A pretty badge tragedy at this hotel construction site in Busan:
Six workers died and seven others were injured in a fire at a hotel construction site in the southeastern port city of Busan on Friday, authorities said.
The fire started at the Banyan Tree hotel under construction at approximately 10:50 a.m., presumably from insulating material loaded near a swimming pool on the building’s first floor, according to the Busan firefighting headquarters.
Firefighters rescued those trapped inside using helicopters, but six were later pronounced dead. Fourteen others were safely rescued from the roof, while more than a hundred workers evacuated.
Fire-damaged airplane at Gimhae Int’l Airport An Air Busan airplane stands severely damaged from a fire at Gimhae International Airport on Jan. 29, 2025. The previous night, the airplane bound for Hong Kong caught fire from inside while preparing to take off, prompting 176 people to evacuate. (Yonhap)
This photo provided by a reader shows an Air Busan airplane on fire at Gimhae International Airport in Busan, 320 kilometers southeast of Seoul, on Jan. 28, 2025. Fire authorities said all 169 passengers and seven crew members safely evacuated. (Yonhap)
This is interesting, I did not realize that the U.N. Cemetery in Busan has never buried remains of an unknown remains from the Korean War:
Military veterans and troops from more than 20 countries gathered here Monday to pay their respects as an unknown Korean War service member was laid to rest at the U.N. Cemetery in Korea. Roughly 1,000 people attended the service on International Memorial Day for U.N. Korea War Veterans, observed each year on Nov. 11. It was hosted by the U.N. Command and South Korea’s Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs, or MPVA, at the only cemetery overseen by the command.
The burial ground, roughly 200 miles southeast of Seoul, holds the remains of 2,329 veterans from 14 member states who participated in the 1950-53 Korean War. They include 40 service members from the United States; 892 from the United Kingdom; 38 from South Korea; 462 from Turkey; and 281 from Australia. Monday’s service honoring war veterans included the cemetery’s first interment of an unidentified U.N. Command service member. The remains were initially recovered from Yeoncheon county in 2010 by South Korea’s Ministry of National Defense Agency for Killed in Action Recovery Identification. (…….)
DNA testing and dental records determined the 17- to-25-year-old service member was of Caucasian descent and likely to have been from Britain, according to the MPVA. Unable to confirm the identity or nationality with certainty, the South Korean government allowed the service member to be buried in a new plot dedicated to unidentified remains.
Thai Korean War vet laid to rest in S. Korea A burial ceremony for Thai Korean War veteran Rod Asapanan, according to his will, takes place at the U.N. Memorial Cemetery in the southeastern city of Busan on Nov. 11, 2024, making him the first Thai Korean War veteran to be buried there. Thailand and 15 other nations fought for South Korea under the U.N. flag against invading North Korea during the 1950-53 conflict. (Yonhap)
A fire broke out at a US Forces Korea (USFK) storage facility in the southeastern port city of Busan on Thursday, officials said, with no casualties reported so far.
The blaze occurred at 6:31 p.m. at the USFK’s Busan Storage Center in Busan, 320 kilometers southeast of Seoul, according to officials.
More than 160 personnel and 51 pieces of fire equipment have been mobilized to extinguish the fire, which is believed to have started during plumbing work.
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.
USS Theodore Roosevelt arrives at Busan port The nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt arrives at a naval base in the southeastern port city of Busan on June 22, 2024, in this photo provided by the Navy. (Yonhap)
Turkish frigate’s port call in BusanThe 2,400-ton Turkish frigate TCG Kinaliada enters the South Korean naval base in the southeastern port city of Busan on June 4, 2024, for a friendship visit, in this photo provided by the Commander Republic of Korea Fleet. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap)
