18 COMMUNITY
NOVEMBER
Expat Living is a section dedicated to the daily
living of expatriates.
It is printed on Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday.
To share stories about your life abroad, send stories
or story ideas to Matthew Lamers at
mattlamers@heraldm.com
Submissions may be edited for length or clarity.
Putting statistics
on foreign crime
into some context
By Matt VanVolkenburg
Public outrage in the wake
of a high-profile case of child
abuse has led members of the
National Assembly to turn a
spotlight on possible threats to
children and end the lax judi-
cial treatment of sex offenders.
While this is to be applauded,
the manner in which this has
been carried out has at times
been careless.
On Oct. 19, National
Assembly Representative Woo
Yoon-keun said that the num-
ber of sexual crimes by foreign
nationals had tripled over the
past eight years, rising from
83 in 2001 to 242 in 2008.
While this information is trou-
bling, it would seem less so if
the Rep. Woo had bothered to
put any of this information in
context. Considering the for-
eign population at the end of
2008 was 1.15 million, those
242 crimes result in a sex
crime rate of 20.8 per 100,000.
When compared to statistics
from the Supreme Prosecutors
Office which show the sex
crime rate of Korean citizens
in Korea to be 108 per
100,000, we see that the for-
eign sex-crime rate is five
times less.
But this is not an entirely
accurate portrayal of these
statistics. If it can be agreed
that children and the elderly
tend not to commit crimes,
then it’s worth looking at the
demographics of the Korean
and foreign populations in
Korea.
According to the CIA, chil-
dren under 15 and elderly
people over 64 make up 27.6
percent of the population of
Korea. According to Korean
Immigration Service figures,
children under 16 and elderly
over 60 make up 8.2 percent of
the foreign population. If
these low crime demographics
are removed when making
calculations, the foreign sex
crime rate is 22.7 per 100,000
foreigners, and 151.7 per
100,000 Koreans — meaning
in this case that the foreign
sex-crime rate is 6.6 times
lower.
While some news media re-
ports in the past have been re-
sponsible in pointing out that
the rising crime rate among
foreigners in Korea is still
much lower than that of
Korean citizens, Rep. Woo has
not put his worrying figures
into context. Unfortunately,
Rep. Woo is not the sole politi-
cal voice guilty of this. On Oct.
22, it was reported that the
Ministry of Justice had an-
nounced it would “revise immi-
PHOTO CHALLENGE — Weekly Winner — The entrance of a Naval
Museum in Gangneung, Gangwon-do, where there is a battle
cruiser and a North Korean submarine on display. The hardhats
are for visitors entering the submarine.
gration rules to ban foreigners
found guilty of raping Korean
children from re-entering
Korea permanently,” and that
this was “the latest in a series
of government measures to
keep sexual predators away
from society.”
It’s unfortunate that this
discussion of how to protect
Korean society from sex
crimes, when discussing for-
eigners, has focused only on
past and possible sex crimes
committed by foreigners
against Koreans and omitted
sex crimes that Koreans com-
mit against foreigners.
A 2006 study, conducted on
the behalf of the National
Assembly Committee on
Gender Equality, looked at the
sexual activities of Korean
men visiting Thailand and the
Philippines and found that
Korean men were known for
habitually doing drugs and
seeking out underage girls to
have sex with.
The National Youth
Commission found in 2005
that Korean fishermen were
largely responsible for the exis-
tence of a teen prostitution in-
dustry in the South Pacific na-
tion of Kiribati. A 2003 survey
conducted by the National
Human Rights Commission
found that 12.5 percent of fe-
male foreigners working in
Korea said they had been sex-
ually harassed by Korean su-
periors or colleagues. One won-
ders why more consideration
isn’t being given to such sex
crimes against foreigners and
the need to prevent and punish
them.
