Category: Korea-General Topics

This cable car project will probably turn Osaek into the same madhouse that the current Seoraksan National Park entrance is. I have taken the cable car before at the National Park entrance and it was a long line with a packed cable car; so I understand why they are trying to create another cable car to distribute the demand. However, Osaek is a quieter area compared to the park’s entrance since this is where hikers stay to ascend the mountain from. That may change in the near future if a cable car is built there as well:

The environment ministry on Monday gave a conditional nod to a controversial project to build and operate a cable car system over a natural reserve area on Mount Seorak near South Korea’s east coast.

The project, pursued since the 1980s, seeks to build a 3.3-kilometer-long cable car system between the Seoraksan National Park’s Osaek area in the county of Yangyang and near the mountain’s summit. 

Once completed as planned, the system will service 53 cable cars to carry up to 825 passengers per hour. 

The site is within a state-designated natural reserve as well as a biosphere reserve designated by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

The environment ministry’s regional office in Wonju gave “conditional consent” to an environmental impact assessment report submitted by Yangyang County on the project, saying it carries measures to reduce negative environmental effects.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

This is not good news for the historically low Korean birthrate:

Just four percent of unmarried Korean women in their 20s and 30s see marriage and childbearing as essential in their lives, according to a recent survey that paints an even gloomier picture of the country’s continuously falling fertility rate. 

The survey was conducted by Park Jeong-min, a professor of social welfare at Seoul National University and published in the Korean Journal of Social Welfare Studies, Sunday. Park surveyed 281 unmarried men and women aged between 20 and 40 on their thoughts about marriage and childbirth.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

South Korea is really going to have to rely on automation in the future as the birthrate continues to decline:

 The number of babies born in South Korea reached yet another fresh low in 2022, data showed Wednesday, with deaths outpacing births for the third consecutive year.

A total of 249,000 babies were born last year, falling 4.4 percent from the previous record low in 2021, according to the data from Statistics Korea.

The country’s total fertility rate, the average number of children a woman bears in her lifetime, came to 0.78 in 2022. It also marked the lowest since 1970, when the statistics agency began compiling related data.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

It is pretty clear that the Yoon administration has declared war on the violent and pro-North Korean KCTU. Here is the latest front he has opened up on them:

Eradicating illegal practices at construction sites has been a central part of labor reform, one of the Yoon administration’s top three areas of reform along with education and pensions, the presidential office said.

Since late last year, the land ministry has run a designated team to respond to violence at construction sites while the police have operated a 200-day special crackdown period, it added.

The government’s hard-line stance comes as construction unions affiliated with the country’s two major umbrella labor organizations — the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions and the Federation of Korean Trade Unions — have been accused of coercing employers to hire their union members for construction jobs.

“Militant labor unions with vested rights continue to overtly carry out illegal actions at construction sites, such as demanding money and goods, forcing hiring and obstructing construction,” Yoon said during the Cabinet meeting.

“As a result, workers are losing their jobs and construction is being poorly done. The damage is being passed on to the people, with delays in the opening of new elementary schools and move-ins to new apartments,” he said.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but if the KCTU loses its government subsidies and has to give up their extortion practices this is going to greatly hinder them financially. On top of that the KCTU is being investigated for their part in a North Korea spy ring by the government.

Why is the Korean government giving subsidies to violent pro-North Korean labor unions in the first place?:

 President Yoon Suk Yeol warned Monday of “firm action” against labor unions that refuse to disclose their account books while receiving large amounts of government subsidies, his office said.

Yoon’s warning came during a weekly meeting with Prime Minister Han Duck-soo as they discussed ways to increase labor unions’ accounting transparency and regulatory reforms, according to presidential spokesperson Lee Do-woon.

“The president stressed once again that the starting point for labor union reform is transparency of labor union accounting,” Lee said during a press briefing.

“There is no choice but to take firm action against behavior that uses hundreds of billions of won from taxpayers’ precious money in government subsidies, but denies the rule of law and refuses to disclose the details of their use,” Yoon was quoted as saying.

The hundreds of billions of won was an apparent reference to People Power Party Rep. Kweon Seong-dong’s recent claim that the country’s two largest umbrella unions — the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions and the Federation of Korean Trade Unions — received 152.1 billion won (US$117.4 million) in subsidies from the labor ministry and regional governments between 2018 and 2022.

Meanwhile, only 120 out of 327 labor unions and groups with 1,000 or more members complied with the government’s request for accounting records from Feb. 1-15, according to the labor ministry.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but the Yoon administration says they will cut off all funding if these unions do not open their books for inspection. They are probably all furiously cooking their books now to try and cover up irregularities before any inspection.

These so called room cafes also exist in Japan where they are called Manga Cafes. They largely provide a cheap place to stay for people who miss the last train home from work. In South Korea it appears they have become very popular with minors:

A growing number of “room cafes” that do not comply with regulations has sparked debate on teenagers’ sexual activities ― a taboo subject in Korea ― after the government vowed to crackdown on these facilities where underage students were found to be having sex.

Room cafes, which began appearing in the early 2000s, offer a private space with basic amenities to visitors. But in recent years, many of these establishments have evolved into hotel-like facilities. 

Unlike the past, when curtains or partitions were installed to offer privacy, some cafes now provide separate rooms with lockable doors. Many rooms are also equipped with a screen, bed and even a bathroom in some cases.

Although these room cafes look no different from motels or DVD rooms ― where minors are prohibited from entering under the Youth Protection Act ― these facilities have been able to circumvent the law, as they are registered under general business or restaurant licenses. 

