N. KOREA: North Korea Calls for Peace Treaty Talks With U.S.

January 12, 2010

By CHOE SANG-HUN

SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea on Monday proposed talks with the United States to reach a formal peace treaty that would replace the truce that halted the Korean War 57 years ago, indicating that it would not give up its nuclear weapons until Washington signed such an accord.

North Korea said peace talks should be held either as part of the six-nation talks that focus on ending its nuclear weapons program or as a separate negotiation. But the North also warned that it would not return to six-nation talks — from which it withdrew last April — unless the United Nations lifted sanctions imposed after the North’s nuclear and ballistic missile tests last year.

The North had previously proposed peace negotiations with the United States and South Korea. But its latest overture came as it was trying to shift the focus of the six-nation talks, where a peace treaty had been set aside until North Korea made significant progress toward dismantling its nuclear weapons program.

“If a peace treaty is signed, it will help resolve hostile relations between North Korea and the United States and speed up the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula,” the North Korean Foreign Ministry said in a statement carried by the North’s state-run news agency, K.C.N.A.

After years of unsuccessful talks with Washington, North Korea said it concluded that all agreements were bound to collapse unless the two sides built mutual “trust.” To build such confidence, the statement said, “It is essential to conclude a peace treaty for terminating the state of war, a root cause of the hostile relations.”

The statement reiterated North Korea’s contention that it would not have built nuclear weapons if the United States had assured it of peace.

Stephen W. Bosworth, President Obama’s special representative on North Korea, who visited the capital, Pyongyang, last month, said the United States could discuss a peace treaty and other incentives only when the process of denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula had gained “significant traction.”

Last week, Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan of South Korea denounced what he called the North’s “unrealistic” demand that the United States negotiate a peace treaty before the North considers relinquishing its nuclear weapons.

“That’s like saying it will never give up its nuclear programs, or it is a delaying tactic” to buy time to further its nuclear programs, he said.

On Monday, North Korea suggested that peace talks be held among the signatories of the Korean War armistice: the American-led United Nations Command in Seoul, China and North Korea. South Korea refused to sign the truce, but Seoul and Washington insist that any peace talks include the South.

Between 1997 and 1999, the two Koreas, the United States and China held six rounds of peace talks that produced no agreement because the North insisted on the withdrawal of American troops from South Korea and an end to joint United States-South Korean military exercises.

“With its peace proposal, North Korea is trying to gain the initiative as it prepares to return to six-nation talks,” said Kim Yong-hyun, a North Korea analyst at Dongguk University in Seoul. Mr. Kim expected some haggling between the governments in Pyongyang and Seoul over whether South Korea should be included.

Earlier Monday, Robert R. King, Mr. Obama’s envoy on North Korean human rights issues, said during a visit to Seoul that the North’s “appalling” human rights situation would impede any efforts to normalize ties.

He also called Monday for the release of Robert Park, a Korean-American missionary who crossed into North Korea last month to demand the release of an estimated 160,000 political prisoners held in labor camps, according to his supporters in Seoul.

North Korea has confirmed that it has detained an American citizen but has not identified him by name.

View Article in The New York Times

JAPAN: Japanese woman drives home with body in windscreen

(AFP) – 20 hours ago

TOKYO — A Japanese woman who drove home with the body of an 80-year-old pedestrian lodged in her windscreen has been arrested on charges of causing a deadly traffic accident and fleeing the scene, police said Monday.

The 23-year-old driver was believed to have struck the elderly woman in the early hours of Sunday north of Tokyo before driving seven kilometres (four miles) home with the victim's body wedged in the shattered windscreen.

Michiko Sato, a catering school student, was arrested after her boyfriend called police to report the accident, a police spokesman said.

When police called at Sato's home, they found the body of the elderly woman still stuck in the car's windscreen.

"The suspect said she was so shocked that she didn't know what to do," the police spokesman said. He added Sato was not under the influence of alcohol at the time of the accident.

She was charged with causing a traffic accident resulting in death and escaping after running over a person with a car and faces up to 17 years in prison or a fine of up to two million yen (22,000 dollars) if convicted.

Copyright © 2010 AFP. All rights reserved.

JAPAN: Etiquette by the numbers

The Japan Times: Tuesday, Jan. 12, 2010

JAPANESE MANNERS

Bowing, bathing, greeting, eating — all manners of established codes of conduct

By MARIKO KATO
Staff writer

Have you ever tried to shake hands with a Japanese only to be bowed at instead?

Or have you suffered disdainful looks when you blew your nose in public, or dunked your towel in a hot springs bath, unaware you are breaking social codes?

Japan's many rules of etiquette may bemuse foreign visitors, while for long-term residents mastering them is a key part of embracing the culture.

So what constitutes Japanese etiquette, and how do foreign residents and experts view such manners? Following are questions and answers:

What is included in everyday etiquette?

Posted notices and warnings against various perceived antisocial behavior are commonplace. People riding trains are advised not to take up more than one seat and are urged to refrain from talking on a cell phone or playing loud music.

Most "onsen" (hot springs baths) ban swimsuits, advise guests to rinse themselves off before entering the bath and in cases of mixed bathing not to stare or flash oneself in front of others.

But many basic social codes provide no posted directions, requiring foreigners to learn by observation and that old standby, trial and error.

The handling of chopsticks can be a minefield of faux pas.

A guide put out by JAL Academy, a firm created by Japan Airlines to coach businesses on etiquette, directs users to first "hold the chopsticks horizontally and pull the chopsticks apart slowly, over your knees."

The book "Japanese Manners Read in English" advises never to use a chopstick to impale a food item, pass it from chopsticks to chopsticks or stick chopsticks into food in a bowl so the ends are pointing up. The latter is associated with the dead and food for the final journey.

Licking one's chopsticks is also taboo, as is waving them over food while deciding what to eat, or around while talking, the guide says.

Bowing is also a key practice, and the degree of bending depends on the occasion.

According to JAL Academy, a 45-degree bow is customary when meeting someone deemed to be superior, or to show gratitude or to apologize. A 30-degree bow is appropriate for greeting visitors or first-time acquaintances, while a 15-degree dip will suffice for a casual hello in the hallway, the book says.

Other advice found in the guide includes keeping conversations short during initial greetings and, when visiting someone's home, refraining from poking around in cupboards, bookcases and other personal areas — the latter taboos not being so uniquely Japanese.

What constitutes formal etiquette?

In addition to social codes of behavior for formal dinners and religious ceremonies, there is the practice by adults of gift-giving, which many in Japan actually consider a headache. Gourmet food, sweets or alcohol may be given to relatives and colleagues at the turning of seasons and on special occasions. There are informal guidelines on how much money to spend on initial offerings based on the importance of the recipient, and then on return gifts.

Gift-giving is not always simply a gesture of gratitude or thoughtfulness, as it can have parallels with bribery, according to Katherine Rupp, a lecturer in anthropology at Yale University.

"Not only do individual Japanese people spend a lot of time, worry and money on gift-giving, but gift-giving is also a crucial part of the overall workings of the macro-economy," she writes in "Gift-giving in Japan."

Rupp points to the subtle undertones that personal gifts to bosses or doctors, or presents given by industries to bureaucrats or politicians, may have in persuading the recipient to act to the giver's advantage.

How would social codes be characterized?

Like other countries, Japan's social codes "lie somewhere between conscience or self-expression and the law," according to Isao Kumakura, a professor emeritus at the research institute of the National Museum of Ethnology in Osaka.

"Even if you are alone, there is a feeling that somewhere someone might be watching," and this feeling is particularly strong in Japanese, he writes in "Manners as Culture" ("Bunka to Shite no Manaa").

According to Kumakura, Japanese etiquette has roots in the rituals of tea ceremony and martial and creative arts, although such customs were exclusive to the upper class until Japan opened its doors to the West in the mid-19th century.

To appear sophisticated in Western eyes, commercial centers like Tokyo, Yokohama and Osaka established regional laws that imposed codes of conduct between samurai and commoners, he writes.

These laws prevented men from urinating in public, and workers from walking naked to public baths carrying a change of clothes, a common habit as they did not want to change while they were still dirty from the day's work, Kumakura explains.

In modern times, instruction manuals on manners tend to focus on business situations rather than the home or society.

How do foreign residents and experts view Japanese manners?

Helmut Morsbach, an adjunct professor of psychology at Temple University Japan Campus and a long-term resident, writes in his book "Customs & Etiquette of Japan" that many Japanese drastically change their attitudes once they are outside their comfort zone.

Such a strict adherence to social codes may indicate that, as Morsbach says, "traditional etiquette continues to be extremely important, despite whatever outward appearances of 'Westernization' the visitor may experience."

But Ronald Dore, a professor at the London School of Economics specializing in Japanese society, stresses that foreigners should not feel compelled to master Japanese etiquette, only demonstrate an attempt at it in a relaxed, open manner.

"It is a perfectly viable strategy to profess a combination of total ignorance of Japanese manners and a total willingness to be instructed, and sometimes it can even be the best strategy," rather than becoming anxious and creating tension, he says in the foreword to Morsbach's book.

For business settings, a common scenario for foreign visitors, Morsbach's tips include don't make eye contact too strong during a conversation, don't point with a finger and don't mistake a smile camouflaging hesitation to mean an agreement.

Does everyone adhere to these codes?

No, says columnist Takashi Matsuo, who insists many Japanese find such strict rules stifling.

"Although it's a country that values manners, many Japanese themselves in fact feel a kind of stiffness, and perhaps (Morsbach) isn't aware that there are many people who want to forget such social rules and interact with people in a frank and open way," he writes in a commentary inside Morsbach's book.

But some observers see an antisocial side to this relaxed mind-set, and claim anonymity in large cities and online is making people less concerned about appearing rude.

"Modern Japan has been eliminating society from around them," Kumakura says.

"The fun of anonymity and the fear of losing manners are in conflict with each other. Now this has become a daily norm, and with the rise of the Internet, we ignore manners because of anonymity and abuse our rights."

(C) All rights reserved

To Reconcile the Koreas, Teenagers Show a Way

Ju Jin-ho (second from left) and Park Sung-eun (third from left) discussing how to make dumplings during a camp last year where North Korean defectors and teenage South Korean students cooked and compared each other’s food in a get-to-know session.  Citizens All for North Korean Human Rights

January 12, 2010

By CHOE SANG-HUN

SEOUL — When Ju Jin-ho arrived here from North Korea in 2006, it was as if he had come to an alien continent, not just the southern end of the peninsula.

Even though the 14-year-old defector was placed in a school with children a year or two younger than he, most of his classmates were a head taller. They teased him as a “red.” They were far ahead of him in subjects like mathematics. As desperate as he was to make friends, he had trouble communicating.

“During class breaks, they talked about nothing but computer games,” said Mr. Ju, now 17. “I started playing them so I could join their conversations. I became addicted. My eyesight deteriorated. My grades got worse.”

Since last summer, however, he’s been enrolled in a new program that seeks to overcome the yawning cultural gap that has developed during the six-decade divide between the Communist North and capitalist South, which have yet to sign a formal peace since the 1950-53 Korean War. It brings together teenage South Koreans and North Korean defectors in a rare experiment here in building affinity — and preparing for possible reunification.

Just how far the two sides have drifted apart, how radically different their frames of reference are, was evident when Park Sung-eun, a 16-year-old South Korean, met Mr. Ju last summer through the program in Seoul’s bustling Sinchon district.

“When I asked him, ‘How do you get here?’ I expected him to say by bus or subway,” Ms. Park said.

Instead, she recalled, “He gave me the whole story of his journey from North Korea through China and Myanmar,” when he fled with his family in 2005.

The “Weekend Program for South and North Korean Teenagers Together” was begun last August by the Rev. Benjamin H. Yoon, 80, head of the Citizens’ Alliance for North Korean Human Rights.

“Although we share the same genes, South and North Koreans live like completely different peoples, with different accents, different ways of thinking and behaving,” said Mr. Yoon. “We forgot that before Korea was divided, we lived in the same country, marrying each other.”

Under the program, the Citizens’ Alliance, a civic group founded in 1996, has brought together students from Kyunggi Girls’ High School in Seoul with young North Korean defectors for extracurricular activities.

