Category: Korea-General Topics

The Joong Ang Ilbo has article published about the difficulties that African students are having in South Korea:

Karen, Lanre and Fatima are all black students from Africa living in Korea and studying at different Korean universities. They have asked to withhold their identities as they worry that they could face a backlash after speaking out about their experience of studying in Korea.  All three students agree that just being black in Korea attracts a lot of attention and discomfort.  
   
“When I ride the subway, people look at me and never want to sit next to me unless it is the last seat available,” Karen said.    
   
Lanre described how once, while he was out walking, “a little girl saw me and then went to hide behind her parents while looking at me as if I wanted to hurt her.”   
   
This kind of reaction seems to be common and could come from a lack of education on racial issues.  
   
Fatima also noted that some cultural features like braids, which are worn by some Korean rappers for a hip-hop look, are appropriated, and used in a different way than their original meaning.  
   
“Before doing it, you try to learn what is behind it and why these people are doing this, you don’t just do it for the style” said Fatima.    
   
Lanre also said that some of his classmates in Suwon kept repeating that Africa was very poor, and even asked questions like, “Do you have cars?” This type of behavior can continue to convey a lot of clichés, prejudices and preconceived notions about African people.  
 
The issue is not only a lack of education on racial issues, but also seems to extend to the culture in some schools and universities.  
   
Karen arrived in Korea in 2014 and went to study in a Korean high school once she finished learning Korean. On her very first day in school she sat in the front row and, “the teacher came up to me, took my hand, and asked me if I was dirty or if I was just black.” 

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.

Fortunately there are still plenty of people willing to fight to defend South Korea, but the trend from this survey is showing that the number of people willing to fight in decreasing:

Nearly seven out of 10 South Korean nationals are willing to fight for their country in the event of war, according to a recent poll.

The World Values Survey polled 1,245 South Koreans, 67.4 percent of whom expressed their willingness to fight for their country, while 32.6 percent were unwilling to take up arms to defend their homeland.

South Korea ranked 40th out of 79 countries polled between 2017 and 2021 when it comes to the percentage of the population willing to fight for their country in the event of a war, but the percentage of people who are unwilling to take up arms has been steadily increasing, compared to 6.5 percent in a 1981 survey.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but I wonder what the number would be if the people unwilling to fight did not have the option of fleeing South Korea to another country. Would they fight then?

The numbers may be rising above 10,000 but it is no where near the peak of 620,000 cases a day Korea had back in March:

 South Korea’s new coronavirus cases stayed above 10,000 for the second consecutive day Sunday as the daily cases seemed to be rising again after months of subsiding.

The country added 10,059 COVID-19 infections, including 191 cases from overseas, bringing the total caseload to 18,389,611, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said. 

The country reported eight COVID-19 deaths, raising the death toll to 24,570. The fatality rate stood at 0.13 percent.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

This sounds like a positive encounter between President Yoon and Prime Minister Kishida:

South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol talked briefly with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida during a gala dinner for NATO summit participants in Madrid on Tuesday and expressed hope for the future-oriented development of relations between the two countries, officials said.

The encounter, which lasted three to four minutes at the dinner party hosted by Spain’s King Felipe VI, began as Kishida offered greetings to Yoon with congratulations on his inauguration and the local election victory of Yoon’s ruling party, according to Yoon’s office.

Yoon said in response that he wishes Kishida’s Liberal Democratic Party good results in Japan’s upcoming upper house elections.

“After the upper house elections, I and my aides plan to resolve pending issues between Korea and Japan as early as possible and move forward in a future-oriented manner,” Yoon was quoted as telling Kishida.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

A very sad ending to the story of the missing family on Wando:

The family of three — a 10-year-old girl named Cho Yu-na and her parents — went missing last month while staying at a guesthouse in Wando, an island 362 kilometers south of Seoul. 

Following massive search operations, police found the Audi sedan the family rented upturned underwater near Wando a day ago and hauled it out of the sea Wednesday. 

Inside the vehicle, police found three bodies presumed to be those of the family, according to the Gwangju Metropolitan Police and the Coast Guard in Wando.

Police plan to confirm their identities through fingerprint examinations and an analysis of their belongings, officials noted. 

Cho had been absent from her elementary school in Gwangju since May 19 after reporting she would take part in an outdoor learning program on Jeju Island together with her parents for about a month.

Her school reported her absence to the police a week earlier as she did not show up for class upon the termination of her reported one-month leave.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but it is believed the death of family is related to the economic issues the father was experiencing when he lost his business. Assuming this was a suicide it seems very selfish to kill the kid.

This is something that the ROK government needs to stop or they are going to end up with a large drug addicted homeless population like we have in the US:

“Do you want to try it? It feels really good, and it helps you lose weight too. One time can’t hurt.”  
   
Those were the words heard by a 17-year-old student as she was handed a syringe by a man in his thirties, whom she met through a slightly older friend.  

He was lying. The first time led to another, and another — and an addiction.

Arrested by the police last year, the 17-year-old student admitted she made a mistake taking that first injection. But the older man wasn’t honest at all with her. “If I knew it was methamphetamine inside that syringe, I would have never done it in the first place.”  

Korea is developing a teen drug problem, its size difficult to estimate. One indication: over 100 million individual purchases every year of drugs from overseas, according to the Supreme Prosecutor’s Office.

Importing, manufacturing, trading, buying, selling, transporting, possessing, and using drugs are all considered drug crimes in Korea.   (……)

“Based on the UN’s standards, if the number of drug offenders exceeds 20 in a population of 100,000, it means that drugs aren’t under control and it is not a drug-free nation,” said Cheon young-hoon, a psychiatric specialist and director of Incheon Chamsarang Hospital.    
   
“Considering Korea’s population of 50 million, the number of drug offenders per 100,000 is actually more than 30.”

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.

UPDATE: The car of the missing family has been found and we should soon know whether the bodies of the family are in it:

Police on Tuesday said they found the car of a missing family off the southwestern coast after a female elementary school student and her parents disappeared mysteriously from a guesthouse in the region about a month ago.

The car with the same license plate as that of the family — 10-year-old Cho Yu-na and her parents in their 30s — was found at about 5:12 p.m. hanging on the fence of a fishing farm off Wando, according to local police and coast guard. 

Whether there were bodies inside have yet to be confirmed. Police said they plan to raise the car from the water early the next morning after taking necessary measures to protect any evidence.

Yonhap

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This is a very weird story, hopefully this family turns up:

A massive police search has been under way for a family of three missing on a remote island on the southwestern coast, as a female elementary student and her parents disappeared mysteriously from a guesthouse there about a month ago.

Police said Monday the search for 10-year-old Cho Yu-na and her parents in their 30s, who reside in the southwestern metropolitan city of Gwangju, entered its sixth day on Wando, a quiet island about 120 kilometers south of their home.

Cho has been absent from her Gwangju school since May 19 after reporting that she would take part in an out-of-school experiential learning program on Jeju Island together with her parents until June 15.

In South Korea, students applying for out-of-school experiential learning are recognized as attending school.

But Cho did not return to school after her out-of-school field trip ended on June 16. The school then filed a missing persons report with police on June 22 after repeatedly failing to contact the family on their cell phones.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but the parents sold their computer business before driving to Wando. They were seen on camera leaving their guesthouse at 11PM at night and turning off their cell phones near a dock at 4AM in the morning. Their car has not been found as well. This is all very weird circumstances that hopefully authorities can get answers to.

I am not sure how much more sternly the ROK can respond to North Korean provocations, but I guess we will soon find out:

Prime Minister Han Duck-soo vowed a stern response to any North Korean provocation, Saturday, as the nation observed the 72nd anniversary of the outbreak of the 1950-53 Korean War.

In a speech during a ceremony marking the anniversary, he said the North’s recent missile launches and nuclear weapon test preparations have escalated tensions beyond the Korean Peninsula and are posing a threat to international peace.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

Here is an interesting diplomatic development for South Korea since it shows that NATO countries recognize the ROK’s military capabilities as an alliance partner:

South Korea has decided to establish a mission to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in Brussels, a presidential official said Wednesday ahead of President Yoon Suk-yeol’s participation in a NATO summit next week.

Yoon will attend the NATO summit in Madrid, Spain, on June 29 and 30, on his first overseas trip as president, National Security Adviser Kim Sung-han said during a press briefing.

South Korea is not a member of the military alliance but has been invited as a partner nation, along with countries, such as Japan, Australia and New Zealand.

The new NATO mission will be headed by the South Korean ambassador to Belgium, who currently also doubles as the ambassador to the European Union, a second presidential official said.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.