Category: Korea-General Topics

This is a really bad situation and I had no idea that South Korea does so little to return children that are abducted:

On a cold Nov. 30 afternoon, when temperatures nosedived to minus seven degrees Celsius in Seoul, bringing with it the nation’s first cold wave alert of the season, John Sichi was walking on a treadmill in front of Dongdaemun Design Plaza in central Seoul. Undeterred by the biting winds, the U.S. citizen walked for nearly four hours.

Near the treadmill stood a placard reading, “Please let me see my children,” and a life-size cardboard cutout of his two kids ― a 5-year-old boy and 3-year-old girl.

People walking by approached him ― some with curiosity and some with empathy ― to see why a man would be walking on a treadmill in freezing weather. A woman handed him 10,000 won, probably assuming it was a fundraising campaign.

Sichi has been staging the treadmill protest since October in various spots in Seoul, in a desperate effort to find his missing children who have been allegedly abducted by his Korean wife.

His demand is simple: The Korean government should enforce court orders from both the U.S. and Korea that the children should be returned to the U.S.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

Even if the ROK government lifts the indoor mask mandate I think most people will still be wearing masks indoors anyway. It just seems people are not so conditioned to wearing masks that they actually prefer to wear them indoors now:

A debate has reignited over the indoor face mask mandate following a move by the Daejeon city government to lift the requirement in the region, going against the nationwide directive that has been in place for over two years.

The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) has requested the city government to refrain from making unilateral decisions in COVID-19 response measures. But Daejeon’s move has added pressure on the government to expedite its discussions on dropping the mask mandate, as the country is experiencing a less threatening winter surge than previous years.

The nationwide requirement to wear masks in indoor spaces such as offices, cafes, hospitals and public transportation was first implemented in October 2020. After the outdoor mask mandate was lifted in May of this year, there have been growing calls among the pandemic-weary public that the government should begin to ease the indoor requirement as well.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

Even more police officers and other officials are being charged for not doing their jobs properly the night of the Itaewon crowd crush disaster:

A total of nine police officers and government officials were additionally booked Wednesday for an investigation into the bungled response to the crowd crush in Seoul’s Itaewon neighborhood, police said.

Among those on the list are Park Sung-min, a superintendent general, and Song Byung-joo, a former emergency monitoring officer at Yongsan Police Station, as well as four other intelligence officers, they said. 

Park is under suspicion of ordering the deletion of an internal intelligence report giving prior warnings of a possible safety accident during the Halloween period in a suspected attempt to cover up inaction. A superintendent general is the fourth-highest rank in the police.

Also on Wednesday, Song, who was in charge of the police’s 112 emergency hotline in Yongsan Ward covering the Itaewon district, was quizzed by a special investigation team earlier in the day on whether he had promptly reported the situation to Lee Im-jae, who formerly headed the station.

Lee earlier testified during a parliamentary audit that he learned of the accident at around 11 p.m., around 45 minutes after the incident first erupted, claiming the emergency hotline chief had earlier reported to him that nothing unusual was going on.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

A USFK servicemember and his wife described recently to the Stars & Stripes what it was like to be in the middle of the Itaewon crowd crush disaster:

“Everybody acts like we were supposed to know that this was happening,” Riley Watts said. “Nobody knew.”

‘Like being in water’

As the crowd grew and space on the sidewalk became scarce, the Wattses were surrounded by people who were unintentionally “pushing really hard,” the couple said.

The force of so many people together “would pick me up without me even trying to move,” Riley Watts said, and his feet left the ground.

“It was kind of like being in water; it was just pushing us down the road,” he said.

Amid panicked screams in the crowd, Riley Watts saw a girl fall, he said.

“I reached down to get her and she put her hand in mine, but when I tried to pull her up, she wouldn’t budge,” he said. “And she was on the ground and when the crowd surged, it pushed her down away from me and pushed me away from her.”

Riley said he does not know what became of the girl.

“People were screaming at me, ‘Stop pushing me; I can’t breathe,’” he said. “And I was telling them, ‘It’s not me; I’m not doing it.’”

The couple soon realized that hunting for open space in the crowd was a dangerous task, according to Allyson Watts. As soon as open space materialized, people rushed so quickly into it that it became a “stumbling risk,” she said.

