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.
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.
President Yoon wants South Korea to be a "global pivotal state" but Seoul is under-institutionalized on the global stage.
In a new article, I look at the disconnect between South Korea's new focus and the constraints on the format of its engagement. A short thread… (1/4) pic.twitter.com/zW70yLdpF8
It is looking more likely that the indoor mask mandate will soon be repealed, however I don’t expect Koreans will be taking off their masks anytime soon:
Interior Minister Lee Sang-min speaks during a government COVID-19 response meeting in Seoul on Jan. 18, 2023. (Yonhap)
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.
If you are an international student in South Korea you will once again be paying more for tuition this year:
International students take a photo on graduation day in front of SahmYook University, Seoul in 2020. Newsis
Amid what they say are financial struggles, local universities are relying on international students in their decision to raise international student tuition.
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.
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 speaks during his visit to the Akh Unit in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, Sunday (local time). Yonhap
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.
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.
Homophobia in South Korea: Citizens were asked to submit complaints to the president for 3 months in hopes of making some policy.
Among the 26,000 proposals received, one of the most significant in "education" was a "ban on education that glorifies homosexuality and sex change". pic.twitter.com/eqXOrnA8Wd
South Korean Court is imprisoning an 82-year old Vietnam War veteran & retired ROK Army colonel Dr. Ji Man-won for 2 years for defamation for saying #NorthKorea special forces were involved in the Gwangju Uprising in May 1980. Suppression of #FreedomOfSpeech#academicfreedom
It is looking like some challenging driving conditions currently in Gangwon-do:
This photo provided by fire authorities shows a snowplow truck moving along a snow-covered road in Gangwon Province on Jan. 15, 2023
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.
Has anyone in Korea tried Gordon Ramsay's burger restaurant here? Yay or nay? I'm a little curious but I've been disappointed by past experiences with pricy burger joints. Reviews would be most welcome!
Despite this news I see far less obese people in Korea compared to the U.S.:
South Korean men have become more obese over the past 13 years due to drinking and lack of exercise, a government report showed Friday.
The percentage of males aged 19 and over who have body mass indexes (BMIs) of 25 kilograms per square meter or over reached 44.8 percent in 2021, up from 35.9 percent in 2008, according to the report compiled by the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA).
In particular, male adults who had a BMI of 30 ㎏/㎡ accounted for 7.6 percent of all men last year, up from 4.1 percent in 2008.