#Nicholas choi icons

[shykpop]

RANDOM icons, + like or reblog If you use

[sailorjisunq]

나플라

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[snoooze]

헷갈려 모든 게 slow motion

[minsikluv]

bloo and nafla icons

twitter: vroomts

like if you save!

[khhsh-t]

"Say that you love me, like we used to be baby" ~ Nafla

[nasuncitynoona]

Nafla is a meme and my mood

A threat;

[ashnikky]

[theonetheycallbatman]

Doubts and Promises

A/N: This is the product of not having no friends and listening to sad songs ENJOY my friends and stay Gucci 

genre: ANGST AF and a little fluffy 

Word Count: 1205

I haven’t move since I found out that he might be cheating on me. Even though I had my own suspicions, anyone who dates him is bound to have doubts and insecurities. But never would I have thought it would happen, at least not with him not right now. There was no doubt in my mind that we probably weren’t going to last forever and it’s not like I was expecting him to propose or anything. Because that’s just not the type of person he is, but I loved him with everything I had and i’m not sure if I should have. To think that this time of my life would be wasted if what I heard and what I seen at that party is true.

Turning to bury my face back in the pillow, because at this point suffocating is better than facing whatever the true may be. Sighing I literally roll out of bed wrapping the blanket around myself. I unlocked the door taking a step out of the room. My phone has been turned off since last night and now it’s 3pm, I’m sure I should turn it on but isolation seems better.  

Hearing a knock at the door I move over to it answer it, unlocking the door I open it to where it’s just enough for me to peck through. I would’ve opened it all the way but I look like i’ve been hit by a car.

I see Nicholas leaning against the door frame going ready to knock again before he finally notices me, looking at him from the small crack. Thinking about closing the door and just dealing with this another time. But I know it won’t solve anything. And he already seems frustrated and he’s been pulling at his hair for awhile because it's extremely messy.

“I have called you over 20 times in the last hour” he says looking at me putting his hand on the door lightly pushing on it. “Can I please come in y/n, I know you left the party last night. Why didn’t you tell me, I was pretty worried you know?”

“It seemed to me like you had your hands pretty full, I didn’t want to get in the way.” I said looking down at the floor, not wanting to see his face. “You should just leave okay.........don’t worry about me anymore.” After closing the door you hear him knock again. Practically beating the door trying to get back in “ WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT Y/N. BABY PLEASE OPEN THE DOOR...... I-We need to talk about this”

Sliding down the door you pull your knees into your body before resting your head on them. You start crying again listening to his pleas to try and get you to open the door.

This lasted about an hour before he had gone completely silent and you wondered if he was even still there. You moved away from the door now laying lifelessly on the couch. I have a headache from crying and now I feel like dying, I pull the cover over my head hoping that all of this will just fade away so I wouldn’t have to deal with it anymore.

I hear the door opening and honestly I’m half hoping it's a robber and his coming to kill me. But there is no way I’m that lucky. Staying under the cover to drained to moved or even talk. Just closing your eyes waiting for what they might do next.

“You gave me a key to your apartment on 2 weeks ago remember.”

Still not moving you open your eyes, sniffling a little because just hearing his voice makes you want to cry. “I called a few people and I think I know what the problem is.” He says moving closer sitting down pressing his back on the couch. Leaning his head back till it's right in front of yours, he sighs closing his eyes imagining your face. But all he can see it how sad you looked when you opened the door. The dry tears stains on your face, how puffy your eyes were, the bags that indicted you haven’t slept. It pained him more knowing that it was because of him.

He opened his eyes as he explained what actually happened last night. He told you how the girl you saw him with was drunk and was actually trying to force herself on him. Saying that it was her dream, and when she grabbed his face he quickly tried to remove himself from that situation. And when he finally did you were gone and no one knew where you were. He went looking everywhere you normally went after drinking, and your place was the last on his list because you were rarely ever there in the first place.

You had actually started to cry thinking about everything, hearing him get up you panicked but still couldn’t move. He picked you up taking to the bed laying down with you in his arms.

“I also know about the about the texts and shit, I’m not leaving you ever. I love you too much for me to even think about being with someone else. And cheating on you is out of the picture because you are all I need.”

He pulled the cover from over my face gently wiping the last of the tears that had fallen. Holding me tightly in his embrace, I feel more broken than fixed because I didn’t trust him.

I look over at him staring into his eyes I can tell he’s serious. He smiles at me before placing small kisses all over my face avoiding my lips. Laying his forehead on mine he moves to hover over me. Becoming nervous under his gaze I try to cover my eyes again with the cover. But he stops me coming closer to me face.

