Hyon-Joo’s Everyday Life

Former Korean President Roh Moo-Hyun died in a suicide on May 23, 2009 Saturday at the age of 62. He jumped from a 100-foot (30 meter) high cliff behind his house in Bonghwa. Roh was rushed to a hospital in Busan around 8:15 am and died around 9:30 am (local time in Korea). In most English articles about his suicide that I read, his death was generally understood in this kind of context: Former South Korean President Roh Moo-Hyun admitted that his wife and a relative received six million dollars from a business man Park Yeon-cha during his presidency. ...

Underground Bunker During the Korean War, when North Korea occupied about 70 percent of South Korea, my late grandfather, who lived in a small city Kumi, had to hide himself in an underground bunker not to be caught. He stayed there for a while and was able to avoid being a bullet bait for the North Korean army. That's how I understand of an underground bunker. You hide yourself or your loved ones from enemies. Or a bunker can be a place where you make top secret strategies in urgent circumstances such as war-time as the name suggests. ...

Korea's "Internet economic president", or the doomsayer Minerva got arrested in Jan. 10, 2009. Puzzled Korean Internet users are trying to figure out why. Was it because Minerva revealed national secrets that KOSPI would go down to 500 and won-dollar exchange rate would soar soon, I mean, obviously? Was it because Korean president Lee Myung-bak was afraid that Minerva was more popular than he was? So was it because his pride got seriously damaged and he wanted to get a revenge on him? Or was it because President Lee Myung-bak wanted Minerva to give his dump economic strategists some crash course trainings? Was it ...

Sansung(산성, 山城) in Korean means a mountain fortress wall. A good example is the Great Wall in China. Obviously, the main purpose of sansung is to prevent enemies from invading one's territory. Many great kings and leaders of old Korean dynasties built sansung throughout history. So this Korean president, Lee Myung-bak, deeply worried about safety, decided to build some sansung himself. When? On June 10, 2008. Koreans wanted to hold candlelight protests against US beef imports as well as commemorate the revolutionary gathering for democracy of June 10, 1987. Where? In the main streets of Seoul such as Sejong-ro ...