Category: Korea-General Topics

The owner of the company that found there is a possibility of a large oil and gas reserve off the coast of Pohang is currently in South Korea meetings:

The owner of the U.S.-based geoscience research company Act-Geo, which took part in South Korea’s project for potential offshore oil and gas reserves, arrived in the nation Wednesday for meetings with government officials.

Vitor Abreu, the owner of the Houston, Texas-based research firm, arrived at Incheon International Airport, west of Seoul, noting his visit was aimed at following up with the state-run Korea National Oil Corp. (KNOC) on the potential discovery of up to 14 billion barrels of gas and oil.

“I came here to discuss with the KNOC what’s the best way for us to approach this and actually to give a better or more clear response for the Korean people in this very, very important project,” Abreu told reporters upon his arrival.

Abreu refrained from offering more details on the project, citing a “confidentiality agreement” with the state-run firm.

Yonhap

Here is how the article responded to claims from critics about the creditability of Abreu’s company:

The government commissioned Act-Geo to conduct a study in February last year, which reported that the deposits could hold between 3.5 billion and 14 billion barrels of gas and oil.

Meanwhile, there have been rising questions surrounding the credibility of the firm, with some claiming that the address of the company headquarters was that of a residential house in suburban Houston.

In response, the KNOC said Abreu was a veteran of 30 years in the field of deep-sea exploration and previously served as the head of the geology division at ExxonMobil and the president of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists.

The company also said that during his days at ExxonMobil, Abreu played a leading role in the exploration of the largest deep-sea oil field in Guyana, South America.

You can read more at the link.

This potential oil and gas reserve off the coast of Pohang would be huge for South Korea’s economy considering how dependent it is on foreign oil imports:

President Yoon Suk Yeol said Monday that a potentially massive oil and gas reserve could be buried off the southeast city of Pohang and drilling will begin later this year to determine whether it is real.

The reserve off Yeongil Bay in Pohang, about 260 kilometers southeast of Seoul, could hold up to 14 billion barrels of oil and gas, an amount that could meet South Korea’s gas demands for 29 years and oil demands for four years, Yoon said.

He cited a geophysical study conducted by an unidentified foreign seismic research company.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

That is what one elderly Korean woman warned a Youtuber recently hiking alone on a mountain:

A video of a middle-aged woman warning a female YouTuber who climbed the mountain alone, saying, “You shouldn’t come to the mountain alone,” is a hot topic online.

On the 27th, a number of online communities posted an article titled “A lady advising a female YouTuber who climbs alone.”

This article is a compilation of a video filmed by YouTuber “A Million Songhee in the Mountain” with 280,000 subscribers at Samaksan Mountain in Chuncheon, Gangwon Province, on the 25th of last month.

At that time, YouTuber 1 million Song-hee said, “There are really no people today,” and “It’s a little scary because it’s been a long time since I’ve experienced this.”

Meanwhile, a middle-aged woman A, whom she encountered, began to tell a million Song-hee how dangerous it was to climb a mountain alone.

A said, “My friend was supposed to go with me, but I had a puncture, so an old lady went to the mountain alone,” and “A man sexually harassed and died on the spot.” It’s been about five years,” he told a million Songhee about what happened in the past.

Maeil Kyeongchae

You can read more at the link, but I think the dangers of hiking alone for females is overstated. There is probably more risk having a fall or medical emergency than someone hiding in the woods to kill you.

I don’t know why any company withe sensitive technology would hire a Chinese national when China literally has a law that states their citizens must assist with espionage if asked:

A Chinese national who worked for SK hynix is on trial for allegedly stealing key semiconductor technology from the Korean chipmaker for Chinese IT firm Huawei, the latest in a series of chip technology leaks to Chinese firms, according to the police, Tuesday.

The Gyeonggi Nambu Provincial Police said a woman in her 30s, a Chinese national, was sent to prosecutors last month on suspicion of violating the Act on Prevention of Divulgence and Protection of Industrial Technology.

The former SK hynix employee was hired by the company in 2013 and worked in the department responsible for analyzing defects in semiconductor designs. From 2020 to 2022, she was involved in consultations with business-to-business client in China, according to the police agency.

The Chinese national returned to Korea in June 2022, and moved to Chinese IT company Huawei the same month. Shortly before leaving the Korean company, she allegedly printed out more than 3,000 sheet of documents related to front-end semiconductor manufacturing technology.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

South Korea has another domestically developed defense system that not only upgrades their own defense, but can serve as an export as well:

South Korea has completed development of the homegrown Long-range Surface-to-Air Missile (L-SAM) system, the state arms procurement agency said Saturday, marking a major step in efforts to bolster the military’s air defense capabilities.

The L-SAM, which is designed to shoot down incoming targets at altitudes of 50-60 kilometers, was recently assessed as combat-suitable as it met the military’s technical requirements, according to the Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA).

With the completion of its development, the L-SAM is expected to begin production next year and be deployed for operations by 2028.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

This is a bit surprising that the Chinese have decided to join the ROK and Japan in a trilateral summit in Seoul:

Leaders of South Korea, China and Japan will hold a long-suspended trilateral summit in Seoul next week for the first time in 4 1/2 years, the presidential office said Thursday.

President Yoon Suk Yeol will meet with Chinese Premier Li Qiang and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in Seoul on Monday, Principal Deputy National Security Adviser Kim Tae-hyo said during a press briefing. 

Yoon will separately hold bilateral talks with Li and Kishida at the presidential office on Sunday. It will be Li’s first visit to South Korea since taking office in March 2023.

It marks the first trilateral summit among the Asian countries since December 2019, after a hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic and strained Seoul-Tokyo relations over historical disputes.

Kim said the summit will cover six areas of cooperation, comprising economy and trade, sustainable development, health issues, science and technology, disaster and safety management, and people-to-people exchanges, which will be included in a joint statement.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but it will be interesting to see if any tangible comes out of this.

If these Korean doctors keep striking they may not have as many jobs to go back to if foreigners start filling them:

Those holding a medical license issued from foreign nations will be allowed to legally practice medicine in South Korea in the case the government declares a top-level medical service warning, the health ministry said Wednesday.

The revision to the enforcement regulation of the Medical Act came as the country is experiencing major medical service disruptions due to the monthslong walkout by trainee doctors in protest of the government’s push to increase the number of medical students by 2,000 starting next year from the current 3,058.

Under the revision, those who have foreign medical licenses will be able to practice medicine in South Korea upon the approval by the health minister when the country is in the highest medical disaster alert mode.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

The striking Korean doctors have lost their court case against the Korean government’s plan to stop the increase of medical students to address the country’s doctor shortage. I wonder what the doctors’ legal defense was against the quota? I can’t imagine they argued for their real reason which was to keep an artificial doctor shortage to ensure they keeping getting high paychecks:

A Seoul appellate court rejected Thursday an injunction sought by the doctors’ community to halt the government’s highly contested plan to increase the nationwide medical school admission quota, paving the way for the first such quota hike in 27 years. 

The Seoul High Court made the decision on an injunction filed by trainee doctors, medical professors and students seeking to suspend the government’s plan to increase the medical school quota by 2,000 starting in the 2025 academic year.

This would pave the way for the government to finalize the first medical school quota hike in 27 years, aimed at addressing chronic shortages in essential but unpopular medical fields as well as remote rural areas. 

With the legal limbo lifted, the government is expected to expedite the process of having increased medical quotas reflected in universities’ 2025 admission announcements to be made public by late May or early June.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

If you are accused of a crime I can understand having protections to your identity. Sometimes people get falsely accused of things and spreading their information online causes them irreparable harm. However, once convicted of a crime there shouldn’t be issues with posting information about the criminal:

Concerns surrounding the disclosure of the personal information of convicted criminals and those suspected of having committed crimes have been mounting in South Korea, sparked by the recent revival of a name-and-shame website known as “Digital Prison,” around four years after it was shut down by South Korean authorities.

The debate was triggered by the unauthorized release of the personal details of a 25-year-old man surnamed Choi, who is accused of stabbing his girlfriend to death on top of a building in the densely populated Gangnam district of Seoul on May 6 at around 5 p.m. Local reports suggested that Choi has admitted to planning the crime.

Choi’s personal information, including his full name, photos, university entrance exam scores, the medical school he was accepted into and social media accounts, rapidly spread across the internet, with Digital Prison pinpointed as the originating platform.

Following the release of Choi’s personal information on Wednesday, Digital Prison published more posts containing the information of several other criminals and those suspected of having committed crimes. These include the personal information of a YouTuber in his 50s who allegedly stabbed a fellow YouTuber near the Busan District Court on Thursday morning on live stream.

Korea Herald