“Move in with me” He says watching my reaction. “You practically live there anyway, plus we’ve been together long enough now.”

“Are you sure you really want that and it's not just a spur of the moment type thing.”

“I’ve been thinking about for awhile and I would never joke about something like this. I wasn’t playing you are the only person I need in my life, I plan on marrying you when the time is right okay.” He said that without blinking looking deeply into my eyes making sure I understood how serious he was.

“Okay I guess I don’t really have a choice in the matter then huh.” Shaking his head he mouths ‘not really’. I smile at him bringing him down for a kiss he pulls back.

[junker-town]

Let Tiger take you to the weekend at Riviera

Tiger Woods will help get the weekend started early on Friday afternoon in Los Angeles.

The weekend in Los Angeles will start a little early on Friday. Locals and tournament officials are expecting a party to break out at Riviera on Friday afternoon, with Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy, and Justin Thomas hastening the sprint to happy hour and the weekend.

That trio is headlining an absolutely loaded field at the Genesis Open. It’s already a great event just by virtue of the venue. Riviera always delivers an above-average viewing experience and can be the star of a PGA Tour event on its own. But this year, the field is arguably the best its ever been. On Thursday, I walked the course with that trio but it was hard to ignore so many big names while doing so. Phil Mickelson was playing just a group behind but he was an afterthought. Jordan Spieth and Dustin Johnson had afternoon tee times, but they were simply a second act following Tiger, Rory, and JT. All of these players are worth watching in their own right, it’s just that we’ve never really had a group as good as those three together.

After a crack-of-dawn start on Thursday, that trio will go in the late wave on Friday. They will also move to the No. 1 tee after starting the first round on 10. All three birdied the 10th at Riv, one of the three or four most iconic par-4s in golf. But it was an uneven round following that dramatic start, with all three hovering around even-par.

Tiger will go just after Noon local in Los Angeles, and at 3:02 p.m. ET. The pace of play was steady through the first round, with Woods getting around Riv in a little over four hours. That’s not bad for a congested group on a relatively small tract of land. There was some waiting on the par-5s but that was about it in the opening round. So expect those three to finish up sometime after 7 p.m. ET. Golf Channel has adjusted their programming accordingly and moved their coverage window back from 3 to 7 p.m. ET.

Highlighting the morning half of the draw will be Spieth, DJ, Patrick Cantlay, and Bubba Watson. The defending champ, DJ, scuffled through an opening round 74. This course plays more like a par 70 or 69 for the big-hitting DJ, so a 74 is a brutal number and one that will force him to go low on Friday to make the cut.

Here’s the full tee sheet for Friday’s second round at the Genesis Open:

Off No. 1 tee:

9:40 a.m. — J.B. Holmes, Robert Streb, Sean O’Hair

9:50 a.m. — J.J. Henry, Lucas Glover, Ryan Blaum

10:01 a.m. — Cameron Tringale, Bud Cauley, Martin Piller

10:11 a.m. — Marc Leishman, Adam Hadwin, Peter Malnati

10:22 a.m. — Ryan Armour, Tony Finau, Ernie Els

10:32 a.m. — Jhonattan Vegas, Vaughn Taylor, Martin Kaymer

10:43 a.m. — D.A. Points, Jim Furyk, Rafa Cabrera Bello

10:53 a.m. — Daniel Berger, Si Woo Kim, Fabian Gomez

11:04 a.m. — Jamie Lovemark, Sung Kang, Patrick Rodgers

11:14 a.m. — Troy Merritt, Danny Lee, Whee Kim

11:25 a.m. — Nicholas Lindheim, Talor Gooch, Stephan Jaeger

11:35 a.m. — Jonathan Randolph, Tyler Duncan, Vinnie Poncino

2:20 p.m. — Matt Every, John Merrick, Andrew Loupe

2:30 p.m. — Geoff Ogilvy, Derek Fathauer, Harold Varner III

2:41 p.m. — David Lingmerth, Tyrone Van Aswegen, C.T. Pan

2:51 p.m. — Bryson DeChambeau, Billy Hurley III, K.J. Choi

3:02 p.m. — Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy, Justin Thomas

3:12 p.m. — Matt Kuchar, Phil Mickelson, Tommy Fleetwood

3:23 p.m. — Brendan Steele, Greg Chalmers, Sangmoon Bae

3:33 p.m. — William McGirt, Brian Stuard, Charles Howell III

3:44 p.m. — Ryan Moore, Bill Haas, Chez Reavie

3:54 p.m. — Chad Campbell, Shawn Stefani, Dominic Bozzelli

4:05 p.m. — Kevin Na, Anirban Lahiri, Jon Curran

4:15 p.m. — Abraham Ancer, Xinjun Zhang, Richard H. Lee

Off No. 10 tee:

