Tag: Gangneung

I wonder if living conditions has anything to do with this spread of COVID-19 in Gangneung among migrant workers?:

 More than 40 foreign migrant workers in the east coast city of Gangneung tested positive for COVID-19 on Tuesday after preemptive coronavirus testing, municipal officials said.

The municipality of Gangneung, 240 kilometers east of Seoul, has so far conducted the preemptive testing on 743 migrant workers and 43 of them were diagnosed with the new coronavirus, the officials said.

By nationality, Russians accounted for 36 of the confirmed cases, with the others from Central Asian nations, they noted.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Hotel I’m staying at in Gangneung has a “Royal Suite” named after the woman who used it first in 2018:

North Korea’s Hyon Song Wol pic.twitter.com/JikCYdZ7Md

— Chad O'Carroll (@chadocl) August 18, 2019

Another example of the poor safety culture in South Korea:

Police said Wednesday that they had found a ventilation defect in a gas boiler at a holiday home in Gangneung, Gangwon Province, tentatively concluding that carbon monoxide poisoning killed three high school students and left seven unconscious the day before.

During an investigation of the two-story property, police tested the gas-powered boiler and found that its ventilation pipe emitted a high level of fumes. 

The test came after police set up an ad-hoc investigation headquarters and inspected the vacation home. They found that the gas boiler’s ventilation pipe was not properly connected and this was the probable cause of the incident. 

This backed up an earlier finding that the level of carbon monoxide in the students’ room was 155 parts per million (ppm), well above the standard 20 ppm.

In examining the three dead students, pathologists found that the carbon monoxide levels in their blood were far above the fatal level, adding no other toxic substances were detected. 

“We conducted combustion tests repeatedly and found that the boiler emitted a large quantity of exhaust fumes from the faulty pipe,” said a police officer, adding investigators plan to do more tests on the boiler jointly with the National Forensic Service (NFS) and the Korea Gas Safety Corp.

In addition, there was no alarm system for gas leaks at the vacation home ― although this was not illegal.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

A Coast Guard officer views a dolphin found dead on a beach in the city of Gangneung on South Korea’s east coast on Nov. 9, 2018. The 100-kilogram dolphin will be sold at a fishery market. (Yonhap)

If anyone wants to get a dose of live North Korean cultural propaganda next month is your chance:

North Korea has selected two concert venues in South Korea for its proposed art performances celebrating the PyeongChang Winter Olympics next month, the unification ministry said Tuesday.

In a message sent to South Korea on Tuesday night, North Korea said its art troupe hopes to perform at the Gangneung Arts Center in Gangneung on Feb. 8 and at the National Theater of Korea in Seoul on Feb. 11, the ministry said.

Gangneung, a coastal city located about 260 kilometers east of Seoul, is one of the Olympic venues along with nearby PyeongChang.

North Korea said its delegation plans to cross the land border into South Korea on Feb. 6 for the concerts before returning home on Feb. 12, according to the message, which was released by the ministry.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

A harbor seal hunts a gray mullet in a stream in Gangneung on South Korea’s east coast on Oct. 13, 2017. The endangered animal is designated as the country’s Natural Monument No. 331. (Yonhap)

It has been a while since there has been a large wildfire in Gangwon-do, but it seems this is the area where they tend to happen the most at:

The Gangneung city government said more than 2,500 residents were ordered to flee Saturday as a wind-fed forest fire spread in the eastern city.

About 300 residents are known to have fled from their homes after the blaze started on a hill near Daegwallyeong, a mountain pass close to the east coast, at around 3:30 p.m., according to city officials.

A total of 30 private houses were damaged by the fire as of 10 p.m., but no casualties have been reported, they said.

The residents took shelter at nearby schools and other public facilities, officials said.

Traffic along some parts of a nearby expressway was temporarily restricted but returned to normal at 10 p.m.

About 2,700 people, including hundreds of firefighters, soldiers, police officers and government officials, have been dispatched to fight the fire, but they are struggling to extinguish it, the officials said.  [Yonhap]