The Korean left has struck back at the Yoon administration which is trying to reel in the violent and pro-North Korean KCTU:
Members of the minor opposition Justice Party celebrate the passage of the so-called ”yellow envelope’ bill during a press conference in front of the National Assembly, Tuesday. Yonhap
Business associations expressed deep concern, Tuesday, over the opposition-led passage of the so-called “yellow envelope” bill, which limits employers’ claims for compensation against losses caused by labor strikes.
Critics say the bill will encourage irresponsible and reckless collective actions by the country’s labor unions.
Korea’s militant labor unions have been and will continue to be the primary and strongest deterrent to foreign investors who otherwise would not hesitate to commit to long-term investments in Korea, the lobby groups said.
The bill will be made into law, if it is tabled and passes with a majority vote during a plenary session.
You can read more at the link, but the opposition parties are likely setting the stage for the KCTU to conduct large strikes in the future to damage the Korean economy. This is likely to put pressure on the Yoon administration to stop the investigations into the KCTU.
It appears same sex couples in Korea can now get the same national health insurance coverage as heterosexual couples:
A press conference is held in front of a court in Seoul after a man won a suit seeking spousal coverage from the insurance program of his male partner’s employer on Feb. 21, 2023.
An appellate court on Tuesday ruled in favor of a same-sex couple demanding the same spousal coverage from the state health insurance program as heterosexual couples.
The Seoul High Court delivered the landmark ruling, overturning a lower court’s decision that marriage in South Korea is considered a union between a man and a woman, and there are no legal grounds to expand the concept to same-sex couples.
The appeals court did not give a specific reason for its decision.
You can read more at the link, but the big difference between spousal and individual health coverage in Korea comes down to the premium. Same sex couples had to previously each pay individual premiums while heterosexual couples were paying the married premium which was cheaper.
It will be interesting to see if this ruling leads to more Russian men trying to seek asylum in South Korea:
A lawyer with the Advocates for Public Interest Law (APIL), the legal representative of two Russian men who filed a complaint calling on the immigration authority to nullify its non-referral decision on their refugee applications, speaks during a press conference held after a court ruling at Incheon District Court, Tuesday. Korea Times photo by Lee Hyo-jin
A local court on Tuesday ordered the Incheon Immigration Office to review refugee applications submitted by two Russian men who landed in Incheon International Airport last year after fleeing the military draft in their home country.
The Incheon District Court ruled in favor of the Russian men who filed complaints against the immigration authority, but dismissed a complaint filed by another man who was in a similar situation.
The judge did not give a detailed explanation about the ruling during the hearing, saying that a detailed verdict will be issued later.
There are two more Russian men ― college student Vladimir Maraktaev and former football player Dzhashar Khubiev ― who are still stuck inside the airport waiting for their next hearing scheduled for late February.
Apparently the family waited too long to file a claim after the Korean Supreme Court issued their initial ruling of compensation for forced labor victims back in 2012:
A lawyer and a civic group official supporting victims of Japan’s wartime forced labor speak to reporters after a ruling by the Seoul Central District Court in the capital on Feb. 14, 2023. (Yonhap)
A Seoul court on Tuesday ruled against the family of a man enslaved to work for Japan during World War II in a damages suit they filed against a Japanese company.
The man, surnamed Kim, was mobilized to work at a construction site operated by Japanese company Nishimatsu Construction in North Hamgyong Province in what is now North Korea in 1942 while the entire Korean peninsula was under Japan’s colonial rule, his family said.
Kim died two years later while working at the construction site, and a South Korean government committee in 2006 recognized him as a victim of Japan’s wartime forced labor.
Five family members of Kim filed the civil suit against Nishimatsu in 2019 on behalf of him, seeking about 70 million won (US$55,183) in compensation.
The Seoul Central District Court ruled the statute of limitations on the case already expired as it concluded the damages case against the plaintiffs.
You can read more at the link, but this is definitely an issue that needs to be resolved before bilateral relations between the ROK and Japan can move forward more collaboratively. Expect all the DPRK and PRC agitators to do all they can to stoke this issue with the Korean public in order to prevent Japan and the ROK from moving forward with bilateral relations.
It is refreshing to hear a Korean president speak the truth about why the Japanese are increasing their military capabilities instead of demagoguing the issue for political benefit:
President Yoon Suk Yeol speaks at a joint policy briefing from the foreign ministry and the defense ministry at Cheong Wa Dae in Seoul on Jan. 11, 2023, in this photo provided by the presidential office.
President Yoon Suk Yeol said Wednesday that Japan’s moves to bolster its defense capabilities are hard to stop in the face of the threat of North Korea’s missiles.
Yoon made the remark during a joint policy briefing from the foreign and defense ministers, referring to Japan’s recent increase in its defense budget and its inclusion of the “counterstrike” concept in its revised security documents.
“We can wonder how a country adopting a pacifist constitution can do such things, but if there are missiles flying over their heads and the possibility of a nuclear strike, it’s not easy to stop,” he said during the meeting at the former presidential compound of Cheong Wa Dae.
“Japan increased its defense budget because there are IRBMs flying over their heads, and decided to include the so-called ‘counterstrike’ concept in its defense plan,” he said, referring to intermediate-range ballistic missiles that North Korea fired over Japan. “How can anyone take issue with that?”
You can read more at the link, but DPRK apologists in the Korean left will take issue with anything the Japan does to defend themselves. At least the current Korean President is not one of them.
