Removing this mandate I think will eventually lead to more people in South Korea taking off their masks in public compared to current levels:
South Korea will end the mask mandate for public transportation next week, the government announced Wednesday, lifting one of the last-remaining COVID-19 restrictions amid a stable virus situation.
Vice Interior Minister Han Chang-seob said during a government COVID-19 response meeting that the lifting will go into effect Monday. The decision came as South Korea’s daily virus tally continues its downward trend, reaching 11,401 cases Tuesday.
Yonhap
You can read more at the link.
This is one of these only in Korea stories:
South Korean police raided the Ministry of National Defense on Wednesday as part of an investigation into a claim made by a former spokesperson for the ministry that a fortuneteller had been involved in the relocation of the presidential residence to Yongsan in central Seoul.
Investigators from the cyber bureau of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency were sent to confiscate evidence, including vehicle entry records, to determine if the fortuneteller had visited the ministry’s premises in Yongsan in advance.
Former Defense Ministry spokesman Boo Seung-chan has claimed in a book that the fortuneteller was involved when Yoon was considering where to relocate the presidential residence and office in March last year.
Korea Herald
You can read more at the link, but it should be easy to determine if this so called fortune teller was allowed to run around the Defense Ministry building with the video and vehicle records they have there. If they don’t find any evidence this will help with the libel complaints that the Yoon administration has lodged.
Could you imagine the amount of lawsuits if the U.S. had the same libel laws as South Korea? Cable news as we know it would have to end which would probably be a good thing.
This disapproval of group tours is largely seen as payback against South Korea for restricting Chinese travel during China’s COVID crisis this past winter:
China on Friday shunned South Korea in its second batch of countries allowed for Chinese group tourists, a move widely seen as a form of political complaint.
The Chinese culture ministry added 40 foreign countries, including France, Italy, Denmark, Portugal and Iran, but not South Korea, to its list of officially permitted destinations for group tour packages for Chinese people, starting Wednesday.
China gave South Korea the cold shoulder in its initial batch of 20 such countries released on Jan. 20. The United Arab Emirates, Thailand, Russia and Indonesia were among the list.
Friday’s move is widely viewed as an expression of Beijing’s unresolved feud against Seoul’s previous anti-COVID-19 measures on entrants from China, Hong Kong and Macao during the virus’ surge in winter.
Yonhap
You can read more at the link.
Unsurprisingly Koreans are not fond of the forced labor compensation plan with Japan:
Nearly 60 percent of South Koreans are against the government’s plan to compensate victims of Japan’s wartime forced labor on its own without involving Japanese firms, a poll showed Friday.
In the poll of 1,002 adults conducted by Gallup Korea on Wednesday and Thursday, 59 percent said they oppose the plan as it does not require Tokyo’s official apology and compensation.
Some 35 percent said they support the compensation plan for the sake of national interest and Korea-Japan relations, while 6 percent were unsure.
Yonhap
You can read more at the link.
These COVID cases are so low now this should give the government sufficient reason to lift the mask mandates on public transportation:
The country reported 10,009 new COVID-19 infections, including 15 cases from overseas, bringing the total caseload to 30,625,389, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA).
Saturday’s tally is slightly down from 10,335 a day earlier and from 11,246 a week earlier, KDCA data showed.
South Korea added three COVID-19 deaths, the lowest daily figure in about eight months, with the death toll rising to 34,096.
Korea Herald
You can read more at the link.
I did not realize it has been this long since an official state visit to the U.S. by a South Korean leader:
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol will make a state visit to the United States late next month, and hold a summit with his U.S. counterpart Joe Biden to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the two countries’ alliance and deepen political, economic, security, and people-to-people ties.
Korea Times
The South Korean presidential office said Wednesday that Yoon will travel to the U.S. for a state visit in late April and that a state dinner is slated for April 26. The White House said U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and his South Korean counterpart Kim Sung-han discussed preparations for the upcoming visit by Yoon and his wife, Kim Keon Hee.
It will be the first state visit to the U.S. by a South Korean leader in 12 years. The last South Korean head of state to do that was former President Lee Myung-bak, who was invited by then U.S. President Barack Obama in October 2011. Also, Yoon will be the second state guest invited by Biden since his inauguration in January 2021.
