Category: Korea-General Topics

South Korea’s daily COVID rate continues to remain at a manageable level. At this point it seems the government should provide weekly instead of daily updates just to stop the COVID fear:

South Korea’s new COVID-19 cases fell below 60,000 Sunday due to fewer tests a day earlier amid concerns of a surge in cases during the winter season.

The country reported 58,862 new COVID-19 infections, including 85 from overseas, bringing the total to 28,188,293, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said.

The daily caseload jumped to over 86,830 on Tuesday, the highest in three months, from 25,657 a day ago but it had been on the decline to 66,930 on Saturday.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

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:

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.

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 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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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.