Category: Korea-General Topics

This is horrible what the mother did, but Korean teachers may not want to hold this case up as a shining example of what they are fighting for if in fact the day care worker was negligent and led to the child’s hospitalization:

A photo provided by a day care center worker shows herself with baby excrement smeared on her face. Screencapture from JTBC

More than 50,000 citizens have called on the legislative body to take action to better protect teachers’ rights following a recent assault of a day care center staff member after a parent threw a diaper with baby excrement.

The alleged assault began to gain attention after the worker’s husband posted a petition on the National Assembly’s website, Sept. 12, to call for public support for legal protections for workers and teachers at day care centers and education facilities.

Earlier this month, the parents in question claimed that their two-year-old child received insufficient care at the center in Sejong, which resulted in an injury after a scuffle with another child. As the injured child was hospitalized for treatment, the worker and the head of the center visited the hospital to apologize for their oversight. The mother then threw the child’s diaper containing excrement at the worker’s face.

The worker’s husband then took the humiliating case to the Assembly’s website, and his petition gained more than 50,000 endorsements from the public in four days, which will oblige the relevant Assembly committee to review the petition.

“I’ve witnessed many unpleasant incidents involving teachers and education workers, but never something like this: a baby’s excrement on a worker’s face. And the worker is my wife,” stated the petition filed by the husband who is also a teacher. “Inadequate teachers can be reprimanded, but how about inadequate parents? Do we have measures to hold them accountable? Teachers and education workers need protections and I seek your help.”

Korea Times

You can read the rest of the article at the link that explains the parent’s side of the story.

It will be interesting to see if South Korea’s farm fields start getting covered in solar panels or not based on this research:

A solar panel array is installed at a green onion farm of Yeungnam University’s agrivoltaics demonstration complex in Gyeongsan, North Gyeongsang Province, Wednesday. Courtesy of Hanwha Solutions

Seasoned green onions served at a cafeteria in Yeungnam University last Wednesday were no different from those made with ingredients from ordinary farms. However, these ones did differ in one major way: They were grown under solar panels installed at the university’s agrivoltaics demonstration complex.

Hanwha Solutions Q Cells Division, which hosted a media briefing at the university on dual land use for agriculture and solar power generation, dismissed any safety concerns regarding the crops from the complex.

“Our solar modules use eco-friendly wires that do not contain lead,” said Hong Sung-min, an employee at the solar module manufacturing unit of Hanwha Group.

Yeungnam University professor Jung Jae-hak, who is leading experiments at the complex, told the press that solar panels do not pollute the soil with heavy metals.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

It appears the going rate for a DPK politician to visit North Korea is at least $3 million:

Opposition leader Lee Jae-myung was grilled by prosecutors again Tuesday over allegations of his involvement in a company’s illegal remittance to North Korea in 2019.

Lee, chair of the main opposition Democratic Party, left the Suwon District Prosecutors Office after around five hours of questioning on charges of third-party bribery, three days after he underwent the first round of questioning on Saturday.

“I don’t know why (investigators) called me again, as they again failed to put forth even a single piece of evidence,” Lee told reporters upon leaving the office.

The investigation centers on allegations that Ssangbangwool Group, an underwear maker, illegally transferred US$8 million to North Korea between January 2019 and January 2020 on behalf of Gyeonggi Province.

Prosecutors suspect that, of the total remittance, $5 million was meant for Gyeonggi’s smart farm support program in North Korea while the remaining $3 million was what the North had demanded as the cost of facilitating Lee’s visit to North Korea.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but this story only came out because the former company chairman was arrested for embezzlement and made the accusations.

This would be a very interesting summit if it ever happened. I wonder if they would do it if China said North Korea has to attend as well?:

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol (L) and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida talk during a visit to the Raj Ghat memorial in New Delhi on Sept. 10, 2023. (Pool photo) (Yonhap)

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida agreed Sunday to work toward realizing a trilateral summit with China, the presidential office said.

The two held talks on the margins of a Group of 20 summit in New Delhi, expressing their pleasure at meeting a total of six times since March, when Yoon traveled to Tokyo to mend bilateral relations badly frayed over historical disputes.

“The president said the two countries should continue active meetings in the second half of the year and smoothly implement the process to hold a South Korea-Japan-China summit,” the presidential office said in a press release. “Prime Minister Kishida said he would actively respond.”

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Here are some interesting statistics provided by the Korean government:

Around eight in 10 foreigners in Korea say they are satisfied with life here, data showed on Wednesday. 

In its 2022 survey aimed at analyzing the quality of life in Korea, Statistics Korea said 40.8 percent of the respondents said they were “extremely satisfied” with life in Korea while another 39.6 percent responded they were “a little satisfied.”

Meanwhile, nearly one out of every five foreign residents of Korea has experienced discrimination in the midst of an increase in the foreign population. The data showed that 19.7 percent of the 25,000 foreign residents responded that they had faced discrimination in the previous year.

The level of discrimination was “minor” in general, with 37.6 percent of the respondents saying they experienced discrimination at stores, restaurants and banks.

Another 34.1 percent said they experienced discrimination at workplaces while another 32.2 percent picked streets and neighborhoods. 

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.