They have attended concerts together. They have cooked and compared North and South Korean dishes. The North Koreans, adept at farm work, have shown the South Koreans how to harvest yams and make scarecrows. The Southerners have given the Northerners tips on how to succeed socially as well as academically. They have made friends.

One October evening, when the students had gone camping and stayed up late, Moon Sung-il, a 14-year-old North Korean, brought tears to the South Koreans’ eyes when he recounted his two-and-a-half-year flight with other defectors that took him through China, Myanmar and a refugee camp in Bangkok. But he stunned them when he said that none of this was as daunting as a South Korean classroom.

“I could hardly understand anything the teacher said,” he said. “My classmates, who were all a year or two younger than I was, taunted me as a ‘poor soup-eater from the North.’ I fought them with my fists.”

More than 17,000 North Koreans, one-tenth of them teenagers, have fled to the South since famine hit their homeland in the mid-1990s. The average journey to the South takes 35 months, mostly through China and Southeast Asia. Not all who start make it; some have been caught and returned to the North, where they often end up in labor camps.

When they are placed in South Korean schools, these Northerners start nearly from scratch. In the North, they had spent as much time learning about the family of their leader, Kim Jong-il, as they did the rest of Korean history. Few learned English, a requirement in South Korean schools. Dropout rates among defectors are five times the South Korean average, according to the Education Ministry.

With the number of North Korean refugees rising about 10 percent annually, how to integrate them has become an early test for possible unification.

“Whenever something bad about North Korea came up during class, everyone turned to look at me,” said Mr. Ju, who now attends an alternative school for defectors after failing to advance to a regular high school. “When teachers and students spoke disparagingly about North Korea, I felt like they were insulting me.”

Ms. Park said she used to look down on North Koreans. “I associated them with something poor, dark and negative,” she said.

Although many successful South Koreans have their roots in the North — the country’s first president, Syngman Rhee; the founder of the Hyundai business empire; the family that built the South’s influential Chosun newspaper; founders of some of the biggest Christian churches — an image has developed of Northerners as second-class Koreans, needy and starving but surly and belligerent. They have taken food aid from the South but threatened it with war, run prison camps and built nuclear weapons. They are friendly toward China but have rejected talks with the South.

The mistrust is mutual. In the North, teachers tell children that South Korea is an American colony, a springboard for a future invasion, defectors say.

“Back in the North, we seldom heard teachers talk about unification. We seldom thought about it,” said Choi Hyok-chol, a 19-year-old defector. “I still don’t think it’s possible. The two economies are much too different.”

In a survey last June of 1,000 South Koreans aged 19 to 59 conducted by the Korea Peace Institute, a Christian research institute, half the respondents said unification was not necessary as long as the two sides lived in peace. In a survey in September of 1,000 people aged 19 to 39, the National Unification Advisory Council for the South Korean president found that 67 percent wanted any unification to be gradual to avoid political and economic chaos.

Although a spirit of unification persists in the South, many people balk at what is expected to be the prohibitive cost of integrating the economies. The North’s per capita income amounts to just 6 percent of the South’s, according to the Bank of Korea.

“I used to oppose unification because I thought we’d lose more than we’d gain,” said Hur Ji-young, a freshman at Kyunggi. Her friend Lim Hyo-jeong, however, said she supported it because she saw an economic advantage in a larger domestic market.

After mingling with the North Korean teenagers for a semester, hearing about their hardships and their concerns for relatives left behind, the South Koreans said they believed more strongly in unification, but now less for economic reasons than something closer to good will.

“Before I joined this program, I considered unification with a calculator, not with my heart for fellow Koreans in the North,” Ms. Hur said.

View Article in The New York Times

RUSSIA: Ruble Jumps as Russia Returns From Holidays

January 12, 2010

By ANDREW E. KRAMER

MOSCOW — The ruble had its best day against the dollar in more than a decade on Monday when it rose 3.1 percent.

The jump was partly a result of a fluke in Russia’s trading calendar that closed the markets for 10 days, bottling up beginning-of-the-year trends unfolding elsewhere and allowing them to hit at once.

Russian markets were closed after the New Year for Eastern Orthodox Christmas. During that time, oil prices rose above $80 a barrel because of cold weather, a weakening dollar and signs of growth in China.

Thus, when markets opened, the ruble went from 30.25 rubles to the dollar at the opening to 29.25 at the close. That was the biggest jump for Russia’s currency since March 1999, when the country was pulling out of an economic crisis, according to Bloomberg News.

The Micex index of major Russian stocks, meanwhile, rose 5.5 percent. The gas giant Gazprom, a company that is sensitive to oil prices, rose 6.23 percent. Norilsk Nickel, the Siberian miner of this alloy of stainless steel, gained 10.61 percent. Rosneft, the state oil company, rose 7.80 percent. The gains were less marked in light of the unusual trading schedule. Russian global depository receipts that trade in London, where the market was open all week, had risen to 5.7 percent by Friday.

That was more than the 2.7 percent gain by the MSCI Emerging Markets Index of all emerging market stocks, suggesting pent-up interest in Russia.

“The Russian markets today were just catching up with everything that happened when they were on vacation,” Rory MacFarquhar, chief economist at Goldman Sachs in Moscow, said in a telephone interview. Still, Goldman is expecting further ruble appreciation.

The appreciating currency is an added benefit for investors in Russian stocks. The currency and equity markets then tend to spiral upward together with rising commodity prices but crash just as hard when the tide turns, as it did in 2008.

Still, even accounting for that crash, Russia’s gross domestic product grew the most of any major economy in dollar terms over the last decade, followed by Indonesia and Vietnam, according to a report released last week by Goldman Sachs.

Copyright 2010 The New York Times Company

Hatoyama to Nanjing, Hu to Hiroshima?

Very interesting food for thought on future Sino-Japan relations and the implications for the US.

-HHC

January 12, 2010

By Kosuke Takahashi

TOKYO - With the world economy's center of gravity shifting from the West to the East, led by China's rising economic and corresponding political power, the year 2010 may witness a series of epoch-making events in Asia.

A grand rapprochement between Japan and China could be one such happening, and the idea has been recently floated through the media by some anonymous diplomatic sources in Tokyo and/or Beijing, attracting a lot of attention among experts worldwide.

The French newspaper Le Figaro reported from Tokyo last Wednesday that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) had delivered to the ruling Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) the script of a spectacular reconciliation this year between the two countries. The report said the CCP had proposed that Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama begin the process by going to Nanjing, where a mass killing of Chinese civilians by the Japanese Imperial Army took place in December 1937 and subsequent months.

This first visit to Nanjing by a Japanese prime minister since the war would present to the Chinese people Tokyo's official apologies without ambiguity, easing lingering anti-Japan sentiment among the Chinese public. In return, some months later, on August 15, the anniversary of the Japanese surrender in 1945, Chinese President Hu Jintao would go to Hiroshima, the first city to experience atomic bombing, and declare the three non-nuclear principles: China will not make a nuclear first strike, will not attack any non-nuclear country and will not export nuclear arms.

The French paper named as its source only "our information".

Meanwhile, the Yomiuri, Japan's largest daily newspaper, also reported from Beijing on Wednesday that China had unofficially sounded out Japanese government sources on a visit by Hatoyama to Nanjing, likely around the time he goes to the Shanghai Expo's Japan Day on June 12, with Hu visiting Hiroshima around the time of the November Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit to be held in Japan. The Japanese paper said reciprocal visits would aim at improving feelings between the two peoples. Still, unlike Le Figaro, the Yomiuri mentioned nothing about apologies or nuke promises. It cited "several Japanese and Chinese sources".

China's Foreign Ministry denied the Yomiuri report on Thursday, with a ministry spokeswoman, Jiang Yu, saying the media rumors of a Nanjing trip were "groundless". But she also said, in what sounded like a non-denial-denial, "It is too early to confirm the details." On the same day, Japan's chief cabinet secretary, Hirofumi Hirano, also denied the reports, saying "at this point, we are not considering" a visit by Hatoyama to Nanjing.

"I have not heard of any such plan," a top Foreign Ministry official also told Asia Times Online, speaking on condition of anonymity. "My guess is that some persons involved might have presented their wish list to have better relations. There is nothing concrete about it." This official's comment suggests that such talks are still going on either at lower government-to-government levels or through party-to-party channels.

The reports by Le Figaro and the Yomiuri, however, followed a similar report in November by the Japanese business magazine, Weekly Toyo Keizai. It reported a secret diplomatic schedule being prepared by relevant Chinese and Japanese players. It predicted that the visit to Beijing one month later by Ichiro Ozawa, secretary general of the DPJ, accompanying more than 600 people, including 143 DPJ lawmakers from the upper and lower houses of the Diet (parliament), would be the first of several Japan-China exchanges. The visit was conducted as part of regular exchanges between the DPJ and the CCP, whose general secretary is Hu.

The media reports have triggered strong reaction. After Le Figaro's report, China's Global Times posted a questionnaire about this possible Japan-China grand rapprochement on its Chinese-language website. More than 30,000 Internet users have responded.

When asked whether the Japanese leader should apologize at the Memorial for Compatriots Killed in the Nanjing Massacre by Japanese Forces of Aggression, 95.1% said "yes". Only 1% said "no". When asked whether the Japanese leader's apology would lead to Japan-China reconciliation, 24.7% said "yes" and 29.5% said "no".

Japanese leaders' visits to this memorial are nothing new. Hiromu Nonaka, then acting secretary general of the Liberal Democratic Party, visited the victims' memorial in Nanjing on May 9, 1998, laying flowers at the site and becoming the first leader from his party to do so. In the same month, former Japanese prime minister Tomiichi Murayama visited the site.

Even if speculation over Hatoyama's visit to Nanjing and Hu's visit to Hiroshima turns out to be nothing, it is still intriguing, as it may indicate that Japan's shift toward Asia, especially China, and away from the United States, is taking shape.

China seems to have refrained from using the Japan historic card to control its own people since 1996, when then-prime minister Shinzo Abe chose Beijing for his first overseas visit out of a desire to strengthen ties with the leaders of Japan's important neighbor. Historically, the CCP's one-party regime has been legitimized, in part, by its struggle against the Japanese invader.

Why then does China want Hatoyama to visit Nanjing? There are conflicting views among Japanese experts. Some say that in preparation for a succession of power in 2012 and beyond, Beijing's secret battles are intensifying. A faction of ex-president Jiang Zemin, who annoyed Japanese leaders by bringing up the history issue during a banquet with the emperor, has been gaining ground recently. Others believe Beijing wants to settle historic issues once and for all, to enable the two nations to build a future-oriented relationship of mutual trust, much like the Franco-German reconciliation that president Charles de Gaulle of France and West German chancellor Konrad Adenauer started by signing the Elysee Treaty in 1963, a foundation of Franco-German cooperation that led to European integration.

Some US officials and experts, especially right-leaning military planners, may be displeased to see Tokyo's approach to Beijing at a time when the relocation issue of the US Marine Corps Air Station Futenma in Okinawa prefecture has been deadlocked.

In a commentary titled "Japan's risky rapprochement with China" published on December 21 by The Wall Street Journal, Kelly Currie, a non-resident fellow of the Project 2049 Institute, a think-tank in Washington, wrote:
Prime Minister Hatoyama will likely continue his promised efforts to "rebalance" Japanese relations with the US and China, but now that he's actually responsible for governing, Mr Hatoyama needs to ask himself: Which country would ultimately keep the Japanese people's best interests at heart - democratic America or authoritarian China? If the prime minister answers the latter, then the Japanese public - and the Obama administration - really will need to start worrying.

Well, the relationship between Japan and China has been rapidly improving since Hatoyama's China-friendly administration was inaugurated last September, as is the relationship between Beijing and Taipei since the mainland-friendly administration of President Ma Ying-jeou took office in Taiwan in May 2008. The US administration of Barack Obama has followed suit.

Every country, driven by economic and political pragmatism, is rushing to cash in on China's huge consumer market. Japan is no exception. As a result, Japan-China-US trilateral relations are giving off a lot of heat in the unsettled state of affairs of Northeast Asia.