“If there was a sudden opening … then you risked falling over,” she said.

The Wattses eventually got off the sidewalk and onto the street because “it was the only place that was clear,” Allyson added.

“I would rather be in front of a car at that point rather than what we were up against,” Riley Watts said.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link, but I am still waiting for someone to figure out who started the reported pushing at the top of the slope that caused the disaster to happen.

This is a pretty big investment in Antarctica that the ROK government is making:

The government will build an inland research station in Antarctica by 2030, as part of a long-term plan to elevate the country’s standing in the global science and research community, the oceans ministry said Tuesday. About 277.4 billion won ($205 million) will be spent by 2027 to construct the 15,000-ton Araon 2, the latest model of the icebreaker research vessel Araon built in 2009. 

The chief priority of the first comprehensive policy assistance package is to secure greater power and influence in the global science and technology hegemonic war, marked by fierce competition over the past few decades. 

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

Good luck trying to help diversify Saudi Arabia’s economy by 2030:

President Yoon Suk-yeol sent a letter to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Monday pledging close cooperation between the two countries following his visit to South Korea last week, his office said.

Yoon sent the letter in response to Prince Mohammed’s note thanking the president for his hospitality during his visit to Seoul last Thursday.

“The crown prince’s visit became an important milestone in taking the bilateral relationship one step farther,” Yoon wrote in his message, according to deputy presidential spokesperson Lee Jae-myoung.

“We will cooperate closely for the realization of Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030,” he added, referring to the crown prince’s road map for moving the country away from an oil-centric economy.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Let’s hope that South Korea doesn’t start implementing COVID restrictions again due to increasing case counts:

South Korea’s new coronavirus cases bounced back to above 50,000 on Saturday amid concerns of a possible resurgence in the winter.

The country reported 50,589 new COVID-19 infections, including 50 cases from overseas, bringing the total caseload to 26,512,754, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said. 

The Saturday tally increased from 49,418 on Friday but was down 3,739 cases from a week ago. 

From Monday to Thursday, South Korea’s new COVID-19 cases hit two-month highs each day, causing authorities to closely watch for the possibility of another virus wave in the wintertime.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

First Lady Kim Keon-hee cannot do anything without getting ripped by her critics. Has there ever been a first lady this demonized?:

First lady Kim Keon-hee is back under the microscope on Monday, this time for her charity work during President Yoon Suk-yeol’s visit to Cambodia for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit. She was photographed holding a boy suffering from a congenital heart disease, and some opposition politicians are claiming that she tried to imitate an image of “Roman Holiday” star Audrey Hepburn in war-torn Somalia back in 1992.

According to the presidential office, Kim, who is accompanying President Yoon Suk-yeol on his trip to Cambodia and Indonesia, visited the child’s home on Saturday. 

Kim was supposed to meet the boy a day earlier when she visited Hebron Medical Center in Phnom Penh, a facility established in 2007 by a South Korean pediatrician, but the boy did not show up to the event due to his condition.

Kim decided to meet the boy instead of visiting Angkor Wat as part of an official program for first spouses that the Cambodian government had set up, the presidential office said. 

“You can beat it, right? Get well and let’s meet in South Korea,” Kim was quoted by deputy presidential spokesperson Lee Jae-myoung as saying to the boy.

The photos of Kim holding the boy grabbed the attention of the Korean public. 

Wearing a black short-sleeved polo-style shirt and white pants, Kim was holding the boy in her arms while staring into the distance. People online soon compared this photo with Hepburn’s photo taken during her visit to a UNICEF-assisted feeding center in Baidoa, Somalia, in 1992.

In the 1992 photo, Hepburn was wearing a dark polo-style shirt and light-colored chino pants, staring into the distance while holding a child in her arms. Online users and main opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) Rep. Kim Yong-min accused the Korean first lady of mimicking the British actress.

“If you want to emulate someone, try to emulate their spirit and sacrifices, not their pose or attire,” Kim wrote on Facebook. “Also, please start by abandoning the evil of using those who are suffering as ornaments.” 

During a party meeting on Monday, DPK Rep. Jang Kyung-tae accused the presidential office of resorting to “poverty porn” and chided the first lady for committing a “diplomatic discourtesy” for ducking out of the official program for first spouses.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.