Category: Korea-General Topics

Via a reader tip comes news that South Korea will no longer ban plastic straws or single use cups due to the burden it is putting on small business owners:

“It is not the government’s duty to impose another burden on small business owners and self-employed people when they are already suffering from difficult economic conditions,” Lim told reporters during the briefing.

The Environment Ministry also pointed out that paper straws, an alternative to plastic straws, are 2 1/2 times more expensive but have lower consumer satisfaction.

“The use of plastic straws and stirring bars will be banned when the quality of replacement products is improved and the prices stabilize,” said Lee, without clarifying a specific time frame.

Although the ministry claims it has considered various situations, including the economic burden on consumers, criticism of the massive retreat on eco-friendly policies seems inevitable.

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link, but I will never understand why activists are against paper cups. Paper is a renewable resource that is biodegradable.

President Yoon still has a low approval rating, but for the first time in a while he is showing a significant positive increase of 3% from the last poll taken a month ago:

President Yoon Suk Yeol’s approval rating increased to 37 percent from a month ago, according to a survey conducted jointly by Yonhap News Agency and Yonhap News TV on Wednesday.

The survey also showed that the ruling People Power Party and the main opposition Democratic Party would secure 33 percent and 32 percent of the vote, respectively, if the parliamentary elections scheduled for next April were held tomorrow.

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link.

Only Japan and Korea mandate that cameras have a shutter noise. This is supposed to help prevent people from taking unwanted photos of others. However, there are plenty of third party camera apps that remove the shutter noise which makes this regulation worthless. It seems the vast majority of Koreans now realize this:

Eight in 10 South Koreans think they should be able to decide whether to mute or enable their camera shutter sound on their phones, a survey showed Sunday.

According to a survey conducted by the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission from Oct. 23 until Saturday on 3,476 respondents, 86.2 percent of those polled answered “yes” when asked if they think individuals should be able to adjust the camera shutter noise settings. Muting the camera shutter sound is disabled for all devices manufactured in Korea.

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link.

This facility looks like a pretty fun place to check out:

One of the more esoteric attractions in this part of South Korea is designed to appeal to aficionados of the shooting arts, namely archery. 

The Shooting Zone: Archery Theme Park is the first attraction of its kind in South Korea and features a 200-meter indoor archery range, an on-screen archery simulator, and a café with coffee, tea and snacks.

The facility accommodates three archery disciplines: recurve, compound and hunting bows. You can rent or buy all three types here. 

There are 20 lanes for archery practice. Renting a bow with 24 arrows costs 15,000 won, or about $11. You can get 36 arrows for 20,000 won.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

These new GTX trainlines will connect northern Gyeongi and parts of Gangwon provinces to Seoul in about 30 minutes. The hope is that these express trains will push development furhter away from Seoul in an effort to decrease property prices in the city:

President Yoon Suk Yeol (C) speaks during a public meeting over intercity transport on a train at Dongtan Station in Hwaseong, 45 kilometers south of Seoul, on Nov. 6, 2023. (Pool photo) (Yonhap)

President Yoon Suk Yeol vowed Monday to move up the completion of the Great Train Express (GTX) commuter rail networks as he visited a train station in Seoul’s suburbs to check progress on a new service line.

The GTX networks are set to enter service next year, starting in March with the GTX-A line connecting Suseo Station in Seoul’s Gangnam Ward with Dongtan Station in Hwaseong, 45 kilometers south of the capital.

The GTX-C line connecting Yangju, 29 km north of Seoul, to Suwon, just south of the capital, is set to begin construction at the end of the year, while the GTX-B line connecting Incheon, just west of Seoul, to Namyangju, just east of the capital, will begin construction early next year.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

It looks like the Kim regime plans to prop up their thug allies Hamas with more weapons:

National Intelligence Agency [JOONGANG ILBO]

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has ordered “comprehensive support for Palestine,” South Korea’s spy agency told lawmakers at a closed-door audit on Wednesday. 
  
The National Intelligence Service (NIS) told members of the National Assembly’s Intelligence Committee that Pyongyang “is planning how to fully exploit” the conflict between Israel and Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that controls the Gaza Strip, according to conservative People Power Party lawmaker Yoo Sang-bum, who attended the meeting. 
  
Yoo also said that the NIS told lawmakers it “detected orders from Kim to provide comprehensive support for Palestine.” (….)

The National Intelligence Service (NIS) report follows the discovery of North Korean weaponry in the possession of Hamas, which conducted an armed raid into southern Israel on Oct. 7, killing around 1,400 people and abducting over 200 into the Gaza Strip, according to Israeli authorities.

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.

I guess we will see if President Yoon actually follows through on debt reduction because it easy to say, but as we see with U.S. politicians, it is actually harder to follow through on:

President Yoon Suk Yeol cited reducing the national debt and stabilizing prices as his top priorities in an address to the National Assembly on Tuesday.

“The approach our government is taking in managing our finances is to avoid passing on unaffordable debts to the country’s future generations,” the president said in a budget speech delivered before the members of the Assembly.

“A sound fiscal policy is crucial to stabilizing prices in the long run and protecting our economic security,” the president said, adding that the International Monetary Fund has appraised his administration’s take on balancing the budget as heading in the right direction.

Yoon stressed that a sound fiscal policy was “not just about cutting down on spending, but about using taxpayers’ money more efficiently and responsibly, with efforts to not let a single dime go wasted.” He said that the budget would primarily be spent on strengthening the country’s essential functions such as national defense, education, health care and social security for the vulnerable.

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link.

This think tank is calling for 100 modernized tactical nuclear weapons to defend South Korea, but believes they should be stored in the U.S.:

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un (L) talks with officials during a visit to the Nuclear Weapons Institute in Pyongyang on March 27, 2023, in this file photo released by the North’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA). Kim guided the work to mount nuclear warheads on ballistic missiles, and the institute reported the recent years’ work and production for bolstering the North’s nuclear forces, both in quality and quantity, according to the KCNA. (Yonhap)

South Korea and the United States should modernize around 100 U.S. tactical nuclear weapons to support the security of the South against North Korea’s growing threats, a research report said Monday.

The Asan Institute for Policy Studies and the Rand Corp. made the suggestion in a joint report, stressing the North has “already established a nuclear weapon force that could pose an existential threat” to South Korea and is “on the verge” of posing a serious threat to the U.S. 

“Kim Jong-un appears to be planning a force of at least 300 to 500 nuclear weapons… the 300-weapon threshold could almost be reached in 2030,” the report, titled “Options for Strengthening ROK Nuclear Assurance,” said.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.