Kosuke Takahashi is a Tokyo-based journalist. Besides Asia Times Online, he writes for Jane's Defence Weekly as Tokyo correspondent. He can be contacted at letters@kosuke.net.

(Copyright 2010 Asia Times Online (Holdings) Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact us about sales, syndication and republishing.)

CHINA, JAPAN & US: Clinton Points to Possible Tensions With China

January 12, 2010

By MARK LANDLER

HONOLULU — Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, embarking on her first diplomatic trip of 2010, will try to ease tensions with Japan, America’s most important Asian ally, over a stalled agreement to relocate a Marine base on the island of Okinawa.

But she acknowledged that relations with the region’s other major power, China, may be entering a rough period, as the United States pledges to sell weapons to Taiwan, which China regards as a renegade province, and President Obama plans a meeting with the Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, over the objections of Beijing, which considers him a separatist.

Mrs. Clinton, speaking to reporters Monday on her plane, said the United States and China had a “mature relationship,” which she said meant that “it doesn’t go off the rails when we have differences of opinion.”

“We will provide defensive arms for Taiwan,” Mrs. Clinton said. “We have a difference of perspective on the role and ambitions of the Dalai Lama, which we’ve been very public about.”

Mrs. Clinton was traveling to Hawaii, her first stop in a nine-day trip that will include Papua New Guinea, New Zealand and Australia. In Honolulu, she is scheduled to give a speech on United States security strategy in Asia, and to meet the Japanese foreign minister, Katsuya Okada.

Japan has frustrated and angered the Obama administration with its refusal to carry out a 2006 agreement to move a Marine Corps air station in Okinawa to a less populated area of the island.

Mrs. Clinton sought to play down the dispute, saying the alliance was “much bigger than any one particular issue.”

Japanese-American relations have been unsettled since August, when voters in Japan swept out the long-entrenched Liberal Democratic Party in favor of the slightly left-leaning Democratic Party, led by Yukio Hatoyama. Mr. Hatoyama spoke of forging closer ties to Asian neighbors like China, prompting concerns in Washington that Japan was pulling away from its close relations with the United States.

President Obama tried to reduce tensions when he visited Tokyo in November. But after he left, Mr. Okada pushed for a government inquiry into secret agreements with the United States in the 1960s and 1970s that allowed American aircraft and ships with nuclear weapons to enter Japan.

Most of the tension is rooted in the dispute over Marine Corps Air Station Futenma. The Obama administration wants Japan to honor a 2006 agreement to move the base to a less populated part of Okinawa. But Mr. Hatoyama campaigned to move it off the island or even out of Japan.

Mrs. Clinton said the bumps were aftershocks from Japan’s political earthquake. “You can imagine what it would be like in our own country, if after 50 years a party that had never held power, actually held it,” she said.

In her first visit to Beijing as secretary of state last February, Mrs. Clinton played down human rights concerns and emphasized cooperation on issues like trade and climate change. But on Monday, she took a tougher line, saying that Washington was a necessary counterweight to Beijing.

“People want to see the United States fully engaged in Asia, so that as China rises, there’s the presence of the United States as a force for peace and stability, as a guarantor of security,” Mrs. Clinton said.

She also called on China to use its influence to force North Korea back into negotiations on relinquishing its nuclear weapons. North Korea said Monday that it would not return to those talks unless sanctions against it were lifted, and it was able to negotiate a formal peace treaty with the United States to replace the 1953 truce that ended the Korean War.

Returning to those multiparty talks, she said, was a precondition for dealing with other issues.

Starting her second year as the nation’s chief diplomat, Mrs. Clinton spoke more about pressure than diplomatic engagement.

Speaking of Iran, she said the United States and its allies were discussing financial sanctions that would appear to be aimed at the Revolutionary Guards and other political players in the country, should diplomacy fail.

“It is clear that there is a relatively small group of decision makers inside Iran,” she said. “They are in both political and commercial relationships, and if we can create a sanctions track that targets those who actually make the decisions, we think that is a smarter way to do sanctions.”

But she added, “All that is yet to be decided upon.”

Copyright 2010 The New York Times Company

CHINA: Coal Is Linked to Cancer in China Province

January 12, 2010

By SINDYA N. BHANOO

Nonsmoking women in an area of China’s Yunnan province die of lung cancer at a rate 20 times that of their counterparts in other regions of the country — and higher than anywhere else in the world.

A group of scientists now say they have a possible explanation: the burning of coal formed during volcanic eruptions hundreds of millions of years ago.

Coal in that part of China contains high concentrations of silica, a suspected carcinogen, the scientists reported in a recent edition of the journal Environmental Science & Technology.

Like others in rural China, the families of Xuanwei County use coal for heat and for cooking. As the coal burns, particles of silica are released with the vapor and inhaled. Women, who do the cooking, face the greatest exposure.

“There is more silica in this coal than in 99.9 percent of all the samples we analyzed,” said an author of the study, Robert B. Finkelman, a professor of geology at the University of Texas at Dallas.

Dr. Finkelman and his colleagues found that quartz, of which silica is the primary component, made up 13.5 percent of the coal samples taken from Xuanwei County. In normal coal samples, quartz and other minerals are found only in trace amounts.

The grains of quartz were so small they were only visible through an electron microscope, Dr. Finkelman said. Strikingly, the coal found in neighboring villages did not contain quartz at the same high levels or with such fine grain.

When the volcanic eruptions occurred 250 million years ago, they set off a mass extinction and released acid gases, leading to a variety of changes in the earth’s environment, including acid rain. Dr. Finkelman speculated that the rain might have dissolved surface rocks composed of silica, which then might have worked its way into developing formations of coal.

The high cancer rates in Xuanwei have attracted the attention of scientists for decades. Dr. Qing Lan, an epidemiologist at the National Cancer Institute in Rockville, Md., is completing two studies involving hundreds of women and families there. While her team is confident that coal burning is causing the high rates of cancer, they are not certain it is due to silica.

She and Dr. Nathaniel Rothman, another epidemiologist at the institute, expect to finish collecting data this year and begin the tedious, multiyear process of analyzing it in hopes of isolating just what it is about the coal in Xuanwei that causes the high rates of cancer.

“You can never say any study is the last study,” Dr. Rothman said. “But we hope this really nails it.”

Copyright 2010 The New York Times Company

Acid attacks are 'easy' in Hong Kong

By Pauline Chiou, CNN

STORY HIGHLIGHTS
* Attacker hurled two bottles of acid on shoppers at busy market, police say
* 30 people, including children, injured in attack, police say
* Police rule out man arrested over weekend as acid attack suspect

Hong Kong, China (CNN) -- Another mysterious acid attack took place during the weekend in Hong Kong. It was the sixth such incident in the past year.

The target is always a crowded street full of shoppers and the weapon of choice: plastic bottles filled with acid.

The attacker (or attackers) throw the bottles from an upper floor or roof of a building overlooking the crowded street. Police have no suspects and no motive for the attacks.

I went to the scene of the latest attack at the famous Temple Street Night Market -- an area that is usually busy with local families and tourists.

Shopkeeper Khan Mohammed Bilal runs an electronics store, and he was working Saturday night when he heard the commotion. He stepped out into the intersection of Temple Street and Nanking Street and saw chaos.

Someone had just thrown two plastic bottles of acid into the intersection. He saw one person's red bag soaked with acid. He said he couldn't imagine what would've happened if the acid had splashed onto the person's head. He saw injured people crying.

"We do get nervous. We do feel scared. When this happens, it affects our business... I don't know the purpose of this, why this person is throwing this liquid."

Most witnesses believe the attacker was inside one of the old apartment buildings lining Temple Street.

My photographer, producer and I decided to see just how easy it is to get to the top of one of these buildings.

Most of the old apartment buildings have no front door to the entryway that leads into a stairwell.

We walked up 10 flights past individual apartments until we reached the roof. Again, the roof entryway had no door. There was only a line of laundry hanging across the doorway.

It was clear just how easy it is for anyone to walk off the street, get to the roof and throw objects off the top of the building. And the getaway? Easy.

In fact, there are many options: the stairwell we walked up, another stairwell that exits the other side of the building... or the roof of the next building.

The buildings are so close together a daring person can jump from roof to roof and descend another building's stairwell.

Of course, we don't know for sure if the attacker(s) used the roof, but it is a realistic possibility.

Tourists who were strolling through the area seemed either unaware or unconcerned. Ghadjar Siavoche of Geneva, Switzerland, comes to Hong Kong often for business. He already knew about the attack.

"It doesn't disturb me because it's a very isolated incident. It's a pity for Hong Kong because it's a very nice city. People here are so charming and so nice."

The city of Hong Kong is hoping to maintain that image despite the acid attacks. The police have no solid leads at the moment. They're hoping a $40,000 reward will motivate someone to hand over some information that can help them make an arrest.

© 2008 Cable News Network

China Surges Past West in Autos and Exports

January 12, 2010

By MICHAEL WINES

BEIJING — As much of the world struggles to clamber out of a serious recession, a gradual flow of economic power from West to East has turned into a flood.

New high points, it seems, are reached daily. China surged past the United States to become the world’s largest automobile market — in units, if not in dollars, figures released Monday show. It also toppled Germany as the biggest exporter of manufactured goods, according to year-end trade data. World Bank estimates suggest that China — the world’s fifth-largest economy four years ago — will shortly overtake Japan to claim the No. 2 spot.

The shift of economic gravity to China has occurred partly because growth there remained robust even as the world’s developed economies suffered the steepest drop in trade and economic output in decades.

But that did not happen by chance: China’s decisive government intervention in the economy, combined with the defiant optimism of its companies and consumers, has propelled an economy that until recently had seemed tethered to the health of its major export markets, including the United States.

Beijing’s state-run news media, indulging in a moment of self-congratulation, have hailed China’s new economic prominence as proof of national superiority.

The country’s economic miracle, the People’s Daily newspaper boasted last week, exists because its rulers — unlike those in other unnamed nations — can make quick decisions and ensure underlings carry them out. The Great Recession, the newspaper said, has laid bare cracks in plodding Western-style capitalism.

Yet China confronts a number of challenges about its recent surge, including whether its formula for growth is sustainable, and how it will manage its increasingly strained economic relations with the outside world. Those are likely to prove challenging issues for a leadership unaccustomed to making policy under an international spotlight.

Sustaining a global-size economy is nowhere near as simple as building one, some Chinese and Western economists say. As the Chinese navigate toward a bigger role in the world financial system, they are already running into diplomatic and political headwinds.

At home, ordinary citizens and economists alike worry that the government’s decision to flood the economy with cash has created speculative bubbles — in housing, in lending — that could burst with disastrous effect. But curbing speculation requires moves, such as raising interest rates, that could crimp the spree of investment and industrial expansion that are the main contributors to growth.

Abroad, the pressure on China to revalue its currency, the renminbi, is strengthening, and it seems sure to intensify after trade statistics released Monday showed that China’s yearlong downturn in export growth reversed in December. Keeping the renminbi fixed at a low rate against the dollar boosts China’s exports and its economy. But increasingly, it angers its trade partners.

China once could wave off complaints about its currency policies, arguing that it was a developing nation entitled to a bit of slack from its Western customers. But with the world’s fastest-growing economy — and more than $2 trillion in foreign reserves — that argument looks increasingly untenable.

“At a time when you’ve got 10 percent unemployment in the U.S. and a very slow and gradual global recovery — and China seems to be skyrocketing — the pressure on the Chinese to change some of these policies, including the exchange-rate policy, is really going to grow this year,” said Nicholas Consonery, a China analyst at Eurasia Group, the New York-based political risk research firm.

In theory, China’s growing economic clout should benefit everyone: in an interconnected world, growing trade creates jobs and money everywhere.

“China’s extremely important, no doubt about it. And overall, the more important China becomes, the better it is for the American economy,” Scott Kennedy, who heads the Research Center for Chinese Politics and Business at Indiana University, said in an interview.

That Shanghai-assembled iPod, Mr. Kennedy said, is the product of American research and design and marketing, and most of the proceeds from its sale go back into American coffers. But China’s rise also poses new risks both for Beijing and for its trading partners.

Its largely bruise-free journey through last year’s economic crisis aside, not everyone is convinced that Beijing has eliminated threats to its financial and economic health.

