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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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.
S. Korea-U.S. space forum South Korean Foreign Minister Park Jin addresses the opening ceremony of a space forum between South Korea and the United States at a Seoul hotel on Nov. 6, 2023, to discuss ways to boost cooperation in space-related policies, diplomacy, security and other areas. (Yonhap)
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.
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.
