Via a reader tip comes news that Kim Jong-un has a new haircut and some apparently shaved eyebrows as well:
North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un debuted a new haircut — and a new … eyebrowcut? — at a politburo meeting on Wednesday. The style is a variation on Kim’s signature shaved sides, but with the top now sculpted into a high, wedge-shaped pompadour that sits atop Kim’s head like a hat, or perhaps a small, dormant woodland creature. The North Korean despot accessorized his new look with partially-shaven eyebrows that now stop just above his pupils.
This new haircut raises a number of important questions for anyone who follows North Korean politics. For instance:
What instructions did Kim Jong Un give his barber that resulted in this style?
Was it, “Hey, you know trapezoids?”
Or perhaps, “You know my main priority is to ensure that my ears do not feel crowded, let’s work on a ‘do that really lets the old face-handles breathe”? [VOX.com]
Prosecutors on Tuesday indicted former Navy Chief of Staff Jung Ok-keun over accusations that he took 770 million won ($700,000) in bribes from a local shipbuilding conglomerate when he held the position in 2008.
The 63-year-old was arrested late last month on suspicions that he received kickbacks from two subsidiaries under the now financially crippled STX Corporation through a yachting company, whose majority stakeholder was his 38-year-old son.
Jung’s son was detained a day earlier on charges that he allegedly pocketed money from STX Offshore and Shipbuilding and STX Engine by recording them as sponsors for his yachting event, which was organized in Busan to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Navy’s establishment.
The Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office has since been narrowing its investigation into whether Jung could have benefited from his eldest son’s business dealings.
Jung’s son and his business partner at the time, a former Navy colonel surnamed Yoo, were also indicted on Tuesday for contributing to the bribery, as was a former Navy operations commander surnamed Yoon, who is the non-executive director of STX. [Joong Ang Ilbo]
You can read the rest at the link, but it makes you wonder how many other people have been getting these huge bribes?
Here is just another example of how South Korea is following the same road the US has gone down where people want government services without paying more in taxes and politicians keep promising that they can do this:
Civic groups hold a rally after the government scaled down support for pension plans and health care promised during the 2012 presidential election. (Yonhap file photo)
If broader welfare without a tax hike sounds too good to be true in a country where people live longer and give birth to fewer babies in an era of slow economic growth, it probably is.
Taking office two years ago with the promise of more social welfare, President Park Geun-hye said she will dig up the underground economy for tax revenue and eliminate unnecessary spending to finance welfare programs, such as child care, college tuition support and a pension plan for seniors.
So far, the government has done little to show results.
Considered too unrealistic by many economists from the outset, and even questioned by her own party, Park’s welfare goal may be derailed as her administration comes under growing pressure for a tax overhaul to meet growing demand for a better social safety net.
The government came under fire for its clumsily patched year-end tax adjustments that resulted in several tax deductions and other tax breaks being scrapped, diminishing the amount of tax refund for salaried workers and, in some cases, forcing them to cough up more. Officials defended the new system as having been designed to “collect less, return less,” but taxpayers blamed the government for tweaking the tax code to deliberately raise the burden on the middle class.
The government apparently lost the argument. President Park’s popularity rating dipped to a record-low 29 percent last week.
The extra cash from the tax refund may be small in amount, but coming after a sharp surge in tobacco prices and the ongoing push for residential and auto tax increases, the strong resistance forced the finance minister to apologize and the tax office to return part of the taxes retroactively, the first such move.
The tax refund fiasco is just one example of mixed challenges faced by Asia’s fourth-largest economy, which is struggling to strike a balance between a budget shortfall and rising welfare costs from the rapidly increasing elderly population.
Now nearing the midpoint of her single, five-year term, Park needs to make a critical political decision: raise taxes or discard welfare pledges, experts say.
“People were enraged because they felt the government lied about not raising taxes,” Shin Yul, a political science professor of Myongji University, said. “Welfare without tax increase was not a realistic goal from the beginning. If the government does not acknowledge this simple fact and sticks to its oxymoronic pledge, it would result in an early lame duck.”
South Korea’s tax rate is equal to 20 percent of the gross domestic production (GDP), lower than the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) average of 25 percent, while its public welfare budget is just half of the OECD average at 10 percent of the GDP. [Yonhap]
You can read more at the link, but to complete this cycle the next thing politicians will likely do is turn to blaming rich people for not paying their fare share.
An official of Ssangyong Motor’s labor union waves to his supporters from the top of a 70-meter chimney at the automaker’s plant in Pyeongtaek, south of Seoul, on Feb. 17, 2015. He has staged a sit-in calling for the reinstatement of dismissed Ssangyong workers. (Yonhap)
If it seems like that there is many more Chinese visiting South Korea it is because there are:
South Korea was ranked the most popular overseas destination for Chinese people during their weeklong national holiday that started this week, a Chinese government survey showed Wednesday.
About 5.19 million Chinese are expected to travel abroad for the Lunar New Year holiday season, up 10 percent from the same period last year, and 15.6 percent of them are predicted to visit South Korea, according to the survey by China’s National Tourism Administration.
Also in the top five were Thailand (13.9 percent), Japan (8.7 percent), Australia (4.4 percent) and Singapore (3.6 percent).
“This year, the number of tourists continues to grow, due to an easier visa application process for Chinese passport holders, and the depreciation of foreign currency against the yuan,” it said.
Fueled by a growing popularity of Korean pop music and TV dramas and a gradual appreciation of the Chinese currency, the number of Chinese visitors to South Korea soared 46 percent from a year ago to 6.33 million people in 2014, according to South Korean government data. [Yonhap]
One of the Navy’s highly controversial acquisitions programs is about to make its debut in South Korea:
The U.S. Navy will send its new combat ship tailored for Asia’s shallow coastal waters to join military drills with South Korea that North Korea calls a prelude for invasion.
Carrying a helicopter, a vertical takeoff unmanned aerial vehicle, a 57 millimeter gun and 21 missiles, the USS Fort Worth will become the first littoral combat ship to take part in the annual Foal Eagle exercises starting next month off the coast of South Korea.
“The specific role that Fort Worth will play in Foal Eagle is really no different than any other Navy ship has for years,” Rear Adm. Charles Williams told reporters Tuesday in Singapore on board Fort Worth. “Fort Worth’s role will be just a normal part of that exercise,” said Williams, who is Logistics Group Western Pacific Commander.
The 389-foot littoral combat ship — the second to have been deployed to the region — will operate in Asia for 16 months, primarily in Southeast Asia, within the 7th Fleet. In North Asia, the ship will make port visits in Japan, a U.S. ally immersed in a territorial spat with China. Williams said the littoral combat ship could also operate in South Asia. [Bloomberg]