Hit hard by an initial drop in exports that was frighteningly steep for a leadership that has long promised and delivered fast growth, China poured $585 billion in stimulus money into its domestic economy. Officials also ordered state-run banks to increase their lending by double that amount, triggering a spree of easy money that created jobs for migrant factory workers and fueled rises in the price of assets, like stocks and real estate.

Some experts fear that too much of the stimulus money was dumped into unprofitable projects and bad loans that will surface in a few years. In that view, China’s 2009 boom, in which automakers sold nearly 14 million cars and trucks, and housing prices doubled, is really a sign of an overheated economy at risk of serious recession down the road.

Judged by the numbers, China’s economy still looks robust. In Beijing, officials said, per capita gross domestic product is expected to exceed $4,000 this year, a 10 percent jump from 2009. Last month, the value of China’s exports leaped by nearly a third over the same month in 2008 — and imports jumped 55 percent, pointing toward growth in manufacturing.

But a Chinese economic crisis, which could have been shrugged off a few years ago, would be a considerably more serious event in a world where Beijing runs the second-largest economy.

The government appears concerned. Last week, the central bank edged up the rate on a often-watched interbank loan, the first such hike in five months. That seemed to signal concern that the economy is expanding too quickly.

Many experts see few signs of immediate danger. After all, they note, China has gone on splurges before — building too many steel mills, and too many office buildings — only to see the nation’s breakneck growth sop up the excess capacity. With nearly a billion people still clawing to advance beyond peasant status, they say, China’s growth story has many chapters ahead.

Mr. Kennedy, the Indiana University expert, said he was less certain that endless growth is such a panacea. “No one defies economic laws,” he said. “Eventually you get it, whether you want it or not.”

Copyright 2010 The New York Times Company

JAPAN: Airbase angst

Published: 2010/01/12 00:43:29 GMT

By Roland Buerk
BBC News, Tokyo

It seems a minor matter - whether or not to go ahead with a previously agreed plan to move an American military base on the island of Okinawa.

Hardly something, you might think, that could cause tension in the alliance between Japan and the United States, 50 years old this month and critical to the balance of power in Asia.

But Marine Corps Air Station Futenma has become the first test of Japan's intent to forge a new relationship with America and the world.

It is the key issue as Japan's Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada meets US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Hawaii on Tuesday.


The base is in the middle of a city and many local people have long been irritated by noise, as well as the fear of accidents and crime.

Okinawa is home to most of the 47,000 American troops based in Japan.

It was to ease the pressure on residents that the American and Japanese governments agreed in 2006 to move the base to a less populated area on the island's coast, despite concerns about the impact on the marine environment.

But everything was thrown into confusion last year.

The deal had been reached by the Liberal Democratic Party which dominated Japan for half a century.

In the elections in August the voters gave a landslide victory to the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) led by Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama.

The new government believes Japan has been too subservient towards the United States in the past. It still values the alliance but wants it on more equal terms.


“ The spat with the Americans will have to be resolved because Japan's new government has wider ambitions ”


During the election campaign there was talk by the DPJ of moving the Futenma base off Okinawa, some even said it could be moved out of Japan altogether.

Adding to the complication is the fact that despite its commanding position in the lower house of the Diet, or parliament, the DPJ relies for its majority in the upper house on tiny coalition partners who oppose concessions to the US.

US reluctance

For the Americans the change of partner in Japan is clearly a big adjustment, after decades of dealing with the Liberal Democratic Party.

In the past Washington could view the relationship as a constant framework in East Asia within which to manage its response to the emergence of China and an unpredictable North Korea.

So far the Americans have been deeply reluctant to revisit the issue of the base.

The original negotiations took years and, going back to them, Washington says, would undermine broader security arrangements.

Back in October when he came to Tokyo, US Secretary of Defence Robert Gates said it would be "immensely complicated and counterproductive" to look at the issue again, and it was "time to move on".

The Americans had hoped the matter would be resolved by the time President Obama visited Japan in December.

Prime Minister Hatoyama has refused to be rushed, and his latest deadline is May.

Last week,

.
The spat with the Americans will have to be resolved because Japan's new government has wider ambitions.

Yukio Hatoyama has been making efforts to get closer to China.

Last month he was even willing to break with usual Imperial Household Agency protocol to insist an audience with the Emperor was granted at short notice to visiting Chinese Vice President Xin Jinping.

Mr Hatoyama has spoken of creating an East Asian Community, even of a common currency along the lines of the Euro.

But for now the unanswered question of Marine Corps Air Station Futenma leaves him in a bind, between Washington and the expectations he has helped to build up at home.

© BBC MMX

CHINA: 'Black Jails' Shove complaints into the Dark

January 11, 2010

The illicit detention facilities are a way for authorities to deal with a flood of petitioners seeking justice before regional panels. Human Rights Watch says detainees face rape and other abuses.

By John M. Glionna
Reporting from Beijing

Using a crude sawed-off stick as a cane, Shi Yaping waited outside a government office, competing with a throng of petitioners to air her grievance over a neighborhood dispute.

The 59-year-old had traveled here from the central province of Hubei to take advantage of a centuries-old Chinese custom that grants citizens the right to bring unsettled complaints to a regional panel of inquiry.

Yet Shi knows well the perils of speaking her mind in China, where undercover police and mercenary thugs wait to pounce. She has twice been snatched off the street, held incommunicado on the assumption that she would eventually abandon her cause and go home.

Shi is a victim of the secretive realm of "black jails" -- unlawful detention facilities that have sprung up across China to discourage persistent petitioners considered pests by government officials.

Each year millions of rural Chinese bring their problems to functionaries in Beijing and other cities. Yet very few of their cases are ever resolved, and most end up in legal limbo, activists say.

But the torrent of cases clogs the civil system, and puts political pressure on administrators to settle them. Activists say lower-level officials have responded with organized kidnappings in which petitioners -- many plucked from the streets outside government offices -- are held in clandestine jails in state-owned hotels, nursing homes and psychiatric centers.

The theory: You can't lodge a complaint if you don't show up.

"The Chinese petitioning system is completely broken," said Phelim Kine, an Asia researcher for New York-based Human Rights Watch. "And the government is outsourcing its problems to a thuggish black industry."

Since 2003, the illegal jail network has grown as top Communist Party officials looked the other way, and thousands of petitioners disappeared.

Shi arrived in Beijing months ago hoping officials would resolve her complaint that local police had illegally arrested her nephew. Instead she has found nothing but trouble.

Shi has been imprisoned twice, taken first by security forces to an isolated stockroom and held for days with 100 other people. She was eventually released with her ailing husband, and then was abducted last summer and held for several weeks at a shabby private home.

Jailers denied her requests for water and a piece of paper to swat away the maddening mosquitoes, Shi said.

Today she continues a petitioning process that dates to China's feudal times.

"The government doesn't want us to speak out about these jails," Shi said. "They're afraid the truth will come out."

In November, Human Rights Watch released a 51-page report titled "An Alleyway in Hell: China's Abusive Black Jails." It cites rapes, beatings, intimidation and extortion as among the abuses.

The report documents 43 cases of petitioners who the authors say were held without official charges or access to their families or legal counsel.

"As China tries to build a functioning legal system, this gnawing black hole for human rights grows right there on the side," said Nicholas Bequelin, a senior Asia researcher for Human Rights Watch.

After at first denying the jails' existence, the Chinese government recently acknowledged the problem. An article in the December issue of Outlook magazine, which is owned by the official New China News Agency, cited at least 73 black jails in Beijing alone.

The article says an estimated 10,000 people at a time have been detained in hundreds of jails.

The black-jail system reportedly sprang up years ago, after the government abolished another system that allowed officials to jail petitioners they considered threats.

Under the current for-profit system, private jail operators receive $22 to $44 a day per person, increasing the incentive to prolong captivity, according to the Human Rights Watch report. The fees are paid by local officials.

There were "locked steel doors and windows," according to a 53-year-old detainee quoted in the report. "We never left our rooms to eat. [Instead] we were given our meals through a small window space."

For some, being freed brings new trouble.

"You go to Beijing to claim wrongdoing by province officials but you are abducted and sent home," Bequelin said. "Well, who's waiting for you there -- the very people you tried to denounce, which brings on another round of unpleasantness."

The plight of black-jail detainees received more attention last month when a guard at an unofficial detention facility in Beijing was sentenced to eight years in prison for raping a college student who was being held.

Xu Zhiyong, a Beijing law professor and activist who has investigated the jails, said the facilities have evolved to accommodate more detainees and generate more profits.

"We have gone to videotape these places when we learn about them," he said. "We challenged the operators that they were violating the law and were beaten several times."

But Xu keeps up the pressure to help petitioners, who he says have filed 10 million cases in the last few years alone.

"I'm not optimistic," he said. "Millions come to the government for justice. What they get is confinement."

Zheng Dajing, a petitioner and activist who has spoken out about the jails, said he was held for four days last month in a shed attached to a run-down motel in west Beijing.

"I was held in a small room with the door locked from the outside. There was a big iron gate that cut us off from the outside world," he said. "There were guards keeping an eye on us all the time. They didn't beat me. But I was just given green pepper with rice every day for food."

Days after Zheng's release, a nervous-looking motel manager denied that petitioners had been kept there. A provincial official in an office on the top floor said he had never even heard of black jails.

"There are help centers to assist petitioners with no transportation to get back to their homes," said the man, who refused to give his full name. "They're not jails."

On a cold December morning, the government complaint office in south Beijing was besieged by a mass of petitioners, each with a compelling tale of human tragedy.

There was the woman who said she was illegally fired from her construction company job, the man who said he had been cheated out of his savings, the retiree beaten by village police.

And there was Wu Changlian. Wearing a dirty dishrag as a scarf, she produced a sheaf of papers she said documented the abuse by local officials that drove her husband to commit suicide. As she spoke to a reporter, a man identified by others in the crowd as an undercover policeman reproached her. "Do you think they will solve your problems?" he jeered. "Use your head."

Spotting a foreigner, many produced their papers with pleading looks, offering to write down their cellphone numbers. One man said nothing but stuffed his documents into a reporter's knapsack.

Nearby, Shi Yaping was tailed by two imposing men in dark clothes she knew to be state security officers. She also knew that the dreaded freelance bounty hunters could arrive at any moment to whisk her away again.

But Shi didn't care. She wasn't going home, she said. She wasn't going anywhere.

"I'll keep coming back," she said. "They can't chase me away."

john.glionna@latimes.com

Copyright © 2010, The Los Angeles Times

CHINA: China faces growing gender imbalance

Published: 2010/01/11 14:34:18 GMT

More than 24 million Chinese men of marrying age could find themselves without spouses by 2020, says the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

The gender imbalance among newborns is the most serious demographic problem for the country's population of 1.3 billion, says the academy.

It cites sex-specific abortions as a major factor, due to China's traditional bias towards male children.

The academy says gender selection abortions are "extremely common".

This is especially true in rural areas, and ultra-sound scans, first introduced in the late 1980s, have increased the practice.

Forced prostitution

The latest figures show that for every 100 girls born in China, 119 boys are born, the academy says in a new book.

Researcher Wang Guangzhou, quoted by the Global Times newspaper, said the implications were that men in poorer parts of China may remain single throughout their life.

CHINA'S GENDER IMBALANCE

119 boys born per 100 girls. Rises to 130 boys per 100 girls in some rural areas
Total population 1.3 billion
Expected peak 1.6 billion in 2050
One child policy written into constitution in 1978
Many rural couples allowed second child if first is a girl

"The chance of getting married will be rare if a man is more than 40-years-old in the countryside. They will be more dependent on social security as they age and have fewer household resources to rely on," he said.

In some provinces, 130 boys are born for each 100 girls, the book says.

Experts at the academy also predict the gender imbalance will lead to more inter-generational marriages, where a wife is older than her husband.

A reluctance among young urban Chinese to have a first or second child is exacerbating the problem.

Academy sociologist Yan Hua said: "People's minds have changed a lot during the last 20 years.

"Young couples either don't want to have a second child, or would prefer to live a DINK (Double Income No Kid) life."

The growing imbalance means that forced prostitution and human trafficking has become "rampant" in some parts of the country, according to the researchers.

