It is looking more likely that the indoor mask mandate will soon be repealed, however I don’t expect Koreans will be taking off their masks anytime soon: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.
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.
Yonhap
You can read more at the link, but somebody needs to tell Yonhap that tracking obesity rates is now considered racist.
Former President Moon is not happy about the criticism his administration has received from the current President:
Former President Moon Jae-in has said his administration established a system to counter North Korean drone infiltrations, according to officials of the main opposition Democratic Party.
Moon made the remarks when DP leaders visited his home in the southeastern city of Yangsan on Monday, apparently in response to criticism from President Yoon Suk Yeol that the North’s recent drone infiltration revealed how Seoul’s military readiness and exercises have been “greatly lacking” over the years.
“Former President Moon said the government had introduced radars and prepared substantially with regard to countering drones,” a DP official who met Moon on Monday told Yonhap News Agency.
Yonhap
You can read more at the link, but I have seen no one criticizing the detection capability. Clearly the ROK military did a good job detecting the drones which Moon’s administration should be given credit for acquiring. However, the inability to shoot them down to include crashing one of their own aircraft is what the criticism of the ROK military has been about.