While every effort should
be taken to protect Korean
children from sex crime and
punish its perpetrators, it is
troubling that the only avail-
able role for foreigners in the
current debate is as potential
criminals. Reading such
alarming statements about
foreigners being made in the
National Assembly, one won-
ders of Korea’s elected repre-
sentatives truly want, as
Justice Minister Lee Kwi-
nam recently put it, “to real-
ize a genuinely mature cos-
mopolitan nation,” or if they
see foreigners as a threat in
much the same manner as the
country north of the 38th par-
allel.
The opinions express here
are the author’s only and do
not necessarily represent those
of The Korea Herald. For more
of Matt VanVolkenburg’s writ-
ings, go to http://popu-
largusts.blogspot.com — Ed.
Brad Church
Slow food
at OK2 Kitchen
By Daniel Gray
OK2 Kitchen near Itaewon
Station is more than just O.K.
Originally, I thought the
name was a play on the
Korean name for traditional
house, “hanok,” because the
restaurant is set in a Korean
traditional house. But after
speaking to the owner, I
learned it was named after his
wife: Oh Jeong-mi.
Oh Jeong-mi, known as
Jamie Oh, is a famous food
stylist, teacher, artist, and cu-
rator. Her works have been
displayed around the world.
Most recently she was the cu-
rator of the Gwangju
Biennale. The owner is chef
Susumu Yonaguni of the pio-
neering Korean/Japanese
restaurant “Eat and Drink” in
New York City. The New York
Times Food critic, Ruth
Reichel said, “Eat and Drink
has the feel of a restaurant
created by artists for artists.”
These two are truly artists
and they bring their art and
skill to Seoul. OK2 Kitchen
reinvents traditional norms
with an emphasis on quality,
art, and doing things the “slow
food” way.
So what is the “slow food”
movement?
Slow food is an idea that
was started by Carlo Petrini
in Italy to combat the com-
mercializing and mass pro-
duction of fast food. In 1986,
the first McDonald’s was set to
open in the historic Piazza
Spagna in Rome. Carlo saw
this as the harbinger of death
In focus: Develop a relationship with subject
The Photo Challenge is spon-
sored by Hyosung Camera
(English: 010-7203-9599) and
Babo Shirts (www.baboshirts.
com). Winners of the weekly com-
petition receive a 50,000 won store
credit at Hyosung Camera and a
Babo Shirt. To take part in the
competition, simply upload your
photo at www.flickr.com/
groups/seoulphotoclub — Ed.
By Aaron Raisey
On Saturday evening I had
dinner with several friends that
included a couple of fellow Seoul
Photo Club members. These
guys were photographers with
much more experience than I,
with time spent behind cameras
all over Asia and the sub-conti-
nent. The conversation turned
to (surprise) photography in
to traditional ways of cooking,
so he and his followers
protested by standing outside
the McDonald’s with bowls of
penne. Chefs, restaurants,
and diners embraced this ide-
al and many make their food
using traditional ways.
Chef Susumu Yonaguni and
his wife, food-artist, Oh Jeong-
mi are heading a quiet revolu-
tion. They grow many of their
own herbs, they salt their own
cod, and they even smoke their
own salmon and duck. Every
day the restaurant makes
fresh bread and puff pastry.
While I was there, they were
they working on making their
own prosciutto, which I was
told would be ready in two
weeks. (I marked it in my cal-
endar). Of course, two people
couldn’t do all this on their
own. Chef Yonaguni is not just
a restaurateur — he is an edu-
cator. He teaches the 12 young
cooks that work in his kitchen.
The menu is seasonal, so
items change based on avail-
ability and freshness. You
could start out with a pump-
kin soup one day, or a sushi
tasting appetizer with yellow
tail tartar, mackerel, and cer-
viche on another.
I went on a Saturday with a
friend and I ordered Lunch
Set B with the Wagyu steak.
My meal cost 35,000 won
($29.50), while my friend’s
cost 20,000 won. Each lunch
set has six courses, and each
course is well thought out.
Our meal started out with a
creamy pumpkin soup topped
with cream and fresh oregano.
Korea. One of the topics we dis-
cussed was how difficult it is to
capture Korea meaningfully in
a photographic sense.
It was difficult to put a finger
exactly on why this is. After all,
we all have Korea with plenty of
temple shots, palaces and tradi-
tional markets. But as good as
they might be, these photos of-
ten aren’t much different from
what any tourist with a camera
might capture.
The consensus seemed to be
that vacation-style snaps will be
all you produce until you actual-
ly develop some kind of relation-
ship with this country.
A juxtaposition of all that is good: creamy egg
flan topped with a crisp salty parmesan chip
Wagyu Beef cooked Bleu
Smoked Salmon done two ways: topped with
a grapefruit sorbet and with orange zest
In the center of the soup was a
perfect piece of potato gnocchi
which harmonized the pump-
kin and creamy flavors. This
soup was a refined alteration
of the Korean pumpkin “juk,”
pumpkin and rice porridge.
This was followed by two
slices of smoked salmon. One
slice was topped with a
grapefruit sorbet while the
other had orange zest and ca-
pers. The smoked salmon was
richly flavored with the
sticky-savory taste of hickory
smoke.
The next course was a heav-
enly parmesan flan with a
crispy, crumbly parmesan
chip. Oh, this dish was a jux-
taposition of all that is good.
The creamy egg and cream
hugged the salty, bold taste of
parmesan. I could have simply
stopped at this dish and it’s a
dish I wake up craving.
Looking back, I think I slowly
ate this in order to enjoy every
last bit.
Then my steak came. I had
ordered it bleu because I
wanted to see how skilled
their kitchen was. A bleu
steak is covered in oil and
cooked over a very hot flame
so the outside is seared, but
the inside of the steak is quite
rare — almost raw. If you
have a good cut of meat, this is
the best way to have steak.
Again, they didn’t fail to im-
press, for the steak was per-
fectly seared and it didn’t lose
any of its moistness. The
steak was paired with a light
salad and potatoes.
Course five was coffee and
This relationship could take
many different forms, but let me
give you a couple of examples to
illustrate what I mean.
I was talking to another mem-
ber of the SPC from Busan last
week. He spends a bit of time in
his local traditional market being
perfectly visible with his camera,
even if he’s not actively taking pic-
tures. Over time he’s become part
of the furniture and is able to take
photos comfortably with the will-
ing consent of the locals — cap-
turing them naturally and getting
images not normally available to
the furtive outsider.
He had developed a relation-
ship over time with a group of
people.
I’ve had numerous experiences
like this myself and I can relate a
very recent example. I take my
film to a lab in Chungmuro in
TUESDAY NOVEMBER 3, 2009
Photos by Daniel Gray
course six was three amazing
desserts. The first was a
molten chocolate cake topped
with chocolate ice cream. The
second was a butterscotch
caramel pudding. And the
third was a beet brulee cake
with Gorgonzola cheese ice
cream and crisp cookie
strings. Initially, the last
dessert sounded utterly dis-
gusting, but one taste made
me a believer. The beet flavor
of the brulee cake was accent-
ed by the caramel flavor of the
burned sugar. This was then
heighted by the creamy, per-
plexing notes of Gorgonzola
cheese and the fragile, snap-
ping flavor of the cookie
threads.
Amazing.
OK2 Kitchen
Web: www.ofoodart.com
Phone: (02) 797.6420
Prices: A la Cart: 14-36,000
won per dish. The lunch set
(20,000, 35,000 won) and the
dinner sets (50,000, 60,000
won) are recommended.
Directions: Go out Exit 1 of
Itaewon Station and make the
third right (it’s the one near
the traffic light). You’ll see
Pacific Shopping on the corner
and OK2 Kitchen to the left.
Daniel Gray is a food writer
and consultant in Seoul. The
opinions expressed here are
only those of the author. For
more of his writings, go to
www.seouleats.com — Ed.
central Seoul for developing, and
while waiting the hour or so to
pick up the negatives, I enjoy a
beverage at a nearby convenience
store (as one does). Directly oppo-
site where I relax in a blue plas-
tic chair is a very small men’s
clothing store. Because I am
there once or twice a week, cam-
era prominent on the blue plastic
table, the 74-year-old proprietor
of that shop knows what I’m
about. Recently he asked me to
take his picture standing in front
of the suit-festooned facade of his
little shop and we shared a drink
after.
These situations are photo-
graphic gold and are next to im-
possible to get if you are just
breezing by or attempting to op-
erate in stealth mode.
These two examples reinforce
what we discussed over dinner
FESTIVALS CALENDAR
The following are the major
cultural and tourist festivals to
be held in November.
Boseong Sori Festival
When: Nov. 7-8
Where: Boseong, South Jeolla
Province
Sori is a Korean word refer-
ring to the archetypal human
voices with which humans com-
municate with nature and the
universe. It also refers to the
combination of the human voice
and instrumental sounds, which
form Korea’s musical heritage.
Boseong is home to pansori, a
one-person opera with a percus-
sion accompaniment that has
been designated by the UN-
ESCO as a world cultural her-
itage.
Boseong is also a major pro-
ducing area of green tea. Music
lovers will have an opportunity
to experience music of Korea
and the taste of superb Korean
green tea. More information is
available at http://www.
boseong.go.kr/sorifastival or by
calling 061-852-2181.
Korea Drama Festival
When: Nov. 21-29
Where: Gyeongnam Culture
and Arts Center, Jinju, South
Gyeongsang Province
Jinju is a historic city famous
for being the site of a major
battle against Japanese in-
vaders. The Korea Drama
Festival is Asia’s first drama
and video festival featuring
dramas from Asian nations.
Programs include “Korea dra-
ma awards,” “Night of Asian
Stars,” “New Korean Wave Star
Award” and drama OST con-
cert. There also will be exhibi-
tions, a world food festival and
many other events.
For more information, call
055-755-2363 or visit the Web
site at http://www.kdfo.org
Seoul Performing Arts
Festival
When: Oct. 13-Nov. 21
Where: Arko Arts Theater,
Seoul Arts Center and other
venues in Seoul
The SPAF 2009 will feature
about 40 breathtaking perfor-
mances, including plays, dances
and combination works.
Participants will come from
Russia, Hungary, Britain,
France, Italy, Poland, Norway,
Canada, Australia, Japan,
China and Korea. For further
information, visit the Web site
at www.spaf21.com or call 02-
3673-2561.
Gunsan International
Migratory Bird Festival
When: Nov. 11-15
Where: Geumgang Bird Park,
Gunsan, North Jeolla Province
Visitors will have the chance
to take field trips to observe mi-
gratory birds up close, see
movies on migratory birds and
enjoy cultural events, sympo-
siums and exhibitions. Guided
bus tours will also be available.
The bird watching corridor
(known as Tamjohoerang in
Korean), built on the embank-
ment of the Geum River, is the
only facility of its kind in Korea.
Children can also learn about
the ecology of birds at Napo
Cross fields.
For more information, call
063-453-7213 or visit the event’s
Web site at www.gsbird.co.kr
(Yonhap News)
— acquiring a benign profile or
developing some kind of rela-
tionship with people or a partic-
ular area, camera prominent,
will present opportunities that
when captured will powerfully
and meaningfully reflect the
time you have spent in this
country. In addition, the char-
acter and atmosphere of your
photographs will set them apart
from the usual vacation fare.
Also, keep that camera visible.
Often just the act of extracting a
camera out of a bag will send a sig-
nal for people to be on their guard
— a visible camera tempers this
natural reaction in many people.
Visit the Seoul Photo Club on
Flickr and experience the many
different relationships photog-
raphers from all around Korea
have with this country.
(raisey@hanmail.net)