The Korea File

On this week`s episode of The Korea File, it`s Seoul`s most renown expat indie band!

With international recognition and crossover success in the Korean mainstream this is Used Cassettes, live at Haebongchoen`s Thunderhorse Tavern.
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From the band bio at Magic Strawberry Sound:

``Used Cassettes was formed as a drunken pact between some friends in a dingy basement in South Korea. Three years later the band come to the forefront of the Seoul indie music scene.

They have been in a number or magazines and feature documentaries, and released two EP’s in this time span. The band cites many influences on this record, including the works of Destroyer, Real Estate, Sonic Youth and The Replacements.

Used Cassettes latest release has already gained international recognition. Major international media organizations such as Canada’s CBC, which debuted the EP a feature airing it’s songs as well as an extended interview. Tracks from the album have also appeared in ads for Gold Coast, Earth, and South African surf competitions videos. Used Cassettes have collaborated with internationally renowned artists, such as Takahito Ire, who created the album art on They Were Individuals EP.

Currently, Used Cassettes are back in the studio recording their first full-length album and continue to gig regularly in Seoul, where they have gained a strong following and a reputation for wild and energetic performances.``

See more of Used Cassettes` music on Youtube at
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35Yge3ucx0o

or hear them on Soundcloud at
https://soundcloud.com/used-cassettes

For future episodes of The Korea File, check out our new home at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/thekoreafile

In 2004, an agreement was reached between the United States and South Korean governments to relocate the United States Forces Korea from the heart of Seoul to Camp Humphreys, outside the mid-sized city of Pyeongtaek, and to a second major garrison outside of Daegu

The process, scheduled to be completed next year, will consolidate more than 28,000 troops into two regional hubs and will transform Camp Humphreys into the largest U.S. Army garrison in Asia.

As the population of the garisson increases from 12,000 Soldiers, Family Members and contractors to 37,000 in 2016, the city of Pyeongtaek, in co-operation with the central South Korean government, have developed ambitious plans.

These include a major Samsung semiconductor chip plant, the world’s largest fuel cell power plant, an expanded maritime port, a free economic zone as well as tens of thousands of new housing developments.

UC Berkley’s Bridget Martin is researching the links between Militarism and Urbanization in South Korea. In the second of our two-part conversation, she talks about the intensity of South Korean urban redevelopment, the goals behind USFK base consolidation and restructuring and the historical relationship between American military bases and South Korean society.

Music on this episode is the Pearl Sister's 'Love House' (펄시스터즈 사랑의 교실) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4AAvLhCeUwc

In 2004, an agreement was reached between the United States and South Korean governments to move all U.S. forces in the country south of the Han River. This move will relocate the United States Forces Korea from the heart of Seoul to Camp Humphreys, outside the mid-sized city of Pyeongtaek, and to a second major garrison outside of Daegu.

The process, scheduled to be completed next year, will consolidate more than 28,000 troops into two regional hubs and will transform Camp Humphreys into the largest U.S. Army garrison in Asia.

As the population of the garisson increases from 5,000 Soldiers and 7000 civilians, family members and contractors to more than 37,000 by 2016, civic authorities for the city of Pyeongtaek have developed ambitious plans for the expanding city including a major Samsung semiconductor chip plant, the world’s largest fuel cell power plant, an expanded maritime port, a free economic zone and tens of thousands of new housing developments.

Bridget K. Martin, a PhD student in Geography at UC Berkley, is researching the links between Militarism and Urbanization in South Korea.

In the first of a two-part interview she explains how American imperialism and Korean development, heavily connected since the end of the Korean War, are continuing to work together in new and surprising ways.

Music on this episode: 영싸운드-등불https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66fPqqAtyEw

After more than 3000 days of action, what's the state of the anti-naval base protest in Gangjeong Village?

I speak with Sunny, an activist with the Catholic Workers Movement, about the morale and momentum of the movement moving forward.

Music on this episode is taken from the pansori/butoh collective performing live in front of the navy base construction site at last June's Gangjeong Peace Market.

For more information on the anti-base protests, go to savejejunow.org

Jeju Weekly editor-in-chief Darren Southcott turns the mic around in a conversation with me about podcasting in Korea.

The Korea File will be on hiatus until mid September, with a new episode out on September 16th.

