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 (Photographs by Lee Jae-won)

North Korea said on Tuesday it had  detained a U.S. citizen who entered its territory, apparently confirming a report that an American activist crossed into the
state to raise awareness about Pyongyang’s human rights abuses.   Robert Park, 28, walked over the frozen Tumen river from
China and into the North last Friday, other activists said. The Korean-American told Reuters ahead of the crossing that it was his duty as a
Christian to make the journey and that he was carrying a letter calling on North Korean leader Kim Jong-il to step down.

Park had an exclusive interview with Reuters last week before starting on his journey. The following are excerpts from the conversation. He requested that the comments be held until he was in North Korea.  

Reuters: Why are you planning to go into North Korea?

Robert Park: The North Korean human rights crisis by murder rate is the worst in the world. An estimated 1,000 people a day die by starvation and starvation is a murder case. North Korea has been sent more food aid than any nation in the world but the food has not gone to the people who need it. So this is murder.

But not only that, there are concentration camps in North Korea that are of the same brutality as in Nazi Germany.

Responsible governments are completely silent about the issue. The United States, China, Russia, Japan and South Korea have a huge responsibility to speak out about this because all these nations played a role the arbitrary division of the Koreas, where not a single Korean was consulted. Yet the lives of these people are of no issue to these governments. That is a crime. It is a huge crime

What is happening in North Korea is genocide. We know there are legitimate fears about what could happen through nuclear weapons. But a nation that runs concentration camps, a nation that kills men, women and children without any kind of restraint can never be trusted.

We believe the resolution to this whole crisis is simply addressing North Korea honestly about this has to change.

We do not hate people. I am Christian, but I do have to say that this is not a legitimate government. We cannot talk to North Korea as if it is a legitimate government, but we need to liberate North Korea. We need to have a vision for the unification of Korea. It has to happen immediately because people are dying by the thousands every single day.

Reuters: By going into North Korea, how can you change this? You are going in well aware of the dangers

Park: My demand is that I do not want to be released. I don’t want President Obama to come and pay to get me out. But I want the North Korean people to be free. Until the concentration camps are liberated, I do not want to come out. If I have to die with them, I will. I am Christian and it says in the Bible that we must love the lost. We must love the poor and the needy. We must love them more than ourselves.

(For) these innocent men, women and children, as Christians, we need to take the cross for them. The cross means that we sacrifice our lives for the redemption of others.

I am going in for the sake of the lives of the North Korean people. And if he (Kim Jong-il) kills me, in a sense, I realize this is better. Then the governments of the world will become more prone to say something, and more embarrassed and more forced to make a statement. 

This is serious and it is a crime that America is committing against the North Korean people by not speaking out against this. President Obama just won the Nobel Peace Prize and I love President Obama and the American government, but they are committing a serious crime.

Through the media and through sacrifice, we are looking for the global leaders to be forced to give an account. There is no excuse.

We also want the church to repent. The South Korean church needs to repent. There has been so much playing around and honestly, there is no time to play games. The priority of every single person in South Korea must be to end this holocaust of lives.

I was going to go next month but what happened was that here in Korea there has been certain things that have endangered my going next month. That is why I am going right now. Because certain people have found out and are trying to prevent me from going.

Initially Christmas Day was what they were thinking of. It is the coldest time. It is the most difficult time for me to go physically and also on Christmas Day it is such a symbolic day. Worldwide is the most renowned day. It is the happiest day for most of the world but for North Korea, it is like hell.

I have to share their suffering. That is why I am asking every person who cares about North Korea, let us arise and let us demonstrate. Let us see mass demonstrations. This is not a personal agenda. 

I think I may not live much longer. My personal desire is to be married and to have a future. I am laying that all down because of Jesus Christ and because God loves these people, he does not want them to die.

Reuters: Do you think you will be able to get support from governments including the United States because you are making this choice on your own, fully aware of what may well happen?

Park: I want Kim Jong-il and the North Korean government to know that I love them. I love all these people. I am going in because it has to change, for the sake of the children, the men and the women who are being brutally murdered.

But as long as this genocide continues, I have no choice. I have great sorrow for Kim Jong-il. The North Korean people have been brainwashed from youth and they do not know what the truth is.

I had a vision on July 27, which was the beginning of the demonstration movement. I am not someone who was a part of the human rights movement officially. I was someone who was praying and sharing in the physical help of refugees one by one. I had a vision where God revealed that there needs to be a mass demonstration movement for North Korean human rights. That there will be liberation of the North Korean people. There will be a global compensation movement for a measurable loss and suffering. There will be calls for unification. And there will be reconciliation between North and South Koreans.

