The divide between the pro and anti-Yoon sides in South Korea is continuing to deepen:
About two dozen students, alumni and others gathered at Ewha Womans University in Seoul last week, denouncing the National Assembly’s impeachment of President Yoon Suk Yeol as “invalid,” only to encounter another group of students holding an in-school rally calling for Yoon’s ouster at the same time.
The encounter quickly escalated into violence as dozens of pro-Yoon YouTubers and activists broke into the campus to join forces, along with an opposing group of anti-Yoon student activists, despite the female-only university’s ban on outsiders entering the campus for any rally.
Insults were hurled between the opposing groups, while some tugged at others before the scene was brought to an end only after university officials and police personnel were mobilized.
This makes me wonder what the quality of the Phd these people who cannot have a job have?:
Three out of 10 people who obtained a Ph.D. last year were unemployed, with the ratio going up to nearly 50 percent for those aged under 30, data showed, Sunday.
The unemployment rate of Ph.D. holders is at an all-time high since Statistics Korea began collecting the data in 2014, highlighting a shortage of quality jobs and the widening impact of the job market downturn on highly educated professionals.
According to the data, 70.4 percent of the 10,442 individuals who obtained a Ph.D. last year said they secured a job. Those who failed to find employment accounted for 26.6 percent, while 3 percent were classified as economically inactive.
1/ Former defence minister Kim Yong-hyun has written another disturbing letter from detention calling for the 'elimination' (처단) of three Constitutional Court justices handling Yoon Suk Yeol’s impeachment trial.
His letter was read aloud at a pro-Yoon rally yesterday.
Putin meets N.K. politburo member Russian President Vladimir Putin (L) shakes hands with Ri Hi-yong, a member of the Politburo of North Korea’s ruling party, at the Kremlin on Feb. 27, 2025, in this photo released by the North’s official Korean Central News Agency on March 1. (Yonhap)
Very large rallies for and against President Yoon’s impeachment took place in Seoul this weekend:
A rally organized by opposition political parties calling for impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol’s ouster takes place near Anguk Station, while a rally opposing Yoon’s ouster takes place near the Gwanghwamun area on March 1, 2025. (Yonhap)
Rallies led by conservative activist pastor Jeon Kwang-hoon and the conservative Christian group Save Korea began near the Gwanghwamun area in downtown Seoul and Yeouido in western Seoul at 1 p.m. to oppose Yoon’s impeachment.
Police estimated up to 120,000 people had gathered for the two rallies.
Dozens of lawmakers from the ruling People Power Party (PPP) attended the rally in Yeouido, including Rep. Yoon Sang-hyun, who delivered a message on behalf of the impeached president on the rally stage.
“When the will and the sense of responsibility to defend freedom are lost, communist totalitarianism and populism will take its place,” the lawmaker quoted Yoon as saying. “We must fight until the end with that will and sense of responsibility.”
What is interesting is how the conservative rallies completely dwarfed what the left wing parties were able to muster in support of Yoon’s impeachment:
DP leader Rep. Lee Jae-myung was among the 18,000 people gathered for the rally near Anguk Station, where the Constitutional Court is located, according to an unofficial police estimate. The DP said some 130 lawmakers took part.
Lee denounced the PPP, claiming that those who deny constitutional order and the rule of law cannot be conservatives. (….)
At 5 p.m., another group of protesters calling for Yoon’s ouster held a rally in downtown Seoul, with about 15,000 people gathering, according to police estimate.
Participants held picket signs supporting Yoon’s impeachment and chanted, “Hurray for democracy,” and “Hurray for ending insurrection.”
So between the two left wing rallies they were able to muster 33,000 people compared to the conservative rally that had 120,000 people. For those that have followed rallies before in South Korea the turn out for the left is pretty pathetic by their standards. For example for the anti-US beef riots in 2008 drew far more than this in one rally much less two.
I think what this shows is that there is not broad support for President Yoon’s impeachment and that within the Korean left there is also not as much support for Lee Jae-myung as some believed.
N.K. leader inspects military academy North Korean leader Kim Jong-un (C) meets with a cadet practicing on the parallel bars during his visit to the Kang Kon Military Academy, the country’s most prestigious commanding officers training center, in Pyongyang on Feb. 25, 2025, in this photo released by the North’s official Korean Central News Agency the next day. (Yonhap)
North Korea is continuing to double down on their support to Russia’s war against Ukraine:
North Korea appears to have deployed additional troops to support Russia’s war against Ukraine, although the number of recently deployed troops is being assessed, South Korea’s spy agency said Thursday.
“Following about a monthlong lull, North Korean troops were placed back in the frontline region of Kursk starting in the first week of February,” the National Intelligence Service (NIS) said in a note to the press.
“It appears that there has been a deployment of additional troops, but their size is still being examined,” the NIS said.
The assessment follows a news report that between 1,000 and 3,000 North Korean troops were newly transported to Kursk via Russian cargo ships and military airplanes between January and February in the second round of such troop deployment.
Honestly I don’t have too much sympathy for people who lose money in bitcoin. The risks of fraud and theft are so well known no one should be surprised if they find themselves getting ripped off by a bitcoin scheme:
A company which fell victim to what’s thought to be the world’s biggest ever theft is seeking to recover some of its losses by crowdsourcing online bounty hunters.
The criminals are trying to rapidly cash out the hoard through a complex online money laundering process.
ByBit is now offering cash rewards to anyone who spots and prevents them from cashing out.
“Join us on war against Lazarus” the company’s CEO Ben Zhou posted online with a link to a new website offering a bounty to anyone who can help.
Cryptocurrencies are stored in public wallets anyone can look up so it’s possible to follow the money as the criminals split it into smaller chunks and send it through various channels to obscure its origins.
The new website has a live leader board showing companies and individuals who have successfully located some of the coins.
The bounty scheme gives 5% of the sum identified to individuals who successfully persuade a company that has control of the funds to freeze the money.
It’s also awarding 5% to the companies that take action.