9:40 a.m. — Martin Laird, Jason Kokrak, Francesco Molinari

9:50 a.m. — Nick Taylor, Peter Uihlein, Brandon Harkins

10:01 a.m. — Retief Goosen, Ollie Schniederjans, Beau Hossler

10:11 a.m. — Ted Potter, Jr., Kyle Stanley, Jonas Blixt

10:22 a.m.— Patrick Cantlay, Jordan Spieth, Kevin Chappell

10:32 a.m. — Dustin Johnson, Adam Scott, Bubba Watson

10:43 a.m. — Billy Horschel, Cameron Smith, Vijay Singh

10:53 a.m. — Xander Schauffele, Wesley Bryan, Alex Noren

11:04 a.m.— Martin Flores, Kevin Tway, Hao Tong Li

11:14 a.m. — Camilo Villegas, Scott Brown, Kelly Kraft

11:25 a.m.— Brice Garnett, Adam Schnek, Cameron Champ

11:35 a.m. — Ben Silverman, Zecheng Dou, Seunghyuk Kim

2:20 p.m. — Charlie Beljan, John Huh, J.J. Spaun

2:30 p.m. — Keegan Bradley, Tom Hoge, Andrew Landry

2:41 p.m. — Harris English, Parker McLachlin, Thomas Pieters

2:51 p.m. — Graeme McDowell, Smylie Kaufman, Luke Donald

3:02 p.m. — Chris Stroud, Aaron Baddeley, Jim Herman

3:12 p.m. — Jimmy Walker, Charley Hoffman, Shane Lowry

3:23 p.m. — Cody Gribble, Charl Schwartzel, Brian Gay

3:33 p.m. — Pat Perez, James Hahn, Padraig Harrington

3:44 p.m. — Austin Cook, Branden Grace, Paul Casey

3:54 p.m. — Kevin Streelman, Luke List, Aaron Wise

4:05 p.m. — Scott Stallings, Morgan Hoffmann, Michael Kim

4:15 p.m. — Sam Saunders, Rob Oppenheim, Scottie Scheffler

The oddest rule against ball substitution

[dani-qrt]

As Kim arrives in Singapore, no North Korean comrades in sight

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Stella Choi, the principal of a Korean language school in a drab tower in downtown Singapore, works just across the elevator lobby from the modest suites that make up North Korea’s embassy.

FILE PHOTO: A view of the entrance of the North Korean embassy in Singapore May 24, 2018. Picture taken May 24, 2018. REUTERS/Edgar Su/File Photo

Yet the South Korean national, who runs the iSpeak Korean Language Centre, says she has neither seen nor spoken to any of her Northern neighbors or people entering the embassy since they moved in two years ago.

Choi’s experience is consistent with the extremely low profile Singapore’s small community of North Koreans has kept in recent years as diplomatic pressure on their home country made traveling and working abroad increasingly difficult.

But they have disappeared in recent years as U.N. sanctions tightened around Pyongyang, and Singapore has been among the countries that have dutifully implemented resolutions to cut trade ties, ban transactions with North Korean banks and cancel the work passes of its citizens.

North Korea’s place in the world – and that of its diaspora – comes into focus in Singapore next week, when the city-state hosts the first ever summit between a sitting U.S. president and a North Korean leader. Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un will discuss ending the North’s nuclear weapons and missile programs in return for diplomatic and economic incentives.

Singapore, a global trading and financial hub, was once home to a close-knit group of a few dozen North Korean diplomats and businessmen responsible for channelling money, fuel and goods to the secretive state.

While it still maintains diplomatic ties, North Korea’s embassy has moved from a three-storey property in a lively neighborhood of heritage shop-houses to its present unassuming home.

“I hope to see them one day. Since the North and South Korean relationship is getting better, I may even be able to speak to them,” said Choi.

Reuters has visited the North Korean embassy multiple times over the last year but on all but one occasion there appeared to be nobody there. Reuters did once meet the embassy’s first secretary, Ri Pyong Dok, while he was entering the embassy in February 2017, but he declined comment.