While analysts admit there is definitely a pronounced gender imbalance in China, they also say that exact information is difficult to obtain because some families are thought to avoid registering female babies in order to make it easier for them to have a second child.

© BBC MMX

THE KOREAS: Koreans Stand Face to Face to Address Cultural Gap

January 12, 2010

By CHOE SANG-HUN

SEOUL — When Ju Jin-ho arrived here from North Korea in 2006, it was as if he had come to an alien continent, not just the southern end of the peninsula.

Even though the 14-year-old defector was placed in a school with children a year or two younger than he, most of his classmates were a head taller. They teased him as a “red.” They were far ahead of him in subjects like mathematics. As desperate as he was to make friends, he had trouble communicating.

“During class breaks, they talked about nothing but computer games,” said Mr. Ju, now 17. “I started playing them so I could join their conversations. I became addicted. My eyesight deteriorated. My grades got worse.”

Since last summer, however, he’s been enrolled in a new program that seeks to overcome the yawning cultural gap that has developed during the six-decade divide between the Communist North and capitalist South, which have yet to sign a formal peace since the 1950-53 Korean War. It brings together teenage South Koreans and North Korean defectors in a rare experiment here in building affinity — and preparing for possible reunification.

Just how far the two sides have drifted apart, how radically different their frames of reference are, was evident when Park Sung-eun, a 16-year-old South Korean, met Mr. Ju last summer through the program in Seoul’s bustling Sinchon district.

“When I asked him, ‘How do you get here?’ I expected him to say by bus or subway,” Ms. Park said.

Instead, she recalled, “He gave me the whole story of his journey from North Korea through China and Myanmar,” when he fled with his family in 2005.

The “Weekend Program for South and North Korean Teenagers Together” was begun last August by the Rev. Benjamin H. Yoon, 80, head of the Citizens’ Alliance for North Korean Human Rights.

“Although we share the same genes, South and North Koreans live like completely different peoples, with different accents, different ways of thinking and behaving,” said Mr. Yoon. “We forgot that before Korea was divided, we lived in the same country, marrying each other.”

Under the program, the Citizens’ Alliance, a civic group founded in 1996, has brought together students from Kyunggi Girls’ High School in Seoul with young North Korean defectors for extracurricular activities.

They have attended concerts together. They have cooked and compared North and South Korean dishes. The North Koreans, adept at farm work, have shown the South Koreans how to harvest yams and make scarecrows. The Southerners have given the Northerners tips on how to succeed socially as well as academically. They have made friends.

One October evening, when the students had gone camping and stayed up late, Moon Sung-il, a 14-year-old North Korean, brought tears to the South Koreans’ eyes when he recounted his two-and-a-half-year flight with other defectors that took him through China, Myanmar and a refugee camp in Bangkok. But he stunned them when he said that none of this was as daunting as a South Korean classroom.

“I could hardly understand anything the teacher said,” he said. “My classmates, who were all a year or two younger than I was, taunted me as a ‘poor soup-eater from the North.’ I fought them with my fists.”

More than 17,000 North Koreans, one-tenth of them teenagers, have fled to the South since famine hit their homeland in the mid-1990s. The average journey to the South takes 35 months, mostly through China and Southeast Asia. Not all who start make it; some have been caught and returned to the North, where they often end up in labor camps.

When they are placed in South Korean schools, these Northerners start nearly from scratch. In the North, they had spent as much time learning about the family of their leader, Kim Jong-il, as they did the rest of Korean history. Few learned English, a requirement in South Korean schools. Dropout rates among defectors are five times the South Korean average, according to the Education Ministry.

With the number of North Korean refugees rising about 10 percent annually, how to integrate them has become an early test for possible unification.

“Whenever something bad about North Korea came up during class, everyone turned to look at me,” said Mr. Ju, who now attends an alternative school for defectors after failing to advance to a regular high school. “When teachers and students spoke disparagingly about North Korea, I felt like they were insulting me.”

Ms. Park said she used to look down on North Koreans. “I associated them with something poor, dark and negative,” she said.

Although many successful South Koreans have their roots in the North — the country’s first president, Syngman Rhee; the founder of the Hyundai business empire; the family that built the South’s influential Chosun newspaper; founders of some of the biggest Christian churches — an image has developed of Northerners as second-class Koreans, needy and starving but surly and belligerent. They have taken food aid from the South but threatened it with war, run prison camps and built nuclear weapons. They are friendly toward China but have rejected talks with the South.

The mistrust is mutual. In the North, teachers tell children that South Korea is an American colony, a springboard for a future invasion, defectors say.

“Back in the North, we seldom heard teachers talk about unification. We seldom thought about it,” said Choi Hyok-chol, a 19-year-old defector. “I still don’t think it’s possible. The two economies are much too different.”

In a survey last June of 1,000 South Koreans aged 19 to 59 conducted by the Korea Peace Institute, a Christian research institute, half the respondents said unification was not necessary as long as the two sides lived in peace. In a survey in September of 1,000 people aged 19 to 39, the National Unification Advisory Council for the South Korean president found that 67 percent wanted any unification to be gradual to avoid political and economic chaos.

Although a spirit of unification persists in the South, many people balk at what is expected to be the prohibitive cost of integrating the economies. The North’s per capita income amounts to just 6 percent of the South’s, according to the Bank of Korea.

“I used to oppose unification because I thought we’d lose more than we’d gain,” said Hur Ji-young, a freshman at Kyunggi. Her friend Lim Hyo-jeong, however, said she supported it because she saw an economic advantage in a larger domestic market.

After mingling with the North Korean teenagers for a semester, hearing about their hardships and their concerns for relatives left behind, the South Koreans said they believed more strongly in unification, but now less for economic reasons than something closer to good will.

“Before I joined this program, I considered unification with a calculator, not with my heart for fellow Koreans in the North,” Ms. Hur said.

Copyright 2010

NORTH KOREA: Calls for Peace Treaty Talks With U.S.

January 12, 2010

By CHOE SANG-HUN

SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea on Monday proposed talks with the United States to reach a formal peace treaty that would replace the truce that halted the Korean War 57 years ago, indicating that it would not give up its nuclear weapons until Washington signed such an accord.

North Korea said peace talks should be held either as part of the six-nation talks that focus on ending its nuclear weapons program or as a separate negotiation. But the North also warned that it would not return to six-nation talks — from which it withdrew last April — unless the United Nations lifted sanctions imposed after the North’s nuclear and ballistic missile tests last year.

The North had previously proposed peace negotiations with the United States and South Korea. But its latest overture came as it was trying to shift the focus of the six-nation talks, where a peace treaty had been set aside until North Korea made significant progress toward dismantling its nuclear weapons program.

“If a peace treaty is signed, it will help resolve hostile relations between North Korea and the United States and speed up the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula,” the North Korean Foreign Ministry said in a statement carried by the North’s state-run news agency, K.C.N.A.

After years of unsuccessful talks with Washington, North Korea said it concluded that all agreements were bound to collapse unless the two sides built mutual “trust.” To build such confidence, the statement said, “It is essential to conclude a peace treaty for terminating the state of war, a root cause of the hostile relations.”

The statement reiterated North Korea’s contention that it would not have built nuclear weapons if the United States had assured it of peace.

Stephen W. Bosworth, President Obama’s special representative on North Korea, who visited the capital, Pyongyang, last month, said the United States could discuss a peace treaty and other incentives only when the process of denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula had gained “significant traction.”

Last week, Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan of South Korea denounced what he called the North’s “unrealistic” demand that the United States negotiate a peace treaty before the North considers relinquishing its nuclear weapons.

“That’s like saying it will never give up its nuclear programs, or it is a delaying tactic” to buy time to further its nuclear programs, he said.

On Monday, North Korea suggested that peace talks be held among the signatories of the Korean War armistice: the American-led United Nations Command in Seoul, China and North Korea. South Korea refused to sign the truce, but Seoul and Washington insist that any peace talks include the South.

Between 1997 and 1999, the two Koreas, the United States and China held six rounds of peace talks that produced no agreement because the North insisted on the withdrawal of American troops from South Korea and an end to joint United States-South Korean military exercises.

“With its peace proposal, North Korea is trying to gain the initiative as it prepares to return to six-nation talks,” said Kim Yong-hyun, a North Korea analyst at Dongguk University in Seoul. Mr. Kim expected some haggling between Pyongyang and Seoul over whether South Korea should be included.

Earlier Monday, Robert R. King, Mr. Obama’s envoy on North Korean human rights issues, said during a visit to Seoul that the North’s “appalling” human rights situation would impede any efforts to normalize ties.

He also called Monday for the release of Robert Park, a Korean-American missionary who crossed into North Korea late last month to demand the release of an estimated 160,000 political prisoners held in labor camps, according to his supporters in Seoul.

North Korea has confirmed that it has detained an American citizen but has not identified him by name.

Copyright 2010 The New York Times Company

JAPAN: Coming-of-age ceremonies held nationwide

Coming-of-age ceremonies were held nationwide Monday, a national holiday, to celebrate the accession to adulthood of those who have reached 20 years old. In Urayasu, Chiba Prefecture, a ceremony was held at Tokyo Disneyland, with Mickey Mouse and other Disney characters congratulating some 1,100 young people on their official arrival to adulthood.
It was the ninth Disneyland ceremony by the municipality, in which 70 percent of its citizens who have newly reached adulthood took part.

JAPAN: 10 Must-See Attractions in Fukuoka

posted in: Asia | posted by: Ian Harrison on January 9, 2010

With a collective apology to Sapporo, Kyoto, Tokyo and Osaka, the city in Japan that incites more praise for livability, sustainability and green space is the capital of Fukuoka Prefecture.

The city of more than 1.5 million is just across Busan, South Korea on the Korea Strait. Though the city of Kitakyushu, a mere 90 minute commute from the capital, has won national acclaim for anti-pollution measures, Fukuoka is the most notable destination in the prefecture.

Check out ten must-see attractions in the most populous city on the island of Kyushu.

10. Ohori Park

The Chuo ward of Fukuoka is home to some of the best points of interest in the city. The eclectic Fukuoka Art Museum for one, as well as the city zoo and botanical garden. One must however, take a stroll in gorgeous Ohori Park, a favorite spot with locals.

9. Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks

Baseball is the national pastime of Japan and Fukuoka has one of the best teams in the country. Head to Yahoo! Japan Dome to support the SoftBank Hawks for a memorable experience.

8. Momochi Beach

Fukuoka is on the Kyushu coast and while we do recommend visitors to get out and explore beyond the city, at the very least, head to Momochi Beach. Near the Fukuoka Dome and massive seaside Fukuoka Tower, the beach is a good place to cool off in the hot summer months.

7. ACROS Fukuoka

Built in 1995, the Asian CrossRoads Over the Sea convention and cultural center is a popular tourist attraction in downtown Fukuoka. The architectural triumph is a strange, innovative confluence of skyscraper and urban park.

6. Hakata Machiya Folk Museum

A rare Meiji era landmark is the home of the Hakata Machiya Folk Museum, a wonderful yet diminutive exhibit on late 19th-century life on the island of Kyushu and city of Fukuoka.

5. Tenjin

The downtown core of Fukuoka is indeed the financial heart of the city but is a popular tourist draw for many reasons. The cluster of malls in Tenjin is one of the most impressive in Japan, to start with. A serpentine underground arcade makes exploration of the myriad shops and department stores in the district a snap. Fortunately, weary shoppers can stay in Tenjin when hunger strikes. The area is full of phenomenal izakaya pubs.

4. Fukuoka Asian Art Museum

While the contemporary art on display at the Fukuoka Art Museum is notable, the permanent collection at the Asian Art Museum is without peer on the continent.

3. Mitoma Beach

The advice to get out of Fukuoka proper to explore the coastline, Setonaikai National Park and the ramen noodles of Kurume for example, makes sense when you reach Mitoma Beach. A short ride from the city, the beach has waves decent enough to surf.

2. Genko Historical Museum

Genko Historical Museum chronicles the era of Mongol invasions in Japan and features a slew of artifacts that date as far back as the 13th century. A good reason to visit Higashi Koen park.

