South Korea is getting hits by its coldest weather yet this winter:
Cold wave alerts will be issued for most parts of the country Monday as the capital and central parts of the nation came under the grip of the season’s coldest weather.
The Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA) said the cold wave warning will take effect for all of Seoul at 9 p.m.
The cold wave warning is issued when the morning low is below minus 15 C for more than two consecutive days, or when the temperature drops sharply and major damage is expected.
The warning will be also issued for many areas in Incheon, 27 kilometers west of Seoul, and the provinces of Gyeonggi, Gangwon, Chungcheong and North Jeolla at the same time.
Yonhap
You can read more at the link.
Mark your calendars, January 30th will be the end of the indoor mask mandate in South Korea:
An indoor mask mandate, which has been in place for two years and three months in Korea, will end from 12:00 a.m., Jan. 30, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said Friday. But the authorities stressed that people will still be required to wear masks at high-risk facilities such as hospitals and on public transport.
Korea Times
The announcement, which comes after three years since Korea confirmed its first case of the coronavirus, represents a major milestone in the government’s shift in its pandemic response to living with the virus.
You can read more at the link, but even with the end of the mandate I suspect it will take another year before people start reverting back to the old normal of not wearing masks.
It is looking more likely that the indoor mask mandate will soon be repealed, however I don’t expect Koreans will be taking off their masks anytime soon:
The government will decide when to lift the indoor mask mandate this week, as the country is past the peak of the latest winter COVID-19 wave, Interior Minister Lee Sang-min said Wednesday.
“With this winter’s COVID-19 wave past its peak, the overall virus situation is stabilizing,” Lee said during a government virus response meeting.
Taking the virus situation and other external factors into account, the government will determine when and to what extent the indoor mask mandate would be adjusted during the next virus response meeting scheduled for Friday, the minister noted.
Yonhap
You can read more at the link.
If you are an international student in South Korea you will once again be paying more for tuition this year:
Amid what they say are financial struggles, local universities are relying on international students in their decision to raise international student tuition.
Korea Times
This year’s hikes for international students are in sharp contrast to tuition for domestic students, which has been frozen for the last 15 years.
Major universities in Seoul, including Chung-Ang University, Hanyang University, Sogang University, Sungkyunkwan University, the University of Seoul and Yonsei University, will raise tuition for international students by up to five percent this year, according to those in the education circle.
The main reason for the tuition hikes for international students is government restrictions on raising tuition for domestic students, they say. According to Korea’s Higher Education Act, tuition increases cannot be more than 1.5 times the average increase in consumer prices during the three preceding years, meaning that tuition for domestic students can only rise by up to 4.05 percent this year.
You can read more at the link.
If Iran is not a threat to the UAE as Iran claims, then why are U.S. and ROK troops stationed there?:
President Yoon Suk Yeol’s description of Iran as the “enemy” of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has provoked protest from Tehran as it calls Yoon’s remark undiplomatic and asks for Seoul’s explanation.
Korea Times
The government is stepping up to prevent the issue from creating diplomatic problems with Iran.
Yoon made the remarks during his visit to the Akh Unit, which trains the UAE’s special operations forces, Sunday (local time), as part of his efforts to encourage its soldiers.
“You are here because the UAE is our brother nation,” Yoon told the troops. “And (defending) our brother nation’s security is as important as that of South Korea’s. The UAE’s enemy ― the most threatening nation ― is Iran and our enemy is North Korea… We are in a very similar position to the UAE.”
He was on a four-day state visit to the Middle Eastern country when he made the comment.
Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Nasser Kanaani said the ministry is looking into and following up on the comments of the Korean president on relations between the Islamic Republic of Iran and the UAE, which are neighboring countries with established diplomatic relations.
The spokesman also said Yoon’s remarks show he is totally unaware of the historical and friendly relations between Iran and the Persian Gulf littoral states, including the UAE, as well as positive developments quickly taking place in this regard.
You can read more at the link.
It is looking like some challenging driving conditions currently in Gangwon-do:
Around 10 vehicles were stranded for over a hour on a snow-covered road, with an estimated 100 traffic accidents reported, in the eastern mountainous province of Gangwon on Sunday, officials said.
Many parts of Gangwon Province had heavy snow from Saturday to Sunday, including 55.9 centimeters of snowfall in the Misiryeong mountain ridge and 52.3 cm of snow in the Hyangrobong hill.
Heavy snow blanketed a section of highway in the coastal county of Goseong around noon, stranding about 10 vehicles in the area.
Drivers had struggled to steer their cars out of accumulated snow for about 1 1/2 hours before police, fire and military authorities removed snow.
Yonhap
You can read more at the link.