I am making this choice on my own because it is too slow right now. There has never been a mass demonstration for North Korean human rights and there needs to be.

Last year, there were hundreds of thousands of people in South Korea demonstrating for this ridiculous thing about the kind of beef we were getting in South Korea. There was nothing to it. What does it say about our generation that we can be mobilised to demonstrate about the kind of beef we are getting and we cannot demonstrate for people who are our own kin who are dying by the thousands every day for no reason at all.

One of the issues in South Korea is that there has been a competition among North Korean human rights groups. People are saying that ‘I want to be in the leadership’. It is ridiculous. With that kind of political fighting, trying to be number one, there will never be mass demonstrations because people are selling the issue for their own gain. I am not saying that everyone is doing that.

My hope is that through going to North Korea, my sacrifice, that there will be a profound repentance among the church and also among human rights ministries – that there will not longer be quarrelling and competition.

Reuters: Do you see the possibility of your imprisonment helping Kim Jong-il. The North Korean leaders have used others, like the U.S journalists, who have crossed into its territory as bargaining chips. Do you see your actions as having the potential to help the North Korean leaders you want to see removed?

Park: I am aware of this and have been hesitating for a long time.  As a result of what happened to the journalists, I was speaking to a refugee friend of mine, she said it was one of the best things that happened for North Korea’s liberation. This was shortly after it happened and they were freed. But now it has become worse because the journalists have not spoken out about the human rights crisis. They were ransomed for a lot of money and they went home and wrote a book.

Ultimately, I am more tortured if I allow North Koreas to be like this. The difference with these journalists is that they were kidnapped against their will. I am going in saying either kill me or take me. I am saying to the governments of the world, do not try to ransom me out but address the human rightscrisis.

Source: Jon Herskovitz

The character “shin”, or “new”, is on display at Kyoto’s Kiyomizu temple, selected by Japan’s kanji association as the word of 2009, with the chief priest’s calligraphy perched above the former capital, known more for its history than the au courant.

The word’s stock rose with phrases like “new Cabinet”, “new influenza”, new model Prius and new jury system. But looking at its dry, black ink on a recent trip, I wondered if the choice was also a comment on its ubiquity, or non-newness, in a marketing-saturated nation where the adjective is often pasted without any real commitment to the fresh or innovative. Two years ago the kanji for “fake” had been selected as word of the year.

Certainly, commercial hollowness is not new nor limited to Japan, while the world’s No.2 economy is undeniably home to fashion leaders, cutting-edge technology firms, and Nobel Prize and Oscar winners. But in the last two decades, Japan has seen a host of ”Shinseito”, “Shinshinto” and other “new” political parties, usually ending in tears, while its ”shinjinrui” — a new “breed” supposed to lead the country with a different drummer – are now barely distinguishable from the band they replaced.

The nation has experienced its share of “new eras”, “New Towns”, “new halfs”,  even annual “beaujolais nouveau” booms, and thus “it’s deja vu all over again” when new is news. Moreover, a recurring theme about the new here is how quickly, if not already, that novelty is past tense. Perhaps, then, it is because of this penchant for making the new old, or the old new, that Japanese have applied some cultural fail-safes, at least for the major holiday of the season.

Wishing someone a “Happy New Year” before Jan. 1 is bad form, while the “nengajo” – a year-end postal equivalent of the Western Christmas card — is never delivered before the new calendar year begins, although it can be sent or received days afterwards without social stigma, with some waiting to check inbound mail before any “new” labour is undertaken.

Source: Daniel Sloan

Although we’re filing this under “don’t do this at home” here’s a guy trying to lose the cops in a highway car chase. Little horsepower but definitely great skills, don’t you think? Looks like something depicted from a Grand Theft Auto game …

Source: Alex Ion

If earlier reports indicated that Michael Schumacher will be with riding under the Mercedes F1 team flag for only one year, we just caught wind that the German racer actually intends to be with the team until 2012. After 91 grand prix wins and a 16 year long career, Schumacher returns to the circuit being persuaded by his former Ferrari technical director, Ross Brawn.

