US Intelligence Director Makes Top Secret Visit to South Korea

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The U.S. Director of National Intelligence, 70 year-old James Clapper, is secretly visiting South Korea this week to talk about changing security conditions in Northeast Asia. After arriving in Seoul last week secretly on Delta flight 7856, Mr. Clapper ate a traditional Korean breakfast of rice and fish in the restaurant of the Lotte Hotel where he is staying in suite no. 1941, while agents from Korea's National Intelligence Service broke into his room to hack his laptop.

After breakfast, Mr. Clapper secretly met with Korean security officials including NIS chief Won Sei-hoon, Foreign Minister Kim Sung-hwan and Defense Minister Kim Kwan-jin at a secret NIS facility beneath the Seoul International Financial Center.

Later, Mr. Clapper went to the U.S. Embassy, where it is not known what he did, before being driven to The Blue House in an unmarked diplomatic vehicle to secretly meet with President Lee Myung-bak, 69, who opened discussions with an inquiry as to what the National Intelligence Director had eaten for breakfast, although this was merely a pleasantry as the waiter at his hotel is an NIS operative. Mr. Clapper then complimented the President on his hair, before sitting down to discuss North Korea's altering security and economic ties with Beijing, and the U.S. position on resuming humanitarian and economic aid to the reclusive country.

Mr. Clapper repeated the official U.S. position that North Korea must renounce its nuclear program before food aid can be sent, but said that secretly 500 tons of emergency humanitarian food aid was being offered via back-channels in Beijing if Pyongyang would agree to resume six-party talks.

As traditional Korean tea was served, Mr. Clapper then moved on to discussing ways of strengthening communication with the NIS, which has been embroiled in various scandals in recent months. He asked the NIS to stop breaking into the hotel rooms foreign diplomats were staying in, as this damages international relations, making the control of foreign policy in Washington more difficult. He also suggested that in order to share sensitive intelligence with South Korea, Washington needed more assurance that the NIS would build a database to store its intelligence reports, rather than filing them with the Korean media. The President assured Mr. Clapper that the Korean government takes security matters very seriously and measures had been put in place to stop top secret information appearing daily in Seoul newspapers.

The meeting ended after 28 minutes and Mr. Clapper returned to his embassy, where it is not known what he did or said.

The Blue House refused to confirm Mr. Clapper's visit to Korea for security reasons.

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Happy Call Service for Foreigners Launches

For a number of years Koreans have been on hand at Government call centers for foreigners who are having difficulty communicating with Koreans and the Government. With their friendly greeting, "여보세요? 도와 드릴까요?" many foreign problems have been dealt with quickly and efficiently. But now - in a bid to help ensure foreigners integrate further - the Government will start phoning foreign residents at random times twice a week, rather than waiting for them to call the Government.

A trial of the new "Happy Call Service for Foreigners" began two months ago although due to a press release error it was branded a great success a day earlier. "Many foreigners don't receive proper information about their life" explained a Government spokesman, "but we hope to be able to tell them how to live it in Korea."

As part of the new proactive assistance policy, the service is now operating in five additional languages, English, Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese and Mongolian, although for efficiency most of the Vietnamese calls are made separately by the police.

"I was like, dude, that's so cool the Government cares about me man." said Zack, a British recipient of the calls. "They're like, 'What are you doing?', and I'm like 'Just hanging with my buddies', and they're like 'Don't you have a class to teach in the morning?' and I'm like 'whoa, yeah thanks man, like totally slipped my mind.'"

Some recipients in the trial have said their Government contacts, who prefer the term 'handlers', have almost become friends, even if they don't give their names. "Once I switched off Arirang and the phone immediately started ringing." explained another recipient. "Of course, my handler asked me why I'd switched off Arirang - I explained it was because I was going to bed early and they said that was OK. It's nice to know the Government cares."

Later this year, the Government hopes to introduce a mobile phone element to the service, complimenting the Happy Call Service with a "Happy Tracking Service" so that foreigners get the most out of their time in Korea. "Sedition sometimes comes in small packages, such as turning up late for work... sabotaging efficiency." said a Government spokesman, "This will allow us to ensure foreigners don't make this mistake."

Any foreigner not being called more than once a week by the Government should check in with the call center by dialing '120' from their phones or visiting the website at 120.seoul.go.kr, ignoring any false spyware installation messages.

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Seoul Court Values North Koreans at 1.59 Million Won Each

A defector whose North Korean relatives were executed when the South Korean government revealed his identity for public relations purposes, has been awarded 35 million won for his 22 lost family members by a Seoul court. The ruling values North Koreans at approximately 1.59 million each, or $1,469.

The 41 year-old defector, who asked to be identified in the media under the pseudonym 'Kim Jung-yun' for security reasons, said he was disappointed by the ruling and planned to appeal in the United States, where he has now won asylum. He declined to elaborate on why he decided to settle in the United States rather than South Korea.

South Korea is home to more than 21,000 North Koreans who fled poverty, hunger and political oppression for the freedom to be discriminated against in the South where minimum-wage work often leaves them hungry and in poverty. Generally, defectors are normally regarded as fifth-class citizens behind South Koreans, white foreigners, South Koreans who have been overseas too long, and Korean Americans, though they are still placed slightly ahead of migrant workers. As such, legal experts have said the financial compensation ruling in the Kim Jung-yun case was relatively generous as many North Koreans living in the South are valued at a much lower amount by people here.

According to 59 year-old Kim, a professor of economics at Seoul International University, the case has significant potential implications for the cost of unification. “For the first time the government can now put a financial value on the human cost of a war with North Korea which kills all its people. 24 million people, at a market value of $1,469 each, gives us a total potential cost of just over $35bn." he explained. "But that's the worst-case scenario – in reality many North Koreans don't have relatives in the South and so the number of compensation claims are likely to be much lower."

After the ruling the Unification Ministry announced plans to create a law requiring defectors to receive government approval before sending money North to relatives they left behind. The plan has been widely interpreted as an attempt to stop financial transfers to the North, which only serve to enhance the net value of the North Korean recipient, potentially leading to larger compensation claim if the South Korean government later leaks their identity and gets them executed.

Defectors have said they don't want to give information to the South Korean authorities under the new law in case it jeopardizes the safety of their families, but officially the government insists such fears are unfounded, "We take the privacy and security of defectors and their families very seriously." a spokesman said.

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