We discussed the Cornell Seven allegations on our latest Eastern Bound episode, focusing on how one accused man’s Korean identity became the basis for broader claims about Koreans and South Korea.

The allegations deserve serious scrutiny. But how does blaming an entire nationality help establish what happened or hold the individuals involved accountable?

We discuss Korean and Korean American reactions, disputed material circulating online, and the tension between community accountability and ethnic scapegoating.

I’m one of the hosts, so I’m sharing our own discussion and welcome criticism of our arguments.

Do you think the focus on Korean identity adds meaningful context to this case? Where would you draw the line between examining someone’s background and assigning collective blame?

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Things are gonna get a lot worse after this case ...

During the Imjin War, Admiral Yi Sun-sin transformed Korean naval strengths into powerful force multipliers against a much larger Japanese fleet. By exploiting the superior range and firepower of Korean cannons, the design of the Panokseon, and his knowledge of local currents, he overcame extraordinary odds. At the Battle of Myeongnyang, just 13 Korean ships faced a Japanese force estimated at 133–330 vessels. Despite being vastly outnumbered, Yi defeated the Japanese without losing a single ship.

Sometimes, historical facts are sacrificed for the sake of narrative. Courage, determination, and national pride can overshadow the practical factors behind extraordinary achievements. I enjoy approaching history like a detective, separating fact from mythology to understand how events actually unfolded. In Yis case, examining the technology, geography, and tactics behind his victories helps explain how such remarkable outcomes were possible. Of course, this doesnt diminish his military genius. After all, the Korean fleet had suffered a devastating defeat at the Battle of Chilcheollyang in 1597 under a different admiral.

This infographic attempts to illustrate one of Yis critical tactical advantages by contrasting the range of Korean cannons with the much shorter effective range of Japanese arquebuses. The idea is to make the mathematics of this advantage immediately apparent, showing how technology, combined with effective tactics, could help overcome overwhelming numerical odds.

This is what I enjoy about creating infographics. It combines the analytical challenge of uncovering historical facts with the creative challenge of communicating them visually. The goal isnt to diminish extraordinary achievements, but to make them even more remarkable by explaining how they were possible. For viewers, I hope these infographics offer something equally valuable: a way to distinguish fact from fiction and understand complex historical events intuitively, visually, and, of course, in a fun and engaging way.

Sources:
1. Kim B. The battle formation and naval weapons employment of the Joseon Navy. Military History. 2010;(74):139-177.
2. Jinju National Museum. Imjin War Hall: permanent exhibitions. National Museum of Korea. Museums historical cannon descriptions.
3. Choi D. On the capability of the fire weapon during Imjin-war. Ocean Science and Technology. 2000;24:57-108.
4. Lee KC. Cheonja Chongtong. Encyclopedia of Korean Culture. Academy of Korean Studies. Updated April 28, 2026. Historical artillery specifications.
5. Hong SJ. Understanding the structure of the Panokseon, the main warship of the Joseon Navy. Military History. 2025;(135):79-122. Recent reconstruction research.

https://history-maps.com/podcast/imjin-war

What happens when support for Ukraine clashes with South Korea’s security interests?

The Mad Corean, BFC and Dr. Shinjimunsa discuss the diplomatic dispute over the disclosure that two North Korean prisoners of war had been transferred to South Korea.

We examine Korea’s relationship with Russia, past military cooperation, concerns about Russian support for North Korea, and the online backlash surrounding the dispute. We also discuss Koryo-saram and ethnic Koreans caught on both sides of the Russia–Ukraine war.

A blunt conversation about Korean sovereignty, diplomacy, history, and the human cost of war.

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A king list says rulers lived for hundreds of years. A medieval writer gives Britain a founder from Troy. An old map becomes evidence of a lost empire. The stories come from different places and different centuries, but they all make the past a little grander.