In a call in recent weeks to the embassy to ask about preparations for the summit, a North Korean staffer also declined comment.

FILE PHOTO: Kim Jong Nam arrives at Beijing airport in Beijing, China, in this photo taken by Kyodo February 11, 2007. Picture taken February 11, 2007. Mandatory credit Kyodo/via REUTERS/File Photo

The Singapore foreign ministry has four North Korean officials and their spouses in its list of diplomatic and consular staff as of June 2018.

STRATEGICALLY MANAGED

“The sanctions and the pressure that was put on by the U.S. and its allies were definitely … key motivating forces that encouraged him (Kim Jong Un) to consider engaging more, and to come out and have this summit,” said Nicholas Fang, director of security and global affairs at the Singapore Institute of International Affairs.

North Korea has always strategically managed its expatriate population, mainly sending them to allies like China and Russia, where they feel they will not be corrupted by Western ideals.

Singapore is probably the most diplomatically neutral place where they’ve based people historically – more for trade reasons than diplomacy, said John Kim, a Korean-American businessman who advises a non-profit offering training in entrepreneurship and business in North Korea.

Kim said he had not spoken to a North Korean in Singapore in around five years. The last person John Kim spoke to told him there were around 50 North Koreans operating in the city-state, mainly in industries like shipping, although there are no official figures of the size of the community.

FILE PHOTO: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un speaks during the Second Plenum of the 7th Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK) at the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun, in this undated photo released by North Korea’s Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) in Pyongyang October 8, 2017. KCNA/via REUTERS.

In contrast, there are about 20,000 South Koreans living in Singapore.

In November, Singapore suspended all trade with North Korea to comply with tightening U.N. regulations.

In March, Singapore said it had revoked the work permits of all remaining North Koreans in the country.

A long-time South Korean resident of Singapore who did not want to be named said until a few years ago, groups of North Koreans would come into South Korean-run restaurants for barbecue dinners and would sometimes strike up casual conversations with the South Korean patrons or staff.

They would be relaxed and friendly, though there was occasionally tension in the banter, reflecting the rivalry between the two states, he said.

One more prominent North Korean figure in Singapore was Kim Jong Nam, the half brother of the current leader who was assassinated at Kuala Lumpur airport last year.

A socialite, he often drank at a plush bar on the top of the iconic Marina Bay Sands hotel or in one of the city-state’s many karaoke joints, according to one of his friends, who declined to be named, citing safety reasons.

The friend said Kim Jong Nam was down-to-earth, self-deprecating and open to jokes about his family connections.

“We would always ask, ‘So Kim, what do you think about communism?’ and he’s was always saying, ‘I’m all about peace and love.”

Reporting by John Geddie, Fathin Ungku and Jack Kim; Editing by Sam Holmes and Raju Gopalakrishnan

The post As Kim arrives in Singapore, no North Korean comrades in sight appeared first on World The News.

from World The News https://ift.tt/2JwtrZk via Online News

[newestbalance]

As Kim arrives in Singapore, no North Korean comrades in sight

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Stella Choi, the principal of a Korean language school in a drab tower in downtown Singapore, works just across the elevator lobby from the modest suites that make up North Korea’s embassy.

FILE PHOTO: A view of the entrance of the North Korean embassy in Singapore May 24, 2018. Picture taken May 24, 2018. REUTERS/Edgar Su/File Photo

Yet the South Korean national, who runs the iSpeak Korean Language Centre, says she has neither seen nor spoken to any of her Northern neighbors or people entering the embassy since they moved in two years ago.

Choi’s experience is consistent with the extremely low profile Singapore’s small community of North Koreans has kept in recent years as diplomatic pressure on their home country made traveling and working abroad increasingly difficult.

But they have disappeared in recent years as U.N. sanctions tightened around Pyongyang, and Singapore has been among the countries that have dutifully implemented resolutions to cut trade ties, ban transactions with North Korean banks and cancel the work passes of its citizens.

North Korea’s place in the world – and that of its diaspora – comes into focus in Singapore next week, when the city-state hosts the first ever summit between a sitting U.S. president and a North Korean leader. Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un will discuss ending the North’s nuclear weapons and missile programs in return for diplomatic and economic incentives.

Singapore, a global trading and financial hub, was once home to a close-knit group of a few dozen North Korean diplomats and businessmen responsible for channelling money, fuel and goods to the secretive state.

While it still maintains diplomatic ties, North Korea’s embassy has moved from a three-storey property in a lively neighborhood of heritage shop-houses to its present unassuming home.