You can read more at the link.
Prosecutors said they did not have enough evidence to prove that these companies hired Kim Keon-hee’s company to organize these art exhibitions because her husband was heading the Seoul District Prosecutors Office at the time:
Prosecutors have cleared first lady Kim Keon Hee of graft suspicions involving three art exhibitions hosted by her former cultural content company, officials said Thursday.
Kim had been under graft suspicions that about a dozen conglomerates sponsored three art exhibitions organized by her former company, Covana Contents, allegedly because President Yoon Suk Yeol was serving in a high-level prosecution position at that time.
Yoon was heading the Seoul Central District Prosecutors Office while one of the art exhibitions on Swiss sculpture Alberto Giacometti was held in 2018.
Yonhap
You can read more at the link.
This should be no surprise that protesters would come out against trying to improve relations with Japan:
Soon after President Yoon Suk Yeol gave a key address, calling Japan a partner for South Korea’s regional security and economy, some hundreds held a rally on Independence Movement Day on Wednesday, urging him to keep his promise of resolving historic disputes with the neighboring country including the one over sexual slavery during its 1910-45 rule of Korean Peninsula.
In the late morning chill, around 200 civic activists gathered near the Japanese Embassy in central Seoul, holding paper cutouts of yellow butterflies — a symbol of victims representing a wish to escape from violence and fly — chanting “apologize,” and demanding compensation from Japan.
The protest was a part of the 1,585th weekly rally protesting Japan’s wartime sexual enslavement of Korean women during World War II that has been held for the last 30 years.
Lee Yong-soo, a 93-year-old victim of Japan’s wartime sexual slavery, took over the microphone, said she still has a faith in President Yoon, and demanded his administration to send the matter to the United Nations Committee Against Torture.
“The then-presidential-candidate Yoon Suk Yeol was the third person to visit me, and he said he would resolve the comfort women issue even if he wasn’t elected. His words touched me,” she said. “I don’t think that he lied (at that time), and I will believe in him.”
Watching Lee’s tearful speech, 63-year-old Kim Deok-yeon said he has participated in the demonstration since last year to raise awareness, especially among the younger generation.
“These people were forced to become sex slaves of Japan’s wartime brothels, but Japan seems reluctant (to take responsibility). As a Korean citizen, I couldn’t stand my anger toward Japan for committing such atrocities,” he said, referring to the victims as “survivors of a dark part of history.”
Kim stressed the importance of educating Korean students about undistorted facts in and out of the country, lamenting Japan’s recognition of Dokdo as part of its territory.
“History doesn’t lie — it has everything recorded down. Now is a time to properly educate the younger generation about our country’s past so that the same history will not repeat itself in the future,” he said, hoping young people would create a change.
Korea Herald
You can read more at the link, but if this 63 year old man really cared about sex slaves then what is he doing about modern day sexual slavery of Korean women in China right now?
According to one report the sexual trafficking of Korean women is a $105 million industry in China. Imperial Japan was obviously wrong about trafficking Korean women 80 years ago which they claim was resolved with the payments made in the 1965 Normalization Treaty. The Japanese government had apologized even started a victim compensation fund before the prior President Moon shut it down for political reasons. Restarting this victim compensation fund appears to be the route that President Yoon is trying to go again, but we will see what happens.
I knew a KATUSA Soldier in this situation who was born in the U.S. and his parents still lived in the U.S. He could of avoided military service by not going to Korea, but his parents were adamant that he complete his military service just like other Korean males:
The Constitutional Court has upheld the constitutionality of the law requiring military service for men born to South Korean parents temporarily staying overseas before they can renounce their Korean citizenship.
According to legal sources Wednesday, all eight Constitutional Court judges rejected a 23-year-old man’s petition questioning the constitutionality of the Nationality Act forcing conscription on people in his situation.
The man was born to South Korean parents in the United States while they were studying there. He held dual South Korean and U.S. citizenships, and his application to renounce his South Korean nationality in 2018 was rejected.
Yonhap
You can read more at the link.
