Ruling Against Sham International Marriages Threatens US-Korea Relationship

A minor district court's move against so-called 'sham international marriages' could cause a profound change in the relationship between South Korea and the United States, experts have warned.

The Busan District Court ruled on Sunday that a denial of a visa extension for a foreign worker is justified when there are sufficient grounds to believe that his marriage to a Korean woman appears appears not to be "genuine". The ruling showed the courts are becoming less tolerant of sham international marriages involving vulnerable Koreans given the recent alarming increase in the population of male foreigners in the country.

In the case, a Pakistani man, identified as "M", didn't live together with his supposed Korean wife, and the couple didn't remember their first date. It is also unclear when South Korea and the United States started their relationship, and the U.S. has seemingly made no real attempts to understand Korea's unique culture, while simultaneously developing relationships with other countries, creating the impression that it's relationship with South Korea is also not genuine.

Many have also cited the obvious problems with communication between South Korea and the United States as a reason to doubt the validity of the relationship, coupled with occasional outbreaks of domestic violence. While there is some evidence that Korea has made attempts to learn its alleged partner's language, there has been no such reciprocity on the part of the U.S. - suggesting that at the very least Korea was duped into a relationship which allowed the U.S. to stay in Korea.

In the face of allegations that the relationship is a sham, South Korea and the United States issued a public statement earlier this year claiming that their relationship was "stronger than ever", but privately the U.S. Is believed to have said that it wants to leave the country as soon as possible, while South Korea has asked it not to so it can be given more time to change.

Legal experts say that even if South Korea wants to maintain the relationship, the 'prima-facie' case suggests it could well fall under the new definition of 'sham international marriages', if the legal ruling in Busan is held to be applicable to Seoul.

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Busan Announces Sister City Initiative With Fukushima and Chernobyl

Busan 2014

South Korea's second-class city of Busan has announced agreements to create cultural, commercial and civic cleaning links with the internationally renowned cities of Fukushima in Japan, and Chernobyl in Ukraine.

Both cities were made famous by their association with nuclear disasters, but Busan's political leadership were keen to assure the public that the decision to twin with the foreign cities was merely symbolic, and not an indication of any lack of faith in the aging but perfectly safe Gori-1 nuclear plant, near Busan, which has now entered the 35th year of its 30-year design life.

However, according to a leak on the nuclear issue, a Busan city report said that it is "better to create links between us and these other unique cities now, as after any disaster we are likely to be operating from a different location and it will be much more difficult to organize civic ties. The public expect us to plan ahead."

The Gori complex was Korea's first venture into nuclear power, and Gori-1 was originally shut down in 2007 as planned before growing power shortages threatened the Korean economy, forcing it to be reopened two years later. Since then, reports of a number of incidents at Gori have leaked out. The Ministry of Factual Economy has stressed that legally these should be portrayed as 'happenings', rather than accidents, also assuring citizens that "Busan is a long way from Seoul". An official for Korea Hydra & Nuclear Power (KHNP) said "It is unfortunate that the Gori reactor has suffered a series of malfunctions over the past year."

In February one unfortunate happening occurred when an external subcontractor accidentally pressed the wrong button and switched the power off to the nuclear plant, causing the reactor cooling system to fail for 12 minutes. A sign has now been placed above the button which reads "Please do not press this button again".

But the citizens of Busan, given a choice between power for their smartphones or a nuclear-free future, have logically opted to keep the phones which will likely provide their first warning of a disaster at the nearby nuclear complex. Despite this, there is a recognition of the risks they face; in a recent episode of the hit television series "I Want to be a Survivor", a Gori nuclear worker who sang of his fears for his safety and that of his children was quickly voted off the program after judges said his act would probably "lack longevity".

Last week Greenpeace's $32 million battleship 'Rainbow Warrior III' approached the Gori nuclear power station complex, but the pay-per-view media group's vessel was required to stay 500 meters away from the plant as according to a safety engineer who agreed to speak off the record "anything unexpected could trigger it". Korea's nuclear authority have condemned the leak, but said it was not unexpected.

