Korean carmakers eye future; can USA compete?



Busan is the cleanest city I've ever seen: not a cigarette butt or gum wrapper on the ground. No garbage pails either. I'm told that if people see litter on the ground, they pick it up and put it in their pocket until they can throw it away.

Last month, I was in Korea's second-largest city for the 2024 Busan International Motor Show, which has been held biennially since 2001. Starting this year, it has a new name: the Busan International Mobility Show, which better reflects the wider range of transportation innovation it hopes to showcase.

[Hyundai] has built every vehicle it makes to be either hybrid, gas, or electric. The company was smart enough to say, 'Let's make this like Lego: same body, different drive line underneath.'

I didn't see any flying cars, but my visit did give me the chance to reflect on the rise of the Korean automobile industry in the last two decades.

Korean cars have been in the United States market since 1986, with the Hyundai Excel. That car was a huge hit with American consumers, but quality issues over the long run gave it and other Hyundai models a bad reputation.

In 1998, Hyundai decided to change its poor reputation abroad by making massive investments in design, quality, and marketing.

It looked at how the Japanese were offering packaged trim levels and did the same.

It also looked at the typical U.S. three-year, 32,000-mile warranty and decided to more than triple that: 10 years, 100,000 miles, including basic maintenance. To this day, no other manufacturers have tried to compete on warranty. The Germans have extended their warranties to four years, 50,000 miles, which hasn't kept Hyundai from taking a big chunk of their market.

Hyundai also began manufacturing in America. It 2005, it opened a factory in Montgomery, Alabama; followed by a Kia factory (Hyundai has been Kia's parent company since 1997) in West Point, Georgia, in 2010. The latter expects to roll its five millionth car off the assembly line sometime in 2025.

Last year Hyundai's luxury brand Genesis began producing the Electrified GV70 SUV in the Montgomery plant, the first Genesis model to be manufactured in America.

I spoke to Hyundai head Jay Chang about their EV strategy. While vehicles the Kia EV9 have gotten a lot of acclaim, I asked him point blank what happens if the market for EVs collapses? His answer was simple: we'll make electric vehicles if people want them.

Unlike us, Hyundai doesn't have an EV mandate; moreover, it's realized electric cars aren't the answer. So instead of going all in, it's built every vehicle it makes to be either hybrid, gas, or electric. The company was smart enough to say, "Let's make this like Lego: same body, different drive line underneath."

And now that the Genesis line is competing with luxury vehicles Lexus and Mercedes, it's beginning to go after the performance market — vehicles like BMW's M series and Audi RS — with its Magma line. I spoke a little with Hyundai Motor Group president and chief creative officer Luc Donckerwolke about this, and the company has assembled some top-notch talent, including veteran Porsche engineer Manfred Harrer as well as BMW veteran (and recent Hyundai head of R&D) Albert Biermann.

While in Korea I was also able to visit Ulsan and tour the largest car factory in the world. No cameras allowed, unfortunately, but I did watch as vehicles were loaded onto a ship with unbelievable grace and precision: It was like one big musical number. They loaded 12 floors of cars (over 10,000 vehicles in all) in six hours.

It's important to note here that not only is Hyundai half-owned by the Korean government, but it's very well vertically integrated. Hyundai owns a steel company as well as a chip company — the latter, MegaChip, gave Hyundai a huge advantage during the supply-chain crisis.

See below for some of my video from the 2024 Busan International Mobility Show:

- YouTube www.youtube.com

US Army charges Wisconsin man who defected to North Korea with desertion and soliciting child pornography: Report



The U.S. Army has charged the soldier who defected to North Korea in July with desertion, solicitation of child pornography, and various other crimes, according to documents obtained by Reuters.

Pvt. Travis King, 23, joined the Army in January 2021 and served as a cavalry scout with the Korean Rotational Force in South Korea.

Reuters reported that he was accused on more than one occasion of assault. He ultimately pleaded guilty to one charge of assault and to damaging a police car during a profanity-laced rant against South Koreans.

