, left, presents a watch to his North Korean uncle,
Kim Yun Ju, 85, during the Separated Family Reunion Meeting at Diamond Mountain resort in North Korea last month.
Hundreds of elderly Koreans from the divided North and South held three days of reunions with loved ones, many of
which they have had no contact with since before the war between the countries more than 60 years ago. (Kim Do-
hoon/Yonhap via AP)
Koreans hold reunions across
the DMZ, first in more than a year
By Hyung-jin Kim and Kim Tong-hyung
The Associated Press
S
EOUL, South Korea — Tears run down
the deeply wrinkled face of the North
Korean man in the wheelchair while
embracing his now elderly South Korean
daughter for the first time since she was two.
An 88-year-old South Korean woman looks on
with an expression of shock as she sees her
North Korean husband for the first time since
war drove them apart more than six decades
ago.
As the rival Koreas held brief reunions of
families separated by the 1950-1953 fighting,
dramas like this took place everywhere at the
North’s scenic Diamond Mountain resort.
Ri Hung Jong, 88, had no words as he gazed
at his daughter, Lee Jeong-sook, 68. She had
been raised in South Korea since being
separated from her father during the war. Ri
simply wept in silence as his daughter touched
his face and smiled.
Hundreds of South Koreans travelled to the
mountain resort to reunite with their
relatives. Dressed in business suits, formal
dresses, and traditional hanbok, they brought
long johns, medicine, parkas, calligraphy
works, and cash to give as presents to family
members who live in the North.
The reunions, as always, are a mixture of
high emotion and media frenzy. Some of the
participants were speechless around the
reporters and the flashing cameras. Jour-
nalists crowded around South Korean Lee
Ok-yeon, 88, as she reunited with her
husband, Chae Hun Sik, for the first time in 65
years. She lives in the same house her
husband, also now 88, built and that the couple
shared as newlyweds. Both appeared to be in
shock at the reunion.
“Father, why can’t you say anything? Didn’t
you tell me you had a lot to say?” Kang Mi
Yong, Chae’s North Korean daughter-in-law,
asked Chae as he struggled for words.
The images were broadcast throughout
South Korea, where the reunions are big news.
North Korea’s government worries that scenes
of affluent South Koreans might influence its
grip on power, analysts say. In a typical piece
of propaganda, Pyongyang published a report
about the reunions through its state media
that said the North Korean participants
explained to their South Korean relatives how
their lives have been “happy” and “worth-
while” under the North’s socialist system.
The deep emotions stem partly from the
elderly reuniting after decades spent apart,
partly from the knowledge that this will be
their only chance. None of the past
participants has had a second reunion.
At a table covered with a white cloth, bottled
water and soft drinks, and a vase of flowers,
South Korean Kim Bock-rack wept as he
clasped the hands of his sister as a cameraman
silently filmed.
South Korean Lee Soon-kyu, 85, reunited
with her North Korean husband, Oh In Se, 83.
As camera flashes bathed them in glaring
white light, she cocked her head and looked
with amazement at Oh, who wore a dapper
suit and hat and craned backward to take in
Lee.
The reunions are a poignant yet bitter
reminder that the Korean Peninsula is still in
a technical state of war because the Korean
Continued on page 4
Asian Currency
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Three detained for stealing human body for ghost wedding
BEIJING (AP) — Police in northern China have detained three people
suspected of stealing a corpse to sell as a bride in the ancient Chinese rite of
ghost weddings, which join single people who died for a belated marriage in the
afterlife. The official Xinhua News Agency said the main suspect had heard
about the death of a young woman in a nearby village in Shanxi province and
thought of selling the corpse to relatives of a single dead man. Xinhua cited
police in Ruicheng county, where calls rang unanswered. Xinhua said the three
suspects pretended to be relatives of the woman and negotiated a sale price of
25,000 yuan ($4,000) with a buyer, but while raiding a tomb for the body, they
were caught by villagers.
Ferry firm head sentenced to seven years over sinking
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea’s highest court sentenced the head
of a ferry operator to seven years in prison over the April 2014 sinking of the
Sewol that killed more than 300 people. The Supreme Court upheld a lower
court ruling that sentenced Kim Han-sik, president of Chonghaejin Marine Co.,
to seven years in prison on charges including manslaughter. The court found
Kim responsible for failing to prevent the overloading of cargo and improper
storage on the ship that judges said contributed to the sinking. Four other
Chonghaejin officials were sentenced to two-and-a-half to four years in prison on
similar charges, the court said in a statement.
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77.815
4061.3
6.3174
2.1084
7.7506
65.265
13684
29957
120.62
8145.0
4.3012
104.55
105.47
2.9197
46.85
63.955
3.7504
1.4012
1140.5
141.1
32.594
35.623
22336