1. Kyushu National Museum

One of the most important national museums in Japan, Kyushu National Museum traces the development of the island and indeed, the prefecture and city of Fukuoka.

EAST ASIA: The 31 Places to Go in 2010

Several destinations in East Asia made the list: Seoul, Shanghai and Shenzhen.
-HHC

January 10, 2010

1. Sri Lanka
For a quarter century, Sri Lanka seems to have been plagued by misfortune, including a brutal civil war between the Sinhalese majority and Tamil minority. But the conflict finally ended last May, ushering in a more peaceful era for this teardrop-shaped island off India’s coast, rich in natural beauty and cultural splendors.

The island, with a population of just 20 million, feels like one big tropical zoo: elephants roam freely, water buffaloes idle in paddy fields and monkeys swing from trees. And then there’s the pristine coastline. The miles of sugary white sand flanked by bamboo groves that were off-limits to most visitors until recently are a happy, if unintended byproduct of the war.

Among the most scenic, if difficult stretches to reach, is Nilaveli Beach in the Tamil north. While a few military checkpoints remain, vacationers can lounge on poolside hammocks under palm trees or snorkel in its crystal-clear waters. Or they can order cocktails at the Nilaveli Beach Hotel (www.tangerinehotels.com/nilavelibeach), a collection of recently renovated bungalows with private terraces.

An international airport in Matara, on the island’s southern shore, is under construction, which will make the gorgeous beaches near the seaside village of Galle easier to get to. Decimated by the tsunami in 2004, the surrounding coastline is now teeming with stylish guesthouses and boutique hotels.

Unawatuna, a crescent-shaped beach a few miles south of Galle, may be furthest along. Higher-end hotels there include Thambapanni Retreat (www.thambapanni.biz), which features four-poster beds, yoga and an ayurvedic spa. The Sun House (www.thesunhouse.com), in Galle, looks like a place where the Queen of England might stay, with its mango courtyard and colonial décor. One stylish place tucked within Galle’s city walls is the Galle Fort Hotel (www.galleforthotel.com), a refurbished gem merchant’s house run by a couple of Aussies. — Lionel Beehner

2. Patagonia Wine Country
Ten years ago, a group of adventurous winemakers set their sights on an Argentine valley called San Patricio del Chañar, an unusually fertile and eerily beautiful corner of Patagonia. They plowed, planted and waited. The outcome? A blossoming wine country with delicious pinot noirs and malbecs and smartly designed wineries.

One of the area’s pioneers, the 2,000-acre Bodega del Fin del Mundo (www.bodegadelfindelmundo.com), which works with the influential wine consultant Michel Rolland, is racking up international medals for its complex merlot, cabernet and malbec blends. And NQN (bodeganqn.com.ar), which is associated with the Argentine oenologist Roberto de la Mota, has seen its 2006 Colección NQN Malbec get 92 points from Wine Enthusiast. Nearby is the new Valle Perdido winery (www.valleperdido.com.ar), which includes an 18-room resort surrounded by vineyards. At the spa, ask for antioxidant wine-infused treatments. — Paola Singer

3. Seoul
Forget Tokyo. Design aficionados are now heading to Seoul.

They have been drawn by the Korean capital’s glammed-up cafes and restaurants, immaculate art galleries and monumental fashion palaces like the sprawling outpost of Milan’s 10 Corso Como and the widely noted Ann Demeulemeester store — an avant-garde Chia Pet covered in vegetation.

And now Seoul, under its design-obsessed mayor, Oh Se-hoon, is the 2010 World Design Capital. The title, bestowed by a prominent council of industrial designers, means a year’s worth of design parties, exhibitions, conferences and other revelries. Most are still being planned (go to wdc2010.seoul.go.kr for updates). A highlight will no doubt be the third annual Seoul Design Fair (Sept. 17 to Oct. 7), the city’s answer to the design weeks in Milan and New York, which last year drew 2.5 million people and featured a cavalcade of events under two enormous inflatable structures set up at the city’s Olympic stadium. — Aric Chen

4. Mysore
You’ve completed 200 hours of teacher training, mastered flying crow pose and even spent a week at yoga surf camp. What’s next? Yogis seeking transcontinental bliss head these days to Mysore, the City of Palaces, in southern India.

The yogi pilgrimage was sparked by Ashtanga yoga, a rigorous sweat-producing, breath-synchronized regimen of poses popularized by the beloved Krishna Pattabhi Jois, who died at 94 in 2009. Mr. Jois’s grandson is now director of the Ashtanga Yoga Research Institute (www.kpjayi.org). First month’s tuition is 27,530 rupees, or $600 at 46 rupees to the dollar. Classes generally require a one-month commitment.

Too much time or money? Mysore’s yoga boom now has shalas catering to every need. Off the mat, the yoga tribe hobnobs at Anu’s Bamboo Hut or the Regaalis Hotel pool, studies Sanskrit, gets an ayurveda treatment or tours the maharaja’s palace. — Mary Billard

5. Copenhagen
As thousands of environmentalists heckled world leaders in Copenhagen last month for the climate summit, a solitary unifying note could be heard amid the cacophony of discord: the Danish capital has already emerged as one of the world’s greenest — and maybe coolest — cities.

Copenhageners don’t simply preach the “progressive city” ethos, they live it. Long, flat urban thoroughfares are hemmed with bicycle paths where locals glide around the city, tourists saddle up on the free bikes that dot the city center, and fashion bloggers take notes on the latest cycle chic (see copenhagencyclechic.com). Over in the harbor district, a public bath at Osterbro, due to open in 2010, will complement the two swimming areas set off on Copenhagen’s inner harbor, a formerly polluted waterway recently transformed into the city’s summertime hub.

Away from all the modernism and the happy cyclists, cultural thrill-seekers are being coaxed to the once dangerous district of Norrebro, which has arguably become Copenhagen’s edgiest hub. A heady mix of hipsters, students and immigrants mingle in the cafes and galleries around the district’s focal square, Sankt Hans Torv, and the city’s young and excitable night owls can be found dancing in local clubs until the early hours. — Benji Lanyado

WAITING IN THE WINGS

6. Koh Kood
Is this the next Koh Samui? The Trat islands are emerging as Thailand’s new luxury outpost. Inaccessible for many years because of tensions with neighboring Cambodia and a poor transportation infrastructure, islands like Koh Kood are starting to draw venturesome paradise seekers, thanks in part to new direct flights to the port city of Trat. The recent opening of Soneva Kiri, a 42-villa suite retreat by the Six Senses brand (www.sixsenses.com/Soneva-Kiri), definitely ratchets up the high-end quotient on this Robinson Crusoe-like island. Coming soon: X2 Koh Kood (www.x2resorts.com), a designer eco-resort with 14 pool villas. — Gisela Williams

7. Damascus
The next Marrakesh? Perhaps mindful of the way that renovations of historic riads have drawn upscale travelers to Marrakesh, Damascus hoteliers are trying to mine tourism gold in the rundown buildings of the Syrian capital’s Old City. These 18th-century homes — many with inviting courtyards and rooftop terraces — are now boutique hotels, like the nine-room Old Vine (www.oldvinehotel.com) and the Hanania (www.hananiahotel.com), which doubles as a hotel and a small museum. — Don Duncan

8. Cesme
The next Bodrum? While revelers continue to descend upon that seaside retreat, another corner of Turkey’s Aegean coastline has begun to emerge as a stylish alternative: the once-sleepy villages of the Cesme Peninsula. The main draw is Alacati, a sheltered beach town that last summer was the site of the Professional Windsurfers Association Slalom World Cup. Scheduled to open in the spring, the seven-room Hotel Nars Alacati (www.nars.com.tr), set in a converted 19th-century mansion, promises to become the popular weekend gathering spot for Istanbul’s smart set, along with the adjoining garden restaurant, Mesa Luna. — Andrew Ferren

9. Antarctica
This may be the last year that Antarctica is open to mass tourism — not because the ice is melting too fast (though it is), but because of restrictions that would severely curtail travel around the fragile continent.

Until recently, most vessels passing through Antarctica were limited to scientific expeditions, but an exploding number of tourists now flock to what is arguably the world’s last great wilderness. The tourism boom, scientists argue, poses a major environmental threat. Indeed, several passenger ships have run aground in recent years.

Countries that manage Antarctica are calling for limits on the number of tourist ships, for fortified hulls that can withstand sea ice and for a ban on the use of so-called heavy oils. A ban on heavy oil, which is expected to be adopted by the International Maritime Organization later this year, would effectively block big cruise ships.

With the new rules taking effect within two years, tour operators are promoting 2010 as the last year to visit Antarctica, while, at the same time, procuring lighter vessels that would be permitted. Abercrombie & Kent, for example, is introducing a new ship, Le Boreal (www.abercrombiekent.com), which its public relations firm argues “meets all the environmental regulations, so access to Antarctica via A&K will not be affected.”

Launching this year, the compact luxury ship holds 199 passengers and features an outdoor heated pool, steam rooms and private balconies that offer intimate views of some of the world’s remaining glaciers. — Denny Lee

10. Leipzig
In 2010, Leipzig, a small industrial city in the former East Germany with an illustrious past, will be marking the 325th anniversary of the birth of its former resident Johann Sebastian Bach and the 200th birthday of Robert Schumann with concerts, festivals and a reopened Bach Museum (www.bach-leipzig.de).

But the city’s cultural high note is likely to be the Neo Rauch retrospective opening in April at the Leipzig Museum of Fine Arts (www.mdbk.de), a show devoted to the father of the New Leipzig School of artists, a scene that for the past decade has been the toast of the contemporary art world. The art cognoscenti will also make their way to the Spinnerei (www.spinnerei.de), a former cotton mill that is home to 11 galleries, a cafe and a quirky new pension called the Meisterzimmer (www.meisterzimmer.de), with rooms starting at 50 euros, or $70 at $1.40 to the euro.

The city is also making a splash on the musical front. Moon Harbour Recordings and Kann Records, two indie labels producing innovative electronica from D.J.’s, are based here. Sevensol and Matthias Tanzmann will undoubtedly be lugging their laptops to Leipzig Pop Up (www.leipzig-popup.de), a trade fair and music festival taking place in May. Otherwise, gigs can be heard year-round in the city’s underbelly of abandoned factories and squats that look a lot like Berlin — maybe 10 years ago. — Gisela Williams

11. Los Angeles
Visitors love to bemoan the lack of an old-fashioned cultural neighborhood in Los Angeles. In truth, the city has as many thriving art spots as it does ZIP codes. Last October, the pioneering Culver City gallery Blum & Poe (2727 South La Cienega Boulevard; 310-836-2062; www.blumandpoe.com) inaugurated an airy 21,000-square-foot space; in July, the veteran local dealer Thomas Solomon (427 Bernard Street; 323-427-1687; www.thomassolomongallery.com) opened a space in Chinatown. And the powerhouse New York galleries L&M Arts and Matthew Marks are scheduled to open prominent spaces in 2010.

Local museums, many of which struggled financially in recent years, are back afloat. The Museum of Contemporary Art (www.moca.org) is celebrating its 30th birthday with a huge exhibition of 500 highlights from its outstanding collection of postwar art. In October, the vast Los Angeles County Museum of Art (www.lacma.org) will get even bigger when it unveils a Renzo Piano-designed addition to its multiacre mid-Wilshire campus. And the billionaire collector Eli Broad, who has been both savior and villain to just about every major museum in town, is now looking to plant his own museum in Beverly Hills, Santa Monica or a third unnamed location. — Andrew Ferren

12. Shanghai
To many, the idea of a World Expo might seem like a dated, superfluous throwback from some preglobalized age. (Remember the one in Aichi, Japan? Enough said.) But tell that to the 70 million who are expected to attend Expo 2010 in Shanghai.

This is China, after all. And following up on Beijing’s spectacular Olympics, Shanghai is pulling out all the stops. From May 1 to Oct. 31, more than 200 national and other pavilions will straddle the city’s Huangpu River, turning a two-square-mile site into an architectural playground: Switzerland will be represented by a building shaped like a map of that country, complete with a rooftop chairlift, while England is in the celebrated hands of the designer Thomas Heatherwick, who is fashioning what looks like a big, hairy marshmallow. Other attention grabbers include Macao, taking the form of a walk-through bunny, and the United Arab Emirates, which hired Foster + Partners to build a “sand dune.” (By contrast, the United States pavilion might be mistaken for a suburban office park.)