After he did a one-month stint in a South Korean jail, the U.S. Army sent him packing to the airport on July 18 so that he could face disciplinary measures stateside. King apparently had no intention of facing accountability back at Fort Bliss, Texas.

He reportedly left the customs checkpoint, fled the airport, then joined a civilian tour of the Joint Security Area on the border between the two Koreas. King then ran across the Demilitarized Zone into North Korea.

The Army officially declared King AWOL but had not gone so far as to label him a deserter. Possible penalties for going AWOL include military jail time, a dishonorable discharge, and/or a forfeiture of pay.

The communist regime used the defection as a propaganda opportunity, claiming the 23-year-old was seeking refuge because of "inhuman maltreatment and racial discrimination" in America, adding that "he also expressed his willingness to seek refugee in the DPRK or a third country, saying that he was disillusioned at the unequal American society."

After a two-month stay, King was returned to the U.S. on Sept. 27. Sweden had acted as the primary interlocutor between the U.S. and North Korea in securing the defector's release.

King has since undergone medical exams, psychological assessments, and debriefings, reported NPR.

The private now reportedly faces at least eight distinct charges under the Uniform Code of Military Justice. The private has been accused of:

  • desertion;
  • possessing child pornography and attempting to get a Snapchat user in July 2023 to "knowingly and willingly produce child pornography";
  • insubordination for leaving his base after curfew and flouting Army regulations concerning the consumption of alcohol;
  • attempting to escape from U.S. military custody in October 2022; and
  • various other improprieties, including kicking and punching other officers last year.

According to the 2023 Manual for Courts-Martial United States, any member of the armed forces who "without authority goes or remains absent from his unit, organization, or place of duty with intent to remain away therefrom permanently" is guilty of desertion.

"Desertion with intent to remain away permanently is complete when the person absents himself or herself without authority from his or her unit, organization, or place of duty, with the intent to remain away therefrom permanently," says the manual. "A prompt repentance and return, while material in extenuation, is no defense."

If found guilty of desertion, then King could face a dishonorable discharge, forfeiture of all pay and allowances, and jail time.

Possible penalties for desertion during wartime include death. As the Korean War is technically not over — as the 1953 armistice between the United Nations Command and both China and North Korea was never formally signed by the South Korean government — it is unclear precisely how high the stakes are in the forthcoming court-martial.

King's mother, Claudine Gates, said that she loves her son "unconditionally" and asks that her "son be afforded the presumption of innocence," reported ABC News.

"The man I raised, the man I dropped off at boot camp, the man who spent the holidays with me before deploying did not drink," Gates said in a statement. "A mother knows her son, and I believe something happened to mine while he was deployed. The Army promised to investigate what happened at Camp Humphreys, and I await the results."

Travis King charges youtu.be

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LGBT activists in Korea cry foul after Seoul allows Christians to use city plaza for youth concert



Pride and its South Korean exponents suffered a crushing loss in the battle between vice and virtue last week. This year, instead of "queer culture," Christ will be celebrated in the city's downtown.

The Asian nation's largest annual LGBT festival has been held in front of Seoul City Hall since 2015, except during the pandemic when such gatherings were prohibited.

Although Yang Sun-woo, the Seoul Queer Culture Festival's chief organizer, and other LGBT activists presumed their claim to the plaza from June 30 to July 1 was all but guaranteed, this year, they were not the only applicant. The CTS Cultural Foundation also entered an application with the Seoul Metropolitan Government to use the space for a Christian youth concert.

According to the South China Morning Post, the cultural foundation is linked to the local broadcaster Christian Television System, which has long supported the institution of marriage and spoken critically of the pride festival.

The city reportedly attempted to satisfy both applicants, providing both with options for alternate dates; however, neither budged. As a result, the city left the decision to a civic committee, which ultimately decided in favor of the CTS Cultural Foundation.

