The truce village of Panmunjom
By Lee Jae-won
South Korea is surrounded by the sea on all sides but one. The country is virtually an island as it is bordered to the north by reclusive North Korea.
There is only one place, called a truce village, where South Koreans and visitors can see the border and soldiers from the secretive state.
Panmunjom, about 55 km (34 miles) north of Seoul, is considered one of the last vestiges of the Cold War. It is located in the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ), the 4-km (2.5 mile) wide buffer that runs along the heavily armed military border.
The border was framed by a truce signed at Panmunjom that suspended the 1950-53 Korea War, which pitted U.S.-led U.N. forces and South Korea against North Korean and Chinese troops.
The IAAF 2011 World Championships in Daegu, South Korea – How we won the story
(View a slideshow of some of the best photos from Daegu here.)
By Daegu Team
Day Nine.
How we won the story.
World Athletics Championship in Daegu from Reuters Tokyo Pictures on Vimeo.
Thank you for sharing us the “behind the scenes” of the amazing photos produced by the great team covering the event. It was enlightening and also the multi-media video peice was very inspiring and beautifully produced!
Seven months atop a crane
With almost seven months atop a crane, a 51-year old woman trade unionist is staging a solo protest to end layoffs at a shipyard in South Korea.
Kim Jin-Suk, 51, climbed the 35-meter tall crane in the Yeongdo shipyard of Hanjin Heavy Industries and Construction (HHIC) in Busan, the hub of South Korea’s shipbuilding industry on January 6 this year and has been there ever since to protest against what she says are “mass layoffs” at the country’s former biggest shipbuilder.
Her sit-in protest is helping to revive trade unionism in a country that was once a byword for violent clashes between workers and police, but which under conservative President Lee Myung-bak has seen the unions adopt a back seat.
The labor activist is a member of the direction committee for the office of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) and she was laid off by the shipbuilder in Busan, a city on the southeast end of the Korean peninsula, about 420 km (262 miles) from the capital Seoul.
Kim Jin-suk entered the yard in 1981 as a welder and was laid off in 1986 by the company for distributing pamphlets denouncing a company-sponsored union at a time when South Korea was still a military dictatorship.
Luxury dog care open for business
Affluent South Koreans have just about every fashion accessory imaginable from designer clothes to handbags and the latest trend in Asia’s fourth biggest economy is small dogs.
Just like their well-groomed owners in the ritzy suburbs of the capital Seoul, pets are now big business for groomers, healthcare businesses and even mood music, helping to create a whole new service industry.
“IRION” is a luxury pet care centre in the Gangnam district in Seoul that recently opened to cater to the needs of affluent urban dwellers who have embraced small dogs as their latest fashion accessory.
With prices of up to $60 a day for a dog “kindergarten” and up to $180 a day for a doggy hotel room, it certainly doesn’t come cheap.
Outspoken South Korean singer taps populace sentiment
On June 13, 2002, when South Korea, Japan and the rest of the world were captivated by the 2002 FIFA World Cup, a 50-tonne U.S. army vehicle crushed two South Korean schoolgirls to death during a drill in Yangju, north of Seoul. The girls, Shin Hyo-soon and Shim Mi-seon, both 14, were on their way to a friend’s birthday party.
Thousands of South Koreans protested for several months to demand then-U.S. President George Bush apologize directly for the incident and hand over the U.S. soldiers involved to South Korean court.
The soldiers left South Korea after they were acquitted in a U.S. military court in the country in November 2002, which inflamed anti-American sentiment.
Angry that no one was found criminally responsible for the deaths, many South Koreans wanted the bilateral Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) altered to allow local authorities to prosecute cases involving U.S. troops in South Korea.
South Korea and the U.S. have a military alliance dating to the 1950-53 Korean War. Nearly 30,000 U.S. troops are based in South Korea, which is still technically at war with North Korea as the 1950-1953 conflict ended with an armistice and not a peace treaty.
