Nothing to do, and all day to do it in...

It rained all morning. I took the opportunity to watch a re-reun of the Ireland Spain match on TV, where I could spot myself in the crowd. After that there were a few films in English, with Korean sub-titles, What's Up Doc and one of Shakespeare's plays by Kenneth Brannagh, Henry IV, maybe. So it was a lazy morning.

Though the afternoon was overcast, it was still hot and humid. I explored an area between this hotel and Tapgol Park, based on a street off Jongno. Lots of galleries and tourist shops with handcrafts. I found the wall scrolls I had seen in the National Museum, which was charging 60,000 won, and which cost 70,000 won in Itwaon, were on sale in one shop here for 20,000 to 30,000 won, so I'm glad I waited before buying.

Irish in the News

Almost every day there's an article about the Irish team in the Korean Herald (one of the two Korean dailies in English—the other is the Korean Times). Today's was about the arrival of the team in Dublin and the party in the Phoenix Park, yesterday's was about Matt Holland turning out to be the new mid-field hero for Ireland. Few, if any, of the other smaller teams get such treatment—it must do wonders for tourism!

That evening, just as I was preparing to go out, I saw that the English Patient was showing on TV, but it was dubbed into Korean. Still, once I started watching it I couldn't stop, so that was the evening taken care off! I'll have to watch it in English, or read the book!

Princess Di

A story I heard: A protest was lodged in Korea against the Kia Car Company for producing a TV commercial in which a Princess Diana look-alike, while driving in a Kia, successfully eludes paparazzi this time and at the end of the commercial, winks into the camera.

The Korean War

On the Internet I read up some stuff on the Korean War (1950-53), about which I knew nothing. The country had been split after World War 2, when the Japanese were ejected. The war started with the invasion of South Korea by the government in the North in June 1950. The United Nations were dragged in and fifteen countries sent troops in support of South Korea. Then when things seemed to be going the UN's way, China sent in troops which pushed them all the way back to the South-East corner. Then General McArthur arrived and managed to push the Northern forces back again. On July 27, 1953, a truce was signed. The 38th parallel, which runs across the centre of Korea, was agreed upon as the line of demarcation between North and South Korea.

The war caused great destruction of property and left 4,000,000 people dead, with many thousands missing, wounded, or homeless. The possibility that it may happen again—which most contemporary commentators view as extremely unlikely—has been a cornerstone of U.S. military policy in Korea to this day.

During my searches I came across an Internet site about the Irish who died during this war. Twenty-seven Irish died fighting for the US forces, while a number of civilians (priests and one nun) also died or were executed. The list is here.