The organizers behind the LGBT activist festival, which enjoyed dominion over the plaza on July 1 for several consecutive years, now claim that allowing the Christian group to use the space they reckoned was theirs constitutes discrimination.

Yang Sun-woo, the LGBT event's chief organizer, told the Washington Post, "We were unfairly denied access to the public space where South Korea’s LGBTQ community has celebrated pride every summer for years."

City officials stressed that the decision was both lawful and impartial.

"Based on municipal ordinances … events for children and teenagers get a priority when requests are filed for a same date," said Jeong Sang-hun, administrative director at Seoul Metropolitan Government.

Past queer culture festivals have featured nudity, graphic displays, and highly sexual themes.

Despite the city's reasoning, activists presumed only the worst of intentions.

"We are angry at the Seoul Metropolitan Government that is trying to push out sexual minorities and fill the plaza with discrimination and hatred," said the Korean LGBT activist group Rainbow Action in a statement obtained by CNN.

Rainbow Action further suggested that by permitting the Christian event to go ahead, city officials were "aligning with homophobia and discrimination."

In addition to decrying the civic committee's decision, a spokesman for the queer festival claimed that the Christian concert would be used as a space to spread "hatred" against LGBT groups, adding that the purpose of the youth event celebrating Christ "is to interrupt the Queer Culture festival and to prevent sexual minorities from revealing themselves."

The CTS Cultural Foundation denied the timing of its concert having anything whatsoever to do with the queer festival.

"The day is when the weather is forecast to be good and if we were to postpone, the concert would be right in the monsoon season," said CTS spokesman Kim Min-tae.

Even though the queer festival was provided with other dates, Ryu Min-hee of Korean Lawyers for Public Interest and Human Rights told the Post, "This is a typical case of Pride blockade seen in countries where governmental authorities side with bigotry and discrimination."

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Saudi Arabia hosts real-life 'Squid Game Experience' for tourists



In Riyadh, the capital city of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, people can now participate in the Squid Game Experience.

The Squid Game Experience is an immersive in person simulation of the popular Netflix series of the same name. The Saudi General Authority for Entertainment (GEA) organized this event so that attendees may experience six different games inspired by the series.

“Squid Game” is a Netflix original series set in the criminal underworld of South Korea. Men and women who are down on their luck agree to participate in a series of increasingly elaborate children’s games where if they lose the game they also lose their lives.

Beating out pandemic era favorites like “Tiger King” and “Bridgerton,” “Squid Game” is currently the most watched show in Netflix’s history with more than 100 million subscriber households watching the series in its first month, according to Forbes.

The experience is roughly identical to the events of the show with participants meeting enforcers clad in masks and red jumpsuits, participating in childhood games that test their skill and agility, and ends with the announcement of a winner.

The GEA provided a special location with an area of 9,582 square meters in Riyadh for the event to be housed. In just over a month, this space was filled with different zones for each one of the games available for the public to participate in.

That said, individuals participating in the Squid Game Experience need not worry about losing their lives should they misstep or lose a game.

There are no automated guns slaughtering people who lose at Red Light Green Light and if a team loses at Tug-of-War its members won’t plummet to their deaths.

Organizers of the Squid Game Experience were sure to prioritize the safety of each participant.

Most of the time, the event is sold out as it frequently attracts hundreds of Saudi residents and tourists each day.

“Squid Game” is extremely popular in Saudi Arabia. Restaurants in the capital city of Riyadh have even incorporated the show into the dining experience as family’s bring their children to revel in the novelty of being shot with a toy gun over dessert.

The Squid Game Experience runs until the end of March 2022 and participants must be at least 18-years-old.

Saudi Arabia has experienced immense growth in tourism in recent years. In 2021 there was $19.85 billion spent by tourists in Saudi Arabia. This is more than double the $9.32 billion spent in 2011. The capital city of Riyadh is now a hub for the international entertainment and food industries as more and more people seek luxury in Saudi Arabia.

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