In the run-up to the Expo, Shanghai seems to have taken this year’s theme, “Better City, Better Life,” to heart, spending tens of billions of dollars to upgrade the city. The riverfront Bund promenade is getting a makeover with parks and pedestrian-friendly sidewalks, while the subway is being dramatically expanded — including several new stations serving the World Expo site. — Aric Chen

13. Mumbai
On the one-year anniversary of the 2008 Mumbai attacks, citizens painted a one-kilometer stretch of wall in South Mumbai with murals to show their love and hope for the city. The initiative, by a group of organizations that included the Mumbai Arts Project (MAP), which is dedicated to creating public art projects, is just one sign that Mumbai’s art scene is on the rebound.

A walk through the newly dubbed Colaba Art District yields no fewer than five contemporary art galleries. In the second half of 2009, two contemporary galleries opened: Gallery BMB (www.gallerybmb.com), which brought in big-name artists from around the globe for its first show (look for an exhibition focusing on new Indian women artists, starting on Feb. 8), and Volte (www.volte.in), a gallery, cafe and bookstore. Just down the street is Project 88 (www.project88.in), an outpost of Gallery 88 in Calcutta, focused on up-and-coming Indian and South Asian artists. The large, simple one-room space will show the artist Hemali Bhuta with an installation on the ceiling and archival prints on the walls, starting Jan. 18. Also nearby is Gallery Maskara (www.gallerymaskara.com), in a converted cotton storehouse; starting March 15, the space will host paintings, sculpture and watercolors by T. Venkanna, a popular artist based in nearby Vadodara. — Lindsay Clinton

14. Minorca
While the beat of disco pounds in Ibiza and Majorca, their quiet sister Minorca offers a tranquil contrast to the glitz next door. The entire island is a Unesco Biosphere Reserve, so the Spanish megahotel development frenzy of the last decade has largely skipped over this patch of the Mediterranean. That means miles of beaches —some 120 of them, in fact, like the northern sweep of crystal-clear swimming waters in the coves called Cala d’Algaiarens, with fine sand and rolling dunes. And Minorca’s eco-diversity extends well beyond the coasts: forests, deep gorges, wetlands, salt marshes and hillsides covered in lush greenery that sometimes look more New England than Mediterranean. Even the island’s sun-bleached towns — Mahón and Ciutadella, each combining elements of their British colonial heritage, Moorish roots and modern Spanish identity — are more peaceful than their Majorcan equivalents.

The ideal visit to Minorca celebrates islanders’ emphasis on agritourism — sleeping in rural establishments like Ca Na Xini (www.canaxini.com), a dairy farm that offers an eight-room temple to modernism inside the shell of a century-old manor home. It’s like spring break for eco-conscious adults. — Sarah Wildman

15. Costa Rica
Costa Rica has been on any eco-minded traveler’s radar for years, but with a new birding route in the northeast region of the country, there’s a new reason to pay the country a visit. Opened in early 2009, the Costa Rican Bird Route (www.costaricanbirdroute.com) encompasses 13 far-flung nature reserves with phenomenal avian diversity — the sites are home to more than 500 bird species. Travelers can explore the route on their own with a map ($12.95 when ordered online) or hire a local guide to lead the way. The most popular leg of the route centers on the Sarapiquí-San Carlos region, one of the last remaining habitats of the endangered and prized great green macaw. The landscape along the route runs from wetlands and river explorations to high rain forest canopies and waterfalls; birders can visit renowned tropical biological research stations, stay in newly built eco-lodges and hike or canoe through local family-run reserves in search of rare raptors, herons and kingfishers. — Bonnie Tsui

16. Marrakesh
The ancient walls of Marrakesh must have protected the city from the global recession. Luxury boutique hotels, which began opening a few years ago, are now popping like Champagne corks over this historic and atmospheric North African city.

La Mamounia, a famed playground for celebrities like Mick Jagger and Charlie Chaplin, reopened in November after a $176 million face-lift by the Parisian designer Jacques Garcia (www.mamounia.com). At its dazzling launch party, Jennifer Aniston, Orlando Bloom and Gwyneth Paltrow walked the red carpet, José Carreras sang, and Cirque du Soleil acrobats wrapped in Christmas lights scaled the hotel walls.

“There was caviar galore,” said Sandra Zwollo, a Dutch expatriate who lived in La Mamounia for three years. “And not only does the new La Mamounia reflect what is happening in Marrakesh at the moment, it is greatly contributing to it.”

Ms. Zwollo herself is adding to the glamour of the city. Later this month, she plans to open Harem (www.harem-escape.com), a wellness retreat just for women, set on a stunning 12-acre estate in the city’s outskirts surrounded by olive and palm groves.

But it all pales in comparison to the palatial Royal Mansour, scheduled to open in 2010. Owned by King Mohammed VI of Morocco, who is largely responsible for the country’s newfound glamour, the jaw-dropping resort is built along the city’s ancient walls and has been designed almost like a mini-medina with Andalusian-style courtyards. The 20,000-square-foot royal suite will have a private swimming pool, home theater, gym and private hammam. The resort will also feature three restaurants overseen by the three-star Michelin chef Yannick Alléno.

There’s more. By the end of 2010, the Mandarin Oriental Jnan Rahma, which looks like something out of a Merchant-Ivory movie, and a 140-room Four Seasons are both expected to open, while a Rocco Forte resort and W Hotel are in the works for 2011. — Gisela Williams

17. Las Vegas
Despite a 4 percent drop in visitors in 2009, and the fact that several Las Vegas hotels have drastically slashed their rates to attract bargain-seeking travelers, a number of ambitious developers seem to think there is still money to be made in Sin City.

CityCenter, MGM’s $8.5 billion, 67-acre resort complex, is the Strip’s biggest headliner in 2010. Four of the six planned properties opened in December, including three hotels and a 500,000-square-foot luxury shopping mall (www.citycenter.com). The residential Veer Towers and the Harmon, a 400-room boutique hotel, are scheduled to open this year. The complex also houses Haze, a 25,000-square-foot nightclub, and Cirque du Soleil’s seventh show, “Viva Elvis,” a tribute to the king of rock ’n’ roll.

This summer, the Encore, a Steve Wynn property, is unveiling an entertainment complex and “beach club” (complete with three pools and V.I.P. cabanas)., and a new nightclub, Surrender. A five-pool addition to Garden of the Gods Pool Oasis at Caesars Palace, set to open in March, will feature swim-up gaming and an 18-foot waterfall. The Hard Rock Hotel and Casino, which unveiled its Paradise Tower in July, added the all-suite HRH Tower in late December, as well as Vanity, a 14,000-square-foot nightclub. — Allison Busacca

18. Bahia
All eyes will turn to sultry Rio de Janeiro when it hosts the 2016 Olympic Games, but right now Brazil’s white-hot destination may be the northeastern state of Bahia. With its distinctive African-influenced flavors, cultural diversity, palm-fringed beaches and a new crop of chic hotels, the region is fast emerging as a jet-set playground.

In the village of Trancoso, a hideaway that gets more fashionable by the minute, the Dutch designer Wilbert Das (longtime creative director of the Diesel label) opened Uxua Casa Hotel (www.uxua.com) using recycled materials including old roof tiles and abandoned fishing boats. The hotel’s colorful casas and lush gardens were a canvas for the 2010 Pirelli calendar, shot by the bad-boy photographer Terry Richardson. Speaking of the town’s rising cachet, a luxury Fasano resort — with 30 beachfront villas, a restaurant and a spa — is in the works.

In Salvador, known for its pulsing street carnival and the historic Pelourinho district, head to one of the city’s boutique lodgings. Zank (www.zankhotel.com.br) recently opened in the residential Rio Vermelho section and seamlessly blends modern and classic styles, with exceptional views of the Atlantic Ocean just steps away. Nearby is the Pestana Bahia Lodge (www.pestana.com), with a hilltop infinity pool and sunny sea-view rooms. While there, don’t miss “The Kiss” and “The Thinker” by Auguste Rodin, on temporary view at the Palacete das Artes (palacetedasartesrodinbahia.blogspot.com), which opened a gallery devoted to the French sculptor. — Paolo Singer

19. Istanbul
The reputation of Istanbul’s contemporary art scene has been steadily growing in recent years, with the Web site ArtKnowledgeNews.com recently calling it “one of the most innovative in the world.” That reputation is bound to be burnished even more this year, now that Istanbul has been named the 2010 European Capital of Culture (a designation it shares with Essen, Germany, and Pecs, Hungary).

There will be a series of events, gallery shows and stage performances throughout the city to mark the occasion. (A complete list of events can be found at en.istanbul2010.org/index.htm.)

But one of the best ways to get a crash course in what Istanbul’s leading artists are up to right now is to spend some time wandering around the Misir Apartments (311/4 Istiklal Cadessi), right on the busy pedestrian thoroughfare that cuts through the trendy Beygolu neighborhood. Inside this elegant, early-20th-century building are some of the city’s most cutting-edge art venues, like Galerist (www.galerist.com.tr) and Gallerie Nev (www.galerinevistanbul.com)

Afterward, head to the rooftop terrace and have a drink at 360 Istanbul, a stylish bar and restaurant that offers stunning views of the city’s skyline (360istanbul.com). — Stuart Emmrich

20. Shenzhen
Chances are, the iPod in your pocket was made in Shenzhen, China. But this industrial powerhouse of a city on the Pearl River Delta in the southern region of the country, is more than just a factory town of sweatshops and bad smog — and it has the high-class hotels and high rollers to prove it.

Shenzhen is one of China’s wealthiest cities, right up there with Shanghai and Beijing. Situated just a one-hour bullet train ride north of Hong Kong, the thriving city exemplifies China’s breakneck transformation from peasant economy to capitalist giant. Its rapid rise can be traced back to 1979, when Deng Xiaoping selected the sleepy fishing port as a special economic zone. Money, bulldozers and cheap labor poured in. Dim sum joints and illicit massage parlors gave way to gleaming shopping malls and faceless skyscrapers. A city of 14 million sprang up seemingly overnight.

So did a new travel destination. A 491-room Grand Hyatt (1881 Baoan Nan Road; www.shenzhen.grand.hyatt.com), with bay views, recently opened, joining the ranks of the Kempinski Hotel Shenzhen (Hai De San Dao, Hou Hai Bin Road; www.kempinski.com/shenzhen) and a Shangri-La (1002 Jianshe Road; www.shangri-la.com/shenzhen). Even late-night massage parlors have gone upscale and legit. The Queen Spa (Chunfeng Road; www.queenspa.cn) has sleeping pods, a theater and a juice bar — all for under $15 a night — plus massages that start at about $25.

Affordable luxuries extend to shopping and eating. The jumble of stalls at Dongmen are clogged with pirated DVDs and knock-off handbags, while there are new fashionable restaurants in Shekou, a leafy district with an expatriate flavor. Shenzhen is getting greener, too. The city recently welcomed the first LEED-certified building in southern China: the aptly named Horizontal Skyscraper, billed to be as long as the Empire State Building is tall. — Lionel Beehner

21. Macedonia

One of the deepest lakes on the planet, with a dazzling Unesco World Heritage site of ancient dwellings rising high above its shores, Lake Ohrid in Macedonia is a local vacation star poised for greater international acclaim.

In the tiered, terra-cotta-roofed city of Ohrid, 18 miles from the Albanian border, a lakefront settlement dating back to Neolithic times, Macedonians boast that on their side of the lake is a church, monastery or mosque for every day of the year, each full of resplendent frescoes, mosaics and icons. Notable attractions include the recently renovated church of St. Clement and St. Panteleimon at Plaosnik, an epic Byzantine masterpiece, and the 13th-century St. John of Kaneo, a limestone and brick monastery that juts out over transparent blue waters.

An estimated $50 million renovation of the Ohrid Airport is planned for 2010, with more international flights expected by summer, and up to six new luxury hotels are in the works, including a $33 million property with construction scheduled to begin in March. Tourist attractions on Ohrid’s beaches were upgraded last year with swank bars and dining spots complimented by bamboo and leather couchettes, with the hot spot Cuba Libre (www.cubalibreohrid.com) leading the way.

