Category: Korea-General Topics

Here is the latest sign of the growing drug problem in South Korea:

The Yoon Suk-yeol administration is assembling a task force to fight the drug trade and the use of drugs, according to a number of administration sources who spoke off the record.    
   
“Preparations for a war on drugs is happening at a fast pace,” a high-ranking presidential official told the JoongAng Ilbo by phone Sunday. “It is a matter of the country protecting its people.”  
   
The initiative comes as Korea faces a flood of illegal substances from overseas and as the use of drugs becomes more widespread in a society once known as essentially drug free.  (…..) 

The “war on drugs” will involve the formation of a pan-governmental joint investigation team with the prosecution and police partnered with related agencies, such as the National Intelligence Service (NIS) and the Korea Customs Service, the sources said.  
   
Large cities, like Seoul, Busan and Incheon, are expected to be key areas for the crackdown to block the entry of drugs into Korea.    
   
“The prosecution has already started the basic work to crack down on the overseas supply chain,” a member of the conservative People Power Party (PPP) said.  

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.

Another example of South Korea trying to get back to normal in the wake of steeply declining COVID rates:

Starting Tuesday, people will be allowed to visit their elderly relatives at long-term care facilities in person. Elderly people who receive their second booster of a COVID-19 vaccine will also be permitted to leave their facility and stay out overnight. 

Due to the COVID-19 resurgence this summer, in-person visits were suspended in late July.

A steady decrease in the daily number of infections and a more than 90-percent rate of vaccination with the second booster of the residents of such facilities has led the government to decide to loosen restrictions, the Central Disaster Management Headquarters (CDMH) said Friday.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

If anyone cares at this point there has been a steep drop in daily COVID cases in South Korea which so happens to coincide with the dropping of many COVID protocols:

 South Korea’s new COVID-19 cases fell below 20,000 on Monday after staying in the 20,000s for the previous three days amid waning virus infections and fewer tests over the extended weekend. 

The country reported 12,150 new COVID-19 infections, including 132 from overseas, bringing the total caseload to 24,831,761, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said.

The latest virus wave, triggered by the spread of a highly contagious omicron variant, has been on a decline since mid-August, when it peaked at more than 180,000 cases.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

The Yoon administration has decided to crackdown on Park Sang-hak and his Fighters for a Free North Korea:

 South Korean activists say they clashed with police while launching balloons carrying anti-Pyongyang propaganda materials across the North Korean border, ignoring their government’s plea to stop such activities since the North has threatened to respond with “deadly” retaliation.

Park Sang-hak, a North Korean defector-turned-activist, said he his group had launched about eight balloons from an area in the South Korean border town of Paju Saturday night when police officers arrived at the scene and prevented them from sending their 12 remaining balloons. Park said police confiscated some of their materials and detained him and three other members of his group over mild scuffles with officers before releasing them after questioning.

Officials at the Paju police and the northern Gyeonggi provincial police agencies didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment Sunday.

The balloons flown toward North Korea carried masks, Tylenol and Vitamin C tablets along with propaganda materials, including booklets praising South Korea’s economic wealth and democratic society and hundreds of USB sticks containing videos of U.S. Congress members denouncing the North’s human rights record, Park said.

Associated Press

You can read more at the link.

There was a horrible fire yesterday in Daejeon that unfortunately caused seven people to be killed:

The death toll from an outlet mall fire in the central city of Daejeon has risen to seven, with one person under medical treatment after sustaining serious injuries, officials said Monday.

The blaze at Hyundai Premium Outlet in Daejeon, about 160 kilometers south of Seoul, is believed to have started from the basement parking lot at 7:45 a.m. and spread quickly on cardboard boxes, sending dark smoke filling the entire floor, according to witnesses and survivors. The fire was completely extinguished around 3 p.m.

Two men, one in his 50s and the other in his 30s, were found with serious injuries and sent to a hospital but were later pronounced dead in the morning. Five more people were later found dead while another person was sent to a hospital after sustaining serious injuries, according to the officials.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

South Korea is taking longer than other countries to drop their COVID protocols, but they appear to be realizing that the protocols are arguably more detrimental to the population than the virus:

The government is expected to speed up the pace of its COVID-19 exit strategy after its decision to lift all outdoor mask mandates starting Monday. 

The next steps are likely to range from ending the post-arrival PCR test to resuming face-to-face visits at nursing hospitals, and it is considering a step-by-step easing of the seven-day quarantine for infected patients. 

Until Sunday, those at outdoor gatherings of 50 or more people, such as sporting events, had to wear masks, but it is no longer required, according to the government.

“We are clearly overcoming the hurdle of the recent resurgence of the coronavirus,” Prime Minister Han Duck-soo said during a government meeting at the Government Complex in Sejong, Friday. The government plans to map out a new set of low-risk quarantine measures to solve the public’s inconveniences based on feedback from experts, the prime minister said.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but I expect we will still see many Koreans masked up outdoors even with the dropping of this mandate.