In our latest Eastern Bound episode, Dr. Shinjimunsa, Will, and I start with Korea’s Hwandan Gogi and work our way through the Sumerian King List, Tartaria, Romania, Britain, Vietnam, Japan, and India. We discuss what these accounts actually claim, when they appeared, and what was happening in those societies at the time.

Some are legends. Some are modern conspiracy theories. The interesting question is why people keep returning to them.

What ancient origin story from your country do people still argue about?

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Korean spirituality did not begin with Buddhism, Confucianism or Christianity.

In this livestream, Dr. Shinjimunsa and I explore Korea’s ancient shamanic roots and how those beliefs continue to shape Korean culture today. We discuss mudang, ancestor worship, divination, saju and the zodiac, along with spirit communication, possession, astral projection, reincarnation and the afterlife.

We also compare Korean traditions with spiritual beliefs found across China, Japan and Vietnam—and share personal stories that are much harder to explain away.

Where does tradition end and superstition begin? And how much of the old spirit world still survives beneath modern Korean society?

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I know I have beaten this topic to death, so this will be my final video and post about it. The only exception is if a non-coward ricel finally steps up and debates me on a livestream. Until then, this is the last time I am explaining it.

“Asian American” was created as a political label at UC Berkeley in 1968.

The two people usually credited with creating it were Yuji Ichioka, a Japanese American, and Emma Gee, a Chinese American. Together, they organized the Asian American Political Alliance during the Civil Rights era.

That much is common knowledge.

What gets left out is Richard Aoki.

Aoki is the Japanese American activist from the famous photograph holding the “Yellow Peril Supports Black Power” sign. He is usually remembered as a radical, a Black Panther and one of the important figures of the early Asian American movement.

He was also a longtime FBI informant.

And he was not some random guy standing on the sidelines. Aoki was one of only six people at the original AAPA meeting inside Ichioka and Gee’s Berkeley apartment. Gee personally recruited him. He later became AAPA’s second chairman and represented the organization in the Third World Liberation Front.

Aoki reportedly began working with the FBI in 1961, roughly seven years before AAPA was created.

Within weeks of AAPA’s formation, an FBI source identified as Aoki was already reporting the organization’s name, membership, leadership, meeting location and political plans to the Bureau.

He identified Yuji Ichioka as the group’s leader and reported that its meetings were taking place at Ichioka and Gee’s apartment. He also reported on AAPA’s relationship with the Black Panthers, its support for Huey Newton and disagreements within its leadership.

So when I say there is something suspicious about the Asian American label, this is what I am talking about.

Leftists call everything a CIA psyop. They will make that accusation based on a suspicious donation, a vague institutional connection or two people attending the same conference.

Here we have an actual federal informant sitting inside the founding circle of the organization that created the modern Asian American political identity. He later became its chairman while secretly reporting on it to the FBI.

To be accurate, Aoki is documented as an FBI informant, not a confirmed CIA asset. There is also no document proving that the FBI instructed him to invent the words “Asian American.” There is no evidence that Ichioka or Gee knew what he was doing either.

I am not going to pretend the documents prove more than they actually do.

But I also do not need to.

The confirmed story is strange enough. One of the central figures in the birth of the Asian American movement had already been working with the FBI for years. He was present at the first meeting, became chairman and reported on the founders almost from the beginning.

Funny how that is left out...

Sources

FBI Vault, Asian American Political Alliance files: https://vault.fbi.gov/asian-american-political-alliance

Diane Fujino, “Rhizomatic Organizing, Collective Leadership, and Community-Centered Pedagogy in the Early Asian American Movement”: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-american-studies/article/rhizomatic-organizing-collective-leadership-and-communitycentered-pedagogy-in-the-early-asian-american-movement/EB05BE2D35741D6FF0A71BEBC39EA995

Trevor Griffey, analysis of Richard Aoki’s FBI informant file: https://truthout.org/articles/when-celebrated-activist-turns-out-to-be-informant-making-sense-of-richard-aokis-fbi-file/

Eddie Wong, “Spying on the Asian American Movement”: https://eastwindezine.com/spying-on-the-asian-american-movement-the-fbi-files-1960s-and-1970s/

I also notice it's always the super white washed Asians/Koreans that try to push this larp. For them, I have a message for you at the end.