This episode's music:
San U-lim's 'It Was Probably Late Summer' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-6jssOe5Uo

Seoul's lo-fi basement punk pop pioneers Nice Legs, live at The Factory in Jeju City, 6/13/2015

Find more Nice Legs here: https://wearenicelegs.bandcamp.com/releases

The Jeju Peace Forum was founded in 2001 with the goal of contributing to world peace and international cooperation in the East Asian sphere through multilateral dialogue and community building.

The 2003 edition of the conference included President Roh Muu-hyun's official apology to Jeju Island for the 4.3 massacre and the 2007 Jeju Declaration envisioned a regional peacekeeping diplomatic role for South Korea based on the Helsinki Process.

In 2008, with the election of the hardline right-wing Lee Myung-bak government, the foreign affairs ministry changed the name of the conference to The Jeju Forum for Peace and Prosperity and shifted focus away from co-operative agreements, bringing in big name speakers on themes unrelated to the peace process.

A glance at the list of events, workshops and speakers from the 10th Forum held last May, full of washed-up politicians and discredited neoliberal economic themes, suggests a conference in search of an identity.

Darren Southcott, editor-in-chief of The Jeju Weekly magazine, joins The Korea File to discuss whether or not the Forum has stayed true to it’s roots as a regional peace initiative.

Details on the 10th edition of the Forum can be found here: http://www.jejuforum.or.kr/eng/

For more from Darren Southcott, check out The Jeju Weekly magazine here: http://www.jejuweekly.com/

Music on this episode: 김 수 철 with '내일'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ioiv4MaJokQ

With more than 10 million visitors every year, how does Jeju balance UNESCO-certified biosphere reserves and multiple World Natural Heritage Sites with the environmental footprint of a rapidly expanding tourism economy?

Jeju Weekly editor Darren Southcott weighs in on the growing conflict between conservation and exploitation on Jeju Island.

The Jeju Weekly has been publishing since 2009 and is available at various locations around the island.

For all the news that matters about Jeju, check out Darren's byline on the masthead at http://www.jejuweekly.com/

Music on this episode:
From 1973, 이정선(Lee Jung Sun) with '노래모음'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IzJo8QmaTGE

From humble beginnings in a Tapdong parking lot 12 years ago, the Stepping Stone indie rock festival celebrated another success in 2015 in spite of heavy rain, intense winds and a washed-out beach due to Typhoon Chan-hom.

The Korea File was at the festival's Plan B, Daemyung Resort's Diamond Ballroom on Hamdeok Beach, to speak with festival organizer Kim Myoung-su and some of the bands, including:

the Stooges-era garage rock of Dead Buttons,
https://www.gigmit.com/dead-buttos

Romantiqua's guitar-heavy post-rock
http://www.koreanindie.com/2013/05/07/romantiqua-%EB%A1
%9C%EB%A7%8C%ED%8B%B0%EC%B9%B4-when-and-where/

the Mogwai-esque soundscape harmonics of Apollo 18
https://apollo18.bandcamp.com/

and the dynamic folk punk of Jeju's own Zen Alone.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUA-cLDLoKo

For more on the festival check out Ann Bush's eyewitness account at
http://www.jejuweekly.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=4846

South Korea is one of very few developed nations to have maintained a Shamanic heritage over millennia, and although Shamanism’s influence has diminished on the Korean mainland in the face of modernization, state-sponsored oppression and a generational shift in recent decades, it is still widely practiced on Jeju by a shrinking, but significant, number of elderly islanders .

Here’s writers Anne Hilty and Hong Sun-young from a 2013 piece in The Jeju Weekly magazine:

“On Jeju, shamanism has long been the core of village life. In its village-based shamanistic system, all conflict within a village was expected to be resolved prior to communal rituals in order to help ensure the gods' benevolence and village prosperity.

Jeju’s traditionally egalitarian society was based upon mutual aid; its matri-focal structure included powerful female deities, and diving women, or Haenya, as the primary economic force.”

http://www.jejuweekly.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=2926

Filmaker, writer and photographer Joey Rositano has spent more than three years attempting to answer this question, documenting, researching and collecting myths and stories from the elderly practitioners of shamanism on Jeju island.

His documentary ‘At Search for Spirits on the Island of Rocks, Wind and Women’ premiered at the 2014 Jeju Women’s Film Festival and a book of his photography work entitled ‘Spirits: Jeju Island’s Shamanic Shrines’ was released this week.

This is the second of a two part conversation.

For more on Joey's documentary, to find out about shrine preservation efforts on Jeju or to order a copy of 'Spirits: Jeju Island’s Shamanic Shrines', go to https://pagansweare.wordpress.com/