In addition to trying to provoke a meltdown and endanger the lives of millions of Koreans, four activitists belonging to Greenpeace were taken into custody after a 52-hour high-altitude stunt which involved climbing to the top of one of the towers of Busan's Gwangan Bridge. The climb mirrors a similar stunt in London last week where Greenpeace members climbed to the top of a small office building called "The Shard". Many foreign Greenpeace activists are said to enjoy getting high.

One of the activists, Soon Joong-kwon, said he was very proud to have climbed Gwangan Bridge to show that 3.43 million citizens are exposed to nuclear risks, but when questioned by The Dokdo Times, none of the 3.43 million citizens in Busan said they had seen him, indicating that the protest had failed. The three foreign activist ringleaders were later moved to an immigration detention center before being deportated.

Korea officially uses a 7-point 'nuclear event' scale which starts a zero and ends at 7:

South Korea Nuclear Event Scale
0. A 'deviation' from normal operation if there is such a thing which there isn't so this level of happening is classed as 'zero'
1. An 'anomaly' – tap the dial, or hit it with a hammer if this doesn't work
2. An 'incident' limited to the plant itself which can easily be covered up
3. A 'serious incident' still limited to the plant and its immediate surroundings, which can still be covered up but staff should not take their cars home until it's rained a few times
4. An 'accident with local consequences' – staff should give the local restaurants a miss but try to smile through their remaining teeth – the local newspaper may run a small story if it can't be bribed not to
5. An 'accident with wider consequences' – a national newspaper picks up the story if it can't be bribed or pressured not to
6. A 'serious accident' – the president has to make a statement that everything is OK
7. A 'major accident' – the president has to make a statement that everything is OK from another country
Source: The Dokdo Times

However, officials have consistently denied the existence of a 9th point which according to leaks is simply known as 'Busan 2014'.

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Hackers Spend Four Years Trying to Find South Korean Military Secrets

Possible Suspect

A mysterious group of computer hackers has reportedly spent four years trying to steal South Korea's military secrets. However, it is believed that the group gave up trying to obtain military secrets recently after concluding that South Korea didn't have any, as they had all already been leaked or stolen.

The group, which is said to be anonymous, but not Anonymous, probably started operating in 2009 according to records obtained by The Dokdo Times from the National Intelligence Service, which supplied them on condition of anonymity.

The records indicate that computers belonging to all government ministries and branches of the military services were breached after the hackers discovered secret 'super passwords' used by intelligence agencies to gain access to computers belonging to all government ministries and branches of the military services. These were reportedly 'kimchi', 'kim', 'dokdo', 'password', and '12345'. The Dokdo Times was able to verify that as it went to print today many of these so-called 'super passwords' still appeared to work, although computer logs indicate that the hackers stopped downloading the contents of the computers last week.

The breach in security by the hackers was found when an employee in the Ministry of Technology inserted an unlabeled disk containing a copy of U.S. security software 'McAfee' into his computer, thinking it was a copy of Microsoft Office. Because the software ran in English it was two hours before the employee – who is understood to 35 years old and named Kim – noticed the mistake, by which time it had already found 56 different computer viruses and 187 so-called 'spyware programs' one of which transpired to have been written by the mysterious hacking group. All of the rogue programs had apparently escaped detection by home-grown anti-virus software, because they were foreign in nature, and had therefore been politely ignored.

The attack has been named "Operation Troy", because the word "Troy" frequently appears in the code of the malicious software. The Foreign Ministry has filed a formal complaint with the Turkish government – who have denied involvement. The Ministry of Justice is also believed to be interested in questioning two American brothers named Warner over the incident.

However, researchers with the U.S. security software maker Symantec Corp say they have uncovered evidence that the attack is the work of a group dubbed the "Dark Seoul Gang". Following the breakthrough, the Seoul Cyber Crimes Unit announced they have arrested four black men in connection with the attack. Initial reports indicate they are likely to be American military personnel.

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Hackers in four-year effort to steal South Korea military secrets: study
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