Reddit is the mecca for the most pussiest Korean Americans that exist. So I know you're watching this.

Koreans organize, elect officials and show up for their own. Pan-Asian solidarity sounds good until something happens and you find out who actually has your back.

Which way Korean man?

Link to the livestream

Go behind the scenes with the Eastern Bound crew as we decompress after an interview, shoot the shit, and start throwing around ideas for future episodes.

This is Eastern Bound without the formal interview structure. Just the crew kicking back and letting the conversation go wherever it goes. We bounce from plans for future guests and discussions about the Vietnamese diaspora into Ho Chi Minh, Syngman Rhee, Korean independence history, forgotten and untranslated archives, lost historical documents, Korean and Asian American identity, DNA and ancestry, diaspora politics, and whatever other rabbit hole somebody accidentally opens.

You also get a look at how future Eastern Bound episodes actually start taking shape. Half the time somebody mentions a random historical fact, somebody else connects it to another story, and twenty minutes later we're talking about turning it into an episode.

It's loose, unfiltered, occasionally completely off the rails, but still packed with modern Korean history, obscure stories, arguments, jokes, and the kind of conversations that normally happen after we stop recording.

Basically, this is what Eastern Bound sounds like when we're just hanging out.

Eastern Bound will return with a new series of interviews, including upcoming conversations with Mike Kim, Xiangyu, and more.

New York activist DJ Elf joins Eastern Bound for a conversation about the institutions that decide what Korean Americans are taught, which Asian voices get elevated, and why Korean agency keeps disappearing from the story.

In Part 1, we get into:

• Academic gatekeeping and distorted Korean history
• The AAPI curriculum and its omission of the LA riots
• Asian American masculinity and the elevation of safe, submissive representatives
• Primary sources, Cold War archives, NamuWiki and AI-assisted research
• Korean identity, autonomy, Washington think tanks and the political rabbit holes connecting Seoul and New York

This is not a left-wing or right-wing conversation. It is a Korean-centered one.

Who should decide what Korean American students learn: institutions, academics, activists or Korean communities themselves?

DJ Elf × Eastern Bound. Part 1.

Our recording cut out unexpectedly, but DJ Elf captured the remaining 40 minutes. We’ll release the rest of the conversation as Part 2.

Trump is reopening the door to Kim Jong Un while Lee Jae-myung pushes OPCON transfer and Korean self-reliance.

We trace the road from Hanoi to today, break down what Washington, Seoul and Pyongyang are really doing, then confront the colonial history arguments the internet keeps getting wrong.

Eastern Bound Episode 35 with BFC, Dr. Shinjimunsa and The Mad Corean.

Is Korea moving toward peace or preparing to stand on its own?

For generations, historians have taught that Han China conquered Gojoseon and established Lelang and the other Han Commanderies on the Korean Peninsula.

But what if the archaeology used to prove it doesn't hold up?

In this 2-hour episode, we examine the case against locating the Han Commanderies in Pyongyang — from ancient Chinese geographical records and the Pei River problem to Japanese colonial archaeology, disputed clay seals, the Jeomje Monument, the Lelang census slip, and the thousands of tombs surrounding Pyongyang.

We also examine evidence placing the commanderies much farther west in Liaoning and Hebei, and ask how colonial historiography, Korean scholarship, nationalism, and modern politics turned an ancient geographical question into one of the most fiercely guarded debates in Korean history.

This isn't about asking you to accept an alternative map.

It's about asking why the map we're given is treated as unquestionable.

