"a battleground for bigger powers"

"Wang's analogy of us as human fertilizer revived thoughts I had been thinking for a long time.  True enough, as Chinese, we genuinely felt that our lives were misused here, but as I have observed earlier, no matter how abysmal our situation was there were always others who had it worse.  By now I understood why occasionally some Korean civilians were hostile to us.  To them we had come here only to protect China's interests -- by so doing, we couldn't help but ruin their homes, fields, and livelihoods.  From their standpoint, if the Chinse army hadn't crossed the Yalu, millions of lives, both civilian and military, would have been saved.  Of course, the United States would then have occupied all of Korea, forcing China to build defenses in Manchuria, which would have been much more costly than sending troops to fight in our neighboring country.  As it was, the Koreans had taken the brunt of the destruction of this war, whereas we Chinese were here mainly to keep its flames away from our border.  Or, as most of the POW's believed, perhaps rightly, we had served as cannon fodder for the Russians.  It was true that the Koreans had started the war themselves, but a small country like theirs could only end up being a battleground for bigger powers.  Whoever won this war, Korean would be a loser."

-- Ha Jin, War Trash

"Johnson soup"

Budae-jjigae (Army base stew) is an interesting Korean dish, based on traditional technique but implementing Western ingredients like hot dogs, American cheese, and Spam.  The story of its creation is part history and part ingenuity:

"Heo, who passed away in 2014, told her story at every opportunity. She used to stir-fry leftover meat from the nearby US Army base at a small odeng (fish cake) stand when a regular customer suggested she make the meats into a spicy soup with rice.

'Back then there wasn’t a lot to eat, but I acquired some ham and sausages. The only way to get meat in those days was to smuggle it from the army base,' Heo told the BBC in 2013. 'We had to make do with whatever the soldiers had left over. We’d make a stew with whatever came out of the base, and my recipe was copied and spread throughout Korea.'

With the dish’s success, Heo turned her humble stand into a restaurant and opened Odeng Sikdang in 1960. Soon, restaurants serving the dish began to pop up near US military bases across the country. After US president Lyndon B Johnson visited South Korea in 1966, rumours circulated that he was a fan of the stew – giving budae-jjigae the nickname 'Johnson-tang' ('Johnson soup')."

My own go-to place when I hanker for budae-jjigae is right across from my office.  I could eat it happily in any season, but for some reason my (Korean) boss usually wants to have it in spring time.

Why We're Doomed

Evan Osnos' long-form piece in The New Yorker is a comprehensive and indispensable account of what's going on with North Korea and Trump, the decades of history leading up to this moment, and why military threats to Kim Jong-un and his regime are pointless.  While there's a lot to take in, there are some definite highlights:

"It is a measure of how impoverished America’s contact with North Korea has become that one of the best-known conduits is Dennis Rodman, a.k.a. the Worm, the bad boy of the nineties-era Chicago Bulls. Rodman’s agent, Chris Volo, a hulking former mixed-martial-arts fighter, told me recently, 'I’ve been there four times in four years. I’m in the Korean Sea, and I’m saying to myself, "No one would believe that I’m alone right now, riding Sea-Doos with Kim Jong Un."' Rodman’s strange bond with Kim began in 2013, when Vice Media, aware of Kim’s love of the Bulls, offered to fly American basketball players to North Korea. Vice tried to contact Michael Jordan but got nowhere. Rodman, who was working the night-club autograph circuit, was happy to go. He joined three members of the Harlem Globetrotters for a game in Pyongyang. Kim made a surprise appearance, invited Rodman to dinner, and asked him to return to North Korea for a week at his private beach resort in Wonsan, which Rodman later described as 'Hawaii or Ibiza, but he’s the only one that lives there.' On his most recent trip, in June, Rodman gave Kim English and Korean editions of Trump’s 1987 best-seller,  The Art of the Deal."

I think the only rational response to this information is Jesus Fucking Christ.

I'd add that only an American person could possibly imagine a world where nuclear conflict could ever be "contained" to Korea and / or Asia.

Kim Jong-un understands this calculus perfectly, as does China.

My fellow Americans?  Perhaps dimly.

Trump?  Literally not at all.

Out Of The Rubble

(source)

The story of Han Young-soo, the photographer who put a face on the struggles and triumphs of post-war South Korea:

"Poverty, devastation, division, disarray, hopelessness and bleakness are often what are associated with Korea reeling from the Korean War (1950-53).

But that was not the case in the eyes of photographer Han Youngsoo.

In the desolate landscape of postwar Korea, he captured modern sophistication from people’s everyday lives and their facial expressions. 

This is perhaps why although about 60 years have passed, his photographs remain so stunning."

Do click through to JoongAng Daily for images, but an even better source for his amazing photography is here.