Even if she was a bully in middle school why should this impact her now? Kids in middle school are 10-13 years old, Kim Hieora is 34 years old now. People grow up and change over time. I think these allegations say more about the complainers than Kim Hieora because they need to grow up and change as well instead of trying to drag someone down from middle school:
Actress Kim Hieora, renowned for her role in the Netflix drama, “The Glory,” faces bullying allegations raised by a local news outlet.
The actress denied the allegations, while her entertainment company urged the public to refrain from spreading baseless information and warned of legal consequences for defamation.
“We’d like to ask people to stop spreading factually incorrect information,” Kim’s entertainment company said in a statement. “We will respond to malicious actions that defame the actress.”
According to the Korean-language news agency, Dispatch, Kim was allegedly part of a notorious school gang at Sangji Middle School in Wonju, Gangwon Province. She allegedly harassed her schoolmates and was also reportedly involved in case of theft on campus. Dispatch interviewed the victims.
The actress acknowledged her association with the school gang, but denied any involvement in acts of physical violence against others. “I wasn’t a good student. I was a gang member, but wasn’t active. I wasn’t so bad that I intentionally harmed others,” she wrote on her Instagram account.
The massive protests by Korean teachers has less to do with the recent teacher suicides and more to do with wanting to get the child abuse law changed. None of the teacher suicides has been linked to the child abuse law, but the activists are creating the impression the law caused the suicide to get it changed:
On Saturday, around 200,000 teachers from around the country gathered in Seoul’s Yeouido near the National Assembly to commemorate the recent deaths of teachers and to call for the better protection of their rights.
It is very rare for teachers to stage such a large rally on their own without the involvement of labor unions.
The Education Ministry maintains that any teacher taking a leave of absence to join the collective action will be dealt with sternly in accordance with the law and principles.
Education Minister Lee Ju-ho on Sunday asked for teachers to refrain from taking a leave of absence to attend the planned mass rally while pledging to take measures to enhance their rights and authority in the classroom.
You can read more at the link, but what is going on is that a change in the child abuse law caused any teacher accused of abuse to be suspended. This allowed parents that maybe do not like a teacher to claim abuse of their child to get the teacher suspended until cleared of the abuse allegations. Some of these suspension have lasted an entire year. This has caused teachers to not inflict discipline in classrooms because of fears of being accused of child abuse.
It will be interesting to see how hard the Democratic Party of Korea fights this move:
The Korea Military Academy said Thursday it will remove the bust of revered independence fighter Hong Beom-do from its grounds following a heated debate over the defense ministry’s push for the relocation.
The decision came as the ministry has recently been considering relocating the busts of Hong from the academy and its headquarters, both in Seoul, citing his past record of collaborating with Soviet communist forces.
“By considering the academy’s identity and honoring (Hong) as an independence fighter, the bust of General Hong Beom-do will be relocated to an appropriate location outside the academy, where his independence movement achievements can be well displayed,” the academy said in a statement.
It seems eating dog meat is close to being eradicated in South Korea as it is. In the past twenty years it has become hard to even find restaurants that serve it:
First lady Kim Keon Hee said she would work with animal activists until the dog meat industry was eradicated in Korea, continuing her campaign to promote awareness of animal rights.
“We all know how we came forward today with a heart filled with sadness and urgency. Here, all of you are giving everything to save these small lives, but there are animals out there dying so cruelly and unbearably that it’s truly hard to watch,” she said as she appeared at a press conference held by local animal rights activists on Wednesday.
“I will become friends with these individuals and work tirelessly until the consumption of dog meat is banned. I promise,” she said.
Just another example of how COVID has become normalized:
As South Korea reclassifies COVID-19 to the same category as the seasonal flu starting Thursday, coronavirus tests will still be available, but will no longer be free of charge to everyone, health authorities said Wednesday.
The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency has announced that COVID-19 will go down from class 2 to class 4, the lowest infectious disease category, bringing changes to state policies that have provided COVID-19 testing for free and discounted medical benefits for more than three years.