Meanwhile, new government-financed archaeological digs around the lake regularly unearth treasures, like the 17 fifth-century tombs discovered last July. The find follows the 2008 opening of the Museum on Water, a re-created Bronze Age village built on stilts incorporating Ohrid artifacts. — Dinah Spritzer

22. South Africa
As host of the 2010 World Cup this summer, South Africa has gotten its game on with a flurry of new stadiums, new hotels and safari lodges.

While soccer is being played across nine cities, much of the action off the field is taking place in Cape Town. Already known for its stunning beaches, mouthwatering cuisine and sophisticated night life, the city is welcoming high-end hotels, including the recently opened One & Only Cape Town and the forthcoming Taj Cape Town (www.tajhotels.com/capetown). Set to open this month, the Taj will have 166 rooms, many with views of Table Mountain. Also scheduled to open in Cape Town this year — but not in time for the World Cup — is the second branch of the nascent Missoni Hotels group (the first property opened in Edinburgh last year, with future outposts planned for Kuwait, Brazil and Oman).

Between matches, there’s plenty of time to go on a safari. If money is no object, check out the Ulusaba (www.ulusaba.virgin.com), a private game reserve that’s part of Richard Branson’s collection of luxury vacation properties. It has opened the new Cliff Lodge, with private swimming pools and spectacular views of the bush. Prices start at 13,800 South African rand (around $1,878 at 7.35 rand to the dollar) a night for two. — Denny Lee

23. Breckenridge
The ski resort of Breckenridge is not content to be merely the party capital of the Colorado Rockies — now it wants to be the Amsterdam, too. For its 150th birthday, the former mining town — known for its anything-goes reputation among ski fanatics — recently passed an ordinance to decriminalize possession of small amounts of marijuana.

But even without the law, Breckenridge has plenty going for it, and not just the town’s main strip, which is already an après-ski bonanza of Irish joints, upscale restaurants and boutique shops. The BreckConnect Gondola now whisks skiers from town to the slopes in a matter of minutes. And the bases at Peak 7 and Peak 8 are barely recognizable from a few years back. A case in point is the recently opened Grand Lodge on Peak 7 (866-664-9782; www.grandlodgeonpeak7.com), which just rolled out a full-service spa and fitness center called Soothe.

Don’t expect any Amsterdam-style “coffee shops” near the slopes anytime soon: the new ordinance applies only to the town of Breckenridge, not the mountain. — Lionel Beehner

24. Montenegro
On the southern edges of Montenegro, almost at the border of Albania, is an unusual land formation: a powdery, eight-mile-long beach called Velika Plaza (Long Beach) and a triangular island where the Bojana River meets the sea. The island is called Ada Bojana, and the area is quickly becoming a party destination for the young surfer set.

While the fantastic weather and soft gray beaches have drawn Eastern Europeans for decades, breezy thermal winds are bringing kitesurfers from Germany, England and France, who are turning Velika Plaza into a wave-riding capital on the Adriatic.

The cheap beer doesn’t hurt, either. The area is so undeveloped that the only resort is a faded nudist camp popular with Germans. In the meantime, travelers who want to keep their clothes on can book a 26-euro room (about $37, at $1.40 to the euro) at the Hotel Mediteran (hotel-mediteran.com) in the small city of Ulcinj, a 15-minute water taxi ride north. —Gisela Williams

25. Vancouver Island
Vancouver will have the sporting world’s attention when it hosts the Winter Olympics this year, but the most rewarding outdoor exploration is found outside the city, away from the crowds and off the beaten path. Hop the BC Ferry (www.bcferries.com) from Vancouver to Nanaimo, on Vancouver Island’s east coast, and drive three hours through mountain passes to the wild, dramatic west coast. The new Wild Pacific Trail (www.wildpacifictrail.com) skirts the rocky, rugged shoreline, overlooking sandy coves lined with driftwood and tidepools and the Pacific beyond them.

The hiking trail is being built in sections (there are three of seven set up so far), hand-cut through dense old-growth forests of cedar and spruce, with viewing platforms that let hikers see turn-of-the-20th-century lighthouses, kayakers heading to nearby islands, and the annual gray whale migration (about 20,000 pass by the island from February to late May). The base for the Wild Pacific Trail is a folksy fishing village called Ucluelet, a former First Nations settlement dotted with seaside inns, bed-and-breakfasts and beach cabins like the Terrace Beach Resort (www.terracebeachresort.ca), which has direct access to the trail. BONNIE TSUI

26. Colombia
Unfairly or not, Colombia is still known for its cocaine cartels and street violence, but cool-hunting travelers are calling it Latin America’s next affordable hot spot.

Bogotá, its capital, has emerged as a role model of urban reinvention. Starting in the late 1990s, the city underwent a breathtaking transformation. Sidewalks, once used mainly for parking, are now lined with bicycle paths and tree-shaded cafes. An innovative bus system zips residents across the traffic-congested city. And museums and restaurants have opened in its historic center, including the refurbished Museo del Oro, which houses pre-Columbian treasures.

Getting there is affordable, too. JetBlue recently began nonstop daily service to Bogotá from Orlando, Fla., joining other carriers including Delta.

Meanwhile, the picturesque coastal city of Cartagena, a Unesco World Heritage site, which has been experiencing a tourism surge in recent years, gets even more stylish. The latest addition is the Tcherassi Hotel + Spa (www.tcherassihotels.com), a seven-room boutique hotel designed by Silvia Tcherassi, a Colombian fashion designer. It has even prompted some travel bloggers to call Cartagena the next Buenos Aires. — Denny Lee

27. Kitzbühel
Most Austrians know the Austrian town of Kitzbühel as nothing less than a ski paradise, with 53 lifts and 104 miles of powdery slopes. But in the past few years, Kitzbühel has started to earn a reputation for its high-end dining — three restaurants with Michelin stars, with two more Michelin-starred joints outside town — making this small Alpine village of just 8,439 inhabitants an up-and-coming attraction for food lovers as well.

Many of the most celebrated kitchens are in hotels, like the five-star Hotel Tennerhof (www.tennerhof.com), with one Michelin star and three Gault-Millau toques, and the Hotel Schwarzer Adler, which houses the Neuwirt restaurant (www.restaurant-neuwirt.at), serving updated Central European fare like goose liver with baked almond milk and plums. The A-Rosa resort and spa (www.resort.a-rosa.de), is host to no fewer than three restaurants, including KAPS, which was awarded its Michelin star in November 2008 and is known for its “Poor Man’s Menu,” a set dinner of traditional recipes from the region.

The highest fliers, however, seem to hide outside the village: Rosengarten, the only restaurant in the area to earn two Michelin stars (it was upgraded to two in 2009), is less than four miles away in Kirchberg. From there, it is about a 30-minute drive to Restaurant Schindlhaus (www.schindlhaus.com) in Söll, where the Winkler brothers, Christian and Markus, run a kitchen known for its dedication to local ingredients.

Naturally, you can’t expect meals at a top ski destination to go cheap. If the high-end prices are beyond your means, try something a little more bucolic: the barn at the 400-year-old Stanglwirt hotel (www.stanglwirt.com), where a lovely stube, or pub, serves schnitzel and goulash next to grazing cows. — Evan Rail

28. Norway
With an acclaimed new opera house and plenty of high-end dining options, Oslo is already a must-visit urban destination. But this year the focus should be on the wilds of the Norwegian countryside. With its dazzling Nordic light and dramatic landscape, Norway is perhaps the most unexplored and exotic corner of Europe. Having convinced the world that its fjords and southern coastline make the country a great summer getaway, Norwegians have begun showcasing its charms as a winter destination.

Specialized trekking and ski tours like those offered by the Lyngen Lodge (www.lyngenlodge.com) can open up pristine areas of the north like the stunning Lyngen Alps, with high-speed boats to shuttle across the fjord to ski trails that would otherwise be inaccessible.

And the country’s indifference to trendy boutique hotels and splashy resorts — long the lament of global tourism professionals — is just what appeals to a more discerning clientele. Bespoke travel specialists like Ziniry (www.ziniry.com) excel at getting visitors deep into the scenery. Who needs a penthouse suite when you can book a lighthouse on a private island? — Andrew Ferren

29. Gargano
Far from the madding crowds of Amalfi and Cinque Terre, the Italian peninsula of Gargano sits on the Adriatic and boasts a checklist of summer-perfect Italian holiday options. The offerings are largely a part of the protected Gargano National Park, a swath of terrain encompassing everything from the oak and beech Foresta Umbra to the sheer chalk-colored cliffs and grottoes of the coast’s Caribbean-clear waters to the postcard-worthy whitewashed villages that hug the sea. Twelve nautical miles offshore, accessible by boat and hydrofoil, are the Tremiti Islands, specks of land surrounded by a wealth of sea life and a marine reserve of their own.

Looking for Romanesque churches and seaside fisherman’s restaurants? Try Peschici and Vieste, larger than fishing villages but cozier than cities, with white walls and medieval centers. How about mountain hiking? Check. Gargano also offers the rarest of luxuries: fabulous food and lodging on the cheap — campsites offer space for mere pocket change, while hotel rooms can be had for 30 to 60 euros a night ($42 to $84 at $1.40 to the euro) in Peschici. If saving on food is wallet-friendly enough, pay a bit more than 100 euros and stay at the Chiusa delle More (www.lachiusadellemore.it), a 16th-century farmhouse in the national park but still only yards from the sea. Meals are locavore, Gargano style, incorporating the farm’s own vegetables and eggs. — Sarah Wildman

30. Kuala Lumpur
While Phuket and Angkor Wat are tourism anchors in Southeast Asia, jetsetters in the region are heading these days to Kuala Lumpur, the Malaysian capital that’s quietly evolved into one of the area’s coolest and friendliest cities.

Not only are K.L.-ites diehard foodies, fiercely proud of a robust street food scene that straddles Chinese, Indian and Malay flavors — check out the food blog EatingAsia (www.eatingasia.typepad.com) — they’re also shopaholics, spending weekends trawling boutiques for the latest looks emerging from the sophisticated local fashion scene.

The country’s media-appointed King of Fashion is Bernard Chandran, who recently stole the spotlight when Lady Gaga wore one of his candy-pink minidresses to an awards show in London. His concept store is at the KL Plaza on Jalan Bukit Bintang. Another designer to look out for is Khoon Hooi, known for streamlined yet feminine dresses in muted tones, sold at his flagship store in the ritzy Starhill Gallery; and Melinda Looi, who makes vintage-inspired cocktail dresses from chiffon.

Bloggers at Tongue in Chic keep vigilant watch over the city’s fashion temples, which are clustered along the streets of Jalan Telawi 2 and 3 in the suburb of Bangsar, a 15-minute cab ride from the city center. To showcase the young designers, the blog recently started Chic POP, a flea market held every three months at one of K.L.’s most prestigious dance clubs, Zouk (www.zoukclub.com.my). — Naomi Lindt

31. Nepal
San Francisco, Amsterdam and Provincetown? Been there. Mykonos and Ibiza? Done that. Looking for the next gay destination? How about the Himalayan country of Nepal? Yes, Nepal.

In the roughly two years since the nation’s supreme court ordered that gay, lesbians and transgendered people be afforded equal rights, this conservative, mostly-Hindu country appears to be moving ahead full throttle.

Gay friendly clubs now dot its capital. (Go to www.utopia-asia.com for listings.) A “third gender” category is an option on national I.D. cards. Recently, a transgender beauty queen even got a photo op with the prime minister. And now there’s a tourist agency in Katmandu that is promoting gay tourism to Nepal.

Started by Sunil Babu Pant, an openly-gay legislator, Pink Mountain Travels and Tours (www.pinkyatra.com) promises to marry adventure travel with gay weddings. With talk that Nepal may legalize same-sex marriage this year as the country hammers out a new constitution (and, perhaps more importantly, deals with recent bouts of civil unrest), Mr. Pant is offering to hold nuptials at the Mount Everest base camp, jungle safari honeymoons and bridal processions on elephant back. — Aric Chen

Copyright 2010 The New York Times Company