Category: Korea-General Topics

This just further shows what an important geostrategic, economic, and military power South Korea has become by being invited to attend a NATO summit:

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and its Indo-Pacific partners, including South Korea, plan to discuss resilience, support for Ukraine, disinformation, cybersecurity and emerging technologies during their summit in Washington next week, a senior U.S. administration official said Friday.

The NATO summit is set to take place in the U.S. capital from Tuesday through Thursday. The leaders of the alliance’s four Indo-Pacific partners (IP4) — South Korea, Australia, New Zealand and Japan — have been invited to the summit that marks the 75th anniversary of NATO’s founding.

“We are bringing together some of our closest non-NATO partners to have a discussion around issues like resilience, cyber, disinformation, technology and the like,” the official said in a virtual briefing.

He added, “This particular grouping of IP4 as we call them in NATO lingo — Australia, Japan, New Zealand and ROK … These are some of our closest partners that we work with in the region.” ROK stands for South Korea’s official name, the Republic of Korea.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Considering how densely populated Busan is, is depopulation really a bad thing?:

Busan, South Korea’s second-largest city, appears to have entered a phase of extinction due to low birthrates and superaging population, becoming the nation’s first metropolitan city to do so, said a research paper published on Friday.

The paper from the Korea Employment Information Service estimated Busan’s ratio of the population aged 65 or older at 23 percent as of March this year, making it the only metropolitan city to become a superaging society.

The southeastern port city’s extinction risk index calculated by dividing the number of female population aged 20 to 39 by the number of population aged 65 or older was 0.490, it noted. An extinction risk index of over 1.5 is classified as a low extinction risk and an index of 1.0 to 1.5 is considered normal. But regions registering an index of 0.2 to 0.5 are considered to be in danger of extinction, while a figure of less than 0.2 is classified as high extinction risk.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

The ROK government is still showing its unhappiness with Russia over its recent military pact with North Korea:

President Yoon Suk Yeol on Tuesday denounced a pact signed between North Korea and Russia last week as “an anachronistic act” that goes against the progress of history and Pyongyang’s repeated provocations as “despicable and irrational.”

During his televised speech to mark the 74th anniversary of the outbreak of the Korean War on June 25, 1950, Yoon said the pact, which forges stronger military and economic cooperation between Pyongyang and Moscow, “blatantly violates the United Nations Security Council resolution” designed to contain North Korea through sanctions.

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link.

The trash attacks into South Korea are continuing:

North Korea on Monday sent balloons presumed to be carrying trash toward South Korea again, Seoul’s military said.

The Joint Chiefs of Staff said the balloons appeared to be travelling in a southeastern direction from the northern part of Gyeonggi Province that surrounds Seoul.

It advised the public to not touch fallen balloons and report them to military or police authorities.

On Friday, Kim Yo-jong, the influential sister of the North’s leader, hinted about launching more balloons after North Korean defectors in the South sent balloons with anti-Pyongyang leaflets toward the North earlier in the week.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

South Korea is now on the best level in regards to combating human trafficking according to the U.S. State Department:

The State Department put South Korea back on a top-tier list of countries for meeting standards for the elimination of human trafficking, while leaving North Korea in the lowest third tier for the 22nd straight year, its annual report showed Monday.

The department released the 2024 Trafficking in Persons Report, where South Korea was listed in the Tier 1 group of 33 countries and territories, including the United States, Britain, Taiwan, France, Germany, Australia, Singapore, Poland and Sweden.

Countries, whose governments fully meet the Trafficking Victims Protection Act’s minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking, are included in Tier 1. South Korea was put into Tier 2 in the 2022 report for the first time in 20 years and remained in the tier in last year’s report.

The report measured progress in efforts to eliminate trafficking in 188 countries and territories. Its reporting period was from April 1 last year through March 31.

“The Government of the Republic of Korea (ROK) fully meets the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking,” the report read, referring to South Korea by its official name. “The government made key achievements to do so during the reporting period; therefore the ROK was upgraded to Tier 1.”

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

This has to be the worst type of fire that a firefighter could try and extinguish. We have all seen the videos of how hard it is to extinguish an electric car that catches fire, imagine trying to put out the flames from an entire factory of lithium on fire:

At least 22 workers, mostly Chinese nationals, were killed in a lithium battery plant fire in Hwaseong, south of Seoul, Monday, firefighters said, in what could be the worst accident to occur at a chemical factory in the country.

