The real question is how long has this been going on with everyone turning a blind eye to it? Additionally is this just a one time raid and then everything goes back to what it was or are the authorities serious about stopping b this:
China’s CCTV on Monday broadcast an expose on casinos on Jeju Island that attract Chinese gamblers through prostitution.
The broadcaster said 80 percent of gamblers on Jeju are Chinese, often lured with the promise of free tour programs and prostitutes.
One casino contract shown in the CCTV program promised clients purchasing W100,000 worth of chips a free special massage, while around W36 million worth of chips leads to an opportunity to sleep with an aspiring Korean actress or model, and buying W90 million worth of chips two nights with the woman (US$1=W1,150).
Some Korean casino offices in China were raided by police. CCTV said 13 Koreans and 34 Chinese recruiters were arrested in June for illegally luring gamblers in Beijing, Shanghai, Hebei and Jiangsu. [Chosun Ilbo]
A July report from the Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources (KIGAM) surprised volcanologists by dating Jeju’s most recent volcanic eruption to 5,000 years ago. Media outlets gleefully reported Mt. Hallasan was not dead, or dormant, but alive.
The research team, led by Jin-yeong Lee, radiocarbon dated carbonised wood (charcoal) below the basalt layer at Sangchang-ri, Seogwipo City, to 5,000 years old. This was 2,000 years more recent than the 7,000-year-old eruption at Mt. Songaksan, thought to be Jeju’s last volcanic activity.
Scientists had speculated that the basalt layer at Sangchang-ri was formed 35,000 years ago, yet the carbonised wood was below the basalt, making the rock at least as young as the ancient trees. Sangchang-ri was thus confirmed as the site of the most recent volcanic activity in South Korea. (The title of most active volcano on the peninsula goes to Mt. Baekdusan in North Korea, which last erupted in 1903.)
The findings were picked up by media outlets and headlines stated that Mt. Hallasan was “alive” and not dead, a fact already known as the earlier Songaksan activity was already within the same Smithsonian Institute’s Global Volcanism Program (GVP) 10,000 year timeframe for active volcanoes. Nevertheless, the Science Daily headline, “Jeju Island, Korea is a live volcano,” typified the reaction. [Cheju Weekly]
Here is an interesting historical account from the article:
While scientific evidence of volcanism on Jeju Island is proving difficult to confirm, one piece of historic evidence suggests that the island was active much more recently than 5,000 years ago. The “Dongguk Yeoji Seungram,” a Joseon Dynasty geography textbook (multiple volumes published between 1481 and 1530) includes this seemingly eye-witness account.
“In June 1002 CE, a mountain arose in the middle of the sea. There were four giant holes at the top of the mountain, out of which red liquid flowed and soared, and thick smoke plumed for five days. All the red liquid hardened and became stone like roof tiles.”
The Korean authorities should have stopped these people at the gate of the airport and sent them home because it is illegal for foreigners to conduct political activity while visiting South Korea:
The Rev. Bill Bichsel, an 86-year-old Tacoma priest known for his acts of civil disobedience, has returned from a trip to South Korea to protest construction of a naval base there.
Just three months ago, Bichsel was seriously ill and in the hospital in Tacoma. But his health —while still frail due to a heart condition—improved to the point he was able to make the trip using a wheelchair.
He said his doctors didn’t try to stop him from traveling.
“They just shake their heads,” Bichsel said. “They know I’m going so they don’t make a big fuss.”
For nearly 40 years, the Jesuit priest known as “Bix” has protested against U.S. military programs and weapons. He’s been arrested dozens of times for trespassing during protests and jailed more than a half-dozen times.
He wasn’t arrested in South Korea, but he realized the 12-day trip could set his health back.
“I know I could go anytime,” Bichsel said.
He was weak upon returning Nov. 20, but has gotten stronger since then. And he was inspired by the trip.
Bichsel and nine other people —nearly all from the Puget Sound area—traveled to Jeju Island to commits acts of civil resistance against construction of a base by the South Korean Navy. The base has been under construction on the island off the southern tip of Korea for eight years. [Stars & Stripes]
You can read more at the link, but what gets me about the whole Cheju Naval Base issue is that the leftists complain about the base provoking China when the Chinese is busy making claims against Korean territory and the territory of other countries in the region and have constructed an aircraft carrier to help enforce those claims. If the Chinese were not making aggressive territorial claims this base would have never been built in the first place and the leftists have the nerve to condemn the ROK government for provoking China?