“I hope to see them one day. Since the North and South Korean relationship is getting better, I may even be able to speak to them,” said Choi.

Reuters has visited the North Korean embassy multiple times over the last year but on all but one occasion there appeared to be nobody there. Reuters did once meet the embassy’s first secretary, Ri Pyong Dok, while he was entering the embassy in February 2017, but he declined comment.

In a call in recent weeks to the embassy to ask about preparations for the summit, a North Korean staffer also declined comment.

FILE PHOTO: Kim Jong Nam arrives at Beijing airport in Beijing, China, in this photo taken by Kyodo February 11, 2007. Picture taken February 11, 2007. Mandatory credit Kyodo/via REUTERS/File Photo

The Singapore foreign ministry has four North Korean officials and their spouses in its list of diplomatic and consular staff as of June 2018.

STRATEGICALLY MANAGED

“The sanctions and the pressure that was put on by the U.S. and its allies were definitely … key motivating forces that encouraged him (Kim Jong Un) to consider engaging more, and to come out and have this summit,” said Nicholas Fang, director of security and global affairs at the Singapore Institute of International Affairs.

North Korea has always strategically managed its expatriate population, mainly sending them to allies like China and Russia, where they feel they will not be corrupted by Western ideals.

Singapore is probably the most diplomatically neutral place where they’ve based people historically – more for trade reasons than diplomacy, said John Kim, a Korean-American businessman who advises a non-profit offering training in entrepreneurship and business in North Korea.

Kim said he had not spoken to a North Korean in Singapore in around five years. The last person John Kim spoke to told him there were around 50 North Koreans operating in the city-state, mainly in industries like shipping, although there are no official figures of the size of the community.

FILE PHOTO: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un speaks during the Second Plenum of the 7th Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK) at the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun, in this undated photo released by North Korea’s Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) in Pyongyang October 8, 2017. KCNA/via REUTERS.

In contrast, there are about 20,000 South Koreans living in Singapore.

In November, Singapore suspended all trade with North Korea to comply with tightening U.N. regulations.

In March, Singapore said it had revoked the work permits of all remaining North Koreans in the country.

A long-time South Korean resident of Singapore who did not want to be named said until a few years ago, groups of North Koreans would come into South Korean-run restaurants for barbecue dinners and would sometimes strike up casual conversations with the South Korean patrons or staff.

They would be relaxed and friendly, though there was occasionally tension in the banter, reflecting the rivalry between the two states, he said.

One more prominent North Korean figure in Singapore was Kim Jong Nam, the half brother of the current leader who was assassinated at Kuala Lumpur airport last year.

A socialite, he often drank at a plush bar on the top of the iconic Marina Bay Sands hotel or in one of the city-state’s many karaoke joints, according to one of his friends, who declined to be named, citing safety reasons.

The friend said Kim Jong Nam was down-to-earth, self-deprecating and open to jokes about his family connections.

“We would always ask, ‘So Kim, what do you think about communism?’ and he’s was always saying, ‘I’m all about peace and love.”

Reporting by John Geddie, Fathin Ungku and Jack Kim; Editing by Sam Holmes and Raju Gopalakrishnan

The post As Kim arrives in Singapore, no North Korean comrades in sight appeared first on World The News.

from World The News https://ift.tt/2JwtrZk via Everyday News

[khhsh-t]

Nafla

[dragnews]

As Kim arrives in Singapore, no North Korean comrades in sight

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Stella Choi, the principal of a Korean language school in a drab tower in downtown Singapore, works just across the elevator lobby from the modest suites that make up North Korea’s embassy.

FILE PHOTO: A view of the entrance of the North Korean embassy in Singapore May 24, 2018. Picture taken May 24, 2018. REUTERS/Edgar Su/File Photo

Yet the South Korean national, who runs the iSpeak Korean Language Centre, says she has neither seen nor spoken to any of her Northern neighbors or people entering the embassy since they moved in two years ago.

Choi’s experience is consistent with the extremely low profile Singapore’s small community of North Koreans has kept in recent years as diplomatic pressure on their home country made traveling and working abroad increasingly difficult.

But they have disappeared in recent years as U.N. sanctions tightened around Pyongyang, and Singapore has been among the countries that have dutifully implemented resolutions to cut trade ties, ban transactions with North Korean banks and cancel the work passes of its citizens.

North Korea’s place in the world – and that of its diaspora – comes into focus in Singapore next week, when the city-state hosts the first ever summit between a sitting U.S. president and a North Korean leader. Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un will discuss ending the North’s nuclear weapons and missile programs in return for diplomatic and economic incentives.