The Korean left continues to try and pressure President Yoon to fire the Interior Minister over the Itaewon crowd crush disaster:
The National Assembly passes a motion calling for the dismissal of Interior Minister Lee Sang-min on Dec. 11, 2022. (Yonhap)
The opposition-controlled National Assembly on Sunday passed a motion calling for the dismissal of Interior Minister Lee Sang-min over the bungled government response to the deadly Itaewon crowd crush.
The motion won backing from 182 of the 183 lawmakers who cast ballots, with one vote declared invalid.
Members of the ruling People Power Party (PPP), which has opposed the dismissal motion, boycotted the vote and walked out of the chamber en masse before voting began.
You can read more at the link, but according to the article President Yoon will likely ignore the opposition party’s demands. This is clearly politically motivated to try and put blame on the Yoon administration for the Itaewon tragedy when any fair minded person realizes that this was a failure of crowd control at the local police level.
This poll seems pretty biased when people who face losing their jobs are being surveyed:
Members of the Korean Government Employees’ Union hold a press conference on Nov. 15, 2022, in Seoul’s Yongsan district. (Yonhap)
More than 83 percent of unionized civil servants support punishing and sacking Interior Minister Lee Sang-min for the bungled emergency response to the deadly crowd crush in Seoul’s neighborhood, their union said Monday.
The results came in a poll conducted among members of the Korean Government Employees’ Union from Tuesday through Thursday, asking civil servants to rate the Yoon Suk-yeol government’s policies in a seven-point questionnaire. About 38,000 of the union’s 120,000 took part in the survey.
Of those who responded, 83.4 percent said the interior minister should be fired and punished as one responsible for the deadly crowd crush on Oct. 29, the union said.
Nearly 93 percent opposed the government’s workforce downsizing plan, while its push to privatize some public service sectors drew objections from 87.9 percent. Almost 90 percent objected to the government pushes to expand work hours and have differentiated minimum wages for different business sectors.
You can read more at the link, but it is in my opinion nothing more than virtue signaling to fire the Interior Minister for failed crowd control measures. So every time there is a festival, concert, etc. in Korea in the future, the Interior Minister has to show up and direct crowd control to avoid be held responsible for it going wrong?
This latest trip abroad for President Yoon has gone way better than his last one where he showed up late to Queen Elizabeth’s funeral and was caught using an expletive on a hot mic initially reported to be directed towards President Biden:
South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol (L), U.S. President Joe Biden (C) and South Korean first lady Kim Keon-hee pose for a photo during a gala dinner for leaders attending ASEAN summits at the Chroy Changvar International Convention and Exhibition Center in Phnom Penh on Nov. 12, 2022, in this photo provided by the presidential office.
President Yoon Suk-yeol and first lady Kim Keon-hee briefly reunited with U.S. President Joe Biden at a gala dinner for world leaders in Phnom Penh the previous day, the presidential office said Sunday.
Yoon and Kim “met with U.S. President Joe Biden who entered the venue shortly after they arrived and happily exchanged greetings,” deputy presidential spokesperson Lee Jae-myoung said in a written briefing. “President Yoon and President Biden caught up with each other and fondly posed for photos.”
The couple also happily exchanged greetings with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and his wife, Yuko, Lee said.
The leaders are in Cambodia to attend regional summits involving the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. On Sunday, Yoon, Biden and Kishida are scheduled to hold bilateral and trilateral summits on the event’s sidelines.
It is pretty clear that the political opposition wants to form this committee so they can come up with findings to blame the Yoon administration for the crowd crush tragedy in Itaewon:
Rep. Yong Hye-in (L) of the Basic Income Party, Rep. Wi Seong-gon (C) of the Democratic Party and Rep. Jang Hye-yeong of the Justice Party submit a joint request to open a parliamentary probe into the Itaewon crowd crush at the National Assembly on Nov. 9, 2022. (Pool photo) (Yonhap)
The main opposition Democratic Party (DP) and two minor progressive parties submitted a joint request Wednesday for a parliamentary investigation into the Itaewon crowd crush despite opposition from the ruling party.
The DP, the Justice Party (JP) and the Basic Income Party submitted the request to the National Assembly’s Bills Division on Wednesday afternoon, with an aim to have the request reported at a parliamentary plenary session scheduled for Thursday.
“We should clearly determine where the responsibility lies and come up with measures to prevent a recurrence by looking thoroughly into the accident, including its cause and measures taken before or after the tragedy,” the parties said in the request sponsored by 181 lawmakers.
The parties called for forming an 18-member special committee to oversee the probe and look into whether measures by government agencies were appropriate and whether there were attempts to minimize or cover up the tragedy.
South Korea has joined with the vast majority of the world to condemn Russia’s attempted annexation of territory within Ukraine:
This undated file photo, provided by Yonhap News TV, shows the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ building in central Seoul.
The South Korean government said Saturday it does not recognize Russia’s recent annexation of Ukrainian territory as legitimate while strongly condemning Moscow’s invasion of the eastern European country.
On Friday, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed treaties to annex four regions in Ukraine, following referendums in the territory late last month.
“The Korean government strongly condemns Russia’s armed invasion against Ukraine as a violation of the principles of the U.N. Charter,” foreign ministry spokesperson Lim Soo-suk said in a statement.
“The Korean government does not recognize the referenda held in Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson and Russia’s annexation of the Ukrainian territory as legitimate.”
You can read more at the link, but areas that Russia is claiming in this annexation have already been liberated by Ukraine. This includes Russia’s embarrassing defeat this weekend in the logistical hub of Lyman.
