Farmers dump onions on a square in front of the South Jeolla Provincial Government building in Muan, southwestern South Korea, on June 19, 2014, in protest of the plunge in the local onion prices. (Yonhap)
More about Korean onion insanity can be read about at the ROKDrop.com.
Photo Credit: REUTERS/Hwang Gwang-mo/Yonhap
The parents of a South Korean conscript soldier who killed five comrades in a grenade and gun attack pleaded with him to surrender on Sunday, after he exchanged fire with troops who had tracked him down near a school close to the North Korean border.
Late on Saturday night, the soldier threw a grenade and opened fire, killing five members of his unit and wounding seven others, at an outpost in the base at Goseong county, a mountainous region that borders the North on the eastern coast of the peninsula.
A manhunt went in to full swing at daybreak, with helicopters sweeping the heavily forested hillsides and special forces took part in a search that, according to a colonel briefing media, involved the equivalent of nine battalions.
Discovered hiding near a school some 10 kilometers (6 miles) from the base, the soldier opened fire on troops, wounding a platoon leader in the arm, YTN television news channel reported.
Troops had orders to ‘shoot to kill’ unless the fugitive soldier surrendered, YTN reported, citing military officials.
The parents of the soldier, according to Yonhap news agency, were taken to the site, where his mother pleaded with him to surrender as a stand-off developed after the initial burst of gunfire.
“I heard several gun shots for 10 minutes,” Byun Sang-man, a 80 year old farmer, told Reuters from the village.
“We can’t go outside… Soldiers have spread out all around our town. The headman told people this morning to stay inside through loudspeakers.”
A military official identified the soldier as Sergeant Lim, and said he was due to be discharged on Sept. 16.
Read more at [Reuters]
or, You See Me Now A Veteran, Of A Thousand Pizza Wars…
Pizza isn’t Korean food per se, but the Koreans have certainly put their own spin on it. Americans and other foreigners are often shocked (SHOCKED I say!) when they dine on their first pizza in Korea and discover, much to their horror, corn as one of the ubiquitous pizza toppings. I make pizza at home regularly and have a pizza stone, among other accouterments required of the average “pizza snob,” and yes, I now sprinkle a bit of frozen corn on the pizza just before the pie goes in the oven. It just doesn’t seem right to have a pizza without a little corn on it – besides my wife’s insistence. Some complain about the corn, personally I do not think I can taste it.
Most domestic pizza chains shops in Korea have some truly bizarre creations, but Pizza Hut and Domino’s are certainly up to the challenge. From all appearances, it’s a game of one-upmanship.
Domino’s latest abomination (er, I mean entrant) is the Churrasco Cheese Roll Pizza is inspired by Brazilian Churrasco skewers and features cheese sauce, mushrooms, red peppers, sun-dried tomatoes, onions, beef, gouda and cheddar cheese; but the real selling point is the crust, which consists entirely of cheese rolls, topped with cheese sauce and bacon bits, supposedly inspired by Brazilian pão de queijo. How far can one go before something like this is no longer considered a pizza? It is truly hard to say.
As mentioned earlier, Pizza Hut shares blame here as well. I present the Whole Shrimp Cheese Bite Pizza.
What more can be said?
A few photos of Uijeongbu taken on 1 June, 2014.
These photos are from the Uijeongbu market area directly in front of Uijeongbu Station.
It is election season in Korea. Throughout the country you will find mobile stages set up with candidates giving speeches.
Directly in front of the stage in the main square is a fountain. A Korean decided on an impromptu dip to cool off.
He stayed in there for quite a while. Passersby paid little attention. I cannot imagine this happening somewhere such as the US without the police becoming involved. Eventually he went full Mer-Man and did a little fully submerged swim. It was unexpected and I didn’t have my camera at the ready. After about 30 minutes, he collected his boots and sauntered off.
There is an international store in the vicinity so I went in to take a look. One thing which caught my eye was this bottle of whiskey. It appears to be a “vegetable worms” whiskey from China. I’m not sure of the marketing angle here.
GOOD GOD! Exclaims the sign at this pasta shop. Also, not sure of the marketing angle or thought process which went into choosing this name…
Finally, I ran across this helpful sign in a park near Jihaeng Station, in Dongducheon. Seems pretty reasonable. Be nice to the plants, throw away your litter, no smoking, no drinking, keep your dog on a leash, no public hanky panky, no selling of goods, and no taking a dump. That’s right, the graphic in the bottom right corner of the sign admonishes park visitors not to crap in public. It’s frowned upon and considered impolite and unladylike.