Singapore, a global trading and financial hub, was once home to a close-knit group of a few dozen North Korean diplomats and businessmen responsible for channelling money, fuel and goods to the secretive state.

While it still maintains diplomatic ties, North Korea’s embassy has moved from a three-storey property in a lively neighborhood of heritage shop-houses to its present unassuming home.

“I hope to see them one day. Since the North and South Korean relationship is getting better, I may even be able to speak to them,” said Choi.

Reuters has visited the North Korean embassy multiple times over the last year but on all but one occasion there appeared to be nobody there. Reuters did once meet the embassy’s first secretary, Ri Pyong Dok, while he was entering the embassy in February 2017, but he declined comment.

In a call in recent weeks to the embassy to ask about preparations for the summit, a North Korean staffer also declined comment.

FILE PHOTO: Kim Jong Nam arrives at Beijing airport in Beijing, China, in this photo taken by Kyodo February 11, 2007. Picture taken February 11, 2007. Mandatory credit Kyodo/via REUTERS/File Photo

The Singapore foreign ministry has four North Korean officials and their spouses in its list of diplomatic and consular staff as of June 2018.

STRATEGICALLY MANAGED

“The sanctions and the pressure that was put on by the U.S. and its allies were definitely … key motivating forces that encouraged him (Kim Jong Un) to consider engaging more, and to come out and have this summit,” said Nicholas Fang, director of security and global affairs at the Singapore Institute of International Affairs.

North Korea has always strategically managed its expatriate population, mainly sending them to allies like China and Russia, where they feel they will not be corrupted by Western ideals.

Singapore is probably the most diplomatically neutral place where they’ve based people historically – more for trade reasons than diplomacy, said John Kim, a Korean-American businessman who advises a non-profit offering training in entrepreneurship and business in North Korea.

Kim said he had not spoken to a North Korean in Singapore in around five years. The last person John Kim spoke to told him there were around 50 North Koreans operating in the city-state, mainly in industries like shipping, although there are no official figures of the size of the community.

FILE PHOTO: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un speaks during the Second Plenum of the 7th Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK) at the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun, in this undated photo released by North Korea’s Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) in Pyongyang October 8, 2017. KCNA/via REUTERS.

In contrast, there are about 20,000 South Koreans living in Singapore.

In November, Singapore suspended all trade with North Korea to comply with tightening U.N. regulations.

In March, Singapore said it had revoked the work permits of all remaining North Koreans in the country.

A long-time South Korean resident of Singapore who did not want to be named said until a few years ago, groups of North Koreans would come into South Korean-run restaurants for barbecue dinners and would sometimes strike up casual conversations with the South Korean patrons or staff.

They would be relaxed and friendly, though there was occasionally tension in the banter, reflecting the rivalry between the two states, he said.

One more prominent North Korean figure in Singapore was Kim Jong Nam, the half brother of the current leader who was assassinated at Kuala Lumpur airport last year.

A socialite, he often drank at a plush bar on the top of the iconic Marina Bay Sands hotel or in one of the city-state’s many karaoke joints, according to one of his friends, who declined to be named, citing safety reasons.

The friend said Kim Jong Nam was down-to-earth, self-deprecating and open to jokes about his family connections.

“We would always ask, ‘So Kim, what do you think about communism?’ and he’s was always saying, ‘I’m all about peace and love.”

Reporting by John Geddie, Fathin Ungku and Jack Kim; Editing by Sam Holmes and Raju Gopalakrishnan

The post As Kim arrives in Singapore, no North Korean comrades in sight appeared first on World The News.

from World The News https://ift.tt/2JwtrZk via Today News

[clusterassets]

New world news from Time: 4 Winter Solstice Rituals From Around the World

Thousands of people around the globe will herald the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere, with centuries-old rituals like soaking in fruit-filled baths and dressing up as a devilish folklore legend that punishes naughty children around Christmas.

The solstice, which falls on Dec. 21 this year, marks the first day of winter. It starts the moment the Northern Hemisphere is pointed at its farthest distance from the sun. The winter solstice is considered a turning point in the year in many cultures. The sacred day is also called Yule to pagans celebrating the birth of the new solar year, according to Circle Sanctuary, a prominent pagan group in America. Dozens of pagans and druids head to Stonehenge, an iconic site in England, to pay tribute to the sun during the solstice.

