Current Event – Korean Reunification

I personally feel like this picture sums up the efforts of Korean Reunification by these two leaders quite well, but for more depth and background, let’s do a “current event” update.

Roh Moo Hyun and Kim Jong Il met in Pyongyang and signed a vague accord, pledging to work towards peace. The ultimate goal of reunification is obviously a long ways away because of the enormous cultural differences and hardline opposition in the South. The Independent isn’t even sure if the two countries are working towards reunification at all. Koreans, or at least businessmen speculating on land near the DMZ, seem to think the country will reunite and that that’s profits to be had.

al Jazeera presents an in-depth look at the current situation between the two Koreas.

Part One:

Part Two:

Just a note: I really like these al Jazeera in-depth news coverages; a guest on the show is actually from the country in question and theres only one of the usual American partisan pundist. So from here-and-on, I’ll be trying to syndicate current event coverage, focusing on northeast Asia.

Myanmar protests

Monks continue to gather in large numbers in the major cities of Myanmar and President Bush was at the UN today, threatening to tighten economic sanctions if the Junta resorted to violence to stop the protests. But even though the Chinese are quietly urging Myanmar to reconcile with the opposition, the use of force seems probable, especially if history were to repeat itself.

An interesting short look into the average life under the Junta’s rule in Myanmar from the Al Jazeera English network.