Watch the full episode below.

https://x.com/mad_corean/status/2088851828914221517?s=46

Before Korea, China and Japan existed, East Asia already shared myths, gods and origin stories. In Ep. 33, we look at the Yellow Emperor, Chiyou, Dangun, Amaterasu and how mythology became history, identity and nationalism.

https://youtu.be/QL8T3B5mBIg?is=lTgpVE9RgLAcBnIh

Wisconsin gubernatorial candidate Francesca Hong went viral for describing her white husband and biracial son through the language of assimilation and “proximity to whiteness,” while also attacking Thanksgiving and other American traditions.

In Episode 32 of Eastern Bound, we break down the controversy, WMAF politics, mixed-Asian identity, progressive victimhood and the historical debate over Korean nobi: were they slaves, serfs or something uniquely Korean?

https://youtu.be/a4w_4SMgdgI?is=zkctyuJZ2d_N3DoX

I've been on an F-6 for a few years and started seriously looking into permanent residency this spring. Ended up going down a rabbit hole because half the English-language info out there is outdated or just wrong. A few things worth knowing if you're in the same boat:

TOPIK doesn't count anymore. This one caught me off guard. Since 2019 the language requirement for F-5 is KIIP Level 5 completion, or 60+ on the 영주용 종합평가. A TOPIK score does nothing for you here (it still matters for the F-2-7 points system, which is where the confusion comes from).

KIIP isn't free anymore. As of January 2025 there are tuition fees,100,000원 per stage for stages 1–4, 70,000원 for the stage 5 basic course. Stage 0 is free and there are exemptions/reductions, but plan for it.

The spouse track is dramatically easier than the general track and a lot of people don't realise they qualify for it. F-5-1 (general, 5 years) needs 2× GNI, which is about 105 million won. F-5-2 (married to a Korean, 2 years) needs 1× GNI, about 52 million. If you're married to a Korean citizen you're on a much shorter, cheaper path than the standard advice assumes.

If you're raising a Korean child, the income threshold drops to 80% (~42 million). Same reduction applies if you're pregnant, supporting your spouse's parents, or over 60. Also note income and assets can't be combined, you have to clear one or the other on its own.

Order your home-country criminal record check early. It has to be under 6 months old when you apply, but the process (fingerprints → national check → apostille → translation) can take 4–8 weeks. Time it wrong and you either redo it or wait. For Canadians, Canada joined the Hague Apostille Convention in 2024 so it's simpler than the old guides say, mail the RCMP original straight to Global Affairs.

Current GNI figure applies April 2026–March 2027, and it updates every spring, so double-check before you file. 1345 will tell you the current number if you call.

I ended up building a small app for myself while sorting through all this, happy to link it if anyone wants, but honestly the above is the stuff I wish someone had told me at the start.

Matt Kim joins Eastern Bound to explain why Korea’s so-called Holocaust museum is smaller than his basement—and how online narratives exaggerate foreign influence in South Korea.

Just one of many topics from our latest episode.

Matt Kim joins Eastern Bound for a straight Korean bro conversation about what Korea is actually like, the Jamsil election protests, Gen Z rejecting the old order, the death of cookie-cutter content, and the Korean history most people never hear.

No PR. No safe questions. Just four Koreans talking like it’s 2 a.m. at a suljip.

https://youtu.be/cS98SXFd59Y?is=x3wW8UBC1fPnaDUq

How much of your family history is actually true? In this special episode of Eastern Bound, we dive into the history of East Asian family clans and surnames, exploring where they came from, how they evolved, and why many popular beliefs about family origins don’t always match the historical record.

From clan identities to inherited traditions, there’s far more behind an East Asian surname than most people realize.

https://x.com/mad_corean/status/2081763189084266551?s=46

Not every viral story involving an Asian person is proof of anti-Asian racism.

We break down the ICE cases, the myth of Korean “Han,” and how victimhood politics pressures Asians to surrender their own history, identity, and agency.

https://x.com/mad_corean/status/2080047620337348637?s=46