It will take time to get over the Ferrari hang as Michael Schumacher won 5 titles with the red devils over a period of 14 years, prior to becoming an advisor for the Italians. Schumacher could end up as a brand ambassador for Mercedes once he is finished racing for the team in 2012. He also clarified that his number one driver status talks were a hoax as it was always up to the team management to decide his status and it will be no different while being on the new team. [via WCF]

Source: Alex Ion

The Audi A7 Sportback and the BMW 5 Series GT are just one reason why hatchbacks have sprung into popularity, again, and believe it or not Mercedes don’t have their own, yet. We’re saying yet as rumors have surfaced that the Germans are ready to roll one by introducing the new Mercedes Benz CLS ShootingBrake at the 2010 Paris Motor Show which will be held in October next year. The CLS Shooting Brake is the derivative of the Mercedes Concept FASCINATION which first broke cover at the Paris event in two years ago. Looks like the hatchback market is getting ready for a hot contender which happens to hail from Germany again.

Source: Alex Ion

The ultimate Gallardo successor is still a mystery and many predict that it will not happen before 2012 which means rumors about an updated Lambo Gallardo LP570-4 model get your adrenaline to higher levels. Supposedly headed for the 2010 Geneva Motor Show, the nomenclature signifies the addition of 10hp which will take the overall count to 570 horsies equally distributed to the four wheels of the new Gallardo. Minor changes on the inside will also be evident along with changes on the outside embracing aerodynamics — a new front spoiler, a carbon fiber rear wing and an all new front suspension arrangement. Carbon ceramic brakes may help the car come to a halt but this is again an assumption as of now. [via Autoblog]

Source: Alex Ion

Taking the train in Japan and want to avoid irking fellow passengers? Keep conversation to a whisper, turn down your iPod and put your cellphone on vibration mode.

When it comes to ridership manners on Japan’s vast network of subways and commuter trains, many foreign visitors have complained to me about the pushing and shoving and reluctance to give up seats for senior citizens and pregnant women.

But for local riders noise is the biggest issue, with loud conversation and music from headphones the top two offenders and cellphone ringtones in fourth place, a survey on train manners by a railway association showed.

Applying make-up ranked as the sixth-biggest breach of rail etiquette, worse than drunkeness at No.9, which just edged out bringing strollers onto crowded trains, according to the survey by the Association of Japanese Private Railways.

As for me? Nothing annoys me more than when the guy sitting next to me falls asleep and tries to use my shoulder for a pillow!

Here are the top 10 examples of bad rail manners according to the association’s online survey, with responses from about 4,200 people:

1. Noisy conversation, horsing around

2. Music from headphones

3. The way passengers sit

4. Cellphone ringtones and talking on phones

5. Manners when getting on and off trains

6. Applying make-up

7. Littering

8. Sitting on the floor of the train

9. Riding the train drunk

10. Riding a crowded train with a child stroller

Photo credit: REUTERS/Kiyoshi Ota

Source: Chris Gallagher

Not sure how much snow you had this Christmas but if it’s something like in the video below, you may want to make sure you have winter tires on your car otherwise this could happen to you, too.

Source: Alex Ion

German car fans at the Dubai Motor Show were in for a special treat as PPI Automotive Design revealed their much hyped, A8 based, PPI Razor GTR at the event. The difference between the Razor introduced in Dubai and the previous variants was the scorcher adoring the Visible Carbon Fiber Widebody package with a high gloss finish. The additional gloss factor was made possible courtesy of several layers of coat over the regular carbon fiber body. The carbon fiber covers the body panel, fenders, bumpers, lids and even sideblades but spares the engine which is covered by a Polycarbonate layer. Under the hood, the PPI Razor showcased in Dubai houses the same V8 engine capable of churning 580 horses. The V10 engine which renders 600 hp was also an option on display. Both the engine options help the car clock 60mph in just 3.7 seconds.

Source: Alex Ion

The Ferrari camp is always special at all major auto shows across the globe and the one they’ll show in Geneva next year, will be no different as we’re talking about a hybrid version of the 599 GTB. Although the Italians haven’t officially confirmed any of these, word is (and we’d like to believe it) that a Ferrari 599 GTB Hybrid will make its debut at the Geneva Motor Show in 2010. The hybrid version will sport a combination of an electric motor and a system of lithium-ion batteries, both of which will together be placed on either sides of the transaxle. Compared to the regular 599 GTB Fiorano, this one will come with a 35% improvement in fuel consumption. Also assisting the hybrid power-train will be a brake regeneration system, a start stop technology and an electric boost system. It will be interesting to see how the world receives a hybrid version of an otherwise scorching car.

Source: Alex Ion