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Jang Ja-yeon and her letters

Jang Ja-yeon, a late rookie actress who committed suicide in March 2009 after accusing her management agency chief of abusing her, claimed in her posthumous letters disclosed by broadcaster SBS on Sunday that she was forced to entertain and provide sex services to 31 people about one hundred times.

In more than 50 “diary-like” letters amounting to some 230 pages, allegedly written by Jang before her death and sent to her acquaintance since 2005, she recorded 31 people’s jobs offered sex services from her, including entertainment figures and officials of major companies, banks and media outlets.

Some of the 31 figures were investigated by police in 2009 but were all acquitted.

President Lee Myung-bak said Monday that South Korea’s military is diversifying its role and mission, from deterring war on the Korean Peninsula to peacekeeping, recovery and rescue work abroad.

“Our troops are emerging as a military that contributes to the world’s peace beyond the protection of its fatherland and peace on the Korean Peninsula,” Lee said in his biweekly radio address.

He pointed out that more than 1,400 South Korean troops are operating in 17 nations to maintain peace and provide support to disaster-hit areas. The president said the South Korean military’s growing role was demonstrated in a successful commando raid on Somali pirates in January and the recent evacuation of South Koreans from Libya by the 4,500-ton destroyer Choi Young.

(Yonhap News)

South Korean residents of Munsan neighborhood, Paju, Gyeonggi Province, a town near the inter-Korean border, called on the government and activist groups to refrain from sending anti-North Korea leaflets in balloons to the North, Mar. 6.

They have warned of preventing the events with physical force, saying, “The residents are afraid of a possible attack by North Korea, and the local economy has suffered a huge blow including decreasing numbers of tourists.” However, a North Korea group plans to fly 200,000 leaflets in balloons to North Korea, which may cause a conflict with the residents.

North Korea on Feb. 27 threatened to fire aimed shots at South Korean sources of “psychological warfare,” including Imjingak, a tourism pavilion located in Munsan, unless South Korea stops its propaganda campaign.

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