Here are some of the ways people celebrate the winter solstice around the world:

Getting scared by Krampus in Austria

Sean Gallup—Getty ImagesA member of the Haiminger Krampusgruppe dressed as the Krampus creature, an Austrian winter solstice ritual, lets himself be touched by onlookers prior to the annual Krampus night in Tyrol on Dec. 1, 2013.

Hordes of revelers descend on Hollabrunn, Austria each year during the winter solstice to watch a swarm of people dressed like Krampus — the half-demon, half-goat counterpart to Santa Claus — terrorize and tease the crowd in horned masks, fur body suits and whips. “It is weird, but it’s fun,” said Natalie Kononenko, a professor and Kule Chair in Ukrainian Ethnography Arts at the University of Alberta in Canada.

Krampus is a figure that punishes bad children by whipping and snatching them, according to Germanic folklore. The traditional Krampus run in Austria is believed to ward off bad spirits near the winter solstice, but it is also a source of local entertainment, Kononenko said. Last year, the creatures wielded torches, charged at delighted guests and jumped over security gates to lightly whip people, according to footage from the Associated Press.

While many of the costumes include giant horns, sharpened teeth and mangled faces — features that might be considered nightmarish to an ordinary person — the Krampus run annually amuses those in attendance. “It’s sort of like Halloween,” Kononenko said. “You get to dress up in these really disgusting costumes. You get to do stuff you don’t normally get to do.”

This year’s family-friendly Krampus run in Hollabrunn’s main square takes place Dec. 16. “To be really afraid again and experience evil with fun is the motto,” its organizers wrote on the event’s website.

Taking in a once-in-a-lifetime sight in Ireland

Brian Lawless—PA Wire/APPeople gather for sunrise at Newgrange on the morning of the winter solstice on Dec. 21, 2014.

Dozens of people, lucky enough to be selected through an annual lottery, get the chance to stand inside the Newgrange monument in Ireland and absorb the first rays of the day as they fill the ancient chambers during the winter solstice.

Newgrange is a burial mound in Ireland’s Boyne Valley that is over 5,000 years old. The Stone Age monument contains a 62-foot passage that leads into a chamber that is aligned with the sun as it rises during the winter solstice, according to its website. Between Dec. 19 and Dec. 23 around dawn, sunlight pierces through the top of the chamber and slowly illuminates the room for about 17 minutes.

More than 32,500 people applied for a spot inside the chamber this year, according to Newgrange’s website. Only 60 of them were picked from the lottery to partake in this winter solstice ritual.

Soaking in baths full of fruit in Japan

Noriaki Sasaki—The Yomiuri Shimbun/APA pair of adult capybara and three babies take a yuzu-yu, or a hot bath with yuzu citrus fruits, a winter solstice ritual in Japan.

In Japan, people traditionally soak in hot baths with the yuzu citrus fruit to welcome the winter solstice and protect their bodies from the common cold. During last year’s solstice celebration, children from a local preschool shared a dip in a traditional yuzu tub in the city of Toyooka as dozens of the yellow yuzu fruits surrounded them on the surface, according to Japan’s daily newspaper Asahi Shimbun. Similarly, the bath has become custom for animals in some Japanese zoos. Photos from the local media show Japanese macaques, hippos and capybaras enjoying fruit-filled baths last December in their enclosures at the Fukuoka City Zoological Garden and the Izu Shaboten Zoo.

In Korea, good luck on the solstice is associated with red bean porridge. Koreans will often make the dish both to eat and spread around the house to keep evil spirits away, according to Seungja Choi, a senior lector of East Asian Languages and Literatures at Yale University. Besides its believed spiritual benefits, Choi said, the meal also contains a lot of nutrition. “If you eat this, you get healthy,” she said.

Catching the sunrise at Stonehenge

Matt Cardy—Getty ImagesThe sun makes a brief appearance through clouds as druids, pagans and revelers gather in the centre of Stonehenge in Wiltshire, England for the 2015 winter solstice.

England’s famous Stonehenge lures thousands of visitors during the summer and winter solstices. Revelers gather at the prehistoric site of ancient stones in Wiltshire to sing, dance, play instruments, kiss the stones and do yoga as they wait for the sun to rise. The iconic Stonehenge is known for its precise alignment with the sun’s movement and may have been a sacred place of worship and celebration for solstices for thousands of years, according to English Heritage, which manages the popular destination.