As an increasing number of teenagers have been found to be drinking alcohol, smoking cigarettes and having sexual intercourse at these facilities, the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family has been urging local governments and the police to launch a crackdown on “illegal” room cafes.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

It is amazing how far the Cho Kuk family has fallen for something likely many other Korean politicians and other in positions of power are guilty of as well:

Former Justice Minister Cho Kuk and his daughter Cho Min have been facing criticism over their unrepentant attitude toward the high-profile corruption scandal involving their family. 

According to legal sources, Tuesday, the Seoul Central District Court reprimanded Cho Kuk while sentencing him to two years in prison last Friday, saying he has never reflected on his wrongdoings.

The former minister, who was indicted in 2019, was found guilty of multiple charges, including using his influence to help his two children gain entry into universities and graduate schools. The court, however, did not immediately incarcerate him, citing escape was not a concern. 

“Cho Kuk has continued to argue against objective evidence even after he stood before this court,” the court said in its ruling. “He has continued to turn a blind eye to his wrongdoings and never reflected on them. Consequently, imposing harsh penalties on him is unavoidable.”

The court said the corruption involving his children’s school admission was contrary to social expectations and obligation as a renowned professor, and that it damaged justice in the country’s school admissions system. 

Cho Kuk was an outspoken liberal law professor at Seoul National University until he served under the previous Moon Jae-in administration.

On the same day, the court gave another year in prison to the former minister’s wife Chung Kyung-sim ― who is already serving a four-year sentence for academic fraud ― on related charges. 

Despite their parents’ conviction, Cho Min said she did not feel ashamed of herself at all, during an interview with left-leaning broadcaster Kim Ou-joon.

The interview, filmed Friday, the day her father was convicted, was aired on Monday through Kim’s YouTube channel. It marked the first time that Cho Min had shown her face since the corruption scandal involving the family made headlines in 2019. 

“Prosecutors, media and political circles were so harsh to my family for the past four years,” Cho Min said. 

The younger Cho passed the state exam to become a doctor and graduated from the medical school of Pusan National University (PNU) located in the southern port city of Busan in 2021.

But the medical school decided to revoke her admission in the same year following her mother’s conviction over forging her daughter’s academic records to gain entry to the school.

Cho Min has filed a lawsuit, requesting the court to cancel this decision, with trials still underway. 

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but I can under why the daughter is unrepentant because she has a lot to lose if she doesn’t win her court case by not becoming a doctor.

It is interesting that the ROK government is using the same argument that the Japanese have been using to deny paying reparations to individual Koreans for World War II era atrocities, that a post-war agreement between the ROK, the US and Vietnam nullified these claims:

A district court has ruled in favor of a Vietnamese national who filed a lawsuit against the Korean government for the 1968 atrocities committed by Korean troops against Vietnamese civilians during the Vietnam War.

It is the first time that a Korean court ruled against the Korean government regarding the atrocities committed by the ROK Marine Corps.

On Tuesday, the Central District Court ordered the Korean government to pay approximately 3 million won and losses incurred by the delay.

“(Then) the soldiers of the 2nd Korean Marine Brigade entered the plaintiff’s house and threatened the family members at gunpoint to force them outside. And then they fired at them. The court acknowledges that the family members of the plaintiff were killed on the spot and the plaintiff was seriously wounded as a consequence,” the ruling reads. “This is obviously illegal.” 

The court denied the Korean government’s claim that a Vietnamese national cannot file a lawsuit against the Korean government as stated in the military accord signed among Korea, the United States and Vietnam, saying that the agreement signed by military authorities and government institutions itself didn’t make Vietnamese civilians ineligible to seek compensation from the Korean government.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but considering what is alleged to have happened the compensation is very low:

Nguyen Thi Thanh, 62, filed a compensation suit against the Korean government in 2020. As a victim of a wartime massacre by Korean marines, she has sought an apology from the Korean government along with 3,000,100 won ($2393) in compensation ― the minimum amount required for a court ruling.

The troops in question were from the 2nd Marine Division, also known as Blue Dragon Division. They allegedly killed 74 unarmed civilians in the villages of Phong Nhi and Phong Nhat of Qu?ng Nam Province in Vietnam, where Nguyen lived, on Feb. 12, 1968.

“Korean soldiers shouted and threatened families with grenades to come outside,” Nguyen said at the Seoul Central District Court, last August. She is the first Vietnamese to testify about the atrocities before a Korean court.

You can read the rest at the link.

Any guesses on where these Thai tourists went:

A total of 23 Thai tourists have gone out of contact after arriving at Muan International Airport in southwestern South Korea over the past week, the justice ministry said Monday.

The ministry said 10 Thais disappeared soon after landing at the Muan airport in Muan, 385 kilometers south of Seoul, on a chartered flight from the Southeast Asian country Monday morning. It said all efforts are under way to find the missing Thais.

Earlier, 13 out of 174 Thai tourists who arrived at Muan International Airport last week have not shown up for their return flight and remained out of contact, according to the ministry.

The 174 Thais landed at the Muan airport on a chartered flight last Monday to visit major tourist attractions in South Jeolla Province.

But 13 of them disappeared soon after their arrival at the airport and did not board their return flight slated for Sunday, the ministry said.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

It is not looking good for the four people still missing from this sunken fishing boat:

Rescuers searching a 24-ton fishing boat that capsized off the southwestern coast found five missing crew members dead inside the shipwreck Monday, Coast Guard officials said.

Seawater started to flood the ship’s engine room, causing the vessel, the Cheongbo, to overturn at 11:19 p.m. Saturday in waters 16.6 kilometers west of the uninhabited island of Daebichi that lies some 20 km from the southwestern county of Sinan.

The sinking had left nine of the 12 people, including three foreign nationals, on board the ship missing, while the other three were rescued by another boat at the scene.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.