Prior to the planned reclassification, the government covered the complete expense of the rapid antigen test for individuals with symptoms at local clinics. People only paid a medical examination fee for doctors ranging from 4,000 won to 6,000 won ($3-4.5). However, after COVID-19’s reclassification to class 4, most people — with the exception of high-risk individuals — must pay for the entire cost of the RAT, ranging from 20,000 won to 50,000 won per test from Thursday.
I actually like Mr. Pizza, but it looks like they are willing to use dirty tricks against their pizza rivals:
A Mr. Pizza sign [YONHAP]
Korea’s antitrust regulator said Tuesday it has decided to slap a fine of 400 million won ($302,158) on local chain operator Mr. Pizza for obstructing a rival’s operations.
The punitive action against Mr.Pizza came in response to the company’s interference with Pizza Union Coop’s operations, including disrupting the supply of ingredients, the Fair Trade Commission (FTC) said.
Pizza Union Coop was founded by individuals who previously operated Mr.Pizza stores but left the franchise following disagreements with the market’s second-largest player.
In 2017, Mr.Pizza directly opened new locations near Pizza Union Coop’s stores where it rolled out massive discount promotions.
The regulator said it was evident that Mr.Pizza opened its directly controlled stores with the intention to obstruct the operation of Pizza Union Coop, as it previously opened such shops only in busy areas, including Gangnam in southern Seoul.
It also filed a lawsuit against the founder of Pizza Union Coop for defamation and exerted influence on ingredient suppliers to cut off shipments to the newly established firm.
The protesters don’t care about facts like this, they only care about push anti-Japanese narratives and bashing the Yoon administration:
This image provided by the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries on Aug. 27, 2023, shows locations, marked by dots, in South Korea’s territorial waters where radiation tests are being or will be conducted by Seoul, as Japan began to release radioactive water from its crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant. (Yonhap)
The radiation levels in the waters near South Korea remain well below the standards for drinkable water defined by the World Health Organization (WHO), Seoul’s oceans ministry said Sunday.
It was the first such test conducted on 15 locations in three areas of South Korea’s territorial waters after Japan began to release radioactive water from the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant into the ocean last Thursday.
The Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries said it released the results of the radiation tests, carried out Friday, on five locations in the southeastern waters, and plans to disclose the rest of the test results on 10 other locations as soon as they are available.
In the latest result, the concentration levels of cesium-135 and cesium-137 stood at 0.067-0.094 and 0.077-0.098 becquerel per liter, respectively, compared with the WHO’s 10 becquerel per liter for drinking water.
I don’t know if this is really a fight worth having for the Yoon administration:
The government is considering relocating a bust of revered independence fighter Hong Beom-do from outside the defense ministry headquarters due to his past record of collaborating with Soviet communist forces, officials said Monday.
Earlier, the defense ministry said it is considering relocating the busts of five Korean independence fighters, including Hong’s, from the Korea Military Academy in northern Seoul, sparking protest from opposition parties and the Heritage of Korean Independence, an association representing the independence fighters and their descendants.
The move is seen as being in line with the Yoon administration’s push to align closer with the United States and Japan in the face of growing cooperation among North Korea, China and Russia.
It looks like the violent protesters in South Korea will have young conscript riot police to assault again:
South Korea announced Wednesday that it sought to revive the recently abolished conscripted police system to strengthen the state’s crime prevention capabilities.
According to the announcement, which came amid the recent surge of crimes seemingly targeting random people, the government plans to add up to 8,000 conscripted police within nine months.
“In order to enhance (the police’s) capability to prevent the occurrence of crimes, the government will proactively move to reintroduce the conscripted police system,” Prime Minister Han Duck-soo said in an announcement at the Government Complex Seoul on Wednesday.
Han said that the measure is for “ensuring safety and protecting the lives of ordinary citizens from ‘senseless crimes.'”
The conscripted police system — in which draftees serve as an alternative to regular compulsory military service — was phased out under a policy direction announced in 2017 by former President Moon Jae-in, due to the shrinking population and the shortage of military-aged men.
![A Mr. Pizza sign [YONHAP]](https://i0.wp.com/koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/data/photo/2023/08/29/5c2463b0-087d-419b-98cc-eef2a54fa123.jpg?w=640&ssl=1)