December 14, 2017 at 03:38AM ClusterAssets Inc.,

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Hyperallergic: From Birch-Bark Shoes to Propaganda Posters, Surveying Relics from the Russian Revolution

“A Worker Sweeping Criminals out of the Soviet Land” (from Russian Placards, 1917–22) (© British Library Board; all images courtesy British Library)

The first thing you notice when you enter Russian Revolution: Hope, Tragedy, Myths at London’s British Library is the color red — lots and lots of it, from the panels to the images. Unfortunately, the show itself doesn’t match the vividness of that initial impression.

One of the exhibit’s strengths is the variety of media on display, from the expected photos and films to posters, political cartoons, audio clips, and clothes. These do more than capture a sense of time and place; they also show how historical moments can imbue familiar everyday objects with a powerful blend of nostalgia and political weight.

Iconic clothing is a good example. Birch-bark shoes known as lapti were associated with Russian peasants, and thus the term for the shoes also became a contemptuous one for the masses. And Russian hats, so important to soldiers, became a fashionable accessory for certain Western European journalist-observers.

Red Army cap (© Polish Army Museum)

The more unexpected objects are among the most moving ones. One example is a decorated cup given out at the coronation of Tsar Nicholas II in 1896. Attendees stampeded to collect the gifts, resulting in the deaths of 1,389 people. Another sobering item is a set of leg irons used on political activists — weighty both literally and figuratively.

Maps are also central to this exhibition, and the diverse range shows how subjective, if not blatantly propagandistic, mapping can be. There are maps with controversial borders, of course, but also, for instance, a vividly colored, pre-revolutionary map depicting different ethnic groups in a visual argument for their single imperial identity. A large digital map usefully shows the rapid changes in different forces’ territorial control during the post-revolutionary civil war.

What’s notably lacking here is curation that captures the upheaval of the time. This would be difficult for any exhibit, but Russian Revolution is surprisingly inert for such an important — and violent — historical event. The space should be loud rather than hushed, jumbled rather than staid, interactive rather than wholly glass-encased. A common object on display is a book open to its title page — historically significant, yes, but not terribly interesting to look at.

First edition of The Communist Manifesto (© British Library Board)

Unlike the displayed text, the posters are memorable and striking. Art in various forms was critical for expressing and giving rise to both royal and revolutionary sentiment. On the revolutionary side, this included illustrations that venerated Russian peasants and helped to drive home the contrast between the decadent royals and the hard-working common folk.

There’s a lack of subtlety to the propaganda posters, which in some ways makes them especially effective. One depicts Japan as a grotesque dragon; another shows Lenin literally going to Hell. An anti-Bolshevik and anti-Semitic poster portrays Trotsky as a massive demon with stereotypically Jewish features. And there’s no shortage of images depicting atrocities at the hands of soldiers, on multiple sides.

The curators contend that the (Bolshevik) Red Army — with its recruitment posters that point at you to create a sense of urgency and necessary sacrifice — propagandized better than the (anti-Bolshevik) White Army. One exhibition label reads, “As the Reds had more unity of purpose to build socialism, their propaganda was more effective.”

“Peace and Freedom in the Soviet Russia,” anti-Bolshevik poster (public domain)

“For the United Russia,” White Army recruitment poster (public domain)

The revolutionary ferment clearly produced some intriguing art. This includes lithographs, from avant-gardist Natalia Goncharova’s Mystical Images of War series (1914), that manage to be both childlike and stirring.

There’s plenty of constructivist art on display, with strong outlines and vivid colors that are well-suited to depicting uncomplicated heroism. These propagandistic images are so stylized that they easily portray alternative or idealized realities, suiting a regime whose moral and political imperatives trampled nuances or attempts to capture objective truth. As one exhibition label notes, “The major achievement of early Soviet propaganda was to create a compelling parallel reality to fill this void [in political, economic, and personal life] at a time when actual reality was too chaotic to be faced.”

It’s impossible not to see echoes of current affairs in all this. During the Russian Civil War, for instance, reliable photojournalism was hugely important, given that events were proceeding too quickly for observers to easily keep up with them. The temptation to slip into simplified narratives (and images) was all too present. Even a historical figure as seemingly unique as mystic/political adviser Rasputin has a modern-day parallel, in shaman/political adviser Choi Soon-sil, who contributed to the downfall of South Korean President Park Geun-hye earlier this year.

Clearly the Russian Revolution’s historical legacy is enduring. It’s a shame that the British Library has somewhat neutered this history by making the exhibition so sedate.

Red Army poster (© British Library)

Russian Revolution: Hope, Tragedy, Myths continues at the British Library (96 Euston Rd, Kings Cross, London) through August 29.

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