Category: Korea-General Topics

Tweet of the Day: The Great Peace Hall

South Korean President Announces Increased Funding for Development of Smaller Nuclear Reactors to Power Economy

While North Korea is using nuclear technology to build bombs to kill massive amounts of people, the South Koreans are using nuclear technology to better people’s lives:

Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy Lee Chang-yang tours the Shin-Hanul 1 nuclear power plant in Uljin, North Gyeongsang, on Wednesday. The nuclear power plant started commercial operation a week ago. [MINISTRY OF TRADE, INDUSTRY AND ENERGY]
Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy Lee Chang-yang tours the Shin-Hanul 1 nuclear power plant in Uljin, North Gyeongsang, on Wednesday. The nuclear power plant started commercial operation a week ago. [MINISTRY OF TRADE, INDUSTRY AND ENERGY]

Korea is committing 400 billion won ($308 million) a year to the development of small nuclear reactors as it doubles its overall annual spending on nuclear energy to 2 trillion won, according to the president.    
   
“The government will actively support the nuclear energy industry so it can become a major pillar leading our exports and so that Korea can once again be recognized globally as a major nuclear energy power country,” President Yoon Suk-yeol said Wednesday. 

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link, but this strategy seems to make sense to me because I don’t know how you advocate for electric cars and against fossil fuels and not have nuclear energy as an option power them.

Teenage Itaewon Crowd Crush Survivor Commits Suicide

There has to be plenty of survivor guilt for the people that survived the Itaewon crowd crush disaster especially those that lost friends like this teenager did:

A message of mourning and a bouquet of chrysanthemum flowers are placed at the scene of the Itaewon disaster in central Seoul on Nov. 28, about a month after the crowd crush took the lives of 158 people. [NEWS1]
A message of mourning and a bouquet of chrysanthemum flowers are placed at the scene of the Itaewon disaster in central Seoul on Nov. 28, about a month after the crowd crush took the lives of 158 people. [NEWS1]

A teenage survivor of the Itaewon tragedy, who lost two friends in the crowd crush that took 158 lives on Oct. 29, died in an apparent suicide while receiving psychological treatment for trauma.  
   
According to the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education, police found a dead high school student in a motel room in Mapo District, western Seoul at 11:40 p.m. on Monday, after half an hour of searching for the teen following a missing persons report by his mother.  
   
The student checked in alone at around 7 p.m. Monday and committed suicide in the bathroom, according to local news reports. No suicide note was found. 

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link, but condolences to friends and family of the deceased.

Yellow Dust Warnings Issued for Most of South Korea This Week

The yellow dust season just seems to keep coming earlier and earlier for South Korea:

An electronic sign in central Seoul shows fine dust at a “very bad” level on Dec. 13, 2022. (Yonhap)

Yellow dust advisories were issued across South Korea except for South Gyeongsang Province on Tuesday, with the fine dust level in Seoul hitting the highest point so far this year, authorities said.

The yellow dust advisories were upgraded from “attention” to “caution,” the second highest in the environmental ministry’s four-notch warning system, in Seoul, Incheon, Gyeonggi Province surrounding the capital and Gangwon Province as of early Tuesday afternoon, the environment authorities said.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but yellow dust is a good reason for everyone to wear a mask.

Korean Officials Say Indoor Mask Mandates May Be Relieved Early Next Year

People in Korea may have to wait until after the holidays before any relief on the indoor mask mandate happens:

People wear masks at a book store in Seoul on Thursday as the indoor mask mandate is still in effect, as warned on the sign. [YONHAP]

Korea may lift the indoor mask mandate, one of its last Covid restrictions, as early as January.  
   
Still, masks are likely to be required in hospitals and on public transport.  
   
Commissioner of the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) Peck Kyong-ran announced Wednesday that the government will ease the indoor mask-wearing rule early next year. The only other major Covid restriction still in force is the mandatory seven-day quarantine for confirmed patients. 

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link, but what is happening is that the government officials are going to wait until after the holiday travel period and see if another COVID wave happens. If one does then don’t expect to have the mask mandate lifted.

SK Chairman Ordered to Pay $50 million to Ex-President’s Daughter in Divorce Settlement

The daughter of former ROK President Roh Tae-woo just received a huge divorce settlement from her ex-husband:

SK Chairman Chey Tae-won, left, and Director of Art Center Nabi Roh Soh-Yeong, right, were separated by divorce Tuesday, marking the end of their 34 years of marriage. Yonhap

The court approved the divorce of SK Chairman Chey Tae-won and his wife, Roh Soh-yeong, director of Art Center Nabi. 

If neither side appeals, the high-powered couple will end their 34 years of marriage marked by ups and downs years after Chey’s public acknowledgment that he has been in extramarital relationship with a woman and that they had a child out of wedlock.

Seoul Family Court approved their divorce on Tuesday, ordering Chey to pay alimony of 100 million won ($75,700) and a property settlement of 66.5 billion won ($50.4 million) to Roh. 

Chey, the eldest son of the late former SK Chairman Chey Jong-hyun, tied the knot with Roh, the daughter of Korean former President Roh Tae-woo, in 1998 at the Blue House. It is known that both had met while studying in the United States. They have two daughters and one son together.

In 2015, Chey revealed that he had fathered a child out of wedlock and expressed his intention to split up with Roh through a three-page letter sent to Segye Ilbo, a local newspaper. 

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

Father Protests in Seoul After Children Abducted By Mother and Taken to Korea

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

John Sichi, a U.S. citizen whose children have gone missing in Korea involving an international abduction case of his children by his Korean spouse, stages a treadmill protest in front of Dongdaemun Design Plaza in Seoul, Nov. 30. Sichi is demanding the Korean authorities to enforce court orders that the children should be returned to the U.S. under the Hague Convention. Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul

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.

Is It Time to Get Rid of Indoor Mask Mandates in South Korea?

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 sign attached at the entrance of a book store in Seoul, Sunday, reads that visitors are required to wear a face mask. Yonhap

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.

9 More Police Officers and Government Officials Face Charges Related to Itaewon Crowd Crush Disaster

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.

USFK Servicemember Couple Describe What It was Like Being Stuck in the Itaewon Crowd Crush Disaster

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:

At least 158 people were killed and dozens were injured in a crowd surge in the Itaewon district of Seoul, South Korea, Oct. 29, 2022. (Riley Watts)

“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.