Sunshine and Rain

There was a isolated wind and rain storm today, in Kangwondo, Korea, a province that stretches both sides of the border and is home to two of the most scenic mountain parks in North and South: Kumgang (diamond) and Sorak (snowy crag) mountains. Coincidently, it is the Kumgang mountain tours to North Korea that the US asked the South to discontinue during Condoleeza Rice' s recent trip. Since the test the sunshine policy of Kim Dae Jung and successive regimes has come under fire a bit, and in something of a straw man type manner, I should add. In response, however, Kim Dae Jung has been out defending his policy (in many ways, the problem was not too much but too little sunshine, in my opinion). Here's a story on that from the Hankyoreh.

It was sunny down south in Jeju today, where the fourth round of Korea-US FTA talks are beginning. From this evenings television news here, it seems that 15-20 000 where out protesting, and at least several dozen tried to make it to the resort site where the conference is being held in order to protest. To do so the attempted to swim across a lagoon there, in repeat of the farmer protest in Hong Kong against the WTO last year, when 300+ Korean farmers braved the december water to make their point. I've seen no account of the swim in English as of yet but here is a quick story on the protests from monstersandcritics, and a more in depth look from the Hankyoreh.