Earlier, in February 2002, South Korean sports fans were outraged after national athlete Kim Dong-sung crossed the line first only to be disqualified in the 1,500 meter short track final at the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. American speed skater Apolo Anton Ohno won the gold medal after the chief referee judged that Kim was guilty of cross-tracking, or interfering with Ohno’s path when the American was trying to move up the inside.
Fighters in the ring of the law
As the year winds down in Seoul, highly-educated fighters dressed in business attire gather for a dramatic showdown. A sky-blue colored dome theater is the venue, and this year, it was again prepared for the upcoming event. Chairs, tables and other office furniture are stacked up on the floor to block people from entering rooms. Police officers stand guard as they surround the domed theater to prepare for any emergency situations. There are ambulances and medics. All entrances to the theater are closed, with tight security allowing only those with prior authorization to enter.
The match begins. Hundreds of people, who don’t look like mixed martial arts fighters, gather in front of the gate of the main event room. They are defenders. They discuss and plan their strategies. Chanting “Keep the position,” they form scrimmages. The opponent’s fighters roll up into the hall. The offenders also make a plan on how to break through defenders’ scrimmages. They stand ready to rush. Somebody from the attackers shouts “Let’s go.” All of the offenders including dozens of women make a dash. There’s pushing and shoving. The hall is filled with screams and shouts. Camera flashes are fired at them. It’s like a red carpet ceremony. Some fighters fall and collapse. One wounded person cries with pains. Immediately medics come and take her to a hospital.
from Russell Boyce:
Asia – A Week in Pictures 12 December 2010
This week the blog should be called A Week (and a few extra hours ) in Pictures as I wanted to share a couple of images that came in late last Sunday and evaded my net as I trawled through the file. Both are from Thailand and both were shot by Sukree Sukplang. The first is a strong portrait of Thai King Bhumibol Adulyadej as he leaves hospital in a wheelchair to attend a ceremony to celebrate his 83rd birthday. The picture seems to me to mirror the respect that the Thai people have for their King. What makes me think this I am not sure; maybe its the side light which creates studio-like modelling on the king's face highlighting every detail of his appearance, the crispness of the clothes, the beauty of the ceremonial medals and the rich colour of the royal sash. Or maybe it's just the way he is looking back into the lens, his eyes full of dignity and determination.
Thailand's King Bhumibol Adulyadej leaves the Siriraj Hospital for a ceremony at the Grand Palace in Bangkok December 5, 2010. King Bhumibol celebrates his 83rd birthday on Sunday. REUTERS/Sukree Sukplang
The picture of people releasing balloons into the air has amazing diagonal composition with the eye being led up into the darkened sky by the use of the disappearing lanterns as they float up into the darkness, the black space on the left holding in the picture so we don't float away too.
People launch floating paper lanterns into the sky to celebrate Thai King Bhumibol Adulyadej's 83rd birthday in Bangkok December 5, 2010. REUTERS/Sukree Sukplang
So to the business of this week - In Korea lawmakers from opposing parties fought it out at the National Assembly as the government forced through laws on spending; fist fights, barricades and party members being lifted to safety all in a day's work for the lawmakers and great photographic fodder for Yong-hak. Another roller coaster week with swings from the cool control and military order of the launching ceremony of the Women Reserve Officers' Training Corps to the tears and cries of the relatives mourning those civilians who were killed when North Korea shelled Yeonpyeong Island on November 23.
from Russell Boyce:
Asia – A Week in Pictures 28 November 2010
I was listening to a radio programme about the history of military music (please bear with me) and a woman recounted a story about the first time she heard the "Last Post" being played at the Cenotaph in London on Remembrance Sunday. The woman (sadly I don't remember her name), said that what really struck her was that after the moment of total silence was broken by the first notes of the Last Post she knew that every one of the thousands of people standing in Whitehall would be sharing the same thought - that of someone who they had loved and lost. Three stories this week put me in mind of this woman as I looked at images of people grieving for lost ones. The difference being that for each person lost the world was watching their story albeit only momentarily; the crushed people in Cambodia, the miners in New Zealand and the four people killed by the shelling by North Korea of the tiny island of Yeonpyeong.
