Category: Korea-General Topics

It looks like the Yoon administration has France on its side if they need to have the UN send Kim Jong-un any sternly worded letters:

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol (L) and French President Emmanuel Macron give a joint press statement ahead of their summit at Elysee Palace in Paris on June 20, 2023. (Yonhap)

President Yoon Suk Yeol said Tuesday that South Korea and France will cooperate closely to deal with North Korea’s unlawful provocations as fellow members of the U.N. Security Council.

Yoon made the remark before going into a summit with French President Emmanuel Macron at Elysee Palace, the presidential office and residence.

Yoon arrived in Paris the previous day to attend a general assembly of the Bureau International des Expositions (BIE), the international body in charge of overseeing the World Expo, to promote South Korea’s bid to host the 2030 World Expo in its southeastern city of Busan.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Apparently this odd advertisement in the Korea Times is very popular on Twitter right now:

A bold but cryptic full-page advertisement about the power of women in the US edition of the Korea Times has set Twitter abuzz as concerns about alarmingly low birth rates have persisted in Korea.

The Korean-language daily — the largest in the US, headquartered in Los Angeles with bureaus in New York, Washington, D.C., San Francisco, Chicago, Seattle, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Hawaii, Toronto and Vancouver — featured the print ad on June 14. The ad simply shows two sentences that read, “The most powerful force of a woman is not giving birth” in both Korean and English.

The two sentences are attributed to “Sung Sam Bang.” The individual’s identity remains unknown, with no clear indication if it is a real name or pseudonym.

At the bottom of the page, a disclaimer from the Korea Times in small print confirms that the advertisement was paid for, but refrains from either supporting or dismissing its content.

A tweet featuring a photo of the ad shared three days later on June 17, saw more than 2.5 million views by June 19, along with nearly 25,000 retweets and over 10,000 likes. Twitter’s viewer metrics include any logged-in user who encounters the tweet, including the author.

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link.

If there is anyone that regrets working for the prior Moon administration it has to be Cho Kuk because he has lost a lot to include his university position now:

Seoul National University’s disciplinary committee decided Tuesday to fire former Justice Minister Cho Kuk as law professor after a court sentenced him to a two-year prison term on charges of using his influence to get academic favors for his children, including university admissions. 

In February, the Seoul Central District Court gave the prison term to Cho, who served under the previous Moon Jae-in administration, on charges of business obstruction, bribery and abuse of power.

Cho was indicted in December 2019 and the next month the university relieved him of his duties at its law school.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

If this idiot would have fell not only could he have killed someone down below, but he could have caused a traumatic experience for anyone witnessing it:

A British free climber was taken into custody Monday after reaching the 72nd floor of Korea’s tallest skyscraper in Seoul by climbing up the outside with his bare hands, police said. 

The 24-year-old, identified as George King-Thompson, began his ascent up the 123-story Lotte World Tower in southern Seoul at around 5 a.m. before a security guard found him around 7:50 a.m. and called the police, saying a foreigner, only in his underwear, was climbing up the outer wall of the building.

Police and rescue workers arrived at the scene at 8:03 a.m. and installed a safety air mat to prepare for a possible fall, but he kept on climbing and reached the 72nd story of the 555-meter-high building, the world’s fifth tallest, at 8:47 a.m.

He was then allowed to ride a gondola-like lift, known as a building management utility, and escorted inside the tower through the opening of a smoke ventilation system, and was detained by the police waiting for him inside. 

He was not injured but showed signs of exhaustion, which he recovered from, the police said.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

This is a bizarre accident I have never heard of happening before:

An escalator ran reversely at a subway station in Bundang, south of Seoul, on Thursday, leaving 14 people injured, police said.

The accident occurred around 8:20 a.m. when the upwards escalator leading to exit 2 of Sunae Station on the Bundang Line reversed suddenly and went backward for several seconds, according to police and fire authorities. 

Three people were transported to a hospital after sustaining injuries on the back and legs. Eleven others sustained minor injuries, received treatment and were sent home. None of them were in life-threatening condition.

Police are looking into the exact cause of the accident but said there is little chance of someone using the escalator’s manual operating system to reverse its direction. 

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Chinese nationals have apparently been investing heavily in Korean real estate:

Chinese people account for over 54 percent of homes owned by foreigners in Korea, while Americans account for 24 percent of them, according to the land ministry’s latest data on foreign ownership of land and housing in Korea. 

Data revealed by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, Wednesday, show foreign nationals own 83,512 homes in Korea as of the end of last year, accounting for 0.4 percent of all residential property in the country.

This is the first time that statistics on homes owned by foreigners have been officially announced by the government. So far, the land ministry had been announcing statistics on a regular basis on foreign land ownership, but not the number of homes in the country owned by foreigners. The disclosure of the data is ascribed to the Yoon administration’s pledge to regulate foreigners’ speculative housing transactions. 

By category, 91 percent of the homes owned by foreigners are in multi-complex housing, such as apartments, while the other 9 percent are single-family detached houses.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but this makes me wonder how many of these Chinese owned apartments are actually occupied or are they just sitting empty waiting to appreciate and be sold again?

The island of Guam was hit recently by a massive typhoon that caused the Korean tourists on the island to be trapped there for almost a week. They are now being evacuated from the island:

South Korean tourists stranded on Guam will return home as the international airport on the island resumed operation Monday afternoon after closure due to a powerful typhoon, airline officials said. 

The country’s four carriers — Korean Air Co., Jeju Air Co., Jin Air Co. and T’way Air — said they have resumed flights to bring back Korean tourists starting Monday, as the Guam airport reopens at 2 p.m. (Korean time) or 3 p.m. (local time) on the same day.

The carriers plan to send a total of 11 passenger jets to Guam on Monday to bring about 2,500 Korean travelers home, according to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport. 

Those planes are expected to arrive at the airport in Guam from Monday to Tuesday.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Congratulations to South Korea for the successful launch of their Nuri rocket:

Flight trajectory of Nuri

South Korea on Thursday successfully launched its homegrown space rocket Nuri to put eight practical satellites into orbit, achieving another milestone for the country’s space program.

The 200-ton Nuri, also known as KSLV-II, blasted off from Naro Space Center in the country’s southern coastal village of Goheung at 6:24 p.m., and successfully completed its flight sequence, according to the Ministry of Science and ICT and the Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI).

“Following the success of the second launch of Nuri last year and the third launch today, we have confirmed the flight performance of Nuri, not only confirming the reliability of Nuri, but also confirming our potential for launch services for various satellite operations and space exploration,” Science Minister Lee Jong-ho said in a briefing.

He also said that the main satellite, NEXTSAT-2, has made its first communication with Korea’s King Sejong Station in Antarctica.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but this successful launch will put further pressure on North Korea’s scientists to try and match this performance with their upcoming space launch.