Category: Korea-General Topics

President Yoon may not have had time to meet with Nancy Pelosi, but he did have time to meet with Bill Gates to discuss vaccine development:

President Yoon Suk-yeol met with Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates on Tuesday and discussed cooperation on vaccine development and other health issues.

During the meeting at the presidential office, Yoon praised Gates for his contributions to modern industrial technology and infrastructure and for his efforts to increase access to vaccines and treatments in developing countries.

He also thanked Gates, who co-chairs the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, for helping South Korea’s SK Bioscience Co. develop the country’s first homegrown COVID-19 vaccine in June.

“On behalf of the government of the Republic of Korea, I too would like to establish substantive cooperative relations with your foundation so that our country can contribute to promoting the health of the world’s citizens while continuing to build advanced bio health technologies,” he said.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

It is interesting that activists advocate for western women to act more masculine and now these women are attracted to guys that are effeminate:

After visiting eight hostels and interviewing 123 women, mostly from North America and Europe, Lee came to the conclusion that many had been drawn to the country by what she calls “the Netflix effect.”

Hit Korean television shows like “Crash Landing on You” and “Goblin,” were selling more than men with beautiful faces and chiseled bodies like their stars Hyun Bin and Gong Yoo. They were offering a glimpse into a world where men were romantic and patient, an antithesis to what the women saw as the sex-obsessed dating culture of their home countries.

The women Lee interviewed were fascinated with Korean men who were portrayed on TV as being in touch with their emotions and willing to embrace their “effeminate sides,” Lee said. 

They considered Korean men cultured and romantic while complaining that men in their home countries often neglected their appearances and had one-track minds. 

Grace Thornton, a 25-year-old gardener from the United Kingdom, traveled to Seoul in 2021 after watching K-drama “Crash Landing on You” on Netflix. 

She was struck by how men in the show did not jeer at or catcall women on the street, as happens in her home country. 

In her eyes, Korean men are “gentlemen, polite, charming, romantic, fairytale-like, chivalrous, respectful.” She said it also helps that Korean men dress well and groom themselves.

CNN

You can read more at the link.

I like how Yonhap complains about conservatives holding a rally during a high COVID time, but last month the KCTU held a large protest in Seoul and not a word was said. I guess Yonhap must think the virus only spreads among conservatives at rallies:

 Conservative activists held a massive rally in downtown Seoul on Monday to celebrate Liberation Day, despite lingering concerns over COVID-19. 

About 20,000 members, according to police, of the far-right Liberty Unification Party led by Rev. Jun Kwang-hoon gathered in Gwanghwamun Square, which reopened earlier this month after a major facelift.

Jun is a conservative pastor of Sarang Jeil Church in Seoul, known for his inflammatory speeches attacking liberal former President Moon Jae-in. 

Protesters took to the streets and chanted anti-communist slogans through loudspeakers, prompting police to control traffic in the afternoon and causing inconvenience to people.

South Korea marks Liberation Day on Aug. 15 to commemorate the end of Japan’s 1910-45 colonial rule. 

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Here is video of what the record rainfall in South Korea looked like this week:

Record rainfall pounded most of the Seoul metropolitan region on Monday and Tuesday leaving nine people dead and seven others missing. The downpour flooded and destroyed roads and subway stations, triggered landslides, clogged underground water drainage systems, and forced the evacuations of people living in low-lying areas.

It was the highest amount of rainfall per hour witnessed in the capital region in 80 years, according to the Korea Meteorological Administration, the country’s central weather monitoring organization. Seoul’s Dongjak District was bombarded with the heaviest downpour in the city with 422 millimeters falling on Monday alone.

Korea Times

This is horrible that this family drowned in their own apartment:

 President Yoon Suk-yeol visited a semi-basement apartment in Seoul on Tuesday where a flash flood the previous night killed a family of three.

Yoon visited the apartment in southern Seoul after presiding over an emergency government meeting on the response to the heavy rains that have pounded the capital and central areas this week.

Eight people were reported killed and six missing in the country’s heaviest rainfall in 80 years.

According to the police, the family consisted of a woman in her 40s, her younger sister, and the sister’s teenage daughter.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Well hopefully she is not to seriously injured from this incident, but she was conducting an illegal protest prior to Nancy Pelosi arriving at the National Assembly:

Lee Yong-soo, a victim of Japan’s wartime sexual slavery in her 90s, was reportedly pulled out of her wheelchair by security guards while she was waiting to meet with U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on the National Assembly grounds on Thursday.  
   
A video released after the incident by media outlets including JTBC and YTN shows Lee on the ground by her wheelchair, while several security personnel attempt to lift her.    
   
One security guard can be heard repeating, “Lift up her leg,” while Lee, in apparent protest, says, “Let go of me, you’re going to kill someone here.” 

Lee was hospitalized afterward at the Catholic University of Korea Yeouido St. Mary’s Hospital in western Seoul.    
   
A committee that she heads, which has been calling for the Korean and Japanese governments to settle the “comfort women” issue at the International Court of Justice, told the press that the security guards tried to move her despite her protest and that Lee fell out of her wheelchair in the process.    
   
“They pulled on her by her legs,” the committee said. “It was a traumatic experience for her.”  
   
The National Assembly Secretariat in a statement on Friday said that it “wishes well” for Lee’s health, adding however that “any attempt to meet up with an international guest at the Assembly without prior appointment is a disregard for diplomatic protocols. 

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.

There must be enough work for illegal immigrants on Jeju Island for 55 people from Thailand to disappear like this:

The whereabouts of 55 out of 280 Thai tourists who entered South Korea earlier this week through the airport on the southern island of Jeju are unknown, immigration officials said Sunday.

Out of 697 Thai nationals who arrived at the Jeju International Airport from Bangkok through a direct Jeju Airlines flight between Tuesday and Friday, 417 were denied entry and were flown home, according to the Jeju Immigration Service.

Of the other 280 people who have entered the country for a three-day tourism program, 55 have broken away from their tour groups and disappeared, officials said. The immigration office said it was trying to figure out where they went.

Officials said that many of the Thai tourists chose to enter South Korea through Jeju as they have a record of being denied entry through other airports, including the country’s main gateway, Incheon International Airport.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.