People are crushed in a stampede on a bridge in Phnom Penh November 23, 2010. The stampede killed at least 339 people late on Monday and wounded nearly as many after thousands panicked on the last day of a water festival, authorities and state media said. REUTERS/Stringer
At 3.30am on the 24th I received a call from the desk telling me that that hundreds of people had been killed in Cambodia during the water festival. The picture I saw horrific, young people twisted together, some dead and some alive, panic in their eyes as people stampeded to try to leave an island linked by a bridge. The picture of the people in the act of dying reminding me of the images from the Hillsborough soccer disaster in 1989 when fans were crushed to death in steel cages as more fans tried to crowd into the game, photographers pitch side only needing turn around to take these pictures, unable to help as the life was squeezed out of them.
The same day 375 people died in Cambodia on the bridge North Korea shelled the tiny South Korean island of Yeonpyeong killing four, the world's attention moved away from Cambodia.
Although the world's attention had been snatched away from Cambodia, I imagine it didn't make the grief any easier for the relatives who went to identify the bodies of their loved ones, no doubt oblivious of what was happening on the Korean Peninsula. Chor Sokunthea's picture of the distraught man hugging his dead relative is as sad a picture as I have ever seen. On the very same day in police New Zealand, the mine story now well away from the world's gaze, announced that there had been a second explosion in the Pike River coal mine dashing all hopes for the relatives of the 29 trapped miners that the same miracle would happen for them as it did with the miners in Chile and China, all of whom had been rescued. Tim's picture of the crying woman saying all that can be said about grief and the loss of hope.
Being a bird
South Korea’s Armed Forces Day is an annual event held on October 1.
The country’s military puts on a variety of displays that include performances by military bands, drills by honor guard contingents and martial arts displays by special warfare units. There are also air shows with helicopters and fighting planes. One of the highlights of the event is a skydiving performance by South Korea’s Special Warfare Command soldiers.
The South Korean Defence Ministry invited the media for an opportunity to cover the airdrop exercise from their helicopters. I was one of the pool photographers. I’ve covered these type of helicopter missions several times before, but I was still excited albeit with some tension.
On September 29, 2009, two days before Armed Forced Day, Special Warfare Command parachuting team members prepared for their airdrop exercise.
The group was made up of about 40 of the top soldiers and including female soldiers. Before riding in the helicopters, they discussed their operation plan and safety precautions. They separated and boarded two Ch-47 helicopters at an airfield near the event spot, the Gyeryongdae military compound, about 140 km (90 miles) south of Seoul.
Surrounded by demonstrations in South Korea
It was October, 1990 when I was on a street in central Seoul for the first times as a news photographer. My first job: to cover an anti-government demonstration by students and workers. Protected by a helmet and gas mask, I shot pictures with a Nikon FM2 without the help of a motor drive. It was a battle. The protesters, hundreds of them, had steel bars, stones and petrol bombs. They were forced back by riot police, armed with tear gas, heavy sticks and hard-edged shields.
It was in those last days of the country’s period of autocratic rule, riots and mayhem had become almost daily routine. Sometimes, the photographers, including me, were victims of attack from both sides
By 1997, news photography had become my full-time job. By then too, South Korea had a democratic government in power and major protests were less common. When they did happen, the tear gas may have gone but the tactics were tough and people got hurt. But now there was public opinion to worry about. There was an unwritten rule that members of the media should not be attacked.
This year, things changed again.
In May, I was covering a rally against the government of President Lee Myung-bak, an ex-businessman who had taken office in February 2008, promising pro-business reforms to set the economy on a new path of growth.
Jaewon, you might be interested to know that during an anti G8 demonstration I was assigned to photograph in London I was presented with a nicely printed card from a masked demonstrator that read ‘Media are legitimate targets” and we continue to be so from both sides
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The Wall
Does anyone remember what we were fighting about?