30 January 2008

it's that time of year again

the south korean marines' annual exercises in snowy gangwon province are always a favorite for international media and half-korean homo expats.

the korean peninsula is the cold war's final frontier and one of the world's most militarized places. although an armistice was signed in 1953, the north and south are technically still at war. north korea's 6 million active troops and reserves constitute the world's fourth largest force, with south korea's 5.2 million just behind it at #5 (iran is #1 and the usa is #8). both nations require all young men to volunteer for military service. in soko the typical term is about 2 years, but persons with mental/physical illness, huge tattoos, and men who like men are excluded. (photos by chung sung-jun)






that's a bitterly cold mountain stream, not a hot spring pool.

6 comments:

Jonith said...

all i can think when looking at these is "scentless".

matt said...

don't get me started.

on second thought... maybe i should do a posting on it. all the focus on comparing brain and penis size has given acknowledgment of racial/ethnic physical differences a bad rap. i think i should seek funding from various fetish communities to support my research.

Jonith said...

good idea. could take that even further and start up a think tank.

um, what would kinam think if she read a post about scentless anuses? would she even flinch?

Unknown said...

oh wow.

matt said...

the kwam wouldn't understand and would just assume it was another bit of inconsequential blather from her children. but if i explained it to her, she'd either:

1) make a confused face and then ask me why i haven't finished her business cards yet.

2) repeat what she told my sister a couple of months back about the vagina: "if you don't use it, you lose it."

matt said...

this seems like a good place to say that i received an email from a woman representing a korean publishing company who was interested in doing something with my "field trip" postings. but with all this talk of orifices and fetish funding, no wonder she hasn't written me back :(

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