The death toll could rise further as one went missing while being out of contact, according to the authorities.

As of 6:30 p.m., 22 workers had been killed, with two seriously injured and six others suffering mild injuries.

Among those confirmed killed, 20 are foreigners — 18 Chinese nationals, one Laotian and another whose nationality is not known, they said.

Yonhap

Here is how the fire supposedly started:

One witness, who escaped from the second floor of the plant, told the Hwaseong Fire Station that an explosive combustion occurred in one battery cell at the time of the fire.

The station said the fire spread rapidly as the battery cells inside exploded continuously, making it difficult for rescuers to go inside and search. At least 35,000 batteries are believed to be inside the plant. 

CCTV footage unveiled by the fire authorities showed a small amount of smoke started from one battery cell and sharply grew to fill the inside of the factory in just 15 seconds

You can read more at the link.

That is what some in the U.S. government and think tanks believe:

The idea of South Korea developing its own nuclear weapons is resurfacing among some U.S. pundits in light of the strengthened military partnership between North Korea and Russia.

However, while local analysts describe this as highly unlikely, they are skeptical about whether the growing camaraderie between North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and Russian President Vladimir Putin is significant enough to push South Korea to withdraw from its decades-long commitment to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), a move that would likely draw major international sanctions.

Allison Hooker, former senior director for Asia at the National Security Council under former U.S. President Donald Trump, suggested, Friday, that the deepening military relationship between Moscow and Pyongyang might prompt Seoul to consider pursuing its own nuclear weapons.

“I think we cannot rule out the possibility that South Korea might move more rapidly toward its own nuclear program. We need to determine how we feel about that within the U.S. and the alliance context as well,” Hooker said during a webinar hosted by the Asia Society Policy Institute.

Her remarks came a day after Republican Senator Roger Wicker called for redeploying U.S. tactical nuclear weapons to South Korea, reiterating a proposal he floated in late May.

“With our allies South Korea, Japan and Australia, we should discuss nuclear burden-sharing agreements. It’s time for them to step forward and join us in nuclear burden-sharing,” Wicker said Thursday on the Senate floor, as he spoke about the latest Kim-Putin summit.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but the ROK officials the Korea Times interviewed believe this talk is all a bluff by the U.S. side. This is because the ROK developing its own nuclear deterrent would decrase U.S. influence in South Korea. It is also believed it would cause a nuclear domino effect with Taiwan and Japan wanting their own nuclear deterrents as well.

The ROK should be selling their advanced weaponry to Ukraine as a major export to help drive the Korean economy. With Poland and Romania buying ROK equipment as well, Ukraine would have allies next door with compatible capabilities:

The South Korean government said Thursday it will reconsider its stance on arms supply to Ukraine after North Korea and Russia signed a treaty that involves a mutual pledge to provide immediate military assistance if one of them is attacked.

National Security Advisor Chang Ho-jin also condemned “the comprehensive strategic treaty” signed during the summit between Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in Pyongyang on Wednesday. (…..)

Chang said any cooperation that directly or indirectly aids North Korea’s military enhancement is a violation of United Nations Security Council resolutions and will be subject to international scrutiny and sanctions, and vowed to take corresponding measures. 

“We plan to reconsider the issue of arms support to Ukraine,” Chang also said, suggesting a shift in South Korea’s policy of not providing lethal aid to Ukraine.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

The entitled and selfish doctors in Seoul have decided to walkout and leave patients without care:

A hospital affiliated with Seoul National University Hospital remains relatively quiet on June 17, 2024, as senior doctors go on an indefinite walkout in protest against the medical school quota hike.

Patients were denied appointments and sent home without treatment as a majority of doctors at Seoul National University Hospital (SNUH) and its three affiliates went on an indefinite walkout, demanding reconsideration of the medical school quota hike.

On Monday, 529 senior doctors, or 54.7 percent of those at SNUH and its three affiliates, began an indefinite strike in protest against the government’s first increase of the nationwide medical school admission quota in 27 years, by about 1,500 slots for next year. 

The walkout is set to be followed by a nationwide one-day general strike by community doctors on Tuesday, although only a fraction of them are expected to join the collective action. 

Doctors at SNUH, one of the most prominent university general hospitals in South Korea, are demanding that the government cancel administrative penalties imposed on protesting trainee doctors and reconsider the 2025 medical school quota hike.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.