Category: Korea-General Topics

I am not sure what they are going to talk about because China is not going to stop their provacative activities in the region no matter what the ROK and Japan tell them:

Foreign Minister Park Jin departs from Incheon International Airport in Incheon, southwest of Seoul, on Nov. 14, 2023, to attend a ministerial meeting of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in San Francisco, in this file photo provided by the foreign ministry. (Yonhap)

Top diplomats of South Korea, China and Japan were set to hold talks in the southeastern port city of Busan on Sunday, with discussions on resuming the long-stalled three-way summit of the three countries’ leaders expected to be in focus. 

The trilateral meeting among Foreign Minister Park Jin, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa also comes after about a four-year hiatus as the three neighboring countries seek to deepen the tripartite cooperation despite many pending bilateral issues. 

Wang and Kamikawa arrived in Busan on Saturday.

Park is joining the two ministers the day after returning from a trip to London and Paris, where he accompanied President Yoon Suk Yeol.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

As more FCEV’s hit the road in Korea, more hydrogen production facilities will have to be built that will hopefully reduce the vulnerability from one plant having a maintenance issue:

The recent shortage of hydrogen for vehicles in Korea has prompted a controversy about the country’s readiness to popularize hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs), cars that run on electricity genreated by using oxygen from the air and compressed hydrogen, according to industry officials, Sunday.

Since a malfunction last week at hydrogen production facilities at Hyundai Steel’s Dangjin factory in South Chungcheong Province, charging stations in interior parts of Korea have faced difficulties securing hydrogen. As a result, FCEV drivers have had to line up for several hours to fuel their cars.

Earlier this month, passenger cars and buses using hydrogen had engine troubles after fueling from a charging station in Chungju, North Chungcheong Province, because of impurities in the station’s hydrogen supply. In August last year, an oil price hike reduced hydrogen production, forcing a maximum on hydrogen purchases of 1 kilogram per driver at each station.

The series of problems caused skepticism about switching from diesel-powered buses and trucks to hydrogen-powered vehicles, as well as over Hyundai Motor’s plan to launch the next version of the NEXO, its hydrogen passenger car.

“The government’s rapidly changing roadmap for the hydrogen economy has caused confusion, delaying the private sector’s investments,” Korea Energy Economics Institute research fellow Kim Jae-kyung said in a recent forum.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

This is just another reason why smartphones should be banned in schools. Social media just encourages these kids to be confrontational with teachers in order to get online views:

A female student and a middle-aged male teacher are seen arguing at a school in Korea in a video that has gone viral online. (Screenshot from inssahumor2’s Instagram account)

A video showing a quarrel between a female student and a male teacher has sparked online controversy.

The video shows a female student, believed to be a high schooler, arguing loudly in the hallway with a middle-aged male teacher.

The quarrel between the two begins when the teacher loudly instructs the student to go inside the classroom. The student argues back, saying “Why are you yelling at me? Don’t you think I’m a precious daughter of our family?”

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link.

Some people have pigs as pets, so should pork be banned too?:

South Korea is planning to introduce a ban on dog meat consumption by the end of this year, Seoul authorities said Friday.

Eating dog meat is neither explicitly prohibited nor legalized in South Korea, and successive governments have failed to make progress on pledges to stop the practice.

Public and political momentum to outlaw dog meat has been growing in the country as the centuries-old practice has fallen out of favor with most young Koreans. It has also attracted international criticism from international rights activists.

The ruling People Power Party on Friday laid out a timetable for action.

“We are planning to enact a Special Act to ban dog meat within this year to address this issue as soon as possible,” said ruling party lawmaker Yu Eui-dong, after a meeting at parliament attended by the Agriculture Ministry officials and animal rights groups.

The special act will allow a three-year period to phase out the industry. If the bill passes the legislature before the year-end, the dog meat ban would come into full effect in 2027.

Washington Post

You can read more at the link, my biggest problem with dog farming in South Korea is that some of these farmers are very inhumane with dogs raised in small cages and then beaten to death to better tenderize the meat.

Increased economic integration between Japan and South Korea makes so much sense:

 South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida agreed Friday to work together to cut costs and establish international rules in the hydrogen sector.

During a discussion at Stanford University, the two leaders talked about ways their countries can cooperate in the hydrogen sector, given South Korea’s wide use of hydrogen cars and Japan’s large number of hydrogen-related patents.

Both Yoon and Kishida attended the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in San Francisco this week.

The discussion came a day after they held a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the APEC summit, their seventh bilateral summit this year, as Seoul and Tokyo push to mend and develop their relationship after years of tensions over historical disputes.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but hydrogen cars are great if you have nuclear or hydro energy to power the process to create hydrogen. If coal or gas plants are used the emissions savings is actually negligible for hydrogen cars.

Hopefully President Yoon doesn’t leave his lugguge inside his vehicle during the summit because it will get stolen in San Francisco:

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol arrived in San Francisco on Wednesday to attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit, where he is expected to call for stronger solidarity, promote trade liberalization, and discuss a response to military cooperation between North Korea and Russia.

This year’s gathering, which brings together the leaders of the 21 APEC member economies, will be held under the theme, “Creating a Resilient and Sustainable Future for All.” Yoon and first lady Kim Keon Hee will be here for a three-day stay.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

The real reason this lawmaker wants to take away investigative power from the NIS is probably because of all the spies they have found in organizations supporting the Korean left over the years. With that said he is right that most intelligence agencies had off counterintelligence investigations such as in the U.S. where the FBI will investigate counterintelligence threats:

Since its establishment in 1961 as the Korean Central Intelligence Agency, South Korea’s National Intelligence Service has not only collected intelligence on cases related to North Korea, but also investigated them. Come January, the South’s most important intelligence headquarters will be barred from investigating cases related to North Korea.

Rep. Kim Byung-kee of the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea, a former high-ranking official at the NIS, says prohibiting the intelligence agency from engaging in law enforcement activities — even those concerning North Korea — was necessary to establish democratic control over its security services.

“The intelligence service has become accustomed to flouting legal boundaries on the pretext of protecting national security, and is nearly free from outside control,” the spy-turned-lawmaker told a recent interview with The Korea Herald.

Taking away investigative functions from the NIS is one of the first steps in “institutionalizing democratic control and accountability” of South Korean intelligence, he said, making the case for the contested law that bars NIS involvement in North Korea-related investigations. A key pledge of the previous President Moon Jae-in administration, the revised law was passed by the Democratic Party of Korea without support from the People Power Party.

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link, but Rep. Byung-kee wants the KNP to do the investigations. These are the guys that could not figure out crowd control before the Itaewon crushing tragedy and